well holy hell y'all sorry ab that mini hiatus. school's just been getting worse and it's hard to squeeze in time for writing, but i swear i'm still keeping at! updates are just gonna be,, pretty slow :/

also BIG NEWS! this fic now has an official cover! it was made courtesy of one of my best buddies, tekina fiction (pls give them love also check out the collab i just published w them ok thanks that's all)

anyways! another funky little chapter's here and it's got some pretty wack scenes that were admittedly really fun to write. hope y'all enjoy em too!

blah blah blah, typical warnings. read away!


V.

cacophony (kəˈkäfənē)

[noun]

an incongruous or chaotic mixture.


The red light was relentless for a while, before it subsided a bit and gave way to a black, empty space that seemed to stretch out for an eternity. It was nearly impossible to pick up on, but beneath the muted fog of crimson, there was a slight greenish hue surrounding him.

Sparks of unseen energy crackled along his arms and legs, sending an endless stream of slight tremors across his form, as though he'd ingested too much caffeine. There was a constant buzz in his head, and a strange hyperawareness of absolutely everything was assaulting his brain. It was difficult to focus on any distinct thought; everything seemed to run in fast-motion. Off in the distance, he saw glimmers of gold, which he honestly couldn't distinguish from stars or power rings.

The echidna figured the latter, given the familiar feeling of electricity pumping in his blood. The Chaos energy was recognizable enough to him—he could still somewhat discern the whispers of the Master Emerald, despite how hushed they were—and yet that same, unstable power persisted.

Everything felt more manic. The Special Zone normally brought with it clarity, flushing away all the toxins and corruptions plaguing the user's mind. But the red fog, however vague, permeated the entire space and made him feel like he was underwater; cold, detached, stuck. It was all so murky, making the mobian feel more stressed than rejuvenated.

A rising fear clenched his stomach, trying to grab hold of his reeling mind. He was taking it all in too fast, the energy was so intense it burned his skin, sucked the breath right out of him. This was—This was so wrong, and he needed to figure out how to fix it now.

"Knuckles," a voice murmured, just barely audible amongst the raw, alien energy that buzzed incessantly in his ears.

He knew that voice. He knew it. Hastily, the echidna whipped his head around, squinting past the red haze, trying to pinpoint the spirit he searched for. Amethyst orbs eventually settled on the just barely tangible silhouette of another echidna.

"Tikal!" he cried, trying to reach forwards. But he felt immobilized, drifting by with no control over his movements. "Tikal, what's happening?!"

The distant figure seemed like it was fading by the second. "I don't have long, Knuckles. And soon, your realm won't either. You must hurry."

"What?" His eyes widened in bewilderment.

"I don't fully understand what is happening," Tikal said, her muted words snaking into his ears. "Some foreign entity has latched onto the Master Emerald. It is devouring her positive energy like a parasite, and throwing the Forces of Chaos out of balance. It won't be long before she collapses completely."

Knuckles couldn't conjure any coherent response, and settled on a "fuck" that felt numb against his tongue. Was this real? Was he dreaming?

"What—" he stammered, feeling tingly all over as his heart pounded against his ribcage like a wild animal, "What happens when the Master collapses?"

Tikal's presence was fading fast, and the guardian was desperate for her to stay. And at that, it was unbearable to think how draining it must've been for her to be constantly fending off whatever parasitic monster had decided to cause all of this, whilst maintaining a corporeal form and speaking to him.

"I-I can't stay much longer, Knuckles. Just know it will reign down destruction on Mobius, even the universe, if it does."

This was insane. This was ludicrous. This—This couldn't—This wasn't possible.

He—He had to get out, he had to find the others, so they could find a way to stop this. Before it got worse, before they ran out of time, before Eggman got his hands on it again.

Was this all some experiment of the doctor's? It had been hooked up to that plethora of cables, and whatever the red crystallization was, it was no natural formation. Nanobots? Some crazy concoction of a virus? Tails would have been able to figure it out, probably.

