AN: Before we start this chapter, I like to say a huge thank you to Yancy 08620163 who I met on Discord. He helped out with me on a part of this chapter.


Chapter 21 – Lost, But No Found

Clay's POV, 6 pm

I sat on my bed. It was nearly late in the afternoon and a few minutes after we heard Belt's message. Knuckles sent Sonic off to find Eggman.

Staring at the floor, I thought about what Belt said.

There was a back-up generator at the Eggman Empire Fortress…

The Phantom Ruby was still in full power…

Belt pleaded everyone to escape…

Something wasn't right. I couldn't believe that the Phantom Ruby had a back-up generator. We already destroyed all two of them. Tails and Minty found those two generators at Mystic Jungle…unless Eggman didn't record down anything about a third extra generator.

I took a small sip from my water bottle, but I didn't feel drops on my lips. It was nearly empty. Letting out a blow, I flipped the bottle. I watched it bounce and bonk onto the floor before lazily putting it in the bin.

"Why am I just standing around when I should do something?" I said to myself.

I was still upset by the fact of what was going on when Belt recorded the message. I didn't know what happened to him. It was as if he was making his last voice call to me. He could have just talked to me through phone, but that didn't happen for the past 6 months.

I hadn't thought of this; why did Eggman captured him? Why is Belt held hostage at the Fortress? What did that mad doctor need him for?

Again, Belt held the light rings or whatever that were called. Mecha said they held unlimited power. And since power was what Eggman wanted…

"Greedy bastard," I growled.

I had a new goal in mind and I didn't think about it clearly. I was too angry at the moment.

After a few minutes of silence, I heard somebody coming in.

It was Bubblegum and Mecha.

"Hey," said Mecha. He sounded so dull. I guessed that after pouring his heart out, it made him so emotionally drained again.

"Hey," I said, turning around.

"Still upset about what happened?" said Bubblegum.

I nodded. "Yeah…"

I stood up. "For God's sake. I shouldn't be just sitting around here, sulking around. I got to do something!"

I turned to the door when Bubblegum spoke.

"What are you doing?" she said.

"I'm going after Belt," I said.

"What?" said Bubblegum and Mecha in unison.

"I'll…I'll be right back. I promise I will keep myself out of trouble."

I was about to walk away when Bubblegum grabbed my arm.

"Oh, no you don't," said Bubblegum.

"Let go now," I said, glaring at her.

"You can't just go out there alone!"

"Knuckles already sent Sonic to get Eggman," said Mecha, crossing his arms. "Tails is taking him to Metropolis just now. All of us are going to the fortress to shut that generator down and knowing Eggman, he isn't going to kill Belt YET."

"WHAT IF HE DOES?" I yelled, jerking my arm away from Bubblegum's hand. "I can't just sit here and keep on thinking that I shouldn't exist! I can't just be lying down on the floor like some weakling!"

Bubblegum and Mecha looked alarmed. Even inside, I am horrified by how frustrated I was.

"This is not weakness," said Bubblegum. "It's for your own good."

"MY OWN GOOD?!" I barked. "JUST TO GIVE UP AND LET BELT DIE!"

"WE ARE NOT GOING TO LET YOUR BROTHER DIE, YOU IDIOT! We all made a promise to find him!"

"You're just going to hurt yourself," said Mecha sternly. "How are you going to get to the fortress? Just calm down. You're not well. You know how we dealt with our problems and we are frustrated as well. We are still young and still learning, Rookie! You can't just go out on a risky solo mission!"

"Why can't I?" I snarled. "Because I am shy? Because I nearly don't have the courage to speak up, including saying my real name? Because I am cursed with some dark magic?! Because I suffered from some disorder?! BECAUSE I CAN'T WIN A FIGHT BETWEEN INFINITE?! PERHAPS BECAUSE I LOST MY HOME, PARENTS AND NOW MY BROTHER?!"

I growled in pain as I held onto my right arm. It was the darkness. I took a glance at it, seeing it was travelling towards my right shoulder.

"Rookie!" exclaimed Bubblegum.

"Calm down, dude!" said Mecha. "You're going to be in a worse condition if you don't!"

I listened and tried to breathe in and out slowly. At first, it didn't help, but I slowly calmed down as I exhaled all the anxiety out. I collapsed onto the bed.

"I'm…" I whispered as tears formed in my eyes. "I'm sorry…I'm just so…I just want to see my brother again…I guess I'm becoming like Infinite as well."

Mecha sighed and shook his head. "You're not like him. It's just some darkness inside you that is driving you insane. Even not…"

I nodded. "I…I just miss him…I just really miss him…every day. I'm just angry at myself for not saving him."

Bubblegum sat next to me and placed a hand onto my shoulder. "We miss him as well. We can miss him together."

"We can't let you go on your own," said Mecha. "BUT what if we go with you? To find your brother?"

I looked at them surprised. Feeling grateful for their support, I felt a smile crept upon my face.

"Yeah…" I said gratefully. "Thank you, guys."

Bubblegum chuckled heartfully and gave me a quick hug.

Mecha winked at me.

"Might as well take one of their ships and head to Metropolis," he said.

"I don't think that will work," pointed out Bubblegum. "The fortress is heavily guarded. We need to find a way to pass through without alerting anyone."

"So what do we do?" I asked.

Bubblegum pulled out her Phantom Ruby prototype. "How about we go IMMEDIATELY to the fortress without having to walk for a long time?"

Mecha gasped as he saw it. "W-What?! You have…those prototypes?"

"Well, both of us do," I said, taking mine out.

Mecha stared in awe at our glowing rubies. "H-How come? I never seen you with those before!"

"You saw them during Operation Big Wave before," pointed out Bubblegum.

Mecha shook his head. "I don't think I did. I was too upset to notice them that day."

"I…I remember using this…" said Bubblegum. "I…I believe that I can teleport by a thought in my mind…maybe it can take us to the fortress!"

"You think so? Those are just prototypes. I'm not sure if they have enough power to take the three of us there."

I placed a finger on my chin. "Maybe we can use both of our prototypes to get there. Using both of the prototypes will provide us with much power to get to the fortress."

Bubblegum shrugged. "OK then. We can try."

I held the prototype on my left hand and grabbed Bubblegum's left hand. She held her prototype on her right hand. Mecha grabbed onto my left arm.

I concentrated and heard the dreaded low humming noise, feeling the energy of the ruby.

There was a red, glitching aura around us.

I closed my eyes and concentrated.

"NOW!" shouted Bubblegum.

A loud white flash covered everything.

I felt my brain nearly cracking.

I closed my eyes and winced in pain.

My ears were ringing.

When I opened my eyes, I groaned and rubbed my forehead, letting go off Bubblegum and Mecha.

"Ow…" I said, rubbing my eyes. "Why does my head hurts?"

"The fortress is far from the HQ," said Bubblegum, who – for some reason – she didn't seem to be in pain. "We must have used a lot of energy."

Mecha looked up. "Guys. Good news, bad news."

"What?" I said.

"Good news…we are at the fortress. Bad news…"

He trailed off, pointing to a huge futuristic door blocking us in the room we were at.

