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“Bum-ba-bum-bum! Bum-ba-bum-bum! One-two-three-four! Bum-ba-da-bum-bum!”
Quatre drummed on the tops of boxes as he looked inside them. Strewn out on the ground, he took stock of what was inside. Some food, some clothes, a few bags. The overturned wagon sat a few feet away off the dirt road.
Seeing nothing of note, Quatre gave the box a final slap, then went back to the trunk of the wagon. Uno was there too, seeing how deep the trunk was. Deux was studying some objects in a nearby box.
Quatre idly adjusted his green bandana. Then he saw something shiny, underneath a box. He grabbed the bottom, and struggled to lift it up. “Hey, I could use some help over here!”
Uno, standing nearest, looked over at him. Then, he smirked. “Deux would be happy to help,” he said, walking around to the other side of the wagon.
Deux stood up, annoyed, but went over to help Quatre. Together they lifted the box, and Quatre grabbed a thin, shiny, metallic sheet. He wobbled it back and forth, the sound making an amusing noise.
“Haha! Listen to this.”
Deux sighed. “I can hear. Is it valuable?”
“Ah, I don’t think so,” Quatre said, holding the sheet with two fingers. “Yeah, it’s nothing.”
“Let me see,” Deux said, taking it. “Not that dense, but it could be worth something.”
“Could sell it for scrap,” Trois called, rummaging through a box of her own. Then she muttered, “Or maybe as a kids’ toy... Can’t be picky.”
“I thought this was the transport boss said had the goods?” Quatre asked.
“Well, maybe it was the one he went after,” Uno said, poking his head up from behind the upturned wagon. “Why don’t you go up ahead and check, Quatre?”
“Fine,” Quatre said, grinning as he stood. “As long as you go with me.”
Uno sucked his teeth. “Deux, Trois...I think one of you-“
Deux and Trois spoke in unison. “Your turn.”
Quatre grinned as Uno walked over to him. Uno rolled his eyes, but still wore a smirk. They started towards the other wagon ahead, not visible yet.
“Say...the driver in ours didn’t run up there, did he?”
Uno shook his head. “No, looked like he ran the opposite direction.”
“Good...”
“What, you think boss can’t handle one more guy?”
“Oh, I know he would handle him, alright,” Quatre said. “He would give him a bop-bop—pow!” he threw punches in the air.
“Right.”
Quatre lowered his arms. “But, you know...him going off like this. It’s like he didn’t want me, er us, followin’.”
“Well, we had to split into two groups. Guess he wanted to do it his way, you know how he is. Fine with me, might make him less reckless.”
“Who says he’s reckless? Boss only does what has to be done.”
“I just meant...he...he seems to just be pushing ahead, you know, ignoring the cleanup.” Uno scraped his blades against one another. “I was thinking back, and I forget if we’d taken you in at that point, but we used to really talk through our plans. All of us. It wasn’t just taking orders from him.”
“Eh, he usually knows best.”
Uno grunted.
Quatre nodded a little. “But yeah. Wanting to work through it together, making sure we’re all on the same page. I’m not sayin’ it’s not important.”
“I sure hope boss’s wagon was more loaded,” Uno said with a sigh. Then, he nodded to himself and turned more to Quatre, more determined. “We may be in a little rut, and maybe we’ve burned some bridges...but I know jackal squad won’t stay down for long,” he said.
“Oh yeah!” Quatre cheered. He held out his elbow. Uno tapped his own to it.
Uno pulled away, nodding to himself again. “Yeah, we weather any storm. Times’ll be...”
Quatre noticed he trailed off and was staring wide-eyed up ahead. He looked up ahead too.
The wagon up ahead was also overturned, but there was also a pool of red coming from the driver’s cabin.
Uno and Quatre stood still for a moment. Then, they ran over to the wagon. They got to the driver’s cabin, but didn’t peek inside just yet. There was some rustling from inside. Uno held his kunai. Quatre drew his flame-bladed sword.
Now they peeked in. The rustling was coming from Infinite, cutting open a small hatch leading a compartment.
Quatre blurted, “Boss?”
Infinite jumped. Then he scowled. “If I didn’t know your voice, you’d be dead, Quatre.”
“Sorry.”
Uno examined the cabin. “Boss, are you alright?”
Infinite scoffed. “What kind of a question is that?”
The inside of the cabin was red. The scar above his right eye had a splash of blood on it. Quatre realized there was more blood on his hair and fur, but it was far easier to tell on the white parts of his body. He showed no signs of injury as he finished cutting open the hatch. He peered inside for a few seconds, then slammed it shut in frustration.
“So,” Uno said, twirling his kunai. “They put up a fight?”
Infinite climbed out of the cabin, brushing past Quatre. “Hardly.” He went over to a box that was partly embedded in the ground. It looked like it had been flung at a decent velocity to go in like that. Infinite looked for the top to open it, looking over each side. Then, he started using his ruby-red sword to dig.
“They were all armed?” Uno asked, watching.
Infinite just kept digging.
More to Uno, Quatre asked, “I thought this was supposed to be low-risk?”
“...Certainly low reward...” Infinite muttered, prying open the top of the box now that he’d gotten it partially out of the ground. With the box on its side, he checked inside, and shook his head.
Uno kept his eyes on Infinite, but started to walk around to the other side of the wagon. Quatre stayed and watched Infinite hang his head over the box, before slamming it shut.
“What did you find?” Infinite asked.
“...Nothing valuable,” said Quatre.
Infinite sighed. “Another waste of time.”
Quatre scratched the scar over his nose. “Well...I guess the most valuable thing we found was friendship! Again! For the twentieth time in a row!”
