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Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog is property of Sega, and they’re doing much better with it these days. Remember, kids, fast, cheap, and good– you can only pick two. This short is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for violence, mental restructuring, and the general existence of the Phantom Ruby. That thing just gets more terrifying as you consider the implications… Thanks to 4thClover for inspiring this ficlet– more on that at the end. This is a Forces AU, hence Infinite being something more than Kylo Ren in a jackal fursuit.
King Of Infinite Space
Infinite
“Pathetic.” Could this miserable little mudball really muster no better challenges for me? No worthy foes to measure my strength by? This “Resistance” was pitifully mismanaged, relegating its most powerful warriors to command and fielding only fools and children. Well… most powerful warriors remaining, anyway, now that their shining blue hero was six months cold in the ground.
I'm the tallest of mountains
I am the roughest of waves
I'm the toughest of terrors
I am the darkest of days
The battlefield below was covered in the smoldering wreckage of the Doctor’s creations, but it hardly mattered. There were infinitely more where those had come from, if you’ll excuse the pun. The forces of the Mobians were scattered and broken, dead or fleeing in a full-fledged rout. Only one stood before me now, terror warring with defiance on that by-now familiar face.
I'm the last one that's standing
Don't try to stand in my way
Cause I've been up against better
Just take a look at my face
I sighed.
“You know, I’ve given you far more leeway than I really should have,” I told them reasonably. “Every chance to run, to survive. And yet here you are, once again. I’m not sure if I should curse you or thank you. On the one hand, I’ve seen that your skills have improved. You’ve become quite the thorn in the Doctor’s side, in fact, and I can’t say I don’t welcome the chance to… stretch my muscles a bit. On the other, you’re still a shivering, frightened mess, barely able to stand up before me, which doesn’t suggest this is going to be a very long or interesting workout. So what will it be, child? Freeze in terror? Break and run? Or will you find your spine and die on your feet with a fire in your eyes?”
There was no answer aloud– I was beginning to suspect that their silence was from something more fundamental than terror– but they raised and aimed that gun at me and waited. For me to make the first move.
It was a pity my mask hid the smile on my face. “On your feet it will be, then. Last as long as you can– the longer the fight, the quicker I’ll make your dying!”
Cause if you're messing with me
I am a dangerous weapon
I am the sharpest of blades
I'll cut you down in a second
“Sorry, can I interrupt?” A familiar voice, (familiar and unwelcome, he shouldn’t be here,) as casual as someone hailing a friend on a street corner. I looked over, unsurprised to see the fox brat. Speaking of thorns in the Doctor’s side, here was one of– no, the worst. Yellow fur was smudged with soot and grease in places, and his gloves were blackened in spots, suggesting he’d been beating out flames with only his hands. A wrench held almost absently in one hand explained how he’d made it up here, and those flat, almost empty blue eyes regarded me with a dispassion that should be insulting.
“I’ll handle things from here, buddy,” Prower continued, voice still casual. “You’ve got an illusion to stop.”
The child hesitated, obviously torn about leaving the fox alone with me, but a snapped command sent them dashing off. Prower moved into my path to prevent pursuit, but he needn’t have bothered; this promised to be a much more interesting battle. And if the child managed to prevent the false sun from incinerating the Resistance forces, well, that meant more for me to hunt down later. I could hardly complain about that outcome.
Cause I was born in this pain
It only hurts if you let it
So if you think you can take me
Then you should go and forget it
“Miles ‘Tails’ Prower, the great hero of the Resistance. I suppose I should feel honored– you’ve always refused to cross swords with me before now.”
Those eyes were still flat, making me feel a bit like a bug under a microscope, or perhaps being hunted out of a line of code.
“I’ve been busy,” he replied. “Had more important things to take care of than pandering to you or Eggman’s ego.”
“You have had some fairly large shoes to step into. It’s really too bad you couldn’t have found that spine in time for the hedgehog– but then again, all you’d have been able to do would have been delay his death a few more minutes.”
The little shit actually rolled his eyes at me. (No question who raised him.)
“Sonic is dead, it’s all my fault, we’re all lost without him, woe, agony, cue the violins. Been there, done that, had the mental breakdown, clawed my way back. Getting psychotherapy from Shadow is a surreal experience, let me tell you.”
That flat gaze met mine, and I felt a shiver of worry mixed with something almost like… pride?