"Oh great," said Bubblegum. "We teleported into a prison cell."

"The prison looks similar to the one at Death Egg," said Mecha, looking through the indestructible. "It appears that we are at the lower level of the prison."

He bent down and knocked on the floor.

THUMP!

"That isn't a 'thunk'," he said.

He rapped the floor again.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

This made a light tap.

"Hmm…there must be another level down there!" said Mecha. "It's hollow underneath!"

"You're sure?" said Bubblegum.

"Trust me," said Mecha.

He activated his Wispon and he used it to drill through the floor.

He is right.

There was another level below.

He fell from the hole he made and landed on his feet.

"OK!" he said. "Who's next?"

Bubblegum jumped through the hole, gracefully doing a flip through the air as she fell onto the floor.

I looked down. Unlike Bubblegum, I wouldn't be able to land on my own feet.

"Alright…" I said to myself as I came close to the hole. "It's just a short dro-"

I slipped and fell down.

Landing onto Mecha hardly.

CLUNK!

"ARGH!" squawked Mecha. "My spine!"

"Sorry…" I said, getting up.

For some reason, it reminded me of how I escaped through the hole made at my home when those robots attacked Belt and me. I'm not proud of that.

I felt my cheeks blushing in embarrassment.

"OK…" I said, ignoring Mecha's glare. "Where do we go?"

Bubblegum looked around, scanning the long hallway we were in. She pressed on her ear piece. "Let me check this place."

While Bubblegum set her ear piece up to receive information about this place, I took out a rubber band and tied up my hair from behind, making a nice short ponytail.

"Heh," said Mecha, pointing to my ponytail. "Maybe we should call ourselves the 'Ponytails Plants'."

"Plants?" I said confused.

"'Plant' also means a person placed in a group as a spy or informer."

A map appeared on Bubblegum's ear piece screen that covered her eye. "OK. Belt is 5 levels away from us and approximately 130 metres. I tracked down his destination, but it's far from us. We might be able to find him. There are many robots guarding the place, so be careful."

"Should we go through the vents?" I asked.

"I don't see any here. We can take some when we come across one."

"Let's go already," said Mecha. "We don't have any time to lose."

We went off, running through the hallways to search for Belt. There were a LOT of hallways and the rescue mission was taking so long. This felt like some kind of spy mission like the ones you would see in movies except that we weren't wearing fancy suits or have any stealth moves. Maybe we did have stealth moves because we were good in hiding from enemies. Of course, Bubblegum said before that, invading the Death Egg felt like a spy mission, but this one at the moment felt a bit real.

While running across a T-shaped hallway connection on the left hall, Bubblegum stopped Mecha and me from crossing over because there were a line of robots marching through in the north hall. They seemed to be carrying a rocket launcher.

Once they were gone, we crossed over to the right hall.

At another point, we stopped to see a door opened with a robot's back facing it. Bubblegum crept pass it only for the robot to hear movements. It looked behind on the left, but Bubblegum quickly got to the right. Mecha and I followed that technique, passing that robot without getting seen.

"So…" I said as we crept through a hallway. "Where do you guys think Belt might be in?"

"I just located where he is," said Bubblegum deadpanned.

"I mean WHAT type of room? Wait…no…I mean…"

"If I have to guess…" said Mecha with a smirk. "…he would be in a puppy kennel."

Bubblegum slapped Mecha on the back of his head. "Really, idiot?"

"It's just a guess," said the bird. "Who knows what silly things Eggman would do?"

"Maybe some kind of picture with pink on it?"

I stopped. "Well…there is one."

Bubblegum and Mecha looked at where I was pointing at. It was a large rectangular portrait that showed Eggman sunbathing on a beach…wearing pink bikini and underwear.

"You got to be kidding me," said Bubblegum in disgust.

I stared at it in confusion.

Mecha snickered, seeing it. "Maybe we should bring this home and put it in the National Gallery of Victoria."

"I don't think Eggman will approve that," said Bubblegum.

"Hey! Who's there?" said a familiar robot's voice.

"Oh crap!" I said quietly.

We heard that robot was coming to where we were at. I turned my head around, trying to find a hiding spot. There weren't any or any nearby hallways we could quickly ran to. The three of us started to panic and when we tried to when we accidentally bumped into each other's head.

CLONK!

"Ow!" exclaimed Bubblegum.

"Geez!" squawked Mecha.

There was only one thing to do.

I watched through my hand that covered my face as that same small red robot (from Death Egg) walked by. He looked up to see us…trying to camouflage into the picture. Mecha and I were huddled together to blend into the ocean…with nearly all our clothes off, while Bubblegum curled up into a pink and black ball to represent Eggman's 'swim suit'. We were hanging onto the picture, trying not to make the tough paper rip or it would give away our hiding place.

This…was…stupid.

And it worked!

The red robot shrugged. "What a fine painting Eggman made. Pretty ugly as well."

As soon he disappeared around the corner, all of us fell down.

We groaned as we got up.

"Remind me to bring invisible watches next time," said Bubblegum.

Mecha nodded as he and I put back our clothes back on.

We continued our search.

We stumbled across a hallway with a long window that stretched from one end of the hall to the other. As curious like children, we peered through it.

"Wow!" said Bubblegum. "Would you look at that!"

Through the window, we saw a large tall room that appeared to be a loading room. Below was a massive grey mech with some red accents, a small dome-shaped head that could open up like an eye, three spike-like appendages on the top, a rounded body with a red energy core, four tentacles with three-clawed hands, large fists and a serpent-like lower body. It was surrounded by construction platforms with many smaller robots putting in many parts into the mech. I could see that it was in construction as there were many heavy features that were missing from it.

It was at that time when our Wisps came out to see the large construction, babbling in curiosity.

"That is one hell of a robot Eggman made," said Bubblegum interested. "That's for sure. Especially for a madman like him."

Her Pink Wisp just crossed her tentacles and let out a disgusted grunt.

"Looks like that doctor lost his health insurance to make that piece of junk," joked Mecha.

His Yellow Wisp laughed at that.

"But what is he going to use it for?" I said. "This is something we never seen before during the war…or at least what the Resistance saw."

At this, my Cyan Wisp flew in front of my face and started gestures as if controlling a robot and shooting lasers.

"OK, girl," I said, petting her. "That's enough."

"Cyan has a point," said Mecha before hesitating. "Maybe it's his weapon to…wipe us all out."

"We still need to find Belt," said Bubblegum. "It doesn't seem to be ready yet, so we can come back there later and blow it up…if it gets to that part."

"OK…" I said.

We ran off and continued on our journey with our Wisps following behind us. Eventually, we had to enter through a large lab.

The long lab was a long and dark room. Everything was coated in black and there were many large water tanks all lined up in rows. Some of them were filled with green chemicals. Some of them were filled with water with some pixel blocks in them. Some of them were empty or have cracks on them, results of some experiment failures.

"Wow…" we all said in amazement.

I hesitated a little, but I swallowed up my fear to follow Bubblegum and Mecha as we started to pass by the tubes.

