Finn stood anxiously while Tails examined the small 'tracking chip', as he was told, and Sonic simply stood guard, looking through the empty halls on high alert. The kit had pulled them both aside and pulled a magnifying glass, why he was holding it in the first place the two didn't know, and was using it on the microchip. He held it close under his eye and mumbled quiet sayings to himself, nothing the two really bothered to listen to.

The hallway was surprisingly cold, probably because the main area was much warmer from all the activity, but the cold was sketchy.

"Why is everyone gathered in there?" Finn asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the kit. "There's gonna be an update on safety and management soon, but not everyone is here yet so it's a bit slow."

The jackal made an 'o' with his mouth and watched Tails work yet again, deciding not to ask why he wasn't invited. Truth be told, he didn't exactly know if he wanted to be in the resistance. Sure, Shadow and now Tails was in his pack, and both worked for the resistance, but...

Tails sighed and pulled the chip away from him, dropping it and crushing it under his heel. The crunch of the small fragments grinding under his foot was the only thing heard in the hall; the door to the other side muffling most sounds.

"Nothing; there's no way I can trace, it's just a plain tracking device. Where were you that you noticed this?" The kit asked, seeing the jackal getting ever more anxious with each passing second of pure silence.

"The restroom. After someone pushed me and someone else poured juice I me, I went to wash it off and that's when I saw it." He mentally debated telling them about the panther and how oddly she was acting, but quickly dismissed it as her just being weird.

"That skunk and bear, right?" Sonic cut in suddenly, and Finn simply nodded.

"Those two...? They've almost never caused a problem! They were helping us mostly during-- um, when..." Tails paused and gave Finn a sort of apologetic stare, and the jackal relaxed, waving him off. "When... Infinite... attacked, they were helping us around halfway through that and almost never caused a problem."

Sonic stopped looking around to set his hand on Tails' shoulder, and nodding his head to the door. "Still, Finn hasn't been here that long. There's no reason anyone would do this unless they knew, so it wouldn't hurt to check things out." He paused to open the door a crack, silently telling the kit to find them himself.

After a silent heated debate spoken only through eye contact and body language, Tails gave up and grumbled that he didn't like conflict and left, leaving Sonic and Finn alone together. Right away, awkwardness hung in the air.

The jackal immediately bit into his last cinnamon stick and turned away, trying to think of anything to say. Honestly, he and Sonic weren't exactly on the best of terms yet.

Sonic exhaled sharply, making Finn's tail bristle as he quickly turned to face him.

"I heard about what happened in Packaging." he started "Silver and Knuckles told me, they were really antsy about it and wanted to know if I knew anything about Finn."

The cinnamon stick was eaten by now, so he had nothing to occupy himself with and ended up staring at the ground, one hand reaching up and grabbing his limiter just to make sure it was there. "...and...?"

"And," Sonic forced "I told them that you had powers you didn't know how to control yet."

Relief was pure and crashed over the jackal like a wave, and he looked up to the hedgehog as he continued.

"As far as I know, Finn, we aren't friends. I'm afraid we won't exactly be friends for a while, but I know we can agree on a few things. One thing," he stood from his lean against the wall to extend his hand "Is that Infinite is dead in our books. Agreed?"

Finn held out his hand without hesitance and shook it, nodding pointedly as well "Agreed."

Finn had talked to Shadow before, when he didn't exactly remember, and found out that the hedgehog had destroyed every part of him that was 'Infinite'. The mask, the gloves, the shoes, everything. He had gone out of his way to search for his previous squad and made sure everything there had been wiped of his presence as well, the only thing remaining being his ruby sword now kept almost solely in the Bunker. He was a clean slate now, only known as Finn the Jackal.

Finn the Jackal, not Infinite. While he did have some remaining powers, it wasn't him anymore, it was Finn. Infinite had ended.

They let go and Finn quickly spoke up, remembering one of the reasons he came here. The other reason, to look around, was a bit ruined as most of the doors were locked with combinations or keycards, and since he didn't want to swipe anything from anyone he simply gave up on the idea until Shadow was back. "Do you know where Shadow went? He said he would be with Rouge and Omega."

"Oh," Sonic rubbed the back of his neck and sucked in air through his teeth "Um, normally I would, but, uh... I don't." he chuckled nervously.

"But, I did see them leave! I doubt they left the Resistance's circle, so they can't be too far." he finished, and Finn sighed.

"The Resistance circle, known for stretching out in two miles in every direction?" He huffed, making Sonic shyly grin and nod as if that wasn't a ton of area to search. "Well, have you at least seen Gadget? I need to talk to him."

That made Sonic pause, his expression changing to confusion then wonder, before shaking his head gently. "No, not at all recently. He was here a few weeks ago, but no, I actually haven't seen him." he looked distraught by this "I-- Last I saw him, he was here. He didn't even say anything about going back home again, he was just here, and now he's gone..."

There was no more time to mull over that matter before they were a loud crash and a yelp of Tails crying Sonic's name. The hedgehog sharply told Finn to wait behind as he dashed into the main area again, leaving Finn by his lonesome.