“I’m tired, Infinite. We’ve been hunting Eggman all over this planet, and you know what? We’ve been winning. Even with us up against a literally inexhaustible army, even with your ability to wave a hand and tie the world in knots? You’re losing. No– you’ve lost. No matter what happens here.”
“Do you really think so?” The fox was so very far from stupid. Brave, yes, but not that unthinking bravado his “older brother” had possessed, that arrogant certainty that he’d never be bested. If he was standing there without fear, he knew something I didn’t. (Not like that’s new. Or hard.)
I shook off the stray thought and continued. “Will your Resistance truly survive seeing another of their heroes slaughtered before their eyes?”
And after all this time you're back for more
(I won't stop until they know my name)
So I'll take what's mine and start this war
(I'm coming at you like a tidal wave)
His gaze was level and firm, a far cry from the frozen tears I’d seen as we’d retreated with the lifeless form of the hedgehog, leaving behind nothing even to bury.
“You’re not actually going to beat me, but yeah, they will. You keep calling me their hero, but honestly? I’m the weakest link. Which is why I’m here.”
He smiled at me, and every hair on the back of my neck stood up. It wasn’t a confident smirk, or a grin anticipating a good fight, the way the echidna might have smiled. It was joyful, beaming bright as the sun.
When everything you know has come and gone
(You are at your lowest, I am rising higher)
“You took Sonic. You took the world. One of those, I can take back.”
Somewhere above us, I felt the ruby-summoned sun flicker and die, dispelled by the single surviving prototype Phantom Ruby copy. The gem in my chest twinged, and I staggered for a second before I managed to catch myself.
“Correction– one of those, I did take back,” the brat continued, satisfaction creeping into his flat tone. “Eggman’s base has already fallen, and with it the power he was able to pump into the Phantom Ruby. He’d have to use his own energy to use it now, and Eggman’s never been one for self-sacrifice. So yeah, Infinite, the outcome of this fight doesn’t matter. The world’s safe– my life’s all I’ve got left to lose. And that’s a risk I have no problem taking.”
(You self-destructive little idiot, I am going to shake you until I rattle some sense loose!)
Only scars remain of who I was
(What I find in the ashes, you lose in the fire)
It took me a second to catch my breath, but Prower seemed uninterested in taking advantage of my moment of weakness. Was he stalling, then? Buying time for some other fighter, some sort of backup to come to his aid? … No, that wasn’t it. He was waiting, but he wasn’t trying to keep me talking or hold my attention. I could leave and he absolutely couldn’t stop me, but…
My chest twinged again. No. To leave the brat standing with that defiance unbroken, confident that he was stronger, that he was my better–
(-worth a thousand of me, what’s this weak link bullshit-)
“If you’ve already won, boy, then why are you here?” I’m not stupid– no jumping headlong into a trap like the fool whose death gave us this world on a platter.
When there's no one left to carry on
(This is an illusion, open up your eyes and...)
“Because you took Sonic,” he said, tone still far too reasonable. “You don’t get to get away with that. Knuckles and Shadow will make Eggman pay, but you? You’re mine.”
The declaration should have been laughable, the posturing of a powerless weakling. Instead, I felt a chill down the back of my neck at the promise in those words.
(Nonono, not this, it’s not worth it, I’m not worth this, dammit Miles-)
This pain persists, I can't resist
But that's what it takes to be infinite
With an effort, I cleared my mind, falling into the vast power of the Phantom Ruby. I felt it flood my limbs, burning away the weakness and memories, the traces of mortality that threatened to hold me back.
“Come then, Hero,” I snarled, rising into the air as red light swirled around us, warping the rooftop we stood on into an infinite, featureless plane.
“Come be a good boy and die!”
Yeah
So look around you and tell me what you really see
He followed me into the air, of course. Those famous twin tails that gave him his moniker gave him aerial mobility even when he wasn't piloting one of his equally famous machines. I simply waited, arms spread mockingly, and he, ever obliging, did not disappoint.
I'm never ending that's the difference in you and me
I slapped away the thrown wrench with ease, then quickly dodged the homing attack that the throw had been cover for. Clever– the boy fought with the same intelligence he brought to anything he did. But I had access to the Doctor's data banks, literal years worth of data and footage analyzing the skills and methods of his greatest foes. The boy's tricks were not going to catch me unawares.
Cause when your time is up and everything is falling down
He was wary now, circling me quickly. I merely waited– unlike him, my stamina was unlimited. But it couldn't hurt to give him a little… encouragement.
With a thought, the featureless landscape around us shifted to… Sunset City, I decided. The plaza, the site of the war's beginning, and of the Resistance's defeat before they even began. I added a few embellishments, of course; mainly the rest of his friends lying here and there, lifeless and unmoving.
It's only me and you, who is gonna save you now?
"All alone for the first time, hmm?" I asked mockingly. "No more friends to back you up, no hero to come to your rescue, no magical hunks of rock to save the day– you're all you have to rely on now. I wonder, will it be enough?"
He cut left, but in this space, filled with the power of the Phantom Ruby, I could see everything around me, even behind. He raised one arm, and I had one second to see a wristband of some kind flash with yellow light before I was dodging yet another thrown wrench.
No… not thrown. Fired. That device on his wrist was launching energy constructs of some kind, shaped like a familiar tool. Clever– a weapon that could switch between melee and distance. The boy fought with his mind, and it was almost enough to make up for his crippling lack of power.
Almost.
So look around you and tell me what you really see
"Take a good look around you, boy! This is the world, your world, the world you 'took back.' Shattered and broken, mine to destroy!"
I dodged another wrench– his aim was degrading. Good, I was getting to him.
"You can tell yourself you've won as much as you like, but the fact is, you're no match for me. You've clung all your life to your machines, to your books, to your friends, all to cover for the fact that you're weak, a child shivering in the night."
You live a lie and that's the difference in you and me
I concentrated, gathering even more red energy to swirl and surge around me. "But you've annoyed me enough that I'm holding nothing back. I will annihilate you and then go on to destroy your precious friends. You will die alone, a useless failure."
I have the power, lemme show you what it's all about
"Just. Like. Sonic."
He snarled and charged, ears laid flat to his head as his tails drove him forward like a guided missile. Pathetic indeed– I caught him easily with one hand and slammed him down onto the red glass of the terrain below. Careful not to break him– I wanted the boy awake to see this.
Holding him down with one hand, I raised the other into the air, glowing with red light. "No more heroes, child. Say goodbye."
It's only me and you, who is gonna save you now?
"Goodbye, Infinite." The words weren't a whimper, or even a defiant snarl. They were solemn, tired, a match for those fathomless blue eyes boring into mine even through my mask. One hand came up to touch the gem on my chest– wait, the launcher–
There was a sound like the shattering of a universe of glass, and then there was nothing more.
(Who is gonna save you now?)
—
Tails
I'd started my roll to the side as soon as I'd fired, which mostly got me out of the range of the shrapnel. Only mostly– I could feel the stinging of cuts here and there on my back and tails, but I was pretty sure none of them had hit an artery. So, you know, I've had worse.
Honestly, I was a lot more focused on the way the Phantom Ruby illusion around me was dissolving, blowing away on the breeze. Hopefully that giant mech Eggman had busted out was having technical difficulties, but the nutcase had an irritating love of redundant backups. Still, Super Shadow and Super Silver together were no doubt giving him a very hard time.
Here and now, though, Infinite was screaming. I knew the bastard's power had been completely tied to the Phantom Ruby. I knew there'd be some kind of backlash. What I hadn't known was exactly what it would do to him. And really, I hadn't much cared.
I’d known from the first that I’d never be able to match him for strength. The only way had been to get inside his guard, and there was only one chink in that– his arrogance. He was so sure that his strength, his power made him capable of taking anything I dished out, and he was probably right. But even a reality-warping demigod can’t block what he doesn’t see coming. All I had to do was wait for him to indulge his sadistic side and pretend to lose my temper when he did. He’d swallowed it whole.
Now he was on his knees, helmeted head pressed against the roof of whatever this particular ugly lump of architecture was. The screaming had died away to a strangled noise and then to harsh, even breathing. A red mist was drifting up from him– no, wait. I stepped closer, still cautious. I was right– the black color on those gloved hands was cracking and blowing away, like dried mud in the breeze. And underneath–
My heart caught in my throat as the helmet dissolved, showing a set of blue spikes underneath. Very familiar blue spikes. But… that was impossible. Infinite had been there when Sonic died!
Except. Except so had Eggman. Eggman, who had the Phantom Ruby with him, probably plugged into the power source for that pod of his. It wouldn’t be a lot, but to run, say, five illusions confined to a hundred-yard radius? Yeah, he could do that. And then he’d plugged his damn prototype into Sonic, and the thing had been using him as a puppet ever since.
Weary green eyes came up to meet mine, and Sonic gave me a weak little smile as he pushed himself up onto his knees, then his feet.
“Hey, little bro. Miss me?”
My heart caught in my throat, and all I could do was nod.
… Except maybe this was another illusion. Show me what I want to see, get me to let my guard down. This war had really brought home that there wasn’t much that was too low for Eggman to do, to get what he wanted. Fortunately, I had a way to be sure.
Stepping forward, I tapped him lightly on one arm with the wrench I was holding. The energy constructs had been made by reverse-engineering the energy output of the Phantom Ruby prototype that we’d found outside Eggman’s lab in Mazuri. The ruby’s creations tended to have very bad reactions to them.
Sonic didn’t explode, evaporate, or turn into a duck. He just raised an eyebrow at me, then wobbled a little. That was enough– He was real. He was real, and he was alive.
I don’t remember crossing the space between us. Just one moment, we were staring at each other, and the next, I had my arms flung around him, my face buried in the fur of his chest as I started to cry. I hadn’t shed any tears since watching Eggman and his army disappear with Sonic in tow, and now they were all coming out at once.
One white-gloved hand was cradling the back of my head, the other one was rubbing soothingly behind my ears, the way Sonic used to when I was little and afraid of thunderstorms. It was so right, so perfect that for a minute I was afraid I was about to wake up.
“It’s okay,” Sonic said quietly. “I’m here now. You did it. And I am so, so proud of you, Tails.”
A sudden thought made my blood run cold, and I pulled back to look up at him, horrified. “You– you were awake?”
He shook his head. “Not for most of it, I don’t think. It’s all… murky red dreams. Or maybe nightmares. Nothing clear until I saw you standing there with no backup, one weapon, and an apparent death wish.”
Ouch, there was more than a little bite on those last two words, even though he was still giving me that little half-smile of his.
“It wasn’t– I knew I could win. I just needed to bait Infinite into getting close, and if he thought I didn’t care anymore, he wouldn’t be looking for the trick.” That sounded nice and logical, right? It was mostly even true, I hadn’t wanted to die. Just, without Sonic, the idea wasn’t quite as scary as it might have been.
And the look on his face said he might have figured it out, but he just ran one thumb over my cheek, brushing tears away.
“Good,” he said, the slightest roughness to his voice. “Because losing you really would kill me, understand?”
“Yeah. Believe me, I get it.” I knew he’d read both meanings into it, too.
Pulling away, he ruffled the fur on the top of my head gently. “So. You guys leave any fun for me?”
An explosion answered him, and we both looked toward Imperial Tower to see two motes of golden light locked in battle with something glossy black and vaguely ovoid. Maybe a Death Egg Robot, it was hard to tell at this distance.
“Heh. Can’t let Shadow and Silver do all the work, now, can I?” he said, rhetorically. “Come on, kid, we’ve got an Eggman to scramble.” He zipped off and I followed after him, not bothering to suppress the whoop that wanted to escape. There was going to be a lot of rebuilding, a lot of mourning, and a lot of hard times ahead, but Sonic was back.
And Eggman’s screaming was going to be fantastic.
Now here we go, it's the end of the show
Hear them? They're calling your name
'Cause in the end, it's you and your friends
You'll find your flame
Owari
A/N - So 4thClover wrote an amazing story called “Solstice.” If I say anything else about it here, I’ll be spoiling it, so go read it! Preferably immediately! But they commented that the story was inspired by some very early rumors about Sonic Forces, before the game came out, even. And it made me think about my first reaction to hearing “Infinite” and connecting it to what I knew of the game– namely, Sonic was supposedly dead, and the Phantom Ruby made illusions.
This idea was what resulted. I put it on the back burner five years ago, and was highly disappointed by the Infinite we did get. And by the Forces we did get. For a person who started Sonic fandom with Sat AM, Forces represented a fascinating amount of potential for the kind of story that I love… and we didn’t get any of that. Also the gameplay sucked and the level design was bland. Music was still good, though. Okay, it was bearable anyway.
Then I read Solstice, pulled this idea out of storage, and the results you see before you. I couldn’t set up the kind of reader punch 4thClover did so well there, but I think the story hangs together anyway. Thanks for reading!