Sonic GeneX - Infinite Crisis
Part 1 - A World Without Sonic

Sonic Forces & all related characters, scenarios and elements are (c) SEGA and Sonic Team.
GeneX and related characters belong to 2BIT.

"When everything you know has come and gone,
(You are at your lowest, I am rising higher)
Only scars remain of who I was,
(What I find in the ashes, you lose in the fire!)
When there's no one left to carry on,
(This is an illusion, open up your eyes and...)
This pain (persists), I can't (resist),
But that's what it takes to be Infinite." - Theme of Infinite, Sonic Forces


PREVIOUSLY ON SONIC THE HEDGEHOG AND SONIC GENEX...

(Sonic 5x5-Dimensional Clash & Sonic Mania)
The evil Dr. Eggman has been scheming for a year or longer. After events that took both he and Sonic across the multiverse, Eggman began researching a power known as robotisization, introduced to him by his counterparts from other worlds. A more sinister method of turning flesh into robotics than what he'd been doing, Eggman saw great potential in this. Soon, however, a greater power came to him... and this is where our story begins.

(Sonic GeneX:the Series-Season 3 & Sonic Forces Episode Shadow)
While Eggman performed tests on his new power and perfected the robotisization process, Sonic hunted for his missing Uncle Chuck, discovered to be an early victim of robotisization. To keep Sonic placated, Eggman restored Chuck's free will once Sonic found him, letting the hedgehog believe he'd scored a victory. Meanwhile, the Tournament of Chaos took place, an event where Illusi the Shrew sought to test the worthiness of those seeking to claim the Chaos Relics. Upon losing the tourney, Copter vanished, and Shadow joined Rouge and Omega in working for GUN's recently established Strike Force in order to work through is own frustrations. In time, the Strike Force went missing as well... Some sensed impending danger, and the heiress of AcornCorp, Sally Acorn, began gathering allies to combat the coming of Eggman's robotisizer. Silver came back after a visit to his own time to warn Knuckles of impending danger as well.

We now join the story, one month before the disappearance of Shadow and the Strike Force...


"I'm ready now..." an impatient voice chastised from behind a mask. Dr. Eggman sat in his Egg Mobile, tracking a signal. "Let's not rush into things. I mean, I'm brilliant, so I'm sure you are ready. But before you rush after your revenge or my revenge, let's just deal in practicalities. Today's target could be a real danger to me-- us... if you aren't able to defeat him." he stated. A signal was picked up, and the pair headed into Emerald Coast in search of it. Their target soon came into view: Kosmo the morph, relaxing in a quiet area of the beach. The masked one scoffed. "He looks pathetic. But if he frightens you, I will remove his head from his body..." Kosmo sat up as a shadow blocked his sun. "What are you supposed to be? Hooded dudes graduate to masks now?" he mumbled. "I am your reckoning. Say good-bye..." the masked one stated. Kosmo morphed wings to his back and flew up to meet the floating figure, but with a flick of the masked one's hand, a strange energy erupted from him, and flung Kosmo backward! "Ugh!! What was that? Huh??" Before Kosmo could think about it, his opponent had sped over to him, and began to move around him at a fast pace, beating him mercilessly! Grunting, Kosmo growled and morphed himself into dragon form! A distance away, someone was witnessing the battle. It was Punchy the Echidna, and though he was much too far to see the masked one, he could see Kosmo in pain. "I'll have to disagree with Rainbow on this being a good honeymoon spot... After I check this out." he said, leaning down to...take his shoes off? Meanwhile, Kosmo tumbled into the sand, grunting as he reverted back to his normal form. "Ha ha! Yes, you ARE ready!!" Eggman cackled, "Now, finish him!" The masked one looked prepared to do just that, but a green streak suddenly whizzed by and carried Kosmo off! "Huh? ...Oh, whatever. Sonic's next on MY list..." Eggman mumbled. The masked one adjusted his mask. "Shadow's next on mine..." he mused. Punchy set down Kosmo a good distance away, where the morph could see the Chaos Boots sparkling on his feet. "Ughh... I guess I owe you one..." he grumbled. Punchy scratched his head. "What WAS that?" he asked. "...Nothing good..." Kosmo groaned, clasping his chest.