Since he had nothing better to do, The jackal turned on his heel and began to leave the building in search for Shadow. The hall was still empty and silent, putting him on edge, and he naturally sped up to leave. Everywhere else had too many people, but now he was upset because there were no people.

Then, there was a tap.

At first he thought it was nothing and wasn't going to turn around, but it was such a quiet tap that it was obvious that someone was trying not to make noise, so he turned to look behind him, standing sideways so he couldn't be ambushed.

It was the panther from earlier, one of the guards at the door. She was glaring and a bit crouched down, showing that she had just jumped down from somewhere and hadn't expected to be caught. She then stood up and grinned ear to ear, such an evil, sinister smile that Finn found himself shuddering at it. She held a staff with two pointed blades on the end, a black core of sorts hovering just between them. When Finn noticed it, she simply pointed it under his jaw, right against his neck. His body was frozen in place as what felt like hot fire broiled through the area the blade was tiuching, evwn though he wasn't even cut.

"Well, looks like you saw me," her voice was heavily accented, like somewhere or some place he heard before. Finn could see the shadow of someone else not too far away behind her, but he couldn't quite see who it was. "Get along now, lil doggy." Then, she was gone, as if she never stood there in the first place.

Just in case, as a sort of warning, Finn's energy flared up as his limiters glowed a deep, bright gold while he turned around to growl in every direction. "I'm not afraid of you!" he called out to no one in particular, then ran back to the door that lead to the main area. He didn't care that his heart was racing and he was absolutely scared out of his mind just then-- he had forgotten he even had powers until after the panther was gone!

He pushed past people without a glance back, shoving everyone either to the side or even flat out to the ground. He bumped into Amy a bit harshly but didn't apologize, simply glancing back at her, she was repectably glaring at him, before leaving the Bunker all together where he noticed the guards.

It was the same weasel as before, but now she was with a green cat he had seen a while ago. She flinched heavily as he stormed past he and he could have sworn she fainted into the weasel's unsuspecting arms when he turned away.

In his hurry to leave, he didn't notice the hedgehog in front of him and ultimately crashed directly into what felt like a brick wall but just turned out to be Shadow. He was covered head to toe in so many deep wounds and held the arm of a tall, skinny aardwolf, collapsed and being dragged. Rouge stumbled down to them, panting and quickly rubbing a sore wing just as Omega finally caught up, dingged with many dents but otherwise fine.

Finn swallowed thickly at Shadow's empty gaze, and the hedgehog shook in place, looking at Finn impassively.

"Hello, Finn." He spoke evenly. "How's your day been?"

"Better than yours..." Finn started, but before he could say anything else, Omega stood just behind Shadow as he too fainted, falling backwards right into his protector's arms. Rouge quickly took hold of the aardwolf just before he could get away, and Finn continued to stand, absolutely confused and unsure what to do.

xox

hi! last chapter for a bit until I catch up with my other crap, alrightie.

uh, since I didn't do replies last time, I guess I gotta double down, huh?

Black Twilight Wolf: Thank you for your 19 reviews! haha

AbyssusTheDarkNightmare: Hello, friend! i haven't heard from you in a while. I'll have your ocs in mind, okay? They sound very awesome!

Infinite's Ruby: They sure have ;) and like honestly i freaking hate cinnamon man it's crap and i just make finn like it because he sucks man. Thank you, though!

Bajy: Thanks, man. No hard feelings! I understand where you're coming from. Again, sorry for the wait! i shouldn't procrastinate so much

Ohwo: I didn't respond properly last time, so I'll give it a go now. Thank you, man! I tried to go about this story in a different way, confronting issues and sticking with them until they're uncovered or solved. I really appreciate you telling me this, and that you've reread some parts, too! Tails and Finn suddenly becoming friends was on purpose, and was supposed to be a bit "woah what why" moment. It's a bit because Finn is touch starved, so to be hugged by someone geniunely wanting the best for him and not just doing it because they're forced to, he just didn't exactly want the hug to end just then. I based this off some of my breakdowns I've had in the past, where when I was calming down someone hugged me and I just couldn't bring myself to let them go. Them connecting later on was a better place to describe them! and Yes, Tails is showing up more, he's awesome! Boom!Infinite was so on the mind that I just had to add that in, man. it's honestly such a stupid thing to see and I love it. Aah, enough of that part! For the art update, That's fine! take as much time as you need, the fact that you're drawing something is wonderful enough and I just cant thank you enough!

Infinite's Ruby(again) Thanks, I took a gamble with this story and I'm glad it worked. I also went on here and ao3 and almost no story explains anything about him or touches on anything...? confusing, honestly. and, almost zero friendship fics! what's going on! Plus Shadow and Finn are brothers from another mother/alien race overlord now :3c

I think that's all! I would also like to shout out Infinite Ruby, they have a wonderful story called "Broken Friendship" and it's about How Infinite and Gadget met as children and their forming friendship (so far). I really love it, and I love the discriptions and interractions between the characters! It has four chapters now, and it's already a great read! I highly recommend it.