The masked jackal watched wave after wave of the resistance fall in their attempt to take the capital city, a swarm of desperate moths to a flame. A few dots would break through but only lasted a few seconds before the city picked them off.
What need is there to incinerate them when they're so eager to throw themselves into the line of fire, the disinterested jackal wondered as the force diminished. And once these fools are gone, all that will remain are drones and ruins. Then the bored tyrant would tear his own mustache out once he realized the hell he had made for himself. Just as the mad lion bites off his own tail trying to hunt it and bleeds to death.
And the jackal's laugh shall ring in his ears.
He shifted as a sharp weight pressed on his chest. The doctor was experimenting with the Ruby again, trying to explain that incident with analysis and reasoning.
"What are you—how did you—" the human stumbled back as the quaking jackal stared through him. The final prototype smoldered against the black fur, affixed as if it was as inherent to the canine as his long tail.
"You..." the growl reverberated through the air and metal walls. A blue eye twitched behind the jackal's clawed hand. "Does it surprise you— that someone like me can have power?"
"Now wait—" the doctor held up his hands— "Let's not do something we'll regret... Wh-what are these readings? How is this even possible?"
The jackal cackled as the uncanny sensation filled his skull. "You held it in your own hands, and still you cannot recognize it." He examined his free hand, flexing his claws as the nerves running through it flickered between numbness and pain, fire and void, an existing weak hand and one that could tear through this reality like paper.
"This is beyond your feeble numbers and sciences; That is why your precious tin toys failed to wield it," he hissed.
The mustached man bristled, "Nothing is beyond science! This— there's an explanation for this!"
Of course you think so. Intellects like you and those of Neiath, you can't even comprehend a force such as this.
As Infinite stared down at the now retreating resistance, the fur along his spine rose. His tail began to sway as he chuckled.
"I thought I'd scared you off for good." The jackal pivoted to meet an uninhabited rooftop. "Did you come here to reminisce?"
A filtered hiss and the dark armor materialized right where the faintest of footfalls had stopped. Advanced cloaking technology. Cute.
"I'm surprised you're not with those pitiable ants down there," he waved to the scattering masses below. "Do their haphazard tactics repel you? Or does the senseless chaos excite you?"
A sharp inhale before her body launched towards him— he braced for a punch but the lithe body twisted in midair and the ball of her armored foot met the back of his unprotected skull. Infinite rolled as heat flooded his head and his muscles acted on their own. Her limbs— watch her limbs—
The Ruby burned as the jackal caught her fist— "Well," he snarled as the granite hand shook in his tightening grasp and the warmth in his skull ebbed— "not one for pleasantries, are you?" The masked figure rose to his feet as he glared past those pink visors, catching the hint of an iris. "A viper, through and through."
She wrenched her trapped arm back and made for his knees, but Infinite jumped over her sweeping leg and drove his feet into her chest. She stumbled back but managed to block the knee coming to meet her muzzle plate. With a hiss the echidna jumped away, the ironclad stance betraying neither injury nor fear as pink light gathered around her wrist. Infinite's tail flared as he ducked under the burning trail and swiped at her abdomen. Rather than jumping away, she dropped to the ground and kicked him back. Metal screeched as his claws slowed his body down— at least that scrap in the desert hadn't stolen her venom.
Particles erupted from Infinite's fur as he rushed towards the echidna, warping the rooftop as her stance stiffened. A roll to the left? A jump? Or would she try to meet him head on?
The armor fell to the ground and a vice clamped around his tail. Vertebrae and skin stretched, fur snagged and tore. All of that momentum threatened to snap his tail off like a rope—
The Ruby burned as the jackal forced it to redirect him towards the still-shifting rooftop; the intensified gravity caused the material to buckle and the two shapes fell into a large room, her hold on his tail weakening enough for Infinite to free himself and halt his freefall before she hit the floor with a hard thud.
"I'm almost impressed, Neiath," he taunted from above as he watched the echidna shudder and cough. "Are you resentful that we're so close to fulfilling your clan's goal? That someone else could reign over this planet?"
She pulled herself to her feet and out of the crater and shook off the rubble...instead of aggravating him, his tail bobbed as electricity raised his fur. What would her next move be? How long until those legs started buckling, or her arms grew too heavy to put up? When would those filtered exhales become labored and shaky?
His laughter echoed off the walls. Such a shame this dance wouldn't last. That if he didn't kill her here, she'd die in that final sunset days from now. Burned to ash with the rest of this world, another pile of bones left in the mad lion's wake.
The jackal pushed that out of his head— "Let me at least give you a proud warrior's death, vipress." He flicked his wrist and the room became his to manipulate; the ground underneath her feet became gelatin, and a pillar of crimson cubes jutted from underneath— she leapt backwards, as he'd expected. Her body coiled in midair as she avoided the jagged protrusions he'd formed. She sliced her way through a net of them, the pink blades becoming bright red once more as she began advancing towards him.
Infinite shaped large blocks of debris and hurdled them her way. Her boot had only just touched the floor and she still leaped forward to cleave them in half, then vaulted over the third before jumping towards him. He caught the woman by the muzzle plate and threw her towards the floor as a round piece of wreckage drifted past—
That's a grenade.
Infinite smacked the device down and the blast forced him back— falling rubble bounced in his ears as he righted himself, waiting for the smoke to clear.
He lowered himself to the edge of the hole, ears twitching as they met the edges of the mask— past the residual taps and creaks... for the faintest footsteps... Where are you hiding?
"Infinite! Status report, now!" an irritating, shrill yell pervaded his mask and killed the jackal's mood. He growled as he surveyed the area for that silent echidna.
"As I told you," he sighed, "a full-on offensive was doomed within minutes. Those who survived retreated."
"Why didn't you report back sooner?"
Infinite considered splitting his mask apart just to rid himself of the hysterical griping, but even though he couldn't sense her, he doubted she'd left so soon.
"Answer me!"
"...When you decided to tinker with the Phantom Ruby," he began, "I lost control of one sector. It took a little longer to eliminate those who slipped through."
"W-who said anything about the Ruby? R-report back to the fortress at once!"
Infinite's tail lashed as he relaxed his clenched fist. How easy it would be to silence that incessant fool. Far too easy to appeal to his ego... and he'd come so close to ending his life without the Ruby's power.
Infinite exhaled the sentiment away as he turned back towards the fortress—
Darkness accompanied the burning sensation, the jackal's body breaking into infinitesimal particles and fading from this world. The floor shuddered from a distant explosion he hoped would come closer.
Those pests... no, those people, fighting for one more moment, one more hour, one more day... What was wrong with fighting? Isn't that what he'd been doing his whole life?
Because I'm not weak. I have to show them. I'm not some worthless runt. They're wrong.
A stronger tremor, and the jackal sighed. It'll be over soon. Metal clunked against metal as his vision began to fade.
Come on... get up— if you still have limbs, get up.
He strained past the disintegration and mustered the last of his strength— though he couldn't even distinguish any sensation past the pain and the intensifying quaking. Darkness closed in as the clanging metal grew closer.
Move!
Infinite snapped awake— when he jerked forward, something coiled around him— his chest tightened as he glanced down—
"Yeah, he wrapped us up pretty tight."
His hackles rose as he turned to the left— Shadow's head poked out from a blanket, the rest of his body drowning in the fabric. His ear flicked as he stared at the previously-off television. Infinite glanced down at his own cocoon— feet and tail tip exiting from the bottom, but unable to move his limbs.
He hissed and glared at the ceiling. "Does he expect me to apologize to you?"
"Don't think so. He wouldn't have swaddled us if he thought we'd get along."
Infinite growled as he fidgeted on the couch. How long had they been out, and how had Metal pulled this off without waking him up?
"Are you a heavy sleeper or what?" he grumbled as he continued to squirm.
The hedgehog snuffed, "Well, you did knock yourself out after you hit me with the coffee maker."
The jackal glowered; a small wonder during their scuffle yesterday that he hadn't passed out getting so riled up. "So you know. About... the prototype."
"Just a little. I know the doctor tends to overlook certain things when he gets new ideas," Shadow sighed. "I just saw some red, before you fell over. Didn't look intentional."
"You seem very placid for being bound and placed within striking distance of a hostile party," Infinite growled. "No greater plans for the day?"
Red eyes remained fixated on the black-and-white screen. "Not really."
The jackal huffed as he glanced at the television. His ear flicked as the monster grew more recognizable. His nose twitched; this movie was just as old as the lab rat. Is that why he was burning holes into the screen now?
"What's your name?"
Infinite glared at the carpet as his ear twitched away the ghost. Not the same. He's not...
"Do you ever blink?" he sighed.
"Occasionally."
The jackal's lip twitched as he caught an orange gleam in the rodent's eye. That paper, what age did it say again? Fifteen? Hard to see when he took out an entire adult squad like they were school children.
Maybe they are similar... Infinite's tail tip itched as he tried not to see the hedgehog with bigger, spotted ears and orange-gold eyes. At the very least... he didn't kill her.
"Listen to me. You have to stay back if it goes south, understand?"
"Should I expect retaliation soon? That coffee maker was rather heavy," he grumbled.
Still fixated on the black-and-white rampage, Shadow sunk down into his blanket. "You're not the first..."
The jackal stopped squirming and considered those words. Not the first to beat you? Not the first who got left behind by your carnage?
The eyes blinked and considered the carpet. "You're not the first person who... who lost people because of me."
Infinite straightened up and let the admission drift through the air, until more leaves fell from the tree on their own time.
"Since the moment I woke up, I've known that people have died because of my existence. I won't try to deny that what happened to your squad was my fault... My memory isn't that good. I usually rely on my audio logs to piece together what happens during missions, but there was a lot of interference.
"So if your aggression towards me is for their sake, I won't fight back. I can take it."
The jackal stared at the bundled teenager, less of a mindless weapon of mass destruction, and more of that picture in the binder: the child staring out a window.
Infinite sighed and watched the monochrome monster stumble. "So... what's your plan after this movie goes off?"
"It's a marathon. I'll watch the next one."
"And how many movies are there?"
"Thirty-five."
The jackal deflated as he resigned himself to another nap.