Maybe it was related to that—to that thing, on Infinite's chest. The jackal's red gem bared a nearly uncanny resemblance to the clusters of ruby strewn about the Master. And they still had yet to really deduce the properties of his strange jewel.

Really, the possibilities were endless. And it was stressing the ever living fuck out of Knuckles.

The hot flashes came quickly, and the remnants of oxygen still in the atmosphere of the Special Zone were thin and scarce; his breathing quickly became strained. The red seemed to grow more intense, and heat crawled up his skin like a beast with nothing but the unadulterated need to finish off its prey.

Knuckles wheezed, squeezing his eyes shut. He could do it. There was still Chaos Energy here, regardless of how corrupted it was. If he could just—

Sharp pain struck him right through the center of his chest, his eyesight turning so bright it hurt. He cried out in agony, ruthless heat rippling across his body and stabbing into his pores. The ringing in his ears was growing louder by the second.

He triedhe tried—so hard to concentrate on Chaos Control, but he just—he could barely breathe, the energy was too hyperactive, he couldn't—

The blaring vision of a pair of eyes, disconnected and cold, one a deep blue and the other a bright gold, flashed before him.

Knuckles passed out before he could even get another breath in.


He just needed to go back.

He just needed to go back.

To the moment where everything went wrong.

Warmth spread across his body as sensations like smell and taste and hearing returned to him, and suddenly Silver could breathe again.

Frankly, the world he was greeted to wasn't much better than where he was a few minutes ago, before he was trapped in the Null, when he'd been wandering the streets of that fucked up dystopian future. Everything still looked to be in shambles like before, complete with toppled buildings and abandoned, rusted vehicles, and he had no doubt that the distant sound of shifting metal belonged to even more lurking Egg Pawns or the like.

The psychic sucked in a breath, closing his eyes after his brief once-over of the city, focusing on himself. The pungency of smog wafted around him; a dry, sour taste lingered on his tongue; aside from the metal clanging nearby, everything was deathly silent, like all of life had ceased to exist. There was a horrible fear in the pit of his stomach that wondered if that was true, before he reminded himself that this had to be the past, that it couldn't be any worse than that future with the maniacal dog.

Silver peeled open his eyes again, and they instantly locked onto the boggling sight no more than a hundred feet ahead of him.

It was Metal Sonic, that much he could confirm, trudging down the street and completely oblivious of his presence. It sported quite a few dents and scratches and fissures, but more unsettlingly, blood was splattered across it. The liquid still looked a little fresh, and it sent shudders down the time-traveler's spine.

And as his gaze trailed downwards, he noticed the mech was dragging along some mass of blue fur, also sporting some blotches of carmine. It didn't take long for Silver's mind to connect the dots, and if he weren't so used to the constant violence in his life then he probably would have retched.

Sonic.

There was a gut instinct to run forwards and help his friend, before apprehension trickled into his bloodstream and his feet became glued to the asphalt. Because as far as he knew, it could be the same twisted version of the blue blur he'd encountered only moments ago, from the distant future. The one that didn't seem to have a mind of his own, the one that would try and kill him if he caught sight of him again.

Squinting his eyes, the psychic ran a keen inspection of the pair of doppelgangers, searching for a certain robotic arm or red gem, particularly.

Sure enough, Sonic's right arm glinted violet in the hazy sunlight, as it dragged limply on the ground. Something squirmed uncomfortably in Silver's stomach, recalling his previous battle.

But if—if this was the moment, the moment his Chaos Control had brought him to, where everything changed and they stood a change at saving the world, then… Was it just too late to ever save Sonic?

The time-traveler's heart sank, as he eyed Metal and the unconscious hedgehog with a crestfallen look. Sonic was his friend, and—and he felt horrible thinking he couldn't save him. It wasn't—Chaos, this was so fucked up. Silver had to save him. Somehow. He was the only one who could.