Two months later...

"SONIC!!" Tails had just witnessed the unthinkable. The masked one, joined by Chaos, Zavok, Metal Sonic and Shadow, had savagely beaten Sonic into a sound defeat, while the fox had utterly failed to analyze the strange energy coming from the masked one. In spite of the odds, Tails couldn't let Sonic die. He had one trump card left, though he never wished to use it. He grabbed his Chaos Tailbands and thrust them onto his twin tails, his body glowing with the power! "Oho! Look at this! Tails has the Tailbands of Chaos! Remember when I cared about those things Shadow? Metal Sonic?" Eggman chuckled from his Egg Mobile, "But can you properly use them, fox boy? Too bad you won't get the chance to show us. Break him, boys!" the doctor ordered. As Tails rushed in to try to fight, things spiraled out of control quickly, with each combatant overwhelming him, and the masked one brutally smashing him into nearby structures as Tails struggled to trigger the full power of the tailbands. It was over in an instant, and Tails lay in a heap, still conscious, as the masked one hovered over him. Eggman stroked his mustache. "Well, might as well end him. Don't need him hanging around..." he stated. As the masked one raised a hand to do this, a rain of hail stopped him! Out of nowhere, the Doomsayer stood between Tails and Eggman's forces. "My prophecy states... That a twin-tailed fox's demise will signal the end times. This is not yet that time. Not quite." he announced. Eggman growled. "You don't tell me when my enemy dies! Get him!" he growled. The masked one fired a rapid beam straight at the Doomsayer, but he swiftly sidestepped it. The masked one growled and then dashed to the Doomsayer, attempting physical combat, but despite his speed, the Doomsayer dodged and weaved away from each strike. "You cannot fight fate. Begone!" the Doomsayer boomed, blowing the masked one back with a powerful gust of wind! Metal Sonic lifted up Sonic and began to carry him as Eggman scowled in frustration. "Twice now, your judgement has been stopped! We need to power you up after all, it seems... We need your power to be... infinite!!" he proclaimed. The masked one nodded. "No one will stop me ever again... So don't get in my way after this..." he warned, following the doctor. The Doomsayer looked to Tails. He was shivering. "S-save Sonic... You have to..." he pleaded. "...No." the Doomsayer stated, vanishing in a sudden hailstorm just as he'd appeared.


In the months that followed Sonic's defeat, Eggman began to rapidly conquer the world. Naturally, early in Eggman's invasion, the world's armies offered resistance, but the doctor had somehow attained superior numbers...and with his powerful agents lead by the masked one, the defeat of even GUN seemed inevitable. As a Death Egg Robot menaced the ocean offshore of Station Square, Knuckles the echidna and Silver the hedgehog gathered a group of friends hoping to rally them. "Everyone! I know Eggman's gotten crazy strong, and it's looking pretty scary with Sonic missing, and GUN falling apart! But we can't run! If there's no one else to fight, it's up to us!" Knuckles declared. "Why should we listen to you?" Charmy Bee shouted from amidst the crowd. Amy Rose stood up beside Knuckles. "Hey! That's rude! Don't we all remember how Knuckles beat back Despair a while ago? If anyone's qualified to lead us, he is!" she shouted before turning to Knuckles, "...You better be, anyway..." she whispered. Meanwhile, offshore, a biplane was fleeing the Death Egg Robot. Punchy was struggling to pilot it while Rainbow and Gemini held on to the wings for dear life. "Curse that Hoover! We should've known he'd side with Eggman if and when he came back for Darkegg Fortress!" Punchy growled. "Less talking more keeping-from-crashing!!" Gemini babbled. "I hope Two doesn't mind us taking his plane...Wherever he is!" Rainbow whimpered. Two, or Copter, had been missing for months. The Death Egg Robot started to target the biplane directly, when suddenly, a wild purple energy struck the robot, sending it reeling! "How do ya like a dose of Kosmos power!?" Kosmo flew up in gargoyle form, punching the robot in the eye while it was dazed and cracking its sensors. He then flew after the biplane, the Hurricane. "Guess we're even!" Kosmo grinned. "Have you been stalking me for a couple months waiting to do something like that?" Punchy muttered. As the plane skidded to a halt behind Knuckles, the red echidna jumped before clearing his throat loudly. "...What was I saying again?" he babbled.