"Would you look at all of this?" said Bubblegum.

"Dark and creepy," I said. "Must be…s…some kind of sci-fi thing Eggman got here."

"I guess that he must be experimenting on the Phantom Ruby here before the war. Maybe even the prototypes."

"Is there anything interesting in any of them?" said Mecha, peering into one of the green tubes.

The green chemical wasn't transparent, making it hard for us to see what was floating in there. However, a large dismembered hand banged onto the glass. It had an eye on its palm and it let out a horrific screech.

I screamed seeing that hideous abomination.

Bubblegum flinched, letting out a small 'eep'.

Mecha wasn't fazed.

"Nope," he said, turning around.

"W-What the hell is that?" I said.

"Some carbon-based organism made from dead human bodies. That's all I know."

Ignoring the horrible creatures from the tubes, we walked pass them and came across the exit on the other side of the room.

I halt when I noticed something.

"Hey!" I said, pointing to an empty tube with a monitor above. It had an image of Infinite with a few features about his ruby and body functions. "That must be where Eggman built Infinite!"

"Oh dear…" said Bubblegum. "Must be hard for him to live in those tanks for so long."

That was when her Pink Wisp huffed and looked away.

"Geez," said Bubblegum. "You guys still hate Infinite, huh?"

Mecha looked down shamefully.

I placed a hand onto his shoulder. "Let's just go."

He nodded. We ran off and entered another hallway.

"Guys!" said Bubblegum. "Belt is just ahead in the next room! We are almost there!"

"Belt, here I come," I said hopefully.

We found the room he was in and Mecha drilled through the door.

"BELT!" I called out. "I'm here!"

I looked around. It was a gigantic room with silver metal walls, glowing lights that stuck out from the wall and the ceiling high above and several bridges. In the center was a tall large cylinder machine. The top was red and black machinery, and the bottom was a glass cylinder with wires dangling inside. At the bottom of the machine was a platform that had computer panels around.

I looked for Belt – the red wolf with black glasses.

But…

"Where is he?" I said.

We took the stairs and head down to the center of the room.

We gasped at what we saw.

The glass cylinder was…cracked.

Glass shards spread all over the platform.

Nobody was inside.

"B-Belt?" I sputtered out.

"W-Where is he?!" said Mecha.

"Strange," said Bubblegum. "My ear piece says that he's here, but…"

She trailed off when we spotted something lying on the ground.

I went up to it and bent down to pick it up.

Belt's glasses. It was slightly splatted in red.

"W-what?" I said. "I…I…I don't understand…"

At this, the glasses broke. It fell into pieces, slipped through my hands and shattered into several pieces on my feet.…and a small glowing tracking device popped out from it.

It turns out…it was damaged before we got there.

Bubblegum only detected the tracking device in which it was attached to the glasses.

A big black wave of guilt crashed over me.

"H-He i…is gone?" I said.

I looked at Bubblegum and Mecha, the former stared with wide eyes looking at me while the latter looked at the broken glasses with his hands over his beak.

We all looked at each other.

My mouth was trembling. I realized that I was too late. I didn't want to know the truth, but it is real.

Belt Colourz is GONE.

My brother.

My only family.

I was about to cry when I heard our Wisps squealing in fear.

I looked up.

My Cyan Wisp was shaking.

Pink suddenly turned pale all of a sudden.

Yellow just hovered with a widened eye.

"W-W-What is it?" I said.

My Cyan Wisp pointed at something.

We looked behind.

Standing on the far side of one of the bridges was a female jackal with yellow eyes, her white hair tied in a braid ponytail and wore a purple vest, black sharp gloves with sliver streaks on the back, black shorts and black hi-top shoes with purple soles along. There was a large rocket launcher strapped to her back.

And oh, she was just staring at us with her tiny pupils and a menacing smile across her muzzle.

"What the…?" said Bubblegum. "Who's that?"

"She's just standing there," I whimpered, beginning to freak out about that creepy jackal.

Mecha gasped. "W-What? No…no…no…it's Fender! A deceased member of the Jackal Squad."

His Yellow Wisp gasped.

Bubblegum and I looked at him.

"That's her?" I said.

Mecha nodded. "Unless…"

He took out one of his smoke bombs and threw it at Fender's face.

It bounced off and this caused her head to glitch.

BOOM!

The bomb exploded, letting out yellow smoke.

"OK…" said Mecha nervously, realizing that it was an illusion. "That is NOT her."

When the smoke cleared, Fender was still standing there…with BLACK EYES AND WHITE PUPILS.

"…eventually."

"W…w…w-we should go now…" I said trembling.

That was when Fender started to run to us in a wild disabled-like way. She was speaking in mad gibberish.

I just stood there dumbly, unable to move.

Mecha screamed, slowly backing away.

"Oh shoot…" said Bubblegum in exhaustion.

Our Wisps started to panic, hiding behind me.

We watched in horror as Fender charged towards us, laughing like a maniac.

"I'm GoNnA sHoVe A sHrImP uP YoUr AsS!" said the jackal in an unladylike, low, raspy voice.


Third Person's POV, Outskirts of Metropolis

"Geez," said Nicki as she tapped on her tablet due to low connection. "The connection here is crud."

"We still have the signal of where Bubblegum's phone is," said Cassie. "It's somewhere in Metropolis."

"Let's go then," said Mayor Wills. "No time to sit around now."

Listening to the Mayor's orders, Tom, Cassie, Nicki and Xander packed up their stuff after taking a break and continued onward. They arrived on a high peak to see the clean but crowded city of Metropolis. There were many Eggman robots roaming around and many Resistance battleships flying above.

"Ugh…" groaned Nicki. "Are you kidding me?"

"First we have to walk all the way to a harbor," complained Tom. "Take at least 4 boats to get to America, survived a war happening inside a shopping mall and NOW we have to go down THERE?"

"Yeah…" said Xander drowsy. "Maybe someone can tell us where Metropolis is."

Tom and Nicki groaned in disgust. They were ALREADY in Metropolis. The problem was that Xander was too tired to care where they were going.

"C'mon, kids," said Mayor Wills. "Let's go down there. Keep a low profile."

At the same time, Sonic already arrived at Metropolis. He was on the top of Tails' Tornado. He looked at the nearly peaceful atmosphere of the white futuristic city as the fresh air hit him.

"If we can capture Eggman, we win," said Tails, looking at his new Miles Electric. "I found out where Eggman is. The Resistance will provide us as much cover as we can."

"All right!" said Sonic confidently. "Chasing Eggman is what I do best!"

Suddenly, a robot nearly hit them.

Tails quickly did a huge jerk to the left, steering the biplane away from the robot.

"Whoa!" he said, looking behind at where they were nearly shot down. "Where did that come from?"

Sonic looked down to see many robots aiming their weapons at him. He took a step back.

"I'll be right back!" said Sonic. "Follow me!"

"What are you doing?" said Tails.

"Just going to bust some robots down there."

At this, he jumped off and skydived through the air. Down below, panels in the highway opened up, firing missiles at him. Sonic was able to dodge them before landing on the ground.