Suddenly, there was more rustling from the back of the wagon. Uno, nearby, checked on the sound. Infinite and Quatre watched.
Then, Uno flinched and jumped back, drawing his kunai. A scream came from somewhere in the wagon, muffled at first, but it quickly became loud and unencumbered. A cat came running out of the back of the wagon, cocking something back in her hand.
Uno side-stepped her, using her momentum to trip her leg, then landing a blow on her back. She faceplanted on the ground. The pointy stick she was holding clattered away.
Her scream temporarily was silenced as she spat out a mouthful of dirt. She looked up, coughing. She crawled towards her stick while the jackals watched. Her screams were now simply sobs.
Infinite walked over, and placed his boot on the stick before she could reach it.
She looked up at him, shaking all over. “Yyyyoouuuu...!!!! ...Ahhhhhh!!!!...”
Infinite swiped the stick away, coming to rest just in front of Quatre. He unsheathed his ruby-red scepter, then grabbed the cat’s neck. He covered her mouth with one hand, and placed the scepter against her neck with the other.
“Was that your piteous attempt at vengeance? Or are you just eager to join your friends?” Infinite sneered.
She tried to make more noise, though it was very muffled now. Quatre hoped no one had been alerted by her first scream.
Infinite drew closer to her. “Do you feel it? Can you feel it calling to you?”
The cat was crying, tears now streaking down her cheeks. She whimpered.
“You can feel it...your fear is exuding...you yearn for your fate.”
Quatre stood still. It seemed a little unnecessary. But maybe it was a loose end that couldn’t be left dangling.
“Your friends, they’re gone,” Infinite said. “They won’t come back. They shouldn’t have tried to stand in my way. Because anyone who opposes me, who challenges my strength and skill...quickly finds themselves learning a lesson. In fact, it’s the last one they ever need to learn...do you know what that is?”
The cat may have shaken her head. Quatre found it impossible to tell, she was shaking so much.
Infinite looked her straight in the eyes, making sure she saw him. “If you saw my face, and lived to tell about it...it is only because I let you.”
Now the cat was silent, but still shaking.
“I will grant that to you, now, if you run away. Pray you do not see me again.”
He released her. She put her hands on the ground, taking deep breaths, for several seconds. Quatre wondered if she was going to throw up, or pass out. But eventually, she stood back up, legs wobbling. She looked like she wanted to look at him, but she couldn’t bring her eyes up that high.
She turned and ran, into the denser brush on the side of the road.
Infinite looked into the distance, off where she had run. Then his head snapped to Quatre, eyes locking onto him. “Why did you come here?”
Quatre took a step back. “...Just...makin’ sure you...”
Infinite shook his head.
“I agree... let’s go back,” Uno said, walking away from the wagon and starting back down the road. “We should really make ourselves scarce...lie low...”
He gave Quatre a push to get him going. Like a wind-up doll, Quatre started walking with speed back to where they had come from.
Uno and Infinite were walking slower, Quatre noticed as he looked over his shoulder. Uno called, “You go up ahead, Quatre. Boss and I are just having a chat.”
“What do you want?” Infinite responded, bothered.
Quatre nodded, took a skip-step, and then ran into the wind, letting his arms free behind him. But he only did it for a few seconds before slowing to a regular walk. He was still within earshot of the two of them.
“Would you call that a successful mission?” Uno said in a loud, pointed whisper.
“We need to earn back our reputation. Even if there’s nothing of material worth, the chance to mold a weaker mind with theatrics is a worthwhile effort. I inflicted terror so strong she’ll have a new outlook on life.”
“I’d say what you did to the rest of her group probably is a bigger reason.”
“They go hand in hand. And where is the blood on you and Quatre? Are you going soft?”
“It’s like you don’t even remember our plan. We were trying to have a clean mission for the first time in a month!” Uno accused. “We can’t keep having busts like this. We could use some lower profile jobs.”
“What? Are you afraid of everyone knowing our names?” Infinite asked.
“How much heat do you want on us? We can’t even enter half the towns this side of the river to get food, we’re getting blacklisted by our old clients, and soon they’ll be watching for us on every road!”
Infinite stopped walking. Uno stopped as well. Quatre stopped too, wondering if he should go back to them, or just keep going up ahead. Neither of them noticed him, however.
“You will not question me.” Infinite pointed at Uno with his sword. “However...I am not blind to some of your points. You think I don’t have plans that could resolve them all? There are some more lucrative targets I’ve scouted. And yes, Uno, they are low-visibility.”
Uno looked from him down to the dirt road. He didn’t protest further.
Infinite sheathed his sword. “It will all be just fine, my cadet...as long as you continue to have faith in me. Because the only thing that can stop this squad, is if we are no longer loyal to one another...understand?”
Uno gave him a begrudging look.
“That’s right, we’re a team and that’s all we need!” Quatre interjected.
Infinite and Uno looked at him. Infinite looked annoyed. Uno was rather defeated. Both of them started walking again. Quatre almost did too, but instead waited for them to catch up.
As Infinite passed near to him, Quatre stuck out his elbow to see if he would tap it. Infinite ignored it.
Getting back to the other wagon, Deux held something small in his hand. Trois just leaned against the wagon, arms crossed. They both noticed the blood on Infinite.
“I thought we agreed we weren’t competing for body counts anymore...” Trois said.
“Anything worth mentioning, you two?” Infinite asked.
“Someone dropped this ring,” Deux said, showing it to Infinite. “Should have some worth. Could relieve our situation a little.”
“Oooh!” Quatre said, eyes sparkling as he looked at the small, reflective gem in the ring. “Nice find, Deux!”
