Tails, Knuckles, Sonic, and Shadow walked through the streets of a busy city. They had just completed their mission, and it had been snowing for a short while. Tails and Knuckles collected their second soul after defeating a corrupted weapon that barely put up a fight. Sonic and Shadow were only there as backup. They hadn't had to fight together, which gave them some relief. Unfortunately for them, the night was still young.
"We came all this way for such a boring mission," Knuckles sighed.
"Seeing Empire City was pretty great though,"
Tails glanced over at Sonic and Shadow, who were ignoring him as well as each other. Their displeasure radiated out into the air around them. Sonic had barely talked during the whole mission, while Shadow had yet to speak at all. Tails knew they were here because their training hadn't gone well, but he didn't think things were this dire. He decided to focus on heading home.
The group of four walked down a street that was absent of any cars or people. A blue hedgehog walked out of a condemned building, entering the sidewalk about half a block ahead of them.
"Sonic?" Tails
"What?" Sonic groaned, still looking to the side.
"Not you, him!" The young fox pointed at the doppelganger ahead of them.
The group of four starred in dismay. The person ahead looked exactly like Sonic aside from his eyes and mouth. His eyes were completely black aside from the glowing, red irises. His mouth was full of sharp teeth that formed a twisted smile. He laughed, but it sounded more like hissing. Blood poured from his mouth, adding to the red stains on his clothes.
Sonic flinched. "What the hell?"
Sonic's double took off running, and the real Sonic gave chase alongside his team. They followed the figure through the cold night toward the outskirts of the city. Tails focused his soul perception, then noticed something.
"That other Sonic doesn't have a soul. It's just energy. Some kind of illusion,"
"We can still kill it, right?" Knuckles asked.
"Let's just keep following it for now,"
The other Sonic kept running until reaching an old, broken bridge that stood high over the ocean surrounding Empire City. Unlike the interior of the city that was still bustling and maintained, this bridge sat abandoned and covered in a thin layer of snow. Sonic's doppelganger stopped abruptly and stood up straight. The image of the duplicate flickered with red while sitting in place, frozen.
After arriving, the four students saw a man with long silver hair standing at the edge of the broken road. He was looking out at the bridge with his back to them. After turning to greet them, his mask was revealed. It was gray with red plates of glass forming jagged eyes. Pronounced ears with black and white circles jutted out of the top. All of it came to a fine point where his nose should be. His clothes were tight fitting and black, matching most of the fur that was hidden underneath. A tuft of thick silver fur wrapped around his neck with another tuft at the end of his long tail.
"Four fledglings from the DWMA," Infinite watched the group through the red eye plates of his mask to verify their faces. He stared at Shadow and tried his best to remain calm. The black hedgehog looked exactly the same as the last time they'd met. Tikal said the scythe had no memories of his past. Infinite believed her, but it was still so tempting. He decided to stay in character. "Seems my messenger was effective after all,"
"Who are you?" Sonic asked.
"Call me Infinite,"
"Sonic, there's something embedded in his soul," Tails said.
"Oh, you mean this?" Infinite grabbed on to the pointed collar of his jacket and pulled it open, revealing a red prism with violet stripes protruding from the center of his chest. "It's an old ruby that's merged with my soul. I understand your confusion. Powerful gemstones like this don't exist anymore," Infinite held up a black gloved hand. "A demonstration might be more helpful. Soul protect, release!"
Magical soul energy poured out from Infinite's body. Each of the four DWMA students flinched. Sonic's doppelganger began flickering in response to the soul waves. Another phantom appeared next to the first. This figure took the shape of Knuckles. He had gray quills, red eyes, and black pupils. His teeth were sharp and pointed like the first doppelganger.
Both of the duplicates moved in to attack the students. Knuckles shifted into a gauntlet for Tails to grab hold. Sonic stepped forward, approaching his double alone. It smiled at him and stared with its black eyes. He threw out a punch that confirmed the illusion was solid. More punches were thrown, each more intense than the last. Sonic knew that the blood spilling from the fake's mouth wasn't real, but he kept on hitting. He was so angry. He hated this thing.
Tails blocked a hit from the fake Knuckles, then threw a heavy punch of his own. His opponent took the hit well, barely flinching. After a few more successful hits, the gray duplicate only smiled. Glowing red spots were the only noticeable damage.
"Fighting me is great and all, but we should finish this, quick!" Knuckles proposed.
"Okay! Sonic, let's knock the copies together!"
Sonic kicked his fake back, then watched it collide with the other. After his brother backed off, Tails placed his left hand on the side of his gauntlet and aimed it at both enemies. Knuckles's weapon form was glowing brightly, surrounded by an orb of static.
"Drill cannon!"
The gauntlet fired off of Tail's arm, spinning and hurtling toward the two doppelgangers. Soul energy erupted at the point of impact causing static to fill the air. The phantoms were banished back into fizzling red waves. Knuckles landed on the ground, back to being an echidna.