Without another moment's hesitation, the hero started forwards, pushing past his fatigue with headstrong determination. He threw out an open palm, smirking as teal light wrapped around Metal's legs. The navy blue bot froze, digits twitching unnervingly before it swiveled its head to meet Silver's eyes. Those cutthroat red optics always made his blood run cold.

The machine released its grip on Sonic's ankle, and his leg fell to the ground inelegantly, just as flaccid as the rest of his body. Now that Silver was closer, he noticed the lack of a ruby jewel embedded in the hedgehog's chest, and hoped that was a good sign. But he knew he couldn't dwindle on his worries for Sonic, electing to focus on taking out Metal before anything else.

Legs still locked in place, the bot pivoted its torso around almost one-hundred-eighty degrees, aiming its chest-cannon right for the sprinting psychic. Silver gasped as its frame exploded with light, diving to the side just in time to miss a giant laser, heat exuding from it in waves. The way it practically burned his side, despite being a foot away, planted this nasty though in his mind that he'd be a pile of ashes right now if he hadn't moved in time.

Metal cocked its head, lifeless stare piercing straight through Silver. It began charging up its laser again, still immobilized by his psychokinesis, and with that the hero sacrificed his hold on the bot to fling his hand to his right and seize an abandoned car.

A film of turquoise spread across the automobile, and the hedgehog swiftly flung his hand back in the direction of the robot, watching in satisfaction as it slammed full-force into the lithe thing, causing it to soar backwards.

The car tumbled to a stop as Silver released it, jogging up to Metal, which was plastered against the cement wall of a building. Its optics were dimmed, flickering on and off, and its limbs convulsed uncontrollably. It struggled to lift up an arm, as it floundered fruitlessly in attempt to grab him.

Silver planted one hand down against its shoulder pad, using the other to envelop a teal coat of energy around its head. Pushing hard against its body to keep it from flying away with it, the time-traveler flicked his wrist up, watching satisfactorily as Metal's skull yanked right off from its shoulders. The head arced through the air before landing unceremoniously a few feet away.

Releasing his grip on the beheaded machine, it collapsed on the ground in a heap of steel and circuitry. Silver sniffed, swabbing a thumb at his nose and turning to walk back towards the unconscious hedgehog across the street that he could only describe as an enigma.

He knelt beside Sonic, scanning his injuries. A bit of blood seeped out from the seam between his prosthetic and torso, and more of it spilled out from where a shard of glass was stabbed into him, just to the left of his abdomen. The blue blur's leg was also twisted a bit awkwardly at the knee, and it made Silver cringe.

Part of him hissed, leave him to die, he's only going to wake up and try to murder you again—but the other cut in, no, he's your friend, help him.

Silver sighed, and bowed his head close to Sonic's, pressing two fingers against his throat to feel for a pulse and hovering an ear near his mouth to listen for a breath. He could deduce that he was breathing (thank Chaos), albeit shallowly.

Frantically, he proceeded to scan the area, in search of anything or anyone that could help—but the streets were deserted, and all the stores lining the streets were emptied and locked up. Reluctantly, Silver settled on pulling off Sonic's gloves. After unraveling the cuffs and tying the ends of them together, the garments were surprisingly long enough to pull around the blue blur's waist. He did so, being careful to tear a hole that fit around the piece of glass jutting out of him, before tying it into place. Silver grimaced as red immediately sapped into the gloves, before starting to apply pressure around the wound. He figured it'd be safer to leave the glass in for now, as it stemmed the blood.

That issue taken care of for the time being, the psychic set his eyes on Sonic's leg, bent in that chillingly unnatural position. The knee was already swelling up, and he could see some purple beneath the speedster's azure fur.

Inhaling sharply, Silver took a film hold of the leg, starting to push in back into place. He cringed as Sonic subconsciously squirmed and grunted from the mere pain, but continued to bend the leg back to normal. When it looked to be relatively alright, the time-traveler still flicked his hand up in the air, keeping his eyes trained on his friend, as he absentmindedly grabbed a stray newspaper with his powers and lured it to them.

Silver curled the newspaper around Sonic's leg, hoping the stiff wad of paper would be enough to act as a makeshift splint for the time being.

