Creature in a Mask Part 2

Infinite dodged another dark energy orb. He eyed his attacker curiously. He looked just like Shadow, but he knew he couldn't be one of his own illusions. His powers were also much different, and he strangely lacked a mouth. The look alike dropped on his knees, and seemed to have trouble getting himself back up. He was slouched over, his movements stiff and jerky, like a doll. It was as if walking was unnatural to him. Infinite couldn't help be fascinated by him... for all the wrong reasons.

"Aren't you going to do something?" The Shadow-look alike asked him. "You know, other than stare at me?"

The masked creature tilted his head slightly and hummed softly to himself.

"You.." he said softly, "you're not him…"

"What an intelligent observation." He muttered.

"But you look like him…" Infinite continued, unbothered. "I wonder why that is…"

"I'm Mephiles." He scoffed. He ran a hand through his quills and replied: "It's a long story."

"I would assume so." Infinite agreed. "What do you know about the hedgehog?"

"None of your business." he hissed. "We … have a troubled history. I must admit I'm really good at holding grudges."

"Are you?" The masked one asked. "We could… act on that anger."

Mephiles looked up at him and gave him a slightly puzzled look.

"We could take him on… "Infinite explained. "I owe my pain to him. I can tell he's hurt you, too…"

Ugh, is it that obvious? He thought irritably. Well, I'm not about to take advice from a faceless freak.

He finally managed to get back on his feet.

"Sorry, I'm not making deals with some creature in a mask."

Infinite came down and upon walking towards him, he noticed his guest took several steps backwards and raised his hand with intention. He let out a gentle laugh and reached up to his ears and removed his mask; revealing a young, mortal looking canine Mobian, both his eyes stared at him with different hues. The scar across his right blue eye gave him a rough look on his otherwise soft face.

"Would you make one with me?" He extended his hand, his voice no longer robotic.

Mephiles lowered his hand slightly. This threat, this vile creature that caused so much pain, this... this was a kid. "Well."

"No, he wouldn't!"

Both villains looked back at to see Shadow standing meters away from them on the next rooftop. He held a red Chaos emerald tightly in his hand. Infinite let out a low growl.

Shadow gulped, and held out his hand expectantly at Mephiles. "I know you came back to warn me. I'll listen to you if you're willing to help me right now."

Mephiles' eyes widened. Since he doesn't have a mouth, it makes his face hard for Shadow to read him. After a short silence he giddily skipped to Shadow's side. Shadow saw Infinite's eye twitched with rage after Mephiles turned to look at Shadow.

"A team up? Between us?" He asked, almost excitedly.

"Just for now!" Shadow answered, a little unnerved by his enemy's enthusiasm. He could actually imagine him with a wide grin on his face and it was as terrifying as it sounds.

"Good enough for me."

With that, Mephiles turned to his crystalized form and wasted no time firing his strongest shot at Infinite, who just barely was fast enough to dodge it. His face scrunched into a seething scowl.

"YOU-" He snarled, the Ruby's power omitting its overwhelming crimson glow again.

Shadow launched Chaos Spears at the red cubes running after them. Mephiles grabbed Shadow's arm and pushed him away from them. The gesture caught the hedgehog off guard and he looked back at Mephiles with narrowed eyes.

"You don't beat him by attacking the energy cubes or illusions! We must find the source of his-" He explained, but it fell on deaf ears. Shadow went charging towards Infinite.

"I'll attack directly, you take him from the back while I distract him!" Shadow commanded.

Mephiles remained on the spot with a rather stunned expression. "... That's just-...wow, thanks for the help." He muttered.

Shadow spin dash full speed towards him, but Infinite's reflexes were quicker than his attack. Infinite caught him mid spin dashed and kicked him with such great force he dented the wall he threw him at. Mephiles looked at him wide eyed and teleported in front of him to make sure Infinite didn't try to hurt him again while he was down.

"Shadow!"

Shadow looked up from the floor. His vision was blurry, his ears were ringing, and he couldn't tell if Infinite threw him a red cube or he got a concussion.

"Did we win the war yet..?"

"We're close, get up!" He tried lifting him up, but without his body (Iblis) he can barely physically carry his own weight, so Shadow just fell forward again after he tried lifting him from his shoulders. "I can't- carry you-! Get up!"

"That's how it is when you decide to side with weaklings." Infinite laughed as he landed on the ground. He put his mask back on and walked towards them. He held a dark energy orb with his right gloved hand. Mephiles took notice of the strange glow of the gem protruding on Infinite's chest. "It's contagious."

"Shadow." He tried shaking him awake. Shadow gazed at him blinking slowly and held out his hand with the red emerald. Mephiles touched his hand and immediately they were engulf in a radiant light and disappeared. Infinite looked turned around in all directions wildly before letting out a screeching howl.

The two landed inside a broken building, the only light coming from a shattered window.

"Why are you so stubborn?" Mephiles asked, exasperated, " Why couldn't you listen?"

Shadow didn't say a word, just continued trying to catch his breath.

"It's that gem! It has to be." Mephiles pointed at his chest. "It glowed when he attacked you and when he called on his illusions."

"It better be." The hedgehog said sternly. Mephiles raised an eyebrow. "Don't give me that look. I'm trusting you on this. But if you-"

"We have a common enemy!" he protested. "If you don't start trusting me, you'll be stuck with the same outcome Silver did."

"...You think it's easy to trust someone that tried to kill me? Actually, the entire world?"

"I'm... not that kind of person-" he muttered.

"Oh you are." He protested, "Seriously? Where's the persuasion? The lies, the manipulation? You are not trying, are you?

"And... honestly, you don't know Infinite," he continued, breathless, "what he has done during the time Sonic was gone, what I... I-"

Shadow leaned back against the wall and slowly let himself fall to the floor. He was still a bit dizzy, but what he really couldn't shake was that Infinite knew how to hurt him. Mephiles tilted his head and looked at Shadow curiously.

"Hey… are you okay..?" Shadow refused to acknowledge the worrying in his tone. He sighed and looked away from him.

"I don't know," he muttered," he knew a whole awful lot about me…"

"Such as?"

Shadow stayed silent. He wasn't about to talk about something so personal to an enemy, even in a temporary alliance. Mephiles seemed to caught on and changed the topic.

"Well, he is still working with the human, right? I am in the correct timeline after all-"

The dark hedgehog looked at his doppelganger quietly. He observed how his features would slowly transition back into his own image. The glowing hue subdued into gray, and his eyes lost the venomous shine and shone a bright lime green. The way the crystals at his feet vanished into his skin...He wondered for a minute if it hurt at all. Then again, he didn't have a regular, breathing mortal body did he?

"Is it that interesting? I would think since you glow yellow it wouldn't faze you."

Shadow felt uneasy by how calm and gentle his voice sounded. This didn't feel right. If he was gonna trust him, he had to address his concerns right?

"Why... why did you help me?"

"You asked me to?" He answered confusedly.

"Don't play the fool." Shadow frowned.

"Listen... there's a lot at stake here... every time Silver or myself come back, something changes once we return..." he explained, although Shadow disliked the vagueness, "I'm sorry, I know I am being ominous, but I don't want to give up on this timeline just yet..."

"... Yet? Alright, then..." Shadow said after finally being able to physically stand up, although he had an annoying headache.

In that instant, the wall behind them was blasted to debris. An angry Infinite appeared in the hole left behind.

"Running from me again, Shadow?!" Infinite fumed. "You do realize you can't escape me, right?"

He looked from him to his guest. "And neither can you."

Mephiles a horde of shadow minions after him, but Infinite simply blasted them one by one. He lifted a nearby desk and hurled it at the time traveler, knocking him down. Shadow watched bit his lip and pondered his next move as Infinite's gaze turned to him. Shadow instinctively reached for his inhibitor rings. Infinite's golden eye followed him. "You don't want to do that."

"You really don't." Mephiles agreed while struggling to crawl from under the desk.

He raised an eyebrow and gave him a defiant frown. "Try me."

He unlocked his left ring, releasing a radiant flicker of light. In an instant, Infinite sidestepped towards him, grabbed him by the wrists and pinned him against the wall. The tip of his metallic, pointy snout touched against his own nose. He'd never been so physically close to Infinite. He felt his own heart accelerate, he was running out of options.

"How ironic," he said, "you reek of fear."

Shadow bared his fangs and started to struggle from him. Infinite shifted his position to grab Shadow by the neck, having him in a chokehold. He practically dragged him towards the edge, and used his powers to levitate just outside the building since the wall was destroyed.

"Ahh, how nostalgic," he sighed, Shadow struggled under his grip, making it hard to breathe, "does this feel a bit familiar? That look on your face... how I longed to see real terror in your eyes."

"I-In..fi-" the dark hedgehog breathed, struggling to let any sound out as the jackal's grip tightened.

In that instant, a blinding flash of light pierced right through Infinite's chest, he remained suspended in mid air for the duration of the beam, then promptly fell down the same hole he came from. Shadow used his hover shoes to safely glide himself back to the building. All he heard was a distant loud thud as he hit the ground below. He touched his neck and took steady breaths, trying to recover from what just happened. Which... what just happened? Shadow turned back to Mephiles with a surprised expression. He couldn't believe he'd just been saved twice in one day. He couldn't believe Infinite had just-

"I promised Silver I wouldn't go too far-"

He'd never seen him so nervous for hurting someone. Or in general.

"Mephiles..?"

"I couldn't let him do that to you-" He looked up at Shadow, who had an expression of joy in his face he'd never seen before. He actually approached him and, without warning, pulled him into a tight hug.

"You did it! You won, we won-"

As much as he enjoyed this, it was awfully confusing so he untangled himself from his wrap and stared awkwardly at him.

"What's wrong?"

He hesitated." I'm not sure if what I did was right."

Shadow raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "You? Not sure if what you did was… right?"

Before he could defend himself, from down below, a sudden wail erupted. The dark hedgehog's ears followed the direction of the scream and immediately ran to help. He signaled his companion if he was coming and Mephiles hesitantly followed. Upon teleporting to the ground, they looked around everywhere, they couldn't even find where infinite had landed.

"I don't get it!" He looked around anxiously. "Where is he?"

"Do you think maybe he got away…?" Mephiles suggested, but Shadow glared at him.

"How? You shot him square in the chest." Shadow said impatiently.

"I don't understand the mortal bodies of Mobians, so maybe he's more resistant than we think?"

The dark hedgehog shook his head, but then turned around as he listened intensely to a strange sound. "Wait, shut up," Shadow looked behind him. Mephiles started at him in confusion.

"Wow that was rude, I was just recognizing that mortal physiology is not my-"

"Shhh," he pointed to a small alley. There was loud sobbing echoing from the empty city. "A child."

"Disgusting."

They walked further into the alley, the echoes becoming clearer, until he finally found it. Infinite's mask. A tiny, trembling creature hid behind it, its sobs got louder as he looked up at them. Shadow looked at the child confused until it clicked.

Then he recognized those long ears. Those eyes, One golden yellow and the other a serene blue. They were big, scared, and full of tears.

He picked up the metallic mask from the ground and turned to face Mephiles with a seething scowl.

"What… have you done?!"

Sorry for the lack of update! My job gets busy, and I find it hard to put my thoughts into words. But to those that left reviews, thank you SO much, it means a lot to me that people take the time to read my stories!