"Let's do this!" said Sonic, speeding off.

He ran through the highways, penetrating through the robots that blocked his way. As he ran, he noticed the fiery war that was happening in the streets.

"There is a big battle going on," said Sonic.

"It's OK," said Amy. "We can hold for now."

"Our other forces are on the move, too," said Knuckles. "We can pull this off!"

That was when Sonic noticed something running through the streets. It wasn't a robot or one of Eggman's minions.

"Huh?" he said. "What's that?"

That was when the sound of screaming could be heard. Wondering what was going on down there, Sonic jumped off the highway he was on and ran down to the nearest street. He came across a large square where he saw this; a rescue party being cornered by the robot army.

Tom and Xander took cover behind a large plant box, throwing whatever they could find to shoo their attackers away. Mayor Wills and Nicki hid in a cafe, but many of the bots were coming after them.

Cassie – oh, she was in HUGE trouble – was running, trying to get away from the robot army. Eventually, she tripped and fell onto the ground. The yellow wolf cried out in fear as she heard the robots were coming to kill her.

That was when Sonic curled up in a blue ball and launched himself at the robots. He managed to destroy them before they get to Cassie. Then, he took care of the rest of the robots in the area.

By the time Sonic was done, the robots laid on the ground defeated as they crumbled into useless piles of machinery.

He held out a hand to help Cassie up.

"Hey there," he said. "You're OK?"

Cassie shakily grabbed his hand and got up. "Y-Y-Yeah…I'm fine…"

"Oh…my…gosh…" said Tom, peeping his head from his hiding place.

"That's new," said Xander flatly.

"Wow!" said Nicki amazed.

Mayor Wills pulled Nicki out from the cafe and went up to Sonic. "Um…thank you for helping us."

"No problem!" said Sonic grinning. "You probably should get to the nearest Resistance truck. They will send you over to somewhere safe."

"Heads up!" called Tails. "I detected Eggman just up ahead."

"Got it!" said Sonic.

He ran off leaving the five by themselves.

"Wait," said Nicki. "Resistance?"

"Well, that's a surprise," said Xander. "I didn't know they are already here."

Tom face palmed. "WE JUST SAW THEIR BATTLESHIPS!"

"Never mind," said Mayor Wills. "We got to go. Don't forget why we are here for."


Bubblegum's POV

"BrInG mE tHaT tAiL!" squalled the Fender illusion.

I won't lie, but I was SCREAMING the whole way. Rookie, Mecha and I ran around a corner, trying to get away from that crazy jackal. We had to scurry out from that room and make our way into the hallways, all while listening to the crazy gibberish of that witch (I'm not going to say the 'b' word since we have kids reading this). There was no way I was going to deal with HER. I would rather take Emerald on a sugar rush in a heartbeat.

Eventually, we came across a dead end. There was a door, but when Mecha attempt to drill it, it didn't break. It seemed to be made out of BEDROCK!

"ARGH!" screamed Mecha. "I can't break the door!"

He tried turning the knob, but it wouldn't budge.

"It's locked!"

"ThReE kIdS aRe GoInG tO dIe ToNiGhT!"

"JUST BREAK THE KNOB OFF, IDIOT!" I yelled in frustration.

Things were falling apart as Belt was missing AGAIN and we were going to be killed by some kind of illusion.

Mecha attempted to bang the knob off, but it wouldn't budge. He swore in a foreign language, got out a paperclip and inserted the sharp bit into the keyhole, using it to unlock the door. However, it was taking its own sweet time to unlock the door.

That was when the dreaded Fender jackal appeared around the corner…coming to rip us to pieces.

"GET LOST, YOU FREAK!" I yelled, firing my Wispon.

The crazy Fender just dodged every spiky energy ball that I shot. No matter how hard I tried to aim at her, she would just keep moving around. She was almost fast as Sonic!

Rookie quickly formed many energy balls and shot them at the jackal. Despite having their target locked, they simply went through her body as if she was a ghost.

She was coming too close.

"I'm GoNnA tIe YoU uP aNd CoOk YoU oVeR a FiRe!"

Rookie quickly made a shield around us, blocking her from killing us. She splattered herself onto the wall of the shield, but start to bang her fist onto it. I saw a crack she made and I let out a small whimper. She continually punched the shield to break it down.

"We're screwed…" said Rookie.

I felt my mouth gone dry.

If Fender got in, we would be goners.

If the door managed to open, we could get into the other room away from her.

And if we were really lucky, maybe both would happen at the same time!

At least we didn't have to suffer the most terrifying part of being eaten alive in the hands of a crazy woman. The scariest part at this moment was waiting for it to HAPPEN. I watched in fear as Fender insanely laughed as she continued to break the shield.

"She's gonna break in…" whined Rookie, trembling.

"Yeah, yeah…thanks, we get the picture…" I said grimly, slowly turning to Mecha who was taking a LONG time to open that stupid lock. "NOW HURRY UP WITH THE DARN DOOR OR SHE WILL TEAR OFF YOUR FEATHERS!"

Hearing this, Mecha panicked. He let out a scream as he fiddled the paperclip.

CLICK!

The door opened!

Mecha kicked it open and we got inside.

Just in time as the shield break.

I slammed the door and we could hear the unmistakable sound of Fender hitting her face with the door.

BANG!

A groan could be heard.

Not taking any chances, Rookie grabbed large bags…of rice and flour to block the door.

"Phew," said Rookie. "Good thing for those random bags."

I sighed and slumped onto the wall. I took a look around in the room we were in

It appeared to be a large kitchen. It was one of those fancy kitchen that would be seen in 5-star restaurants. There were several stoves, ovens, kitchen tools, pots and more. I got to say that it looked impressive.

"I want to hate Eggman," I muttered. "But I got to respect the man's fortress."

…and that was when Fender leaned in from the ceiling, screeching loudly.

"ScReEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEe!"

Rookie, Mecha and I screamed. How the hell did she get inside?

Of course, as an illusion, she could teleport ANYWHERE.

She lunged towards us, but we quickly ran in different directions.

CLONK!

As we got out of the way, we watched as Fender hit the floor head-first. That didn't faze her. She got up and attempted to pounce at us.

Rookie and Mecha dodged sideways while I just leaned backwards. I watched in slow motion as that jackal flew over me and crashed into sacks of potatoes on the other side. Still unharmed, she got up and took out a BUTCHER KNIFE.

At this, I was TIRED of this. I grabbed a 'weapon' from the kitchen bench.

"You know that you're acting like a pervert, don't you?!" I hissed, raising a frying pan.

Fender's only reply was to babble like a baby and attempted to stab me, but I quickly kicked the knife out of the way. I swung the frying pan, but the jackal leaned backwards. Giving up to fight, I tried to defend myself against the crazy jackal, holding the pan up like a tennis racket. Through this, I saw Rookie trying to find ANYTHING to stop that jackal while Mecha was…trembling.

Eventually, Fender teleported behind me and grabbed my shoulders, throwing me to the ground. I cried in pain as I hit the floor.