Infinite merely exhaled through his nose. He gave a slight shake of his head. “It may satisfy our more easily excitable members, but I’m looking for more than simply ‘relieving’ our situation.”
Quatre shrunk a little, then wanted to protest. He just wanted to feel like they had made some kind of progress. But he held his tongue. Infinite was just in one of his moods. Eventually, he’d stop having days like this. They just needed a big score.
Now Infinite put a hand over the side of his face, covering it. “Another meager result...how many more...” He glowered at the ground. The squad watched and waited.
A warning siren in the distance made everyone’s head spring up.
“Move out. Follow behind me,” commanded Infinite.
The group took off towards the dense brush, climbing over trees and rocks.
As they got deeper, Quatre looked over his shoulder to see flashing red lights. He stared for a moment, then continued to move deeper with the rest of his squad, the reddish glow illuminating the darker space. He moved further into darkness behind his squad.
Though the world was dissolving in a sea of rubble, Quatre was transfixed on the sky.
He hadn’t had much time to acclimate to this town. He had only showed up two days ago, finding places to loiter, hide, and even popping into a shop. Evacuations were common nowadays with the ongoing war, so nobody was paying much attention to strangers arriving. Despite the war eclipsing all other types of crime, he was still wired to look out for his face on “Wanted” posters, which usually prevented him from going into businesses. This time, though, he had stopped in. More incredibly, he had bought something instead of stealing it, having lucked upon a dollar coin outside.
Considering how rapidly the town was disintegrating, it was for the best he didn’t get attached to this place. Oddly, even though it seemed like the ground was caving in, he realized he was still finding solid ground as he moved forward toward the figure ahead, almost unconsciously.
He’d heard the rumors, and now saw them with his own eyes. He’d had time to prepare for what he would do in this situation. He continued walking directly towards the terror.
Fear engulfed the town as buildings crumbled and Egg pawns surged through, while the sky blackened with red strands swirling through and providing the only contrast. The floating masked figure created a ball of energy in his hand, and shot a laser beam at the town. Quatre heard screams coming in and out of existence.
He recognized him, even in this form. Not with his eyes, as he couldn’t fully tell because of the mask. It was just a feeling in his gut. But it was a strong one. He’d heard the name. How many Mobians shared names with numbers, anyway?
“Boss!” he called. “Hey! Boss!”
Quatre walked closer. The figure above him was still a good distance away, plus another 50 feet in the air.
“Bo-oooss!”
He strained to hear a response against the rippling wind and sounds of buildings collapsing, trees uprooting, the ground sinking. But he thought he heard the sound of doubled laughter.
He stopped and put his chest into it. “BOSS!”
The masked figure finally noticed him. He did not stop, though. He continued gliding in the direction he had been going, but now Quatre walked further to be in his path.
“Hey! Down here!”
Quatre put two hands up to stop him. The masked figure gazed down at him, turning his full attention to him.
“Someone’s not afraid...yet...”
The effect on the voice, be it from the mask or the ruby on his chest and pulsing with power, added another layer to it, avoiding giving Quatre full confirmation of who he was speaking with. But still, it had to be.
The figure descended slightly in the air. It felt like Quatre was ascending, but it may have been the ground falling. Blocks of earth, outlined in red, fell away into a chasm of nothingness below.
“Do you think you can resist? Or have you come to beg for your life?...”
“Neither...” Quatre said, getting the word out as he re-processed what was going on.
“Then consider yourself lucky to have been this close to me for several seconds...and still be of sound mind and body,” said the figure, one hand covering the right side of his face. His left eye was yellow. “Unfortunately for you, you’ve impeded me quite long enough already...”
“Boss, it’s me! Quatre!” he pleaded. His feet were no longer on the ground, but he didn’t dare look down. “Remember?”
At this, the figure stopped. He put his hands down, though the effect of weightlessness continued.
“...What?”
“Boss...it’s me. Quatre,” he repeated. “I thought it was you...”
Quatre could see his eye flash to the ground for a few seconds, the only indication of emotion he couldn’t hide.
“I...” Infinite began. “...I am not...you don’t know me...”
“Yeah, I do,” Quatre said. “We ran together! We were a squad! Come on, boss, it’s only been a few months!”
The masked jackal’s eye found Quatre, then he put a hand over the right side of his face again, while turning his left side away.
“Whatever you are thinking, foolish as your thoughts are...the one who you were referring to no longer exists. I have no squad.”
“Don’t say that...” Quatre said, voice rising, hurt. “I had the best days of my life following you! Come on...You were our leader...”
The masked jackal didn’t speak for a while. The swirling black clouds and red energy seemed to quiet as he thought.
“You cannot be real,” Infinite said, now looking him over. “You...must be an illusion. You must have been killed.”
Killed, no, but Quatre had been knocked out by that hedgehog. When he came to, he didn’t see his teammates, just evidence of a brutal fight. He had barely been able to stand. Any other memories were blocked. With failure not being an option for his boss or his new boss’s boss, he had fled. He saw none of the squad after that. There hadn’t been a rendezvous point. He figured he was the last of them. Until Infinite’s name slowly made its way around towns, then states, then continents.
“I almost was,” said Quatre. “I thought for sure I wouldn’t make it. But...I managed to escape.”
The last week they had been together, they were miserable. The dynamic of the group was different once they had been enlisted in Eggman’s army. After Infinite had agreed to that, it had felt like the end, in a way. And that was before that hedgehog showed up.
“So, uh, wasn’t sure what happened to you then either.”
Infinite blinked, slowly. “I was...too strong to be killed.”
Quatre nodded. “Glad you survived.”