Meanwhile, Sally Acorn was having a meeting at an AcornCorp office near Spagonia. Her allies were present, including Antoine D'coolette, Bunnie Rabbot, Rotor Walrus and Dulcy the dragon. Two visitors were entering the office: Charles Hedgehog and Dr. Bucky Stein the rat. As they entered, they were engrossed in some scientific discussion until Sally cleared her throat. "Ah, it's good to see ya, Sally!" Chuck said, shaking her hand. Antoine looked at him suspiciously. "Can we be trusting a robot, princess?" he asked. Sally grimaced. She hated the nickname "Princess." Everyone called her that because she was set to inherit the AcornCorp empire from her father. "Chuck has his will...And he works for my father's company. We can trust him. How's global communications coming, Charles?" she asked. Chuck shrugged. "We're callin' but no one's answerin' yet. Without my nephew, people are losin' hope. GUN has fallen, too, it seems." he sighed. "No way... That's horrible!" Dulcy gasped. "Oh, mah stars, what is this world we're livin' in?" Bunnie gasped. Sally shrugged. "We knew it'd be bad... Fortunately one of our technicians has cooked up a little something." she said, turning to Rotor, who was holding an odd gun. "I call it a Wispon. It uses the energy from the Wisps that migrated to our world while Eggman held their world prisoner. I can make different versions...maybe mass-produce them..." he stated. "Do it." Bucky said, looking around grimly, "Spagonia is under attack, Miss Acorn. You and yours need to get out of here, because Eggman's looking for you. I... lost an agent getting this information..." he said with an uncertain look. Zipp the hornet was flitting in the doorway. "Still no word from Crash, B-T-W!" he shouted in, "Think he's dead, boss?" Bucky groaned at Zipp's attitude. "I'll let you all board my ship, Shadow Arcangel. We keep mobile, and we fight back against Eggman as we go." he offered. An explosion rocked the office, making Antoine yelp. "Invading force has arrived, Sally." said Nicole, Sally's computer. "Thanks for that... Looks like we have no choice. Let's go!" Sally said, hurrying everyone out of the room.

Back in Station Square, Knuckles' rallying speech was soon interrupted by Tails. Cream was with him, and she looked quite worried as the fox stomped in front of Knuckles. "What are you doing, Knuckles!? You think just because you showed up at the last minute of the Despair thing, you can take Sonic's place!?" he snapped. Knuckles looked taken aback. "N-no, this isn't about taking Sonic's place, Tails..." he mumbled. "You'll lead these people to die!! You can't... You can't win this war without Sonic!!" he shouted. "That's one man's opinion!" Kosmo retorted. Tails glanced at him. "If I could beat you, but I couldn't... I couldn't..." he couldn't say it, "What chance do you think you have!?" he cried, tears in his eyes. "Tails, try to take it easy..." Cream said, taking his hand. Tails' eyes widened as he felt Cream's hand in his. "You'll die... No... I can't let you die... C-come on, Cream!!" he stammered, pulling her away. "W-where are we going??" she stammered. "Tails, wait!!" Knuckles shouted. Rainbow looked on with concern. "...I'll go talk to him. Poor guy lost his best friend. I can sorta relate..." she said, rushing to follow Tails. "Yeah... Where IS Copter?" Punchy wondered. Knuckles watched as most people gathered to hear his speech started to leave. "W-wait!! Guys! ...Argh, how can I rally the people without Tails? Maybe it is hopeless..." he sighed. Silver patted his back. "It's not hopeless. It's just not. I couldn't be here if it was. I'm from the future...there has to still be a chance at a future for me to exist, right?" he smiled. Knuckles nodded slowly, and smiled as he saw Amy and Team Chaotix still there. "Alright, let's get to safety and start up this Resistance!" he proclaimed. "...What's taking Rainbow?" Punchy wondered. As Rainbow walked after Tails, she quickly found she had lost track of him, and found herself lost. A group of robots started coming her way. "Oh no! One, h-help!!" she cried, backing up. In the next instant...everything went black.