Before Fender could pounce, Rookie grabbed out a jar of honey and threw it at her.

SPLAT!

The sticky sweet golden syrup poured over her head along with pieces of glass. Fender wasn't injured though.

"WeLl, WeLl, WeLl, WeLl, WeLl, WeLl, WeLl, WeLl…"

She slowly turned her attention to Rookie and immediately pounced upwards, running on all fours. Rookie and his Cyan Wisp screamed and tried to run, only for Fender to grab onto Rookie's collar.

"YoU'rE mInE!"

Desperately, Rookie took his vest off. It came off and Rookie rushed to the wall.

At that moment, he wasn't wearing any shirt except for his cross necklace.

"NiCe MuScLeS, bOy," she snarled, throwing the vest aside.

The turquoise wolf blushed in embarrassment. His Cyan Wisp couldn't help but gaze at his chest.

"LeTs SeE hOw YoU gO aGaInSt Me!"

She was about to take off HER vest…until she realized why she shouldn't.

"YoU wIsH!" she said with a slasher smile.

Letting out a cry of rage, I tackled Fender to the ground, giving time for Rookie to retrieve his vest. I threw her aside and she crashed into a shelf, causing all the pots, plates and pans to fall on her. I thought that all the metal bowls would knock her down, but by the time they already crashed onto the ground…she got up, looking fine.

She slowly stood up and started to advance on me.

I backed away and opened a door behind me. I didn't notice that I was walking backwards until I nearly fell off the platform.

I looked down to see I was in a huge room with...this is so stupid. A large pot of hot chocolate. If you've ever seen the inside of a dormant volcano - the vast, round crater with a deep, wide lake in it – imagine you've gone into a volcano like that. Except that THIS isn't the ideal place you would swim in. Even if it's not filled with lava.

"Really, Eggman?" I sighed, shaking my head.

That was when my Pink Wisp appeared and looked down. She squeaked, pointing to the pot of chocolate and then at me. I felt the boiling steams of the liquid below and the surprisingly sweet smell of it.

"I think I'll be fine," I said to her. "Depends on how hot that is…"

I trailed off as I saw Fender dragging herself towards me…very slowly and dramatically.

"We ArE gOiNg To Go SwImMiNg In CoCoA tOgEtHeR, bAbY," she hissed.

I was becoming nervous at seeing Fender about to murder me. I've seen monsters before, but THIS CRAZY WOMAN is the worst.

"Well…hi…" I said. "You and I know that…we gonna have a problem with chocolate…right? I…I think we may suffer from muscle tremors or seizures…I don't know. Depending on how much we can deal with theobromine from the chocolate. We are anthropomorphic animals…so we are like a hybrid of humans and animals. I ate big amounts of chocolate though, but…just for our safety…please…stop…"

She just continued to slowly walk to me, ready to push me into the lake.

"You know what's funny?" I said. "Maybe I shouldn't start up this awkward conversation and I don't know why you are acting like that…"

I trailed off seeing Mecha's Yellow Wisp coming towards Fender…and that was when the jackal noticed. She quickly jumped to the side and grabbed the small Wisp, swinging him. As she did so, I saw yellow flames flying out from Yellow.

"Uh…" I said nervously.

And Fender finally threw the Yellow Wisp away into the kitchen.

Mecha noticed this and quickly skidded across the floor in hopes to catch his Wisp.

"DON'T WORRY, BUDDY!" he yelled, holding out his hands. "I GOT Y-!"

SLAM!

Everything went silent.

Mecha DIDN'T catch his Wisp in time.

His Wisp just crashed into his body.

At the speed of light, the Wisp's pointy head was JABBED into Mecha's groin.

The turquoise bird didn't move a muscle when he got hit and his eyes widened.

All of a sudden, everything turned black and white.

As soon as the whole place changed to grey, Mecha's whole body started to lower downwards. I started to realize that he was collapsing onto the floor in slow motion, his shocked expression not changing. As soon as he hit the floor, he slowly turned upwards, lying his back on the ground.

For some reason, I heard distorted, slow music as this happened.

Rookie and I couldn't move.

Fender didn't move and we could see her meme-like slasher grin as she watched Mecha slowly fall down.

And then, everything went back to normal.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" screamed Mecha, making his bloodcurdling eagle screech again, but this sound more like a chicken about to have her baby.

Rookie winced at the sight of this.

It took all my willpower to take this seriously and I failed not to snicker.

Seeing Mecha flailing on the ground – holding onto his groin – in pain was nearly the highlight of this mission.

The Yellow Wisp babbled in panic, realizing what he did.

And that was when Fender came towards them.

As soon as Mecha saw the crazy-eyed jackal, he started to whimper in pain.

"Uh…Fender…" said Mecha with a sheepish grin. "Fender…it's me…Mecha…your old…friend?"

I didn't know what to say, but I notice that Mecha was…trembling. Fender just crept up to him.

"Please…" said Mecha. "I…I don't want to hurt you…I know things are rough…I'm…I'm so sorry for letting you die there…please…can we just…?"

I realised why Mecha was acting in that way. I remembered him telling me about his fear of hurting those who he care so deeply all because he hurt his sister before. It appeared that he didn't want to fight his friends…including Fender.

Illusion or not, he couldn't shake the fear off.

Seeing things that are real or fake are something the eyes find it hard to believe.

The jackal made no reply, but to pounce onto the terrified Mecha. She started to choke the poor bird. She even had her hands over the Yellow Wisp. Mecha tried to pry her hands off, but Fender was too strong.

"YoU…lEt…Us…DiE…" snarled the jackal, her eyes staring into Mecha's. "…YoU…lEt…Us…DiE…YoU…lEt…Us…DiE…YoU…lEt…Us…DiE…!"

"Please…" gasped Mecha, tears forming in his eyes. "…don't…do…this…"

His Yellow Wisp squeaked, tears forming in his eyes.

"YOU LET US DIE!"

With Fender distracted, I quickly kicked her away. The jackal flew across the room and banged onto the floor.

Passed out.

I quickly ran to check on Mecha along with Rookie.

"Are you OK?" I asked, holding out my hand to help Mecha get up.

The turquoise bird just looked at me…before grabbing my hand, so I helped him to get up.

"I'm fine…" he muttered, wiping away his tears.

That was when we heard Fender screeched again.

She was flying towards us.

Quickly, Rookie, Mecha and I grabbed onto each other and took out our prototypes.

"NOW!" I screamed.

We quickly teleported out from the fortress…just in time as Fender's face was about to smash into ours.

Everything went white and the same glitching noises could be heard.

Rookie was whimpering in pain.

For some reason, I felt lightheaded.

When I opened my eyes, I looked around to see that we were outside.

Exhausted, the three of us bent down, panting heavily.

"That…was…close…" said Rookie.

"Anyone have doubts that we won't see her again?" I said.

"Same," said Mecha. "What just happened there…let's never talk about it."

"Do you mean her shooting your Wisp at your nuts?" said Rookie.

"Shut up."

I looked down…and froze. "Uh…guys."

"Huh?" said Rookie.