Still, Quatre couldn’t hold too many hard feelings against his boss. Despite his pleas to ignore the temptation when they were captured by Eggman’s robots, there weren’t many options in that scenario. Infinite was probably just being pragmatic in his agreement. Protecting them, like any boss who cared for his squad would. Now that Quatre was here in front of him, he could remind him of what really mattered.
Infinite placed his right hand back on his mask, making a small adjustment. He muttered to himself. “...Strange...illusion...why now of all times you have chosen to reveal yourself...”
Quatre didn’t like being treated like he wasn’t real, so searched for something else to say. He glanced at the one-sided war behind him. “So are you doing all this...to avenge us?”
Infinite stared at him. “...What?”
Quatre put out a hand, awkwardly. “Because...you don’t have to. I’m- I’m here now.”
They were both motionless.
“It’s alright now,” Quatre said. “You- don’t have to...” He hoped against hope that the swirling winds would die, and his feet would find solid ground, somehow.
Infinite looked at his hand. But he did not take it. “These events have been in motion for far longer than you realize,” Infinite said. “Something as...cosmically insignificant as the dissolution of a mercenary squad...could not provide the impetus for this power. No.”
Quatre’s nerves tingled.
“This is because of my will. I can raze armies, probe your mind for fears and desires, and alter the very fabric of reality,” Infinite said. “To act as though you may have had something to do with it is an insult.”
Quatre hunched forward. “...So it has nothing to do with revenge?”
Infinite’s left eye gave him an angered glare. “No! Of course not!...” He didn’t say anything for a few more seconds, his exposed eye visibly darting around. “...Well...maybe just...”
He was silent for a few seconds.
“This was always my destiny!” he announced, making grandiose gestures. “I have had these visions from the day I was born. Whatever setbacks I experienced before were mere roadblocks to unlocking my true potential! And now, I have become stronger than anything in the universe!”
The ruby-red stone on his chest shone brightly. Quatre looked at it, seeing himself in it.
“You’ve...always been thinking about doing this?” he asked.
“I have.”
“All of it?”
“All of it.”
Quatre, along with Infinite, had definitely risen a good distance off ground level. Or where ground level used to be. The town was more visible in a bird’s-eye view.
Infinite’s confirmations only confused Quatre. Surely Infinite wasn’t being truthful. He sometimes got upset and guarded when Quatre asked him one too many questions. Maybe the mask or ruby was altering his thoughts.
Quatre held onto his headband to keep it from blowing off as the winds continued to swirl. “When were you gonna tell us?”
Infinite now chuckled. “Whether you are an illusion or not, Quatre...your ability to make inane chatter appears unaffected. If it were possible for you to understand, you would not have needed to ask.”
Quatre didn’t know what he needed to do to prove he was real. But at least Infinite seemed to be rolling with it somewhat, even if not totally convinced. And he seemed intent on additional demonstration.
“Look at me now,” Infinite said.
A devilish laugh emitted from under the mask. He raised his arms the slightest bit, and a few faraway buildings became outlined in ruby red. In another second, they went up in a smoky haze and vanished without a trace, leaving nothing but the foundation. Then, the ground beneath caved, swallowing the foundation. Quatre looked from the scene back to his old boss.
“I’m the master of everyone’s reality,” Infinite exulted. “I control it all.”
He put another hand up, a beckoning gesture. Suddenly, all around Quatre were numerous Infinites, too many to count. They all floated, in three dimensions.
And they spoke as one. “Possibility is only limited by my imagination. What springs from my mind becomes your fate...”
The thousand voices made Quatre cover his ears. Then he heard a voice coming through, unaffected, directly to his brain.
“I’m right here.”
Quatre spun around, and now there was only one Infinite again. His voice was merely doubled again as opposed to multiplied a thousand fold.
“See? I have become far more than the old me ever was.”
Quatre uncovered his ears, trying to brush off that he was shaking. “Yeah, that’s...really cool, boss,” he said. “You- you can do anything?”
“Now you understand...as much as you can within the constraints imposed by your current form.”
Quatre continued, “So, it sounds like, if you can control reality...does that mean...you can... You said you can do anything?”
“Anything.”
“Bring...bring things back?”
Infinite seemed to lean back the slightest bit. He did not respond.
“You can do that, right?”
Infinite said, “The universe bends to my will.”
“Can you...read minds?”
“I...am indeed all-knowing,” Infinite said. “Omniscient. Omnipotent. Your feelings, needs, desires...all laid bare.”
“So...you know what I’m about to ask, right?”
Infinite floated there, bobbing slightly. Quatre was doing the same, winds still sweeping around. Infinite crossed his arms. “Perhaps...you should verbalize your question. I will grant you the use of your free will...assuming you possess it.”
Quatre blinked. “Alright, so...why can’t you just...use your power to...get the gang back together?”
Infinite made a clicking sound.
“It was the best time of my life,” Quatre continued. “We- we were a team. Remember? We did things together. Win or lose. And we got farther because of it...”
Infinite made another dismissive noise. His arms, still crossed, tightened against his chest. “...Your goals...are so small...your mind...so narrow...”
Quatre was taken aback by his boss’s lack of receptiveness. Was Infinite mad at how Quatre had fled and not tried to find him? Was his mask altering his thoughts? “Boss, I didn’t- We would have followed you. We all still would, if you...” he gulped. “You just need to- remember. We can make things the way they were, right?”
“No, there’s no going back,” Infinite said. “The past is gone.”
“So...you’re not omnipotent?”
Infinite aggressively moved his head and made a sound of annoyance. “I have this power only because I have left my old self behind!” he replied. “It is not worth acknowledging. The past is only a reminder of weakness...and I am not weak.”
“You still have some of your old self left. Your name. I recognized you...you look similar,” Quatre said, though he didn’t know if the mask hid anything else from him. “I mean, besides the, uh...chest, and mask. But even if you’ve changed, part of you is still the same, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t be the same person,” Quatre rambled, nerves getting to him, though he still felt he was making a valid point.
Infinite sighed. His hand went to his face, though this time it seemed more like a face-palm than an adjustment of his mask. “You wish to be semantic? My whole life changed. I took with me only what was necessary. My ambitions. My strengths. Nothing holding me down. I cut everything else off.”
“You didn’t cut anything off! You just hid yourself!” Quatre said. It was frustrating him, that Infinite said anything was possible, but refused what was right in front of him. Had he really not thought about it, about them?
Infinite growled behind the mask. He stared daggers.
“Yourself hid just you! Off anything cut didn’t you!” said Quatre.
He covered his mouth, utterly shocked at what he had just heard. Had he really just talked like that?
Panicked, he tried to replay what had happened. He tried to figure out what he had just said, and how he had just said it. The words themselves were reversed, but he could understand, somehow, which ones they were. They were the ones he had just said. It was like he was un-saying them.
He looked back up. Infinite, in a small but conspicuous movement, flicked his fingers, red glow fading from them as he did.
“Careful with your next words,” the masked jackal said. “Find a set that don’t displease me, and I won’t feel the need to return them to their pitiable host.”
Quatre uncovered his mouth, looking down at it. He still was breathing normally, air flowing in and out.
“I see you’ve come to test my will with your dwelling on the past, apparition,” mused Infinite, crossing his arms again, theatrically. “But endearing as your naivety is, it keeps a leash on your ambitions. I have untethered myself from all else, and have realized my true potential. I control all, including you.”
Quatre blinked hard, several times. He cleared his throat. He hoped the next words that came out were ones he intended to say.
“...So you can reverse things, then?”
Infinite raised his shoulders. Then he lowered them, clenching his fists at his side. But Quatre could hear his breathing amplified by his mask, becoming slightly more labored.
“Boss...I’m real...” Quatre’s voice nearly cracked. “And I think you can...rewrite what- went...wrong...”
Tensely, Infinite’s yellow eye widened. “Quatre,” he said, taking a more familiar tone as if giving an order to his squad, but mixed with a sense of alarm. “...Stop it. Stop this at once.”
“I’ve had had nowhere to go... I’m on the streets again, boss... I’ve got nothing. You were- the squad was the only- that I ever...” Quatre sputtered. He needed to lay it on, to help him remember. “When I heard, I wanted to find you...and I did...and now...”
Infinite covered the right side of his mask again. “We- we can’t just go back...are you out of your mind? ...Forfeit this power...become weak again...”
“I-I m-” Quatre stumbled, throat tightening. “I d-don’t know what you can and can’t do...but I think you could if you wanted...don’t you want that?”
Infinite mumbled, “...Weak...too weak...”
“...Save the rest of the squad?”
Infinite twitched. He made a strange noise.
“Uno, and Deux, and Trois...I miss them. Come on, there’s just...gotta be something you can do.”
Infinite recollected himself, taking a deep breath in. “It happened...for a reason,” the masked jackal stated. “Unfortunate as it was, I could not have become what I have become without your demise.”
Quatre’s head snapped back in shock. He shook his head, feeling teary-eyed. “Y-you don’t- you can’t mean that…”
“You were ALL WEAK!!” Infinite yelled, voice reverberating around. “...And now you come here in defiance of my mission, making demands of ME?! To throw away my progress, and my new position on this earth? You would hold me back AGAIN, QUATRE?!”
Quatre cowered, the words causing even more pain than any hedgehog could inflict on him. But he still managed to look up and meet him in the eyes. He stared hard at his left eye, trying to see any trace of him he could.
“I have been reborn!” Infinite shouted. “Don’t you understand? Why would you wish to return to our pathetic lives?! You would have me give up my power?! Risk suffering failures...humiliations...”
Quatre felt himself being pulled closer to his face through forces unseen.
The masked jackal became quieter. He became fixated on Quatre’s bandana. “Why do you parade around...with that still on your head?”
“Huh? I-I always wear this.”
“...Why carry a reminder of your past failings with you? It should stay out of sight.”
“I mean...I need somethin' to keep my hair out of my face. But also, it- it’s not a failing. It reminds me of the good old days. Remember?”
Infinite was silent, still staring at his bandana. Then, he looked at Quatre again. Now that there was less space between them, he noticed how Infinite really seemed to be taking him in, trying to wrap his head around what he was seeing and hearing.
Quatre, feeling brave, took a breath. “So...why do you wear that on your face?”
Infinite looked at him. He slowly turned his head to the left, then to the ground.
“Can’t you take it off?” Quatre pressed.
Infinite sneered, though his tone was hushed. “How dare you!”
Quatre watched a hint of pain spring up in his eye.
“I cannot take this mask off,” Infinite hissed, quieter still. “I...will never be...weak again...”
“But...” Quatre said softly. He was confused, but the words still came to him naturally. “...you aren’t. You...never were, boss...”
The rest of the world had dropped away. It was just the two of them.
“This cannot just all be...halted...undone... I’ve already accepted...that you...” Infinite said in a hoarse whisper. “...Changed, I-I have...It’s too late...”
They floated in the air for a while. Quatre noticed the pattern in the air behind him, clouds slowing and assembling in a formation. The dark clouds mixed with the red ones, creating a hazy projection of someone else...a hedgehog.
Quatre gasped, seeing the black and red hedgehog’s outline. The detailed cloud formation had sprung up quickly, and floated, without eyes or an expression.
Snapped out of his thoughts, Infinite’s visible eye refocused and narrowed. The wind suddenly picked up again. Quatre was pushed backwards and slightly downwards.
“See- you see what you’re doing?” Infinite stormed. “Remaining trapped in the past, inviting misery...feebleness...”
Quatre put up his hands. “Boss, I’m just sayin’ what I-”
“In your arrogance, you have stood before me, attempting to drag me down!” he bellowed, cloud formations vanishing in a swirl. “Consider it due to my great benevolence and our faint memories that you have not yet been crushed...The fact that you believe I still care about you, I will give you-”
“You still have a part of your old self left, stop pretending like you don’t! Stop lying!”
“You- you,” Infinite pulled on his mask. “-insignificant, weak-minded fool! You are submitting to a delusion!”
“I’m not the one hiding! I- I’m not afraid, boss!”
Infinite twitched violently. “You-you don’t affect me anymore!” he yelled. “You- don’t- ergh, I don’t- care!”
Quatre tried to keep his bearings. But there was nothing grounding him, physically or mentally.
Infinite was breathing loudly, grunts emitting as he did so. He looked around. Quatre took a peek too, though couldn’t let Infinite fully out of his vision. But the clouds were changing. They were rolling in closer, tighter, redder. They swirled faster. Winds buffeted against Quatre’s dangling feet. He could no longer see the town, or any semblance of the ground, or even the sky.
Quatre shivered, panic increasing as he continued floating further from Infinite. The clouds were closing in, the temperature dropping. Darkness replaced the other colors. He shut his eyes. Then, he looked back, searching for a point of light, the only one being Infinite, glowing red.
Lightning-like flashes came from the storm around them. But after they disappeared, they left images in Quatre’s retinas. They were figures, in the shape of jackals. They floated through his eyes, staying through the first few blinks, but fading soon after.
“Ergggghhhh...!”
Infinite’s balled fists pressed into the top of his mask. The lack of a yellow pupil indicated his eyes were shut. And his agonized groaning increased the turbulence around.
The flashes continued. Outlines of red figures resurfaced, before fading.
Infinite had both hands on his mask, covering his eyes. He screamed.
“...AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!...”
Quatre murmured, then his voice grew into a frightened yell of his own, a mere whisper to Infinite’s chorus.
Whatever was happening, Quatre needed it to end. But it seemed like he would be sucked into a collapsing reality, or evaporate into nothing. Through it all, he kept his eyes open. The flashes grew brighter, and then, suddenly...
The visions stayed. The temperature returned to normal. Ruby red clouds reformed, lighting the area.
And fully-formed figures emerged from the clouds, floating along with both of them.
There were one, two, three more jackals in the clouds. Infinite’s scream still resounded throughout the air, but it was clear he had stopped. Fingers on his temples, he looked at the new figures. Quatre, stunned, did the same.
The former members of jackal squad floated there. They looked real. Their expressions were neutral at first, but then they looked to their hands, and at the ball of clouds they found themselves in, looking surprised and concerned. But they were still far more composed than Quatre.
Or Infinite for that matter. His hands shook while he continued pressing on his mask. But then, he slowly lowered his arms.
“Uno...” he said. “Deux...Trois...”
The jackals looked at him as he said their names. Uno with his red bandana. Deux with his orange beret. And Trois with her brown pants and green top. They still looked surprised.
Quatre studied each of them, still unable to process what was going on. They were real. But they couldn’t be. But they just as easily could be. Or they might not. They seemed as physical as Infinite was. But that still meant there was a small glow of red around them. Perhaps it was coming from the aura around, the red clouds, or the glow of the ruby on Infinite’s chest.
It took Quatre several additional seconds to realize that by the last name, Infinite’s voice was no longer doubled. Quatre was met with another face he hadn’t seen since that day: Infinite’s own. The mask was off, floating in the air like it had chosen to remove itself. The full face of the jackal was visible, and Quatre saw its distinctive right side, scarred over top his blue eye.
“You...” Infinite rasped in their direction. “...You’re...”
“Boss,” said Uno.
“Boss,” said Deux.
“Boss,” said Trois.
Infinite gazed at them, entranced. His eyes were wide, his mouth agape.
Quatre’s mind flooded with images and memories from their time together. The places they’d seen, their sparring sessions, the games, the arguments, the good and the bad, all together.
“How did you...?” Infinite uttered in disbelief.
Uno was the first to talk. “You’re looking...different.”
Infinite choked on his voice. “...I...”
Trois said, “Didja get that implanted?”
Deux said, “That’s gotta be worth a fortune.”
Infinite’s mouth was agape. He struggled to talk.
Quatre rarely found talking a struggle, but it was considerably tougher at the moment. Still, he spoke up. “Hey...Uno?”
Uno looked at Quatre. “What’s up, Tre?”
Quatre got a lump in his throat. “Hey...missed you.”
Uno nodded, understanding. Nobody said anything.
Infinite looked haunted. He cleared his throat, addressing the three other jackals. “...Do you blame me?”
Trois said, “For what? Not babysitting us? We were up to it.”
Uno said, “Of course not, boss. We’d never back down from a challenge.”
Deux said, “No, boss. We chose to go along with you.”
Was it really them? Or was it Infinite giving them voice to say what he thought they would say? Or what he wanted them to say? Quatre clung to every word nonetheless.
If Infinite had control, he wasn’t acting like it. He was shivering. He covered one eye for a moment, then dragged his claws down his face, grimacing and shaking. Quatre had never seen him in such distress.
Uno, Deux, and Trois now looked around. They saw the clouds and felt the wind. Quatre could see faintly, through the haze, the robots swarming the town. Uno looked over his shoulder to take a peek. He turned back, frightened. Deux and Trois noticed his expression, and mirrored it, though they did not look for themselves.
Infinite closed his right fist. He stared at it. “What do you think of...what I’ve become?”
He waited for their responses. But this time, none came.
“Do you understand? ...Does seeing me now...make you...”
Uno, Deux, and Trois did not look like they were processing the question. Their faces were blanker. Their forms shimmered.
Infinite opened his hands and extended them in their direction, like trying to control them. But they faded further, losing detail. Quatre sniffled. He didn’t want them to go, either.
“...Illusions...all...” Infinite whispered, turning over his palms and looking at them.
Quatre put his balled hands over his face, peeking out over his scarred nose. He tried to avoid breaking down.
Infinite turned slightly to Quatre.
“You’re...still here,” Infinite said, frazzled.
“...Of course, boss...”
“...What do you think?”
“I-I-I- boss... I think it’s r-really g-great! What you- you’ve become,” Quatre lied.
Infinite continued staring, wide-eyed. Then his expression subtly changed, eyes focusing. Somehow, even without his mask, it seemed like he was staring right into his mind.
“Then why ask me to return ourselves to our old lives?”
Quatre gulped.
“You don’t know what you want, Quatre.” Infinite said, straightforward. “You’re rudderless. Your lack of ambition holds you down. Did I teach you nothing?”
Maskless, he was no longer angry and intimidating. Quatre would have much preferred he was. Instead, his boss's disappointment stung his core.
The outlines of his squadmates still shimmered but faded further. “...I want to run with them- a-and you again, boss. What’s so bad about wanting to save them?”
“This exercise...simply proves...” muttered Infinite, now half-facing away from Quatre. “...They’ve come and gone...”
They had faded. Quatre strained to find a trace of them, but none was left.
Still, Quatre’s mind was fixed. He didn’t want his boss with the mask and the ruby and an army of Eggman’s robots. He wanted to relive the best days of his life. They were all his mind could see.
Trembling, he made one more push. “Please...I can’t live this way, I've had no one, I just want to see them again, I miss the old times...” he groveled.
The mask floated nearby, as if it had a mind of its own. It moved to Infinite, who was gazing a thousand yards in the distance. “The...old times...” he said.
His eyes went to his mask. One of the lenses mirrored his face, and Quatre could see him staring at his reflection.
“I just watched you do it...please boss, don’t you want something besides...this?” Quatre asked, putting out his hands.
The mask rotated. Infinite slowly reached out and grabbed it, but did not put it on. He held it at chest level, looking down at it.
Infinite’s hair blew forward in the breeze. He looked towards the town, contemplatively. Robots and lasers still made noises, faintly.
He gazed at Quatre, studying him for a long moment. His eyes flashed back to the town. Then, to the mask.
Infinite closed his eyes. “Quatre...you wish to go back to the old times? Is that what you want?”
Quatre meekly bowed his head in front of his boss, hoping he had reached him. “More than anything…”
Tranquil, Infinite took a long inhale. “Listen to me, my loyal cadet.”
Quatre’s ears perked up. He looked at his boss, whose mouth had the vanishing traces of a smile, though it wasn’t quite joyous. His eyes were softly narrowed.
“Follow my commands,” said Infinite. “And it shall be done.”
Quatre deciphered the mixture of emotions on his face. There was a charity about him, odd as it was to see. But his imperiousness was noticeable too, like he knew his sharp gaze would compel Quatre to move. His blue eye better communicated one feeling, his yellow eye the other.
“Get behind me.”
And indeed, Quatre did move, slowly, around his boss’s side, He was unsure whether it was a conscious choice or not.
Now Quatre was facing away from the town. Blasts of lasers behind him, along with the crumbling infrastructure let him know what was still going on. But his senses were pulled nearer, rushing winds drowning out all else.
Quatre only saw Infinite’s back. But then his boss turned to him once more, rising slightly higher above him in the air. His mask was back on. The volume of the outside world further lowered, including the winds.
“Think of your best times with our squad...Quatre,” Infinite said, voice doubled through the mask. “Reliving them is your deepest desire. Think of them...dream of them...”
Quatre’s eyes were still open, but they partially closed as his mind’s eye beckoned to him. He saw their previous missions and adventures. He felt a familial sense from the squad, relaxing after a long trip. He heard the grunts, jibes, and laughter from each of the members. It was all happening again, right here, right now.
“Yes...remember it all...” Infinite said, voice calm and authoritative. His hand slowly moved back and forth in front of Quatre’s face, fingers flexing slightly. As Quatre blearily gazed past his hand, half-focused in attention, it seemed Infinite’s mask disappeared and reappeared each time a finger passed in front of it.
“Do not lose focus,” Infinite instructed. “Accept...return...to the days of old. You see them, I see them...new days, new missions will be waiting for you too...”
Quatre’s eyelids were heavy. He tried to nod, but he knew he was going under. His mind was diving off into the dreams. They were sweet, tempting, and rose-colored.
His voice, quivering, spoke up one last time. “...Y...you...you’ll be there...t-too, boss?”
Infinite’s expression flashed for split seconds at a time, interspersed with the cold visage of his mask. He had a small smile, though in Quatre’s semi-conscious state, the intentions behind it were too tough to parse.
“I will, Quatre.”
Rushing tides collided, pooled together, then drew away within Quatre’s brain, washing away all thoughts that were his.
His body felt like it was being lowered. But his mind felt like it was ascending. The forces felt like they were pulling him apart, stretching him like putty. It was too powerful to fight, and it was oddly relaxing. He was completely at ease.
No longer processing what he saw, he felt as though descending towards earth, a sinkhole swallowing him and pulling him down. The weight of the force was not frightening, but more akin to a blanket pulling over him. But he was going upward, too. The sky was inverting, the sinkhole was a black hole, a portal to an unknown world. Hazy red clouds circled and enveloped him.
Flowing in a stream towards an unknown, calm, darkness and dulled reds swirled slowly, numbing him and carrying him to the beyond.
The crashes of metal sounded through the grotto.
With dusk descending, Trois and Quatre used the last minutes of light to practice sparring. Trois wielded the flame-bladed sword. Quatre wielded the katana.
“Yaa!” Quatre went for a poke that Trois deflected. He poked again and again. Trois fought them all off.
Trois eventually got tired of Quatre’s ambush, and forcefully fought off the next attack so she could go on the offensive. She swung the sword, but Quatre parried it. She stepped inward to swing again, and this time when they collided they each held them together, putting all strength into pushing the other back.
They strained and groaned for a while. Each of them tilted their heads, so close they nearly butted against each other.
Quatre finally did push his head against hers, trying to bowl her over. Trois took a step back, but caught herself and pushed forward. Now having a leverage advantage, she pushed him down.
As a last effort, Quatre swung out his leg and hooked her ankle with his foot. He tried to sweep it, and actually did, but Trois grabbed his shoulder with her other arm so she could turn him as she fell, keeping herself on top.
They fell to the ground, weapons skittering away. Now simply pinning and wrestling each other, Quatre tried to throw her off, but couldn’t.
They growled at each other. But after a few seconds, their growls turned into laughter.
“It’s gotta be embarrassing for you to get beaten with your own weapon,” Trois said between laughs.
“Hey! I’m not the one who turned it into a wrestlin’ match.”
“What?! You are, too! I was overwhelming you and you tried to get dirty!”
“There are no rules in combat!”
Trois got up and dusted herself off. “I think I’ll stick with mine. Yours doesn’t have the range I need.” She went to pick up her katana.
Quatre reclaimed his flame-bladed sword. “Good practice, anyway.” Now standing, he extended his elbow and waited.
She took a second, then realized. “Ah, yeah. Can’t forget Tre’s elbow taps,” she said, indulging him. Quatre grinned.
Trois picked up her katana, and went back to the middle of the grotto where they had set up camp. Uno was lying down, eyes closed under his blanket. Deux sat on his pillow and sharpened his hatchet. A gap two feet wide in the ceiling let in natural light, though now stars were visible in the sky. It was a serene, beautiful spot.
Still amped from fighting, Quatre didn’t want to go sit down yet. He looked over to the left side of the cavern. Infinite was several yards away, overlooking a pool of water from a narrow rock jutting out, with one foot in front of the other. Quatre began walking over to him.
Infinite’s hair blew slightly. Quatre moved next to the rock, about a foot lower in elevation. Infinite did not move, but his blue eye flickered to him for a moment, before returning to the similarly-colored pool ten feet below.
Quatre leaned over to see more of the pool. There was a shelf of stalagmites next to it. The water was mostly still, but seemed to glitter.
Deliberately, Quatre leaned over to see his reflection in the pool. He saw Infinite’s reflection as well.
Quatre bobbed his head. “Wow...this is a great spot you found, boss.”
Infinite crossed his arms. Quatre wandered around to the other side of him. He leaned over the pool again, seeing if it revealed anything else.
Quatre also crossed his arms. The cool air over the pool and the warmer air behind them created a very gentle breeze.
Infinite made a small movement to keep Quatre in his vision, just out of his left eye. He was pensive, studying Quatre from the side. The vanishing lights of sunset bathed his form in a reddish hue, the whites of his eyes tinged with red.
Having an idea, Quatre removed his headband, combed his fingers back over his hair, placed one foot in front of the other, and crossed his arms again. He shot a serious look at his boss, watching him.
“I’ll show you why they call me the ultimate mercenary,” Quatre said, deepening his voice.
Infinite stared at him, his eyes being the one thing Quatre couldn’t quite copy. Quatre waited.
Then, Infinite chuckled. Quatre felt a rush, and smiled.
It was such a good feeling, one he wanted to stay in forever. His eyes were unconsciously drawn to the pool, looking at the reflections.
Infinite’s face was covered by a mask.
Quatre’s heart jumped into his throat. The chuckles remained in his ears, but deep in his soul, Quatre could hear them continue on, like they should grow, double, triple, and ascend in a mania.
But they didn’t. They were just the simple, short strains Quatre had been longing to hear. Infinite’s reflection was normal, both eyes visible. He didn’t even remember what he’d seen.
And now his attention was caught by another movement. Infinite had stuck his elbow out for him.
Quatre stayed frozen for a moment longer. Then he untensed, his grin widening. He gave Infinite an elbow tap.
His increased heart rate must have been purely a result of the success of his joke. This was reality, it was normal and so wonderful. There was nothing to worry about.
Infinite withdrew and watched his reaction from the corner of his yellow eye, head bowed slightly, with a lingering smirk. “You know Quatre, if you keep working, you might be as strong as me one day.”
Quatre shook his head. “Oh, boss, I’ll never be that strong. No one’s more powerful than you.”
Infinite pondered these words. His chest puffed with his next inhale, settling something in his mind. He returned his gaze to the pool. “True, indeed...”
The final rays of ruby-red light faded in the cavern. But if Quatre looked at Infinite’s left eye, some of it gathered and remained.
Quatre stared, and stared into the pool. Time slipped and fell away, passing endlessly.