All the chaos and action of Eggman's invasion would seem like a party to the Lost Ones, the ectoplasmic entities bent on devouring all the souls they can take to increase their ranks. However, their de-facto leader, Lospecter, had a new toy to play with that was causing him to miss the whole thing: the Chaos Key that he'd snatched from the Tournament of Chaos. It could open anything; Even the unseen pathways between the dimensions themselves. Lospecter was exploring countless worlds, seeing what was out there...and then one world drew his attention. It was a world he was aiming to create: one where the Lost Ones had complete dominion of the planet. "Now this... Is something..." he said in awe, for once struck speechless by what he was seeing. He searched for his other self; he'd found every world with the Lost Ones had its own Lospecter. Finding him upon a throne in a palace of fire and slime, Lospecter bowed to his apparently superior self. "Nice digs you got here, me!" he said with a chuckle. The other Lospecter looked down at him with initial shock, but then sat back with a smirk. "Want it all for yourself, eh? Jealous much? I'll tell ya, it wasn't easy gettin' here." he grinned. Lospecter Prime nodded, looking up at him with urgency. "I just GOTTA know...what IS your secret?" he asked. The kingly Lospecter snapped his fingers, and in came... Gemini. Her fur was slimy and greenish, and her eyes soulless. A collar around her neck symbolized her servitude. "How may I serve you, my lord?" she said calmly. Lospecter Prime stared at her enviously. "I can't do this particular thing... My little wand witch found an immunity to becoming lost." he said in frustration. The lordly Lospecter tsked with a pitying expression. "Too bad. She's been just, the best minion... But maybe she can help you?" he said, floating over to the soulless Gemini. "Pookie, tell daddy's other self... Gemini's secrets... Her goals, her worries...her weakness..." he grinned. Lospecter Prime floated closer with a grin. "Yesss, do tell..." he chuckled.


"There is no reason to resist. Your savior is no more." The masked one was sure to spread the news of Sonic's defeat as time passed, and he went from city to city, decimating the fledgling resistance. Rotor's prototype Wispons were mass produced quickly, but the masked one's power was simply too much. During an attack on a particular city, Felicia the wolf watched as several animals were cut down by the powerful masked warrior. She was hiding behind cover when she saw a prototype Wispon drop to the floor. She raced toward it, only for the masked one to taunt her. "I can taste your terror, child." he said as she scrambled to pick up the weapon, "All that anxiety and doubt...it's delicious." Felicia trembled as she pointed the weapon at him, but he simply had to fire at her feet to knock her over. "Give in to your fear. Flee, screaming, and I'll let you live." he said, laughing at her. Felicia scrambled to run away, as the masked one watched. "E-every place I flee to... Eggman's forces are there! C-can I really run...forever?" she stammered nervously, "I hope my friends back in Central City... are alright..." she whimpered. The part of her that was Fera seemed to be long gone now... And without the friends she'd made in Central City, all that remained was a scared pup...