"Whatever you do, DON'T…LOOK…DOWN."

"What's down?" asked Rookie, LOOKING DOWN.

That idiot.

We were standing on nothing.

ABSOLUTELY nothing.

Turns out, we accidentally teleported at the sunset sky over Metropolis.

And 20000 feet below us was the ground.

"Oh…" said Rookie nervously. "…right…"


Third Person's POV

Sonic and Tails found Eggman on one of Metropolis' rooftops. The madman was sitting in his Egg Mobile, hovering over the roof. To their surprise, Infinite was with him, arms crossed.

Sonic quickly motioned Tails to hide.

"Welcome, Sonic," said Eggman with a sinister smile. "Glad, you can make it to your funeral!"

"The only funeral here is for your bots!" said Sonic sarcastically. "And you could have killed me before when you had the chance!"

Sonic turned to Infinite. "Hey, Infinite! Long time no see! This is the second time we both met, but you met a lot of people. Can't believe you decided to crush the rookies."

"This wasn't part of my agenda," said Infinite bitterly. "But I'm always happy to crush ANY hero. It keeps the rabble in line. Show them that there is no hope."

"Does anyone REALLY believe in your filthy lies?"

"Seeing is believing, weakling. But what's that I smell? You reek of fear. Glad to see I left an impression."

Missing the point, Sonic sniffed his armpit. "That's not fear. I ran all the way over here. And you haven't left an impression…well, almost. At least tell me this: why do you want to burn the world other than this 'strongest lives, weakest dies'?"

Infinite slightly hesitated a bit. There were some hints of…hurt in his voice "The reason why I want to change the world is NONE of your concern."

"I insist! Sorry, but you GOT to share why you did all these things. Before anyone shares your secret…Zero."

The masked jackal was taken aback. "W-what? Don't call me that pathetic name!"

"But who did? Mecha?"

The masked jackal was silent, tensing up.

Eggman watched on in surprise.

"W-what the hell are you talking about?!" snarled Infinite.

"I'm just telling the truth," said Sonic matter-of-factly. "Just like how Mecha did. Oh my bad, he already did told everyone about you, DIDN'T HE?!"

Infinite gritted his teeth and growled. His arms dropped to his sides and clenched into fists.

"Y…you bastard…" snapped Infinite. "You know what? I should have killed that bird…and now I'm going to kill YOU and the RESISTANCE before it spills out of control."

"Geez," said Sonic. "Everyone must have a REAL reason why they intend to do the things they do. Belief is one, but…are you hiding something? Is it about your squad? Did you told Mecha anything else? I bet that if he is here, he will tell the truth in front…of…all…of…us."

As if on cue, a falling Mecha could be seen…well, falling. Luckily, he landed on his feet when he hit the roof. To his surprise, he wasn't injured. That was UNTIL Rookie fell on him along with Bubblegum. The three collapsed onto the roof in a pile…all while their Wisps gracefully hovered downwards.

"Ow…" groaned Rookie.

"Every…time…" grumbled Mecha.

"Well look what the cat drops in," said Eggman, quickly getting over his shock of how the Resistance knew Infinite's origins.

"Guys?" said Sonic as he watched the three teens got up. "What are you doing here?"

"Sorry," said Mecha. "Have to find someone."

"Did I miss anything you did? Such a shame that I missed it."

"You DID miss the whole 'teleporting into the fortress, sneaking through hallways, fighting an illusion and teleporting out the fortress' part," said Bubblegum sarcastically.

As Rookie got up, Eggman scowled. "Oh ho, ho, ho! Why isn't it the Dark Wolf here?"

Rookie growled. "I'm not the Dark Wolf, for heck's sake."

"Still denying the truth?" said Infinite, pointing to the wolf's right arm which was fully black. "You can't hide things that make you who you are."

"And you can't too!" said Sonic.

"I take that you kids were trying to find the Light Wolf, eh?" said Eggman.

Something inside Rookie's mind snapped.

"WHERE IS MY BROTHER?!" roared Rookie.

"Your brother?" said Eggman mockingly. "I don't have your brother!"

"YOU KIDNAPPED HIM 6 MONTHS AGO BY BREAKING MY TREEHOUSE! WHERE DID YOU PUT HIM?!"

"That wasn't me! That was just my minions."

"Still!"

"You psychopath!" hissed Bubblegum at Eggman. "It still counts! WHERE'S BELT?!"

"Oh my gosh, I'm so scared!" laughed Eggman, pretending to be scared.

"Don't play dumb here, stupid!" screeched Mecha.

"Tell us or I'm going to kick your butt!" threatened Sonic.

"Oh, I don't think that's going to happen. He isn't here…ANYMORE."

"You are lying!" snarled Bubblegum. "WHERE IS HE?!"

Eggman laughed hysterically. "Want to know where he is? His ashes are just outside of my fortress. I KILLED HIM!"

At the sound of his words, everything seemed to freeze for everyone.

"W…what?" said Rookie.

"I…killed…him…" said Eggman slowly. "I used the electrocuting machine to shock him to death. He screamed as he let out his final breath. I burnt the body and threw it outside."

Silence filled the air. Rookie was speechless. His brother. Gone? Impossible! But…he saw those glasses…they were broken. It seemed that they were covered in a bit of blood.

BELT'S BLOOD.

The turquoise wolf started to breath heavily again.

So all this time…

…the nightmares...

...the fighting...

...the crying...

...the pain...

...the illness...

...the arguing...

...the suffering...

…the perseverance…

...the bravery…

…were for NOTHING?

The whole freaking thing he had to go through meant that he won't get his brother back?

This thought started to break Rookie down. He had tears in his eyes. Growling in pain, he held onto his right arm again.

Sadness.

Anger.

Pain.

Stress.

Sonic, Bubblegum and Mecha gasped as they watched Rookie held onto his arm, the blackness spreading through his shoulder. The Wisps flew to the wolf in an attempt to console him.

Seeing this, Bubblegum felt like crying as well. Belt was her dear friend…and he is taken away from her…just like her passed friends.

"I see that you are giving into the darkness, Dark Wolf," said Infinite. "Have you made up your mind to join us?"

Rookie slowly looked up. His eyes were letting a lot of tears flowed out and burning in rage. They were glowing yellow.

"Why should I join a MURDERER who killed my brother?" growled Rookie.

Eggman was pretty ticked off from hearing the Dark Wolf's refusal, but then sighed in defeat. "I guess that beggars can't be losers. Oh well. I don't need any more power at the moment. Infinite, do it."

Infinite nodded. He held out his hand. "TAKE THIS!"

A purple energy ball formed in his hand and hovered over the center of the roof. As it expanded, electricity surrounded it and it was glitching. There were random noises coming from it, mostly glitches and distorted screams. It looked like a portal to an unknown dimension. Dark shadows would fly around it.

"What the,,,?" said Bubblegum.

"What is that?" said Sonic.

"That – my spiky little frenemy – is Null Space," said Eggman as he hovered a bit upwards along with Infinite.

"N-Null Space?"