"So you have some power after all," Infinite only just spoke before noticing Sonic run up on him. He blocked the kick with one hand and held the meister's leg in place. "Don't insult me with-,"
Sharp, burning metal pierced Infinite's hip. Infinite's former prey was digging into him with a bladed hand. The idea of being stabbed by Shadow's blade, no matter how harmless, made his skin crawl. He yelled and bashed Shadow with the back of his hand. The black hedgehog fell backward and the blade was ripped out as well. Sonic reclaimed his leg to try attacking again, but Infinite released a pulse of energy to push him away.
The witch staggered back, breathing heavily under his mask. His wound began glowing with his own energy. The messy tear in his side closed quickly.
"He recovered?" Sonic exclaimed, still on his feet after the blast.
"I'm not like you. I'm immortal," Infinite placed a hand where his wound once was, then shivered. "You're all weak. You pathetic meisters with your filthy weapons. It's all a lie to hide how weak you really are!"
Infinite floated across the gap that separated the road and the broken bridge. By the time he landed, he'd forgotten about all the students except for one. He hunched over himself, panting while frantically running his hands over his torso while walking away. Once he'd achieved a moderate certainty that he was still intact, his breathing slowed.
"Remember the plan," Tikal's voice entered his mind.
"I know," Infinite growled.
"Let's get him!" Knuckles shifted back into a gauntlet.
Tails used his propeller-tails to float across the gap with his weapon in hand. Sonic and Shadow ran along the protruding edge's of the bridge to jump over a smaller distance and reach the bridge. The four caught up with Infinite, who responded by floating up onto an archway that connected two beams of the bridge.
"Pathetic runts! Show me something already!" Infinite yelled.
His energy bubbled around the air in front of the meisters and weapons. It solidified into a bipedal form that towered over Sonic and his team. Once the energy construct came to life, it's appearance was some kind of mixture between a certain hedgehog and a wolf monster.
"Is that me as a werehog?" Sonic asked, disturbed.
"Hogwolf," Tails noted.
"What?"
"It's you as a hogwolf," Tails reiterated.
"No," Sonic frowned.
"Yes. The 'were' portion of the term werewolf refers to humans, so for you it'd be hogwolf," Tails concluded his statement with the expression of a proud know-it-all.
Sonic sighed. "Glad we could clear that up. Come on, Shadow,"
The black hedgehog's glowing body became a scythe. The weapon spun once through the air before Sonic caught hold.
"Ow!"
Tails heard the sound of metal hitting the ground. He noticed that his brother had dropped his scythe. Sonic was examining his gloved hands with concern. Shadow spoke for the first time that night.
"What's wrong?"
"You're freezing. It hurts to hold you,"
"You guys aren't resonating properly," Tails looked ahead to see the hogwolf charging in. "Look out!"
Shadow went back to normal so he could jump out of the way. The hogwolf ran by and slammed its fists down in an attempt to hit Sonic. The blue meister backpedaled to get some breathing room between him and the monster. He gasped after seeing the hogwolf's arm elongate while surging toward him. After blocking with both arms up, the massive, clawed fist slammed into Sonic and sent him flying over the edge of the bridge. His momentum would have carried him into a devastating fall if he hadn't held out his hand at the last second. Sonic grabbed onto one of the metal cables tethered to the side of the bridge, then swung himself back on solid ground in one seamless motion.
Tails threw a punch with his gauntlet while Shadow attacked with his now bladed hand. Both came at the hogwolf from opposite sides. Both attacks hit their mark. The hogwolf groaned and batted them away. Some glowing tears formed on the monster's body before it continued pursuing the blue hedgehog.
"It's focusing on Sonic!" Tails announced.
"Then let's hit it with our best shot while it's distracted!" Knuckles shouted.
Sonic rolled to avoid another stretching arm headed his way. He transitioned into a sidestep, then a cartwheel, avoiding the additional long-reaching melee strikes. The hogwolf moved closer now and Sonic's eyes widened. Panic burrowed it's way into his chest. Breathing became a chore. He needed a way to fight this thing, but using Shadow seemed like a monumental task now. A glimmer of hope came when he saw Tails aiming a strike at the hogwolf.
"Drill cannon!"
Knuckles's gauntlet form crashed into the monster, sending it flying across the bridge. The static rattled the hogwolf's form and a crater formed at its stomach. It hit the ground, but didn't stay down long. The wolf creature hobbled back toward Infinite's perch while flickering and distorting occasionally. Sonic ran back to the rest of his team.
"Nice shot!"
Tails shook his head and pointed at the hogwolf. "It's reforming,"
Sonic looked over and saw that his brother was correct. The hogwolf's form was glowing. The image was growing more solid. He heard Tails fall on the ground, and saw Knuckles was out of his weapon form now.
"Sorry, I know a second drill cannon was a lot to ask," Knuckles crouched down to check on his meister.
"The witch is the power source," Tails stopped to take a few labored breaths. "If we want to reach Infinite, we need to destroy that monster completely, or keep damaging it until he runs out of power. I can't fire another drill cannon, and you can't resonate with Shadow. We should leave,"
Sonic stepped past them, only staring ahead.
"Knuckles, stay with Tails,"