Meanwhile, Sally's group, calling themselves the Freedom Fighters now, had set up a moving base within Shadow Arcangel. Being that this was Bucky's ship, they stopped to pick up some of his experiments when a distress signal was sent to them. Punchy, Kosmo and Heather entered the old containment room, now acting as a war room. "Where'sss your wife, Experiment 1?" Vortex asked as Punchy entered. "Not my wife just yet. You're not invited to the wedding, by the way... But finding Rainbow is kinda why I'm here." he said unhappily. Kosmo nodded. "Any of you seen Carrie?" he asked. Experiment 14, Carrie the Mirage, was Kosmo's good friend. "Sorry, she hasn't turned up. No one regrets more than I..." Bucky told him as he looked at war maps, "She's not the only one, either. The little family I've built is torn apart..." he added. "We could really use you guys in our corner. Eggman's not an easy enemy to crack." Sally told the trio. Heather shook her head. "I'm... done being peoples' weapon. First Mephiles, then Despair, then Battle Lord Kukku. I just want asylum here." she said. "All of that was a darlin' like y'all? I don't believe it." Bunnie said in surprise as she stood beside Sally. The chipmunk crossed her arms. "It's not really a matter of if, but when you're left no choice but to fight, you know. When that time comes, I want to know that we can count on you to use your power for the right cause." she stated. Everyone glanced at Heather, and she sweated a little. "I... errr... I'll help around here, I guess." she said awkwardly. Sally nodded. That was all she could ask, for now.

In another part of the world, as hidden away from the conflict as possible, Tails led Cream deep underground. Explosions could be heard above them, but the corridor they were walking through seemed safe enough. Opening a door at the bottom, Tails led Cream into a room with her mother, and several others. Cosmo the seedrian, Big the cat, Bill from the Neon Tavern, Dave from the burger shop, Talon the griffin, even a few humans like Agent 77 and that oddball Gator. "This is the weirdest party I've ever been to." Gator babbled. SPOT stepped next to Tails, and the fox nodded to his robo-puppy. "Tails... why are we down here? Why's my mom here? Is... Is that Chocola back there, too?" she whimpered nervously. Tails nodded again. "I've brought you all to this bunker... Because you'll all die if Eggman catches you. I'm so sorry I couldn't find your brother, Bill." he stated, punching a code into a keypad by the door, "...Gotta protect the weak... Keep them safe... Right, Sonic?" he muttered to himself. Cream's eyes widened as she realized what Tails was doing. "N-no, Tails! Take me with you!" she pleaded, grasping his arm, "We can protect each other! M-maybe together, we can beat Eggman... You can't do it alone! Y-you might die, too!" she cried. "Don't lock us in here! I can't go fishing in here!" Big whined. "Please, Tails. We didn't ask you to do this..." Cosmo added. Tails shrugged Cream's arm off himself. "There's plenty of food and water in this bunker. You'll all be fine...just don't let Big eat it all at once. Make sure of that, SPOT? And... keep everyone in here, SPOT. It... it's for the good of everyone. Right, Sonic? That's right..." he babbled. "Kid, Sonic ain't here. Have you gone loony in the head?" Bill asked. Tails stepped through the door, and before Cream or anyone could follow him, it slid shut behind him, sealing them in. SPOT blocked Cream as she approached the doorway. "Master Tails has not authorized you to exit the bunker!" his monitor read. "Tails!! TAILS!!" Cream shouted as her mother watched with a conflicted expression. Tails started walking away calmly. "Where should I go now, Sonic? Please lead the way for me..." he said with a sniffle.

The remnants of the Covenant of Despair were hunkered down in the Kingdom Valley ruins of Soleanna. It seemed a good place to hide out. Their squads were patrolling different areas of the ruins, and Basker and Eddie had worked through their differences to become the dual-masters of the Covenant. Anubis was back, too, his mental faculties largely returned. He sat in seclusion, plotting the murder of Eddie and Basker so he could take over Despair for himself. He had an unexpected visitor, however. The masked one stepped in as he sat in quiet meditation. "...You're a jackal..." Anubis said bluntly. "And you're a disgrace. Or did you think I forgot you? Did you think Jackal Squad forgot you? Once... WE were the Covenant of Despair...but you let that hooded wolf take our very identity from us..." Anubis looked up at him, and raised a hand, summoning his black mummies to surround the jackal. The mask came off, and Anubis stared at him. "It is you. Still angry that I had to cast you out to remain with MY Covenant? It's not my fault you were weak." he growled. The other jackal sneered. "No longer! My old self is dead! You may now call me Infinite!! Or... master will do."