"It's a little something the Phantom Ruby cooked up; a closed-off space where absolutely NOTHING exists! Except darkness…illusions…and your worst fear. There is NEVER a way out. Goodbye, Sonic – my soon-to-be-eradicated nemesis. Enjoy all the nothing!"

That was when Infinite snapped his fingers.

The portal expanded again and started to suck ANYTHING that wasn't tied down.

Sonic quickly grabbed onto a nearby pole tower and hung on for dear life.

He quickly grabbed Rookie – who didn't notice the portal because he was overwhelmed by hearing Belt's death – with his right hand.

Bubblegum and Mecha were caught off guard as well as they started to fly towards the portal, only to quickly grab another pole tower.

Tails quickly took cover behind an air vent.

The struggle to resist the pull from the portal was impossible.

Infinite unexpectedly shot an energy ball at Sonic's right hand. While it didn't go further to blast the skin, it was enough to distract him by the burning pain. The blue hedgehog accidentally let go off Rookie and the latter was about to get sucked in.

"ROOKIE!" cried Bubblegum.

She quickly let go off the pole she was holding onto and grabbed Rookie's hand before firing her grappling gun at another building – using it as an anchor.

Her Pink Wisp started to panic as she and the Cyan Wisp were clinging onto Bubblegum.

"B-Bubblegum?" said Rookie, quickly snapping out from his funk.

"Just…hold…on…!" said Bubblegum, struggling to pull them out.

All of a sudden, the wire snapped and the two found themselves sucked into the portal.

Rookie's eyes widened. "Ah s-!"

But he was cut off when he and Bubblegum were covered in darkness.

They were gone.

"NO!" screamed Mecha in despair.

His Yellow Wisp screamed in the same way.

That was when Sonic lost his grip.

Quickly, Mecha jumped onto the other pole tower and Sonic grabbed onto his sneaker.

"What are you doing?!" shouted Sonic.

"Saving your life!" exclaimed Mecha.

"Don't! You'll be sucked in too!"

"I DON'T CARE! I'M NOT GOING TO LOSE ANOTHER LIFE AFTER WHAT HAPPENED WITH MINTY!"

Suddenly, Mecha cried out in pain. Both of his grips – on the pole and Sonic – were become weak and loosening gradually. He felt like his arms were about to be ripped apart. This caused him to remember about what happened to Minty…how he failed to get her safe…to get both of them back onto the level…seeing Minty fall to her death.

"I WON'T LET GO!" screamed Mecha through tears.

But he did.

The strong force of the portal was too much that Sonic and Mecha started flying towards the portal.

And then, it sealed up.

The portal disappeared, but Sonic and Mecha still fly forwards. The gravity ensured when they went OVER the building and above the city from high above.

Mecha fell, but quickly grabbed the edge of the building.

Sonic fell pass him and the bird attempted to grab him.

Only for him to miss.

Mecha gasped as he watched Sonic falling below…only to quickly land onto a narrow tall building and jumped off, landing onto the ground hardly.

But the blue hedgehog was alright.

"Are you OK from up there?" called Sonic.

"I'm…I'm fine…" said Mecha shakily.

He felt somebody helping him up.

It was Tails.

Mecha lied onto the roof after he was dragged upwards. He saw his Yellow Wisp floating above him.

Eggman was baffled. "W-what? B…but I…"

Realisation set in as he face palmed. "Of course. The Phantom Ruby can only make a portal to Null Space for a limited time. It will take a few hours for it to do it again. Oh well. Infinite, drop a weight on him."

Infinite nodded and shot a nearby building. As soon as it was hit, the bottom base of the building started to crumble and tipped over to the side.

To fall onto Sonic.

The blue hedgehog quickly got up and noticed the building about to fall on him. He quickly ran in full speed, but Infinite was faster. The masked monster controlled the building to fall rapidly. Sonic looked up to see the building tumbling down on him at a fast pace.

From Mecha's and Tails' view, you could see the building crashing on top of Sonic. The sounds of glass shattering, bricks breaking and a loud scream could be heard.

And then…silence.

"SONIC!" cried Tails.


Mecha's POV

What?

Sonic?

Dead?

IMPOSSIBLE!

I could only watched in horror as the building smashed onto Sonic.

Tails and I looked up to see Eggman and Infinite coming close to us.

I was in shock.

"T-this can't be possible," said Tails. "I thought that we destroyed all the generators."

Eggman tutted. "Since you idiots ALWAYS destroy the power source of my weapons, I decided to learn from my mistakes. I have a back-up power source created at one of my fortress."

"Is that what Belt said from that message?" I said.

"You think I would be defeated easily, huh? Of course, I was EXPECTING your Resistance team to destroy the Death Egg AND that Metropolis tower. Even though Null Space didn't work properly, at least I crushed that blue rat to waste. So tell your friends to prepare for your last breaths, because in within three hours, you will NEVER see the light of hope again."

I just stared down at the ruined building in shock. After all this time, saving Sonic is never enough?! We just saved him nearly three days ago! What is worse is that he was gone for 6 months and Infinite just killed him! Again! The only hero who could give hope to all of us.

I had tears in his eyes as I looked on in disbelief.

Tails started to break down.

"NOOO!" he cried.

The fox cub jumped down and flew over to the wreckage, hoping to find his best friend.

Infinite was about to attack when Eggman ordered him to stop.

"Just leave that kid alone," said Eggman. "He'll never find Sonic alive again. Take care of HIM."

He was pointing at ME.

"Right," said Infinite.

Eggman flew off leaving Infinite and me alone.

I looked at the jackal monster in fear, shaking without control.

My Yellow Wisp grabbed onto my right shoulder, trembling.

"How dare you…" growled Infinite.

"W…what?" I said.

"HOW DARE YOU?!"

Infinite grabbed a fistful of my shirt, lifting me into the air.

"YOU DARE TOLD THEM ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED?" screamed Infinite. "HOW I LOST MY PRIDE AND SQUAD?!"

"I-I didn't mean to!" I squawked. "THEY made me…if it wasn't for Tails – who found a video that showed EVERYTHING – and Shadow – who was there at the scene!"

"So you dare told them about the weak old me? YOU WANT TO SHOW THEM MY OLD WEAK SELF BEFORE ALL OF THIS HAPPENED? YOU WANT EVERYONE TO JUDGE ME BEFORE I OBTAINED THIS POWER?!"

"I didn't say that you were weak back then! I wasn't trying to show how weak you were before. I was just showing them what made you the monster you are now!"

"Monster?!"

Infinite slammed me to the roof. I cried in pain as I felt my back flared up in pain and slowly got up to see Infinite landing in front of me.

"I'm not the only 'monster' around here," hissed Infinite. "There are many around here. Including Shadow. HOW THE HELL DID HE GOT BACK?!"

"I don't know," I said, surprisingly getting angry. "Maybe not everything went into plan."

"Into plan, you say?! I have the Phantom Ruby! The power! The ability to do whatever I want! I can't fail and I can't be WRONG! I'm perfect far better than you!"

"Oh please! I NEVER said that I was perfect and so did you before! NOW you are into this kind of power?!"

