Chapter 5, The rise of Infinite.

Mystic jungle.

Zero slowly regained consciousness, the first thing he noticed was pain, every part of his body hurt, he was also finding it difficult to breath, Zero tried to move but this only caused him more pain.

The next thing that he noticed was that there was something wrong with his vision, he closed his eyes one at a time and learned that he couldn't see anything though his right eye.

Zero tried to sit up but this proved to be too difficult to do, he was sure that both of his legs was broken and he had no feeling in his left arm, Zero turned his head and looked in the direction of the Base.

Eggman's base was currently on fire and Shadow was nowhere in sight, having completed his mission Shadow had left Mystic jungle and returned to G,U,N HQ.

Zero was finding it harder and harder to stay conscious, with no other option he activated his distress beacon and hoped that someone would find him, only a few seconds later Zero passed out.

Eggman was flying away from Mystic jungle in his EGG mobile, he had only just managed to escape his base with the Phantom ruby in time and was now heading to one of his other hidden bases.

A light started to flash on the EGG mobile's dash board signalling that a member of Jackal squad had activated their distress beacon, "Pathetic, those miserable dogs can rot for all I care" thought Eggman ignoring the beacon.

The Phantom ruby flashed brightly and Eggman's eyes turned purple for a second as an idea popped into his head, "On second thought, that jackal may still be of some use to me" he thought as he turned the EGG mobile around.

Eggman found Zero outside his now destroyed base, the jackal was unconscious and barely alive, Eggman placed Zero in the back of the EGG mobile, then he climbed in and set off towards his secret laboratory.

Mortar canyon, Dr Eggman's underground laboratory.

Eggman placed Zero's broken body on an operating table, "Wait, why did I bring this second rate mercenary with me" he thought realising that he hadn't thought this though, the Phantom ruby flashed and Eggman smiled, "That's right, he could make an excellent warrior, all he needs is a little boost" he said looking at the ruby.

Eggman pulled out some surgical tools and started work on Zero, first he performed a scan to find out just how badly the jackals body had been damaged.

Zero's left arm was completely destroyed beyond repair, so Eggman removed the arm and replaced it with a robotic one.

Both of Zero's legs was broken, Eggman know that in time both legs would heal, however he wasn't willing to wait that long so he replaced Zero's legs with robotics as well.

Moving on to Zero's torso Eggman replaced eleven of his ribs that had been broke, one of his lungs that had collapsed, and several of his other organs that had started to fail.

Eggman was kind enough to cover all of Zero's artificial body parts with fake skin, making them look exactly like his original body parts to the untrained eye.

Eggman removed Zero's ruined right eye, he could have replaced the eye, but decided not to, the missing eye would remind Zero about what had happened today.

There was just one more thing to do, Eggman looked at the Phantom ruby and wondered whether or not he should proceed with this next step, the ruby flashed again and Eggman had no further doubts as he got to work.

Eggman implanted the Phantom ruby into Zero's chest making it almost impossible to be removed, once he was done he placed Zero inside of a large tank filled with green liquid that would help him heal faster.

3 days later.

Zero woke up in the tank of green liquid and began to panic, "Zero, good to see your finally awake" said a voice, Zero looked ahead and saw Dr Eggman, the Doctor pressed a button on a control pad and the liquid began to drain from the tank.

Once the liquid was gone the tank opened and released Zero, Zero fell to the flour, his own body felt strange to him, large chunks of his body felt different, they felt artificial, despite this his body also felt a lot stronger.

Zero struggled to stand on his new legs, "What did you do to me" he asked, his voice also sounded different, it sounded unnatural a little robotic, Eggman smile "What did I do, what I did was save your life" he said sounding very proud about it.

Zero looked down at his body expecting to see robotics, but instead what caught his eye was the Phantom ruby embedded in his chest, "The ruby" he said as he felt the ruby with his one remaining organic hand.

"Yes, I thought that you would make the perfect host for the Phantom ruby" said Eggman, Zero hardly listened to the Doctor as he made his way over to one of the large tubes to observe his reflection.

Zero was shocked at what he saw, while his new limbs was almost identical to his original ones, his face was heavily scared and the power of the Phantom ruby had turned the sclera of his left eye red, he raised a shaking hand to his missing right eye.

"Yes I'm afraid that Shadow's attack did some heavy damage to your face, but don't worry I've already thought of a solution" said Eggman as he left the room and returned a few minutes later carrying a case filled with different masks.

Zero was slightly annoyed by this, he was expecting the Doctor to perform some plastic surgery to fix his face not hide it under a mask, however he know that this was the most Eggman was going to offer him.

"Go ahead pit which ever one you want" said Eggman sounding vey cheerful about this, Zero looked at all of the masks, some of them was fancy while others was more plain looking, there was some that was decorated with gold and there was even one that resembles a gas mask.

Finally Zero chose one of the more plain masks, this mask had only one eye hole while the other one was completely black hiding his missing eye, Zero put the mask on and Eggman smiled, "It looks great on you" he said.

"Now then let's get down to business, since I saved your life and gave you unbelievable power, I say it's only fair that you help me conquer the world" said Eggman sounding more serious, Zero thought about this but he didn't care about conquering the world.

The only thing that Zero wanted was to get revenge for his fallen friends, "If I work with the Doctor then I may get another chance to destroy that hedgehog" he thought, "Ok Doctor I'll help you" he said.

Despite what he said Zero had no intention of helping Eggman conquer the world, he planned to abandon the Doctor as soon as Shadow was dead.

Eggman smiled "Excellent, but first you must practice with the Phantom ruby and learn to use its powers properly" he said as he led Zero to a training room.

Several days later.

During his training Zero had learned many things, first was that with his robotic enhancement he was now much stronger and faster than he had ever been in his life.

Second was that the Phantom ruby had given him access to many different powers, these included the ability to fly at high speeds, fire powerful energy blasts, and create energy shields.

Zero had learned that he could create copies of other people that was completely under his control, however these copies was no as powerful as their original counterparts, and Zero required more time and focused to create copies of stronger individuals.

Zero had also discovered that he could create red cubes that could form together to create almost anything, however Zero was still very unskilled in this ability and it would take more time and training before he could use this power effectively in combat.

Zero was currently practising his new powers against Eggman's EGG breaker, a robot that the Doctor had last used during the Black arms invasion.

The Egg breaker swung at Zero with its spiked ball arm, Zero flew up it to the air and out of the robot's reach, the EGG breaker tried to use its laser eyes but Zero was too fast and he destroyed the machine's eyes with his own energy blasts.

The now blind robot flailed around desperately trying to hit its target, Zero charged and fired a powerful blast of energy that destroyed the robot's head finishing the fight.

"Well done Zero, very impressive" said Eggman walking into the room, Zero hardly acknowledged the Doctor's compliment, the only thing he could think about was finding and killing Shadow, and he was willing to work with Eggman until he did.