Anubis' screams startled the agents of Despair outside. Then, robots began to storm Kingdom Valley, swiftly rounding up dogs, bears and bats to be robotisized later. Eddie and Basker scrambled to rally their own troops. "Agents! Control your fear or I'll GIVE you fear!" Basker shouted. During the chaos, two figures approached Basker and Eddie. One was Cancer, the vulture. The other was covered in armor, his helmet adorned with ramlike horns. "Eee hee? Who are you supposed to be?" Eddie chuckled. "I am Cancer. This is Aries. We have come to save one member of your covenant from the horror of becoming a robot." he explained quickly. Patch and Daisy approached, glancing at Aries. "...I... know you... Don't I?" Daisy asked. Aries crossed his arms, saying nothing. "Whatever! Take me with you! Hee hee! These bozos'll make good robos!" Patch cackled. "No, no! Take me! I... I never wanted to hurt people in the first place!" Daisy pleaded. Cancer turned to Aries, who spoke in a cold, gruff voice. "Go save yourself." Cancer nodded, turning to Basker and Eddie. The hyena chuckled. "I could easily escape on my own. Eee hee... Need an illusionist?" he asked. "Traitor!" Basker grunted. Cancer nodded, and extended his wing to Eddie. "Welcome, Scorpio..." he smirked. Cancer then warped the trio away, Eddie cackling as robots approached Basker, Patch and Daisy...

Tails returned to his workshop, muttering to himself as he approached the portal to Blaze's world. He turned the machine on and stepped through it, finding its counterpart in her world. "I'm sorry, Blaze..." he sighed, setting explosive charges around the portal device. "Sorry for what? ...Tails, what are you doing?!" Blaze asked as she approached. Tails turned to her with a frown. "Eggman has won... I can't let him use my portal machine to invade your world. So, I must destroy it... It's for the best, right Sonic?" he said, murmuring the last part. Blaze could see Tails was grappling with some trauma and reached for his hand only for him to pull away. "Whatever this is, Tails, I can help you. Just let me go back with you!" she told him. Tails held up the explosive trigger. "Stay back! The explosion might hurt you! I... I'll miss you, Blaze. Maybe... if I find a way to beat Eggman... We'll meet again... But I have to keep your world safe." he said, pressing the trigger as he leapt back into the portal! Blaze gasped as she saw the link to their worlds destroyed, tears forming in her eyes. "Wh...what's happened over there? Is... Is Sonic okay...?" she stammered, taking the Chaos Crown concealed in her coat and looking it over. "Did Tails do this...to keep this from Eggman?" she wondered. As Tails emerged on the other side, the explosion followed him a bit, wrecking the other half of the portal device. "...I know you're not here, Sonic... But I hope I'm making you proud...keeping everyone safe..." he said as he walked away, "I'll just keep talking to you anyway... Maybe...you'll hear me..." he sniffled, his heart aching for his lost friend.


Finally, it had been about six months since Sonic's defeat. With Infinite's help, Dr. Eggman now held nearly complete control of the world. In the weeks leading up to the Freedom Fighter's latest mission, an unexpected ally had joined them in the person of Richard Gunner, the highest ranking GUN official that the Freedom Fighters or the Resistance had been able to contact. Between him, Sally and Bucky, the Freedom Fighters had their leaders. Now, it was time for real missions. Gathered in the war room on Shadow Arcangel, Sally addressed the troops. "Our Freedom Fighter group has been at this for more than half a year. I'm sorry that we seem to only be losing ground, but chins up! There's good news today! Intelligence has located a prison facility in Spagonia. It is quite possible that the prisoners have not been executed or robotisized yet!" she announced. "Slim hope." Gunner grunted, "But we can also try to access Robotnik's computers from his Spagonia base in order to get even better intel. The prison break will be a diversion for that." he announced. "Excuse moi, but would that not present great danger to ze prison breaking teams?" Antoine asked. "Obviously Gunner made the plan." Kosmo said through gritted teeth. "I'm not thrilled to work with you either, freak!" Gunner snapped. "Hey, hey! Let's not fight each other!" said Lucky the cat, who had joined the group recently. Sally sighed. "The plan is mine. Sorry to say, but risk will be a part of any operation. Kosmo and our Chaos Relic weilders will take point. Antoine, Bunnie, you'll go with them." she stated. Zipp twirled a Wispon. "And I'll be our expert spy, as per usual..." he said. Heather watched the briefing nervously. She'd seen a lot over the past few months. She was finally starting to have enough. "I'll go, too!" she announced. Sally looked at her with a smile. "Great. We leave as soon as everyone's ready. Eggman waits for no one..." she announced.