"I NEED IT FROM THE START OF LIFE! Face the facts: everyone wants power. Everyone wants to be strong and not weak. I was born in this pain and only seen as helpless means that I'm weak."

"Maybe so, but don't you need friends to help?"

Infinite growled and grabbed me by the throat. "Why would I need anyone's help after EVERYTHING THEY'VE DONE TO ME?!"

Before I knew it, I was thrown to another building. I smashed through the window, but quickly landed onto my feet.

I watched as Infinite came towards me.

My body trembled in fear.

I didn't want to fight my old friend. I didn't want to hurt those I care deeply. Despite what Infinite did, I…I…I felt somehow that there was somewhat some good in him. I still had a strong connection with him because Infinite was willing to hear his troubles before.

"Zero!" I begged. "Please! This isn't you!"

"Don't call me that anymore…" growled Infinite. "'Zero' died a long time ago. I'm not that pathetic man anymore!"

"Stop! I know that you must be still struggling with your own insecurities! Your own problems! Either you let your anger take control of you or it's that ruby that's playing you like a puppet, something happened to you. Listen…you might already know or not, but I'll admit that I was a bully. I wanted to make people feel worse because I was in pain, but there are people who look up to me…who want me to be their friend. I thought that I couldn't trust anybody, but now…there's you! I don't want anyone to go down the same path like I did! I don't see you as weak or pathetic or worthless at first. You don't need power or anything else to prove that you are better. You…you mean enough for me…someone who I can see as a friend."

Infinite clenched his fists. "You won't understand. You WON'T understand. You are NEVER my friend."

I was both shocked and distressed when hearing this.

I felt my heart sank.

Tears formed in my eyes again.

Zero had gone too far.

He already destroyed cities and killed innocent lives.

He was only interested in being strong.

That was what the world was about to him.

He wanted to be strong.

This belief was ALWAYS in his head.

If he becomes stronger, he could get everyone on their knees.

And if that came at the cost of his squad, that was a price he was willing to pay, EVEN THOUGH he was devastated when they were gone.

Even all the damage he did was a selfish act.

Part of his desperate achievement to transform himself into the strongest being on Earth…or the universe.

Nothing – and nobody – else mattered.

Not Ace, not Obsidian, not the Jackal Squad, not Eggman…

…and not even me.

All except the Phantom Ruby…and HIMSELF.

I couldn't bring myself to fight. My emotions got the best of me. I didn't want to kill my former friend.

Before I knew it, Infinite attacked.

Everything was a blur. I couldn't figure out what was happening. All I knew was being kicked from every side and pain shooting through my body. I never felt so much pain both physically and emotionally. Everything was so overwhelming and I was close to breaking down.

"You think you are good enough?!" screamed Infinite's voice

"STOP, IT PLEASE! IT HURTS!"

"You are just a scared little bird with a lot to hide."

"IT'S JUST A PIECE OF TRASH! WORTHLESS LIKE YOU, MISTAKE!"

"I became Infinite because I want to show the world that I'm not weak. Do you hear that? I'M NOT WEAK! I am the ultimate weapon! The ultimate lifeform. The fastest thing alive. The most powerful weapon EVER!"

"Well, THIS is a mistake! Just like YOU! And that's why it's as WORTHLESS as YOU!"

"You're just weak."

"I SAID 'GO TO YOUR ROOM NOW', FREAK! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE SAY THAT?!"

"NOT UNTIL YOU AT LEAST TRY TO CHANGE! NOT UNTIL I HAVE A BETTER LIFE! NOT UNTIL THE WHOLE FAMILY HAVE A BETTER LIFE! ISN'T THAT WHAT FAMILIES DO?"

"You're flawed."

"I SAID 'GET OUT OF HERE AND GO TO YOUR ROOM'! ISN'T THAT SIMPLE ENOUGH? SORRY IF YOU DON'T GET IT, BUT THAT ISN'T MY BUSINESS! IT'S YOUR FAULT FOR BEING A DEAF MISTAKE! GO TO YOUR ROOM!"

"You're pathetic."

"NO! PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! MECHA! PLEASE…PLEASE HELP!"

"Maybe if you were good enough, Finn would still be alive!"

The beating stopped.

I lied down onto the ground, crying in pain and agony. Tears were flowing out from my eyes. I wasn't bleeding, but I have bruises all over.

I slowly looked up to see a grave of…Finn.

There was a picture on the tombstone showing the smiling face of that friendly teal wolf who looked up to me.

The grave glitched and disappeared.

Even though I knew that it was an illusion, I sobbed hardly.

"Or maybe some of your 'friends'."

That was when Infinite grabbed me by my hair.

"You're smart and strong," said Infinite. "But you are not strong enough. And the Resistance has to die. That includes each and every last person here on Earth. Except for me…and probably Eggman. It's easy to fool people if they are already weak themselves. But for what it's worth, Mecha…at least you get to see your family later again. Including your father."

Infinite flew over, bringing me to a broken window.

Right over the building.

Down below was a long way down to the surface.

I looked down and winced.

At this, my Yellow Wisp came out and charged at Infinite, screaming.

Unfortunately, he was easily captured; Infinite grabbed him by his free hand.

"You pest…" growled Infinite as he started to squeeze my Wisp.

Yellow started to scream in pain as his body was squashed by the jackal's clawed hand.

"P-P-Please," I said. "D-Don't hurt him…don't crush him…please…"

Infinite stopped for a while. "OK then…how about I just throw him away?"

That was when he threw my Yellow Wisp away. Because Yellow was in pain, he couldn't fly properly. I watched in horror as he screamed all the way down into the city…

..and then silence.

I let out a shaky sob.

Infinite sighed.

"Mecha," he said. "I'm going to admit that I like you, kid. I thought it would be the best for you to join Eggman in the first place. I'm not sure how you would respond to this, but…I'm sorry. Maybe you will understand how the world works soon."

Saying goodbye one last time, Infinite let go off me.

I just stared at Infinite in disbelief as I fell to my death.

And with no wings, I couldn't fly to safety.

Everything was in slow motion. Everything was blurry. I just let the tears come out as I fell through the air. I failed to help my friends and I didn't know if the Resistance would be able to win the war. All I knew was that they had to go on without Sonic. There was only one thing in my mind.

"I'm a mistake…"

I closed my eyes as everything went dark.


AN: Cliffhanger! Let's see if all of you can handle the agonizing wait.

The entire scene with Fender is inspired by some videos I watched. This includes SMG4's 'The Inkling Disappearances' and Berry Mitchel's 'Splatoon: Dawn of a Hero - Episode 5'. I just thought of this crazy idea of having Fender being the crazy woman to kill the main characters. It was fun having her around!

Yeah...I changed the part where Sonic got sucked into Null Space. There was a little changing to the plan and sorry if it bothers you a lot. However, this isn't over for Sonic.

As always, thanks for reading this chapter! If you enjoy this story, be sure to follow or favorite this story, so you can get updates about this story. Make sure to review this chapter on what you think about this chapter. I'm OK of hearing improvements from you (please no flames).

Until next time, keep on rocking!