Spirit of the Phantom Ruby

Part 1 - He's Still Out There

It was all finally coming back together, five months after the war of Sonic Forces, as the Resistance and volunteers worked on rebuilding the last of the once-destroyed city. Everyone was coming together as a whole, and it was quite pleasing to Sonic the hedgehog to see so many people helping one another in such a friendly and excited manner.

The blue hedgehog's smile somewhat dissipated when he recalled what had brought about the mess in the first place, or who, for that matter.

"Infinite." The word was scornful on Sonic's tongue, and Tails the two-tailed fox looked up in concern when he heard him say it.

"Did you say something?" He asked, leaving his box of tools to the use of the workers and heading over to his big brother.

The hedgehog's smile was soft, but his eyes shone with a bright intensity, as though the mere thought of the creature was most disagreeable. "Infinite. He's still out there."

"He could be." Tails turned to face the construction alongside Sonic. "Are... Are you thinking about going after him?" He paused to look intently at him, trying to read his expression. "To end him?"

"No, Tails, I couldn't do that!" Sonic exclaimed in alarm. He steadied himself a bit. "No, he has the Phantom Ruby fused with him. As long as he has possession of that thing, he's a threat to our world, and an easy weapon for Dr. Eggman to revive!"

"We don't really know the gem is still as powerful..." Tails trailed off, still not quite sure what Sonic was implying. They both knew the mad scientist was one of Infinite's closest allies, and that they worked together very well, but Tails wasn't exactly sure what Sonic wanted to do about the Ruby.

"We may not know, but that's more of a risk than you might think. For all anyone knows, Eggman may be super-charging the gem to wipe out the entire planet! He could be creating a weapon capable of doing so and have plans to use the Phantom Ruby to power it-!"

"What are you saying?" Tails said a little anxiously, for others were overhearing him and beginning to look worried. "What is it we need to do?"

"We need," Sonic began, "to defuse Infinite from the Phantom Ruby."

"But how? I have no-," Tails' cry was cut short by the steady, trusting look Sonic gave him that he always used when he was about to ask a favor. "Let me guess, that's where Icome in."

Sonic smiled sheepishly. "Well, yes... Look, I'm sorry for making it sound so rushed and last-minute, I understand we need a lot more time before we can even consider such missions, but it's there and it can't be forgotten, or it'll be costly."

"Sonic's right." The two turned to see Knuckles there, accompanied by Shadow and Silver. "It needs to be acknowledged so that we can all be aware that we'll never quite make it out of the woods until that matter's dealt with."

Construction workers eavesdropping on their conversation all mumbled their disheartened and weary agreement.

"We don't mean to cause any alarm, everyone, we just need people to keep a look out for a jackal-..." Knuckles turned to Shadow for further context.

"-with blue and gold eyes, and a scar over the right side of his face." Shadow finished for him, his voice rising so all could hear. "He may or may not have a red gem attached to his chest."

"But he most likely will, which is why we need to be cautious of him." Sonic called out and stepped forward. "Otherwise, nobody be worried, because the team will deal with him as soon as we can."

"It's probably a good idea for me to stay here until that's dealt with," Silver said when they all returned to the main base after finishing up the last of the repairs on the village. The others expressed their agreement.

"All right, now with the plan." Sonic stepped forward. "Tails, how long do you think it'll take for that device of yours to be finished?"

"Actually, it's already done." Tails replied happily. "I've already built something that does sort of the same thing, I'll just need to change it a little bit and do some test runs with my copy Chaos Emerald before I know it works. Should be a day or two before it's in working order."

"Good boy, Tails." Knuckles said, thumping his shoulder heartily, which of course nearly knocked him off his feet.

Sonic became grim again as Tail rebalanced himself and everyone looked to him expectantly. "Now it's a matter of finding and securing Infinite. Without anyone getting hurt, without anything getting hurt."

"Leave that to us," Rouge said, smirking as she stepped up beside Shadow and Omega. "We've got all sorts of intel on Eggman's base layout, and Omega knows how to hack into the housekeeping robots, which means he can see through their eyes on whether Infinite's still within the facility, or if he's long gone."

"What about Shadow?" Tails asked, looking at the leering, dark hedgehog.

"He'll bring Infinite to us." Rouge smiled sweetly at him, though it was clear they both knew he wouldn't be very nice about it.

"That's great!" Silver said, naïve as always. "We'll all help you out the best we can!"

"Alrighty team," Sonic said, brightening up. "As soon as construction's finished, we'll be on it!"