"Who is it we're fighting for,
Inside this blazing firestorm?
Where no one's left to save the world?

In the distance I see the light of hope... Shining...
Can't give in or we'll lose it all. - Spaceport, Sonic Forces

Spagonia university had been converted into a huge base by Eggman's forces. The Freedom Fighter forces split mostly into twos, as they had no plans for the remodled facility, and it'd be best to explore in small groups. Punchy and Kosmo indeed took point, the Chaos Boots letting Punchy zoom ahead and clear a path. Kosmo helped, too, taking the form of a purple, Sonic-esque hedgehog. "C'mon and get us, bots!" Punchy shouted. "These guys are so slow, how is it Sonic lost to 'em?" Kosmo wondered...though he had an inkling. Antoine, Bunnie, Lucky and Heather followed behind stealthily, soon reaching the metallic front door. "All right. I shall be cracking ze entry codes!" Antoine announced, only for Bunnie to rip open the door with her robotic arm. "Sorry, sugah, clock's tickin!" she stated, heading in quickly with Antoine. At the first fork in the path, Lucky and Heather split away from them. Lucky nervously held the Chaos Sword he won from the Tournament. "I never expected to be USING this thing..." he stammered. Swarms of buzzbombers flew in to greet them, and Lucky yelped at their sudden appearence. "Me-YOW!!" he gasped, swinging the sword wildly and flinging Chaos Spears randomly with it! Heather jumped aside, barely dodging a spear as it whizzed by. "Careful..." she stammered, creating fire in her hands to assist. On the other side, Antoine and Bunnie were sneaking around the latest model Egg Pawns, "Phantom Pawns" as we'll call them. Antoine fumbled with his burst Wispon while Bunnie extended her arm to punch a bunch of them before they noticed them. "Haven't you trained with that thing, Antoine?" she asked. "I am not needing training! I was Spagonian General before Eggman's takeover!" he insisted. "General pain, maybe..." she sighed. With a few robots gone, Zipp flitted by overhead, finding his way to an air duct. "Like I even need a diversion, hehe..." he snickered, "Spying stinks, though. When do I get to shoot things?" he babbled. "When you get caught." Vortex retorted over the comms. "Me? Caught? Who am I, Crash?" he murmured. "Ssshut up!" Vortex snapped.

Heather and Lucky managed to get past the bees, mostly thanks to Heather. As they got deeper into the base, though, their noise in fighting clearly got the wrong kind of attention, as Chaos soon emerged to block their path! "Meee-yow!! What is that thing!?" Lucky gasped, pointing his sword at it. Heather gasped nervously. "It... It's made of... water! Lucky, you have to take it! It can kill me!" she stammered. Suddenly, dripping down from the ceiling came... Shadow Chaos? "N-now there's TWO of them!?" Lucky yelped, not sure which to aim for. Shadow Chaos went to grapple with Chaos, apparently having some sort of bone to pick with it. "Umm... Let's use this opportunity to sneak by." Heather suggested. Lucky nodded, speeding past quickly. Heather stepped by carefully, trying to avoid getting wet. But that didn't help, as Shadow Chaos flung Chaos right at her! She gurgled as Chaos surrounded her body, starting to drown her. Before she could be snuffed out, though, something came from above and sliced through Chaos, freeing her from the water! She expected to see Lucky, but looking up, Heather saw Guard the Gargoyