POV: Silver the Hedgehog

"Nothing over here, either!" I called out, trying not to let my annoyance slip through into my voice. How can over a hundred people just disappear without a trace? In a jungle, no less. No mysterious broken twigs, no displaced bushes... There aren't even footprints!

We'd been scouring every square foot of the jungle since we'd found the supposed campsite of the cell empty. No buildings, no tents, not even a campfire. I was starting to wonder if whoever Rouge had spoken to hadn't lied to her. I shook my head. Rouge knows body language pretty well. If someone was lying to her, she'd know.

"Hey!" One of my team members called out. "I've got blood over here!"

My curiosity piqued, I went over, using my telekinesis to float over the fallen trees between me and the cat. She was kneeling by a dried-up patch of grass which, upon closer inspection, I realized was indeed stained dark red with blood. A lot of blood.

"What could have happened, here?" The girl wondered aloud. "I know the jungle is a wild place, but I don't think an animal did this."

"Me neither." I replied. "Everyone! Search over here! Someone might be hurt!"

We carefully picked our way through the brush, and my eyes narrowed when we found a trail of blood leading away from us. I could see the evening sunlight peeking through the treeline ahead of us, letting me know that we were approaching a clearing.

When we broke through the foliage and emerged into said clearing, I instantly regretted coming out here in the first place. I could hear several of my team members behind me gagging at the grisly scene in front of us.

"A-Amy?" I spoke into the radio, trying to push down nausea, myself. "We found the cell."

Blood was everywhere. Bodies were strewn about the place, and an alarming number of them were not in one piece. One poor soul was hanging from his own belt wrapped around his very-broken neck, dangling from a tree branch about as thick as my head. Another corpse had been crushed by a fallen boulder. I couldn't see his head, and something told me there wasn't one to see, anymore.

The rest of the scene was just as horrid. I turned away. "I don't think there's any point looking for survivors." I said. "Whatever did something like this wouldn't leave any."

I didn't even take my first step before a deep, menacing laughter filled the air. I whipped back around, and scanned the area in front of me, trying to locate the laughter's source. "Fools." A deep, strangely electronic-esque voice stated with cruel amusement. "You've found nothing but your own graves!"

Out of nowhere, a massive snake appeared. One of its fangs alone was bigger than my entire body. In the blink of an eye, it snatched up two of my team with a hiss. Their screams of terror were cut off with a sickening crunch as they were impaled on the monster's fangs, the sheer force audibly breaking multiple bones in their now-lifeless bodies.

"None of you are going to leave this jungle." The voice continued. A spine-tingling laugh sounded as a dark figure floated out from behind a rock at the far end of the clearing. "I'm going to kill all of you." The masked figure laughed again, the maniacal tone sending shivers down my back.

"Silver!" Amy's frightened voice shouted over the radio. "What's going on?"

I didn't get the chance to reply before the snake lunged at me. I dodged with my telekinesis, and tried to get a mental grasp on it. For a brief moment, I did. But then, somehow, it broke out of my hold, and lunged at me again.

Even Sonic can't escape my telekinesis! I didn't have the time to ponder the implications of this abomination's strange resistance, as a series of gunfire suddenly erupted from my teammates. Some of it was directed at the snake, the bullets pinging uselessly against its scaly hide. The rest went towards the Eggbots that had suddenly appeared. I hadn't even heard the robots come up behind us!

Before I could react, half of my team was cut down. The few that were left scrambled for cover. I dodged the snake once more. Whoever that floating guy is, he must be the one controlling the snake. I need to stop him!

I found an opening, and soared past the snake, heading directly for the masked figure. As I got closer, I realized he was a jackal, of some sort. The main hint was the number of tails he had. Other than Tails Prower, the only Mobian species to have more than one tail were the jackals.

The red lens of his mask stared at me as I grew closer to him. "Brave." He spoke.

I went for a soaring punch, but met only air. Huh?

"But foolish!" The jackal spoke from above me. Before I could react, I felt a boot connect with my back, sending me sprawling to the forest floor.

I tasted dirt as I hit the ground. "Whatever you are," I shouted as I scrambled back to my feet, "You're not going to win!"

He merely laughed, and in the blink of an eye he was in my face, and I only just managed to avoid the full force of his punch. I still caught the edge of it, and the strength of it sent me stumbling backwards. Before I could recover, another kick to my back catapulted me face-first directly into the nearest tree.

I quickly realized this was not a fight I was going to win. Not alone. "Something's here! We need backu-Oof!" I was sent sprawling again by a flying roundhouse kick to my head. Coincidentally, I felt my fingers flip the radio onto VOX as I instinctively reached out to catch myself.

"Backup?" The jackal spoke, amused. "You'll only send more into the meat grinder. But have it your way. I'll enjoy tearing you all apart!"

POV: Kyle "Red" Rubyen

BOOM!

"Whoo-hoo!" Sonic cheered. In front of our eyes, and the eyes of our fellow Resistance members, the factory we'd been inside of for the better part of an hour went up in flames. Debris rained down on the ground around the foundation of the ex-building, the biggest chunks being no larger than your average car.

Those bombs were certainly powerful. A shame we can't bring any of them up to the Death Egg.

We'd helped the local Resistance cell evacuate the factory after we'd cleared out most of its defenders, and now we got to see it go up in smoke. We'd dealt a good blow to the Doctor, today.

Maybe the tide was turning, after all?

"Sonic!" Amy's panicked voice shouted over the radio, instantly crushing my hopes. "Something's attacking inside the Mystic Jungle!"

A wordless glance, and the two of us took off for the nearest shuttle.

"Silver is fighting him," Amy continued, "... or it, or whatever. Just hurry!"

In the background of her microphone, a familiar laughter sent chills down my spine. Silver yelped in pain.

"That guy?" Sonic exclaimed, evidently referring to the one laughing. "Oh, I'm looking forward to a second round with him!"

We're going to die.

POV: Sonic the Hedgehog

I sprinted through the trees, going as fast I dared in the dense jungle. My shoes pounded into the hard wood of the thick tree branches, going so fast as to create the occasional spark from the friction. My partner - Red, I reminded myself, having finally gotten a name out of him on the way over - had split off to help the evacuation effort. A couple nearby villages just outside the jungle were under attack from Eggman's forces, and the few militia they had were getting steamrolled.

I left my comms channel on so I could keep myself up-to-date with what everyone else had going on. It wasn't pretty.

"Eggman's forces are throwing bombs like confetti!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"We can't go on like this!" Amy shouted back.

"The whole place is going up in flames." I said out loud as I passed another aforementioned bomb. "Not the kind of fireworks I like!"

I sidestepped a lone robot, sprinting straight past it before it could even react to my approach. Normally, I'd take it down, but I needed to hurry. TEMP LINE: Silver had stopped responding to radio calls.

I noticed a herd of animalesque robots ahead of me, each one carrying at least half a dozen combat-ready Eggbots to the nearby battlefield. The sheer number of Eggbots this herd could deploy if they made it would virtually guarantee that the Resistance front-line would be pushed back.

The herd coincidentally followed the route I was going to take to get to Silver, and I chuckled. "I don't even need to go out of my way to stop you." I said out loud, as if the herd could hear me.

A few spin-dashes, a couple sliding kicks, and the occasional spine-raking, and most of the herd was no more. The two transport bots that were left turned to face me, and their ride-along Eggbots opened fire. With my speed, dodging their shots was almost too easy. A spin-dash to the transport bot sent it crashing to the ground, its core overloading. The resulting explosion wiped out all of the Eggbots that had been riding it. A simple repeat maneuver, and the final transport herd-bot blew, taking its occupants along with it.

I resumed sprinting down the trail. The wood of the tree branches turned into hard dirt as I reached the forest floor. I zipped past the edge of the forest in the blink of an eye, and found myself passing through the outskirts of a town, a brightly-lit casino lighting up the night around it.

The rough, natural ground smoothened out into a hard-packed, dirt road, which turned into cement and concrete as I passed the edge of the casino. Ahead of me, the road reached a cliff edge, and a bridge led off of it, further into the town. Neon lights on either side of the bridge outlined it in the semi-dark, starlit night.

A destroyed section of the bridge was only a minor obstacle for me. Building up speed, I reached the edge of the gap and leapt as high as I could, clearing the hole completely and landing safely on the other side without even breaking my stride. A few robots tried to stop me, but spin-dashes and kicks turned them into sparking scrap heaps.

Up ahead of me, at the center of the bridge, was a wall spanning the entire road's width, Eggbots perched on top of it, and more than a dozen scattered about around it. They'd set up a blockade to stop me in my tracks.

But they hadn't counted on me being a bit too clever for them. I leapt onto the slanted pillars keeping the bridge archway in its iconic shape, and simply ran up the slope to the top of the arch itself. I leapt off the roof to avoid an annoying missile blast, and free-fell for a split second before I landed on another slanted pillar. I ran down it, completely bypassing the blockade sitting over a dozen yards beneath me. "Piece of cake!" I said out loud, as if to taunt the many robots that were struggling to even slow me down.

I sped through the rest of the town's entertainment district, passing two more casinos as I did. Reaching the end of the road, I leapt onto a thick tree branch, wider than three cars parked lengthwise, and kept running to my destination. TEMP LINE: to Silver's last known location.

More robots tried to stop me, but my usual strategy of spin-dashing and kicking took care of them in seconds. Normally, I'd take more time and show off a bit, but I needed to hurry. Silver was in trouble.

I blew through a transport herd, clearing out most of them as I did. I glimpsed a Resistance squad in the distance, struggling to fend off an Eggbot assault.

I heard the squad's leader's panicked shouts over the radio. "We're doomed! We can't hold any longer!"

I recalled that a few teams had been sent ahead to try and clear a path for me, and realized that this team was one of them. I zipped through a row of Eggbots approaching their position. Noting the dozens of already-destroyed bots littering the ground, I spoke into my own radio piece. "You've done plenty! Great job! Now go get to safety! I can move on from here on my own."

As I bought the soldiers time to pull out, I heard Amy speak to me over the comms, and did my best to pay attention whilst spin-dashing a couple dozen robots.

"I've located that unknown enemy." She stated. "They're in the ruins up ahead. Silver's still putting up a fight."

"Great, Amy!" I replied, finally being able to disengage and head towards the distant ruins she'd mentioned. "I'll make sure everyone's efforts weren't in vain!" And bring back Silver in one piece.

I entered a tunnel, taking me underneath a hill, and emerged out the other side to find a ramp and a large, empty gap awaiting me. There was no way around. I'd have to jump it.

As I leapt from the top of the ramp, Amy suddenly spoke hurriedly over the radio.

"Unidentified life form on the radar! Something from the jungle?" Her tone at the end was one of confusion.

Before I could respond, I heard the dirt and loose rocks far below me rumbling, and in the blink of an eye, a really big snake burst out of the ground. Its head reached all the way up to my level. It roared at me, and I realized in an instant that, with my current path, I was going to fly right into its mouth.

A spin-dash corrected that, sending the top of its snout clamping down into its lower jaw, stunning it for a brief moment. I landed on top of its head and ran down its hide. "I guess all the explosions riled it up." I thought aloud.

I ducked and slid under a swipe of its head, narrowly avoiding getting impaled on its fangs. "Doesn't look like I'm getting past it without a fight!"

The snake coiled its tail ahead of me, but I simply ran along its hide in a loop-de-loop fashion. I was almost at the end of its tail when it suddenly thrust itself upwards, catapulting me into the air without an ounce of control on my part.

I blinked, and suddenly I was surrounded by smelly, wet darkness. The giant snake had just eaten me! For a split-second, I was worried. But then something occurred to me, and I chuckled.

"You're so gonna regret that!" I shouted at the snake from inside it. "Hedgehogs don't make good snacks!" I curled up into a ball and let my spines rack along the sides of the snake's throat, cutting it up in painful, jagged lines. A few spin-dashes were added in for good measure. I could feel the snake reacting to my attacks, flailing around in the jungle air in pain.

The snake roared, and it was so much louder from inside it. In the blink of an eye, I was out, and sailing through the air. Remarkably, I was still heading towards the ruins.

Completely unaware of what had just occurred, Amy spoke to me over the radio. "The enemy readings are closing in on you, Sonic!"

"Time to meet our mysterious foe!" I replied, eager to get some payback for six months ago. I ran along a tree branch, and saw Silver lying on the ground in an exhausted heap. In front of him floated a masked figure. The same one that had taken me by surprise in Sunset Heights six months ago. And he was preparing to execute one final attack, clearly intending for a lethal coup de grace.

I couldn't let that happen. Leaping off the branch, I dove towards the speedy figure to intercept him before he could finish Silver off for good.

POV: Silver the Hedgehog

I gasped for breath as I floated away from the masked jackal in front of me, having taken yet another beating. I wasn't sure how long I could keep this up, and help was nowhere in sight.

The jackal's spine-chilling voice emanated from his mask. "This wasn't exactly part of my agenda," he spoke in amusement, "but I'm always happy to crush a hero."

I glared at the floating menace, using the monologue as a reprieve to catch my breath.

"It keeps the rabble in line." He continued. "Shows them that there is no hope."

"Does anyone but you believe your lies!?" I shouted at him in anger. I almost didn't see him suddenly dash forward towards me. I just barely dodged him, and as he flew past me, I followed, hoping to get a hit in from behind him.

Unfortunately, he'd already guessed my plan, and led me around the forest clearing we'd only arrived in a few minutes ago in a flashy light-show of a chase. I quickly grew tired of following his trail, and waited for him to start looping around before making my move. I intercepted him with a speed-assisted punch, hitting him with enough force to shatter stone. I felt something crack, but an elbow-jab to my stomach knocked the air out of my lungs, forcing me to continue flying straight ahead, disengaging without being able to push my already-fading advantage.

We traded a few more blows like that, going at each other in head-on attacks intended to knock the other out of the air. Neither of us were very successful, only causing minor pains and scrapes.

Until all of a sudden, right before we were to intercept again, he shot forward even faster, almost as fast as lightning. I didn't even have time to blink before a fist struck in the face hard enough to knock me silly. With a small, strained grunt being all I could get out, I was catapulted away and into a rock wall. I slammed into it hard, and I heard more than a few stones come loose from the impact.

Stunned, I couldn't do anything to prevent myself from falling to the ground almost a dozen feet below me. I landed with a groan, and could only just open my eyes to see the jackal floating above me, staring down at me with eyes that let me know he was about to end my life.

"Seeing is believing." He stated in reply to my shout from earlier. He shot forward, and I gulped, unable to muster any strength to dodge the attack that would finish me off for good.

But, with inches to spare, he was suddenly intercepted. A blue blur slammed into him, sending him off course.

POV: Sonic the Hedgehog

I landed in front of Silver, keeping myself between him and the enemy he'd been fighting for the past hour. "Time to tag out, Silver!" I told him. "I've got it from here!"

"Well," the masked figure chuckled, "look who's back from the dead. The little blue savior." He folded his arms. "But what's that, I smell? You reek of fear. Hmph! Glad to see I left an impression."

I blinked, and took a quick sniff of my armpit. "That's not fear." I told him. "I ran all the way over here." I pointed at him. "And you haven't left an impression. I don't know anything about you! Not even your name." Keep him talking, buy Silver time to get away.

"You may call me 'Infinite.'" He replied. "In the brief moments that remain to you." He added.

"Oh, Great!" I said cheerily. "See, Infinite? Now we're getting to know each other!" I paced back and forth, thinking quickly. "So! What's your favorite color? Do you like long, romantic walks on the beach? What's the source of your power?" I looked pointedly at him. "You can skip the first two questions, if you like."

"The source of my power is none of your concern." Infinite replied. He unfolded his arms, and I noticed a big, red ruby sitting on his chest.

In the back of my mind, something told me that had something to do with his abilities, but I needed to find out more. "Sorry," I said in a faux-apologetic tone, "but you've got to share the secret of your power with me." I got ready to run. "I insist!" I took off towards Infinite.

"Your insistence is futile!" Infinite replied, waving his arms.

A strange sound filled the air, and suddenly the world went weirdly red. I felt myself getting lighter. "Whoa!" I exclaimed, taken aback as I skidded to a stop. I found myself starting to float upwards into the air, completely helpless. "Whoa, WHOA, Whoa!" I flailed around, hoping to grab a hold of something, but it was no use.

"Sonic!" Silver shouted at me from behind. "You ok?"

Before I could reply that no, I was floating in the air, Infinite dove towards me. In the blink of an eye, a really strong uppercut sent me soaring out of the clearing. "WHOA!" I shouted in shock as I went blazing past the treeline.

Flailing wildly, I didn't even see the ground coming up before I slammed into it hard, rolling helplessly for several feet before I managed to skid to a painful stop.

I glanced around as I stood up, and realized I was on the corpse of the giant snake I'd left behind only a couple minutes ago.

"Still thrashing around, I see." A familiar voice spoke from behind me. "You filthy little sewer rat."

I spun around, coming face to face with Infinite, floating a few feet in the air, a couple yards ahead of me.

"Haven't you seen a hedgehog, before?" I shot back, leaping forward to spin-dash him. He dodged to the side, and I landed back on the snake. "C'mon!" I exclaimed. "I'll show you my spines!" I leapt for another attack, intending to rake said spines along his annoying face, but again he dodged me, beginning to float backwards along the snake's lifeless tail.

Infinite waved his arms, and suddenly red cubes appeared in front of me in various formations. Some of them floated towards me, and I decided I'd rather not find out what would happen if I let them touch me. I sidestepped a few, and jumped over others. Sliding underneath a few more, I saw Infinite had slowed down, trying to get a closer look at me dodging all of his cubic attacks.

I grabbed the opportunity with both hands, and leapt high into the air from a slide. Infinite clearly hadn't been expecting that, and before he could react, I spin-dashed towards him. I felt my spines connect, and I heard him grunt from the impact.

"Score one for Sonic!" I exclaimed.

"You think this is a game?" Infinite glowered. "Hmph! I've already scored much more than you."

"Ever heard of 'second wind?'" I countered. "I'm making a comeback, Infinite!"

Speaking of comebacks, I quickly realized we were nearing the end of the snake's tail. Below us lay the other end, the snake having coiled up into a loop, of sorts. I leapt off the tail's tip, kicking off of a nearby rock wall, and then off of a convenient tree, and navigated my way back down to the snake's head.

Infinite followed, and we resumed the chase. Him, throwing cube attacks my way, and me, dodging all of them, searching for an opening to hit him directly.

My opportunity came as he began to summon more cubes. He slowed down just slightly, and I pumped my legs a little harder, closing the gap between us just enough for another attack.

A flying kick to the face sent him flipping backwards end-over-end for a second before he recovered mid-air, and resumed floating away from me.

"A lucky strike!" He exclaimed. "Don't go thinking it means anything!"

I couldn't help but chuckle. "That's what they all say!" I spread my arms out, taunting him. "I'm still standing!"

"And still just as incompetent!" Infinite roared back. A full-body motion of some sort, and suddenly there were more of him. Seven Infinites floated in a triangle formation, the original hanging around the far end.

We reached the end of the tail again, and I performed a similar maneuver as before, navigating my way to being above the head. This time, however, I didn't go down, but rather, up, towards Infinite and his mysterious replicas.

An opportunistic spin-dash revealed that, as realistic as they looked, they didn't hold a candle to the original's resilience. A single spine-rake dissolved the replica into miniature red cubes, which all floated harmlessly away into the light breeze around us.

A homing kick to the next produced a similar effect, and I decided to see what would happen if I hit the original. Kicking off of a third replica, I shot past the others, leaving only the original Infinite in my way, who blinked in surprise at how quickly I'd ended up in front of him.

I didn't let him react. A homing kick to his face sent him flipping backwards in the air again, and I let myself freefall down to the snake's head. I idly noticed the replicas all dissolve around me as Infinite's concentration slipped.

"Hmph! You might have more fight in you than that other rabble." Infinite taunted me. He zoomed towards me, leaving only a few feet between us as he glared into my eyes. "Let's see how many seconds you last!"

"Payback time, at last!" I shot back at him, diving forward with my fist raised.

Infinite realized his mistake too late, and couldn't stop me from landing a punch straight to his jaw. He fumbled in the air, and before he could float away, I followed up with a flying uppercut kick to the chin.

He sailed backwards away from me, this time from the sheer force I'd struck him with. Infinite roared. Over a dozen replicas of himself appeared in formation, trying to block me from getting to him.

Well, I thought as we approached the end of the snake's tail yet again, if a trick works once, sometimes it'll work twice! I leapt into the air and kicked off the rock wall nearby, setting myself up for a spin-dash into the nearest replica.

The replica saw me coming and tried to throw a punch, but it was too slow, almost sluggishly so. It's arm hadn't even drawn all the way back before I slammed into it spine-quills first, shredding straight through it and dissolving it back into those mysterious red cubes in an instant.

More homing attacks brought me closer and closer to Infinite, himself, who seemed to be quietly groaning with the strain of… something. I didn't bother trying to figure out what, and instead focused on getting close enough to hit him in his masked face.

Leaping clear off the head of the last replica, I spun in the air for a moment, curling up into a ball and diving straight for Infinite in a spin dash attack where, for once, I was not holding back.

The sharp, raking force of my quills against his armor cleaved several jagged cuts into it. Not enough to break through, but enough to leave lasting damage to the armor, itself. In the same instant, the back of my feet came into range of his face, and I kicked in hard with both legs. I heard the metal visor crack from the force of the impact.

I followed up with a two-legged homing kick, slamming feet-first into the top of his head, whiplashing him backwards into an uncontrollable, flailing, mid-air collection of somersaults as he struggled to regain control of himself.

"Augh!" Infinite grunted in pain. "Impossible!" He exclaimed. "Your abilities exceed your previous data!"

I blinked as I landed back on the snake's head. Is he part cyborg, or something? "Unlike mechs," I shot back, "I can grow." I flexed my arms. "I get more powerful every second!"

"I will teach you to hold that tongue, next time we meet!" Infinite growled at me. "You can count on it."

I leapt forward for a light, cheeky spin-dash. Feeling my shoes connect with his chestplate gave me a delightful sense of payback for all the blows I'd taken in Sunset Heights.

Infinite floated upwards, gaining enough distance that I couldn't just jump and reach him again. "Well." He began. "You've improved since the last time." He glared at me in anger. "But you will still lose."

A strange sound filled the air as Infinite pointed at me. I blinked, and suddenly three things were standing in front of me. I couldn't even begin to describe them, they were so alien. All I knew was that the very look of them sent shivers down my spine, and an ear-shattering screech emanated from one of them as they all lunged for me, claws and talons outstretched to tear me apart.

I sidestepped one in a panic, barely managing to duck underneath the second's swing. I felt the razor-sharp talons cut the air above my fur, and knew that if I hadn't ducked, I'd have just lost my head.

The third rammed into me from behind, sending me flying off the snake corpse I'd been using as a battlefield. "Oof!" I exclaimed as the air was knocked out of me. I felt myself limply freefall in the air for a second, before slamming into the ground face-first. "Augh!"

"As I predicted." A smug Infinite taunted me from high up in the air, having barely moved a muscle. "You're not even worth the effort to finish off."

I struggled to stand up, and just barely glimpsed Infinite zip off into the distance, heading who-knows-where. "Aaarrgh!" I groaned, standing up, against the will of my complaining everything. "I gotta figure out the secret of his power." I muttered into the quiet, moonlit night.

After a moment to make sure Infinite wasn't coming back, I turned around and ahead into the forest to regroup with Silver and the Resistance. That fight had been tough, and I had scraped through almost by the skin of my teeth. If I was going to go up against Infinite again, I needed to be on my A-game, or I definitely wouldn't stand a chance.

For now, it was time to head home, count our losses, rest, and recuperate. Tomorrow, just like any other lately, was going to be another big day.

Things are getting more interesting, and more intense, by the day! A proper fight against Infinite, and another display of the terrifying potential of the villain's power.

So, how are you enjoying the story? I really hope you like it. I've worked hard on this for months. I hope I'm doing the game's potential justice, while still staying mostly true to the overall plot of it. Next up, a look into the dark part of a certain Rookie's mind, and the pain he's kept buried deep inside ever since he joined the Resistance proper.

Can Sonic lift him up? Or perhaps the blue blur will begin to see more of himself in the red hedgehog as he learns what his new friend has already been through. What does that all mean? Read on and find out!