With an exhausted huff, the ivory hedgehog lifted up the other with his psychokinesis, dragging his limp body through the air alongside himself as he sped down the deserted street. He had to find some shelter, and possibly (hopefully) some first-aid supplies. But hasty searches through the vacant shops throughout the city only provided him an old rag, which he used for extra pressure around the glass shard, and a nearly empty bottle of pain-relievers. It wasn't much, but maybe it'd help Sonic last a few more days till they found something better.

His mind a haze, unsure what else to make of all this, Silver pulled the unconscious Sonic to the outskirts of the city, into some woods, accompanied with nothing else but his disjointed thoughts.


Honey eyes scanned the room, feeling strangely on edge despite the familiar hominess of the atmosphere. Oxygen felt thick and heavy as it traveled down his throat. It all felt too congested and humid; he could feel the sweat clinging to his fur.

There was something off about this. Everything was a little too pristine, with its perfectly made beds, and the organized papers on his desk. His college dorm was always a mess, always so cluttered, and it just didn't—

"Gadget?" a voice wondered from the other side of the door, accompanied with a light knock. "Are you there?"

With a sharp gasp, the wolf whipped around faster than he thought was physically possibly, lunging for the door as the world tilted. At some point the air had acquired a musty haze, tinted like he was stuck in a black and white movie. His lungs groped wildly for another breath, and Gadget struggled to focus.

That was—that was his voice. He didn't think he'd heard that voice in months.

The crimson male swung the door open as soon as he was able to get a hold of the handle, fingertips burning as though there was some untamed flame licking at his nerves from the inside. Everything seemed too tight, too murky, too excruciating, and it was difficult for him to keep his eyes trained on the door.

But when he opened it, Gadget was greeted to an endless, dark hallway.

It wasn't—It wasn't right, he heard him, he knew he was there, that voice was unmistakable—

"Gadget," he heard again, louder and painful this time as it pounded against his eardrums. The wolf startled, teetering backwards as he swung around again. His stomach turned sickeningly, and he felt so irrationally scared—he was here, he was home, but it felt like he was drifting through open space, forever lost and never to see a glimpse of the earth again.

As he faced his dorm again, the canine's gaze locked onto a pair of mismatched eyes, so empty and broken, yet so vivid that he nearly threw up. One eye was colored blue, gentle and watery and pale, a strange film lain on top of it; the other was a shimmering gold, almost enchantingly wicked and vibrant. For that the eyes were so—so unnatural and disconcerting to Gadget, and yet he recognized them regardless. The face they belonged to was so dissonant, like it was stuck in this constant battle of apathy and affliction.

The wolf tried to utter his name, but his tongue felt like cotton and his vocal chords were severed. But it was him, undoubtedly, no matter how much his body refused to voice his words.

Zero.

"Gadget," the jackal echoed once more, sounding like a broken record at this point. There was something dwindling in his clashing eyes, something he couldn't quite place. Something that of disappointment, maybe. "Stop."

Stop what, he tried to ask, but it felt like a wall had built itself in his throat, blocking it off completely. He felt helpless, and the raging heat beneath his fingertips was growing more ravenous by the second, sending his heart rate skyrocketing. Gadget blinked slowly, losing his balance as he tried fruitlessly to overcome the vertigo slamming into him.

"Stop."

His head was spinning, and suddenly the wolf was hyperaware of how carmine painted the walls, how it pooled around his feet, thick and sludgy and sucking him further down. Gadget tried to get away, close his eyes, but there was too much blood and he felt like it was going to drown him.

Their bodies were scattered about the room, nothing more than ragdolls, their eyes glassy and vacant. All his friends, the people he'd bonded with, come to care for, the ones that stayed with him despite the wars waging outside, that hid with him in the dormitories and made this hell tolerable. Gone. Forever.

Gadget found he couldn't tear his eyes from them all, strewn about the room, blank stares locked onto him. The blood was seeping into his shoes, and it felt sticky against his feet. Everything was so grainy and faraway, now, the saturation drained away, like he was watching through a screen. The walls were closing in.

"Gadget, stop," Zero murmured again, his voice a gradual crescendo of ferocity. His dark ash fur and alabaster dreadlocks were now stained in the deep red sap that was flooding the room.

And suddenly the walls gained eyes, thousands of them, unending and piercing in their stares, blinding the red male. He couldn't see anything other than the intense glow of teal opticals stabbing through him, and Zero's discordant face, his watery blue eye and thunderous yellow one. It made Gadget want to cry.

The walls were nearing, morphing into metallic orange and gaining arms, the Egg Pawns all swarming him, overtaking the entire room, suffocating him. Blood was splattered across them as they marched forwards, merciless and dutiful and lethal. Metal hands grabbed at the wolf, yanking at his limbs, and he found he could do nothing more but scream. The blood was everywhere. They were going to kill him, they were going to kill him, just like the others. He was going to die. They were going to kill him.

And Zero's gaze was unwavering amongst the flurry of machines closing in on him. He wanted to speak, he wanted to kick and cry, he wanted Zero to save him; but the jackal just shook his head, watching indolently as the wolf flailed helplessly, his life being sucked away.

"Stop running, Gadget. Stop running."

Wakefulness came to him suddenly and agonizingly, leaving the wolf throwing out his arms in defense and gasping heavily for air. It felt like he'd just breached the surface after being stuck underwater for too long, cold and trapped and oxygen-deprived.

"Hey," a young voice said, eliciting a flinch from him. Clementine fur flanked his left, and it took a moment for his eyes to focus on the figure and register in his mind who it was. "You alright?"

Gadget took a moment to calm himself, taking greedy breaths and wiping the sweat from his forehead. What the hell was that? It had to be one of the most horrific things he'd ever seen, with all the—all the blood, and—and Zero. He hadn't seen his face—so vividly, too—in months. Hastily, he wiped the moisture from his eyes before any tears could spill.

What did it even mean? Stop running? From what? Why was Zero telling him that? And his eyes—they'd always been like that, one blue and one yellow, but there was something so haunting about them, like—like a war was waging beneath them. It made Gadget's blood run cold just thinking about it; he didn't think he'd be able to sleep again after that.

(No rest for the wicked, huh?)

"Yeah," he finally answered, sounding rather unsure. "… Just a bad dream."

Miles' gaze held an air of dubiety, like he could tell just from the look on the older one's face that it had clearly been a lot more than just a simple bad dream, but opted not to say anything.

Instead, the fox ventured, "Wanna come help me gather some supplies?"

Furrowing his brows, Gadget stood up from the sleeping bag, rolling his shoulders and stretching out his arms and neck. He could still feel himself trembling from the nightmare.

"Aren't there plenty of supplies in here?" he wondered, surveying box-filled room as if to confirm to himself that they were still there.

The kit was already shrugging on his knapsack, the hilt to his electric Wispon in hand. "This is all food. We gotta find some more medical stuff; gauze and pain-killers would be nice. Besides, sometimes I'll come across something really useful, like batteries or something."

Gadget conceded, and trailed after the two-tailed boy silently.

As the pair headed back up the spiraling stairs, pulling the bookcase aside and following the aberrant pathway back to the front door of the empty shop, the wolf's thoughts began to derail.

All he could focus on was Zero, how jarring the dream had been, how vexed he felt. He hadn't—he hadn't seen Zero since before Eggman took over. He'd just… disappeared, one night, leaving behind nothing but a ghost that had continued to haunt Gadget since. And he'd tried moving on, really. Tried to accept that the jackal was probably dead, but he just—he couldn't get him out of his head.

And all his friends—how ruthlessly the Egg Pawns had slaughtered them, had deluged his home—his sanity—with their blood, it… Chaos, he was gonna be sick.

The boys stepped into the deserted Westopolis, the warmth of the early afternoon sun spreading from their faces across their bodies. The stagnant, quiet atmosphere was dizzyingly off-putting.

Miles paused, assessing the area as he placed a hand on his hip. "Let's head over there, first."

With an absent nod, the wolf began to follow after him.

They didn't make it very far before a colossal shadow fell over them, though, the hum of an engine looming above. The missiles struck the ground around them before Gadget could even blink.


As much as his fantasies had seemed to glorify it, being king of the world really was rather exhausting.

Eggman sighed heavily, soreness pinching the region between his shoulder blades as he hunched over his desk, sagging eyes glazed from doing nothing but staring at computer screens all day. Managing supply exports was such a hassle, on top of having to sort out the optimal locations to store their… recent acquisitions.

He had to admit, despite their differences, that Infinite was really quite brilliant. He'd been able to capture Shadow with ease; seizing his emeralds was like taking candy from a baby, after that. The sedative they used was certainly tricky to concoct, and could only be produced in unfortunately small quantities, but it was definitely a recipe he'd keep in mind for the future.

Aside from the exultation of simply obtaining another three Chaos emeralds, however, just about everything else going on was giving him a headache.

The emperor grumbled incoherently to himself, typing away on his keyboard as he sent out more commands and codes to the various databases he had set up across the globe. After all, he was the first true ruler of the entire planet, and henceforth was the first to have to figure out how exactly to maintain his control. And for a mechanic who focused primarily on robots, he ironically felt as though he lacked enough for the job—surely he shouldn't be having to manage all of this on his own, right? He should be kicking back right now, relishing in this life.

Mentally, he made a note to start making more robots that could help him with these menial tasks—which were currently the primary perpetrators for his incessant headaches.

There were, of course, other issues, though.

For one, there was that damned resistance. They were small and barely clinging on—with a little elbow grease, he could probably snuff out the rest of them—but they were certainly rather stubborn.

And just another problem to add on his mountain of them, there's Infinite. Sure, he was a great fighter, immensely powerful and surprisingly astute, but. All that cleverness and powerful also led to him being rather… fractious. And that trait, in itself, certainly didn't mix well with Eggman's own audacious self.

He found it rather absurd, really. The man had saved him, all those months ago, after he'd been mugged and fatally injured, doing nothing but losing time and blood as his life faded away in the alleyway late at night. That damn dog should've been grateful for him! Grateful that the tyrant had been searching for a test subject for the ruby, grateful that he just so happened to find him and scrape him off the pavement, grateful that he gave him the most amazing gift anybody could give one: unlimited power.

"Doctor," hissed a baritone voice through the speakers on his computer, from a signal somewhere in Holoska.

The mad scientist groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose to try and alleviate his pounding head; it didn't do much to help at all. Well, speak of the devil.

He pressed the button on his mic, temporarily closing out of all the files opened up on his monitor to focus on a grainy image of a certain jackal, standing in a dimly lit room.

"Is there a problem?"

Despite his face being concealed by his silver mask, Infinite was clearly exasperated. "There is a huge problem, yes."

Eggman slumped in his seat, exhaustion setting in his shoulders and craned neck. All he wanted was a damn nap, not a conversation that was sure to overstay its welcome and be filled to the brim with bickering—which seemed to be the case just about every time he spoke to Infinite. "Care to fill me in?"

"Well, do you want the bad news, or the worse news?" the jackal snapped. The Phantom Ruby on his chest could be seen glowing just a bit brighter, a bit warmer, just as agitated as its host, even through the grainy image.

The human drummed his fingers restlessly on his desk. "I suppose the worst of the two, first."

"The Master Emerald is missing."

Eggman just about choked. That was… certainly a big problem. Taking a moment to recompose himself, he asked after a few moments in a low voice, "And what happened to it?"

Infinite cocked his head to the side. "It seems that it has been stolen, from where we had been researching it to the north of Metal City in some woods. All reinforcements in the area are offline." He leaned in a bit to the camera, yellow eye dangerous and spiteful. "I don't suppose you have any guess as to who might've done it?"

Throwing his head back, the doctor snarled furiously. He slammed his fists on the desk, jostling his computer. "Dammit! Just when we thought we had the upper hand over those little rodents—"

"We've still got three emeralds. Surely that's more than how many they have," the mobian cut in swiftly.

"It's still a major loss, regardless," Eggman bit out. His patience was running really thin with Infinite. "We were—dammit, all of that research with the Phantom Ruby just went down the drain."

"What about our records?"

"It's all useless!" the scientist roared, heat rising up his face. "We were barely scraping the surface of its implications! We barely started! Who knows how its power will continue to affect the Master? And who knows how that stupid resistance will tamper with it? For all we know, they'll figure out how to reverse its effects!"

Infinite crossed his arms. "They aren't smart enough to even begin to fathom the Ruby's power, let alone counteract it. Besides, I scared off the only remotely intelligent one months ago—that little boy. They won't have a clue of what to do."

"You better hope they don't," grumbled the man. He let out a long breath, waving to his associate half-mindedly. "I'll start looking into what we can do to get the emerald back. In the meantime, what's the other bad news?"

The jackal hesitated a moment, and in that pause Eggman wished more than anything that he could read his mind. He had practically created Infinite, from that pathetic husk of a dog, and yet he continued to elude him. Infinite was a puzzle that he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to decipher.

"Metal went offline."

Eggman bit his tongue, promptly flinching at the tinny flavor it elicited.

The pair of tyrants found themselves stuck in an uneasy silence. Infinite watched warily as the doctor's expression dulled for a few moments, the cogs in his head undoubtedly turning.

"… So," the human began, quieter than before. "Sonic got away. Which means it won't be long before he finds his little friends. And once he's reunited with them—"

"They're going to become a lot more fearsome," the mobian finished, sounding equally resigned. They were really getting backed into a corner, now, huh? "Lucky for us, we've got a plan B. I already filmed the ransom video with that pathetic excuse for an Ultimate Lifeform."

"And how do you expect to get it to them? Wherever their hideout is, it's off the grid. We don't even know if they have access to technology."

Infinite chuckled coyly, his visible eye wandering. "You forget we've got one of theirs, doctor."

Eggman narrowed his gaze. "Shadow used to work for G.U.N. There's no way you could get him to tell you anything. You'd be surprised how loyal he is."

"That's true, yes. But you also forget he's currently so drugged up he can't think straight. I was able to get him to tell me the channel they use for their communicators, and with some more snooping around, I found an IP address for one of their computers. I'll send the video to that."

The obese man grinned. "Clever boy." He paused, contemplating. "Why haven't you sent it yet?"

With a shrug, the other simply said, "I want to make sure Sonic will be there to see it. Metal only went offline an hour ago; I doubt he's found the resistance yet."

"Send it in the next forty-eight hours," Eggman ordered, a little disgruntled again. He had already minimized the tab with the jackal's camera, continuing his prior work and only paying half his attention to the other. "The sedative we've administered in Shadow won't last much longer, and I don't want to play sitting ducks while he gains the strength to break out. In the meantime, start searching for leads on the Master Emerald. And also—those emerald shipments better be going smoothly. They need to be locked up in their secure locations ASAP."

Infinite sighed mild annoyance, gritting out, "Sure, anything else?"

"No, that's all. You're dismissed," the doctor sneered. And, yes, he did realize that although he minimized his view of the other, the mobian most definitely saw that. But, to be quite frank, he didn't care.

There was a slight pause, and for a moment the man wondered if he was about to receive some backtalk, when the video feed finally cut off. Although, that seemed to express Infinite's annoyance far more than another snide comment would've ever been able to accomplish.

Eggman let out a long, tired groan, slumping in his seat.

He had a lot of work to do.


eggman's shown his face! and he's honestly pretty done w infinite lmao. plus silver's alive and well! gadget is Not Okay! knuckles is also probably not okay but hey Plot Stuff is happening so that's smth right?

please r&r i need it to sate my hunger for validation mfhgfdsh