Sonic stood before one of the screens at the front of the control room of the Resistance's base. On the desk beside him sat the Phantom Ruby, which had started glowing again. However, no jackal hologram was to be seen. The blue hedgehog watched the countdown on the screen dully, set up by Tails for everyone to know when the machine would be operable again.
Gadget walked up beside Sonic, looking at the countdown as well.
"Huh."
"I know, I wasn't expecting the mission to be this boring either." Sonic said in the same, flat tone.
"I wonder how he's doing." Gadget looked down at the red gem.
They leapt back as one of the screens suddenly lit up with red sparks and then fizzled out.
"There's our answer." Sonic said, surprised.
"Maybe we should keep him in containment." Tails said, entering the room.
"That's obvious." Gadget replied, grabbing the gem and turning to leave. "I'll take him to-!"
Infinite suddenly appeared, swirling over him. His eyes were locked on the screens behind the wolf. Gadget, startled by his sudden appearance, stopped and hesitantly looked over his shoulder at the monitors. One of the security screens was on night mode, even though it was barely mid-day.
"What the heck..." Sonic slowly uncrossed his arms and leaned over to look closer at the screen.
Tails and Gadget stood on either side of him, trying to figure out what was wrong. Infinite bizarrely smiled.
"He's come for me." He gave Sonic the most repugnant sidelong grin the hedgehog had ever seen him make.
The blue blur stared at him in confusion, until Shadow suddenly burst into the room. "The ruby needs to be put into a high-security containment room, now."
"What's going on?" Sonic asked, looking away from the monitor.
"Eggman's here, with an entire army of battle Zeppelins." Shadow's glare tore away from Infinite's smug look and turned on Sonic instead, his tone serious and firm. "He has us surrounded."
"Oh my god... Their shadows are causing the cameras to go on night-mode!" Tails exclaimed, grasping the edges of the desk. "Shadow, take the ruby to containment right now!"
"That's impossible! How did he discover the location of our base?!" Gadget exclaimed, before catching the wicked jackal's eye. He regarded Infinite's smirk with a criticizing frown.
"How'd you...?"
"Eggman's probably got a tracker on the ruby." Tails understood Gadget's puzzlement. "Or on Infinite."
The two-tailed fox then pulled up another security camera's footage to reveal at least a dozen war ships floating over their hidden base. Snickering, Infinite dissipated back into the gem as it was passed from Gadget to Shadow and taken from the room.
Meanwhile, up in the air, Eggman turned on his loudspeaker and leaned over the microphone.
"Resistance!" He roared into his mike. "Either return to me my bioweapon or I will make this place a blood bath!"
"Jeez," Sonic murmured to Tails with a nervous smile, "he sounds serious."
"I think he is serious!" Tails replied. He turned on the intercom. "Uh, I don't think we can do that..."
Eggman scoffed at the fox's timid tone. "And why not?"
Parts of each battle ship suddenly opened up and revealed hundreds of guns and rocket-missile launchers, all pointing down at the base.
YOU ARE READING
Spirit of the Phantom Ruby
FanfictionMonths after the Sonic Forces war, Team Sonic comes to realize that their enemy has not yet been fully neutralized. Knowing Infinite the jackal still has the Phantom Ruby, our adventures battle to separate the masked clown from his weapon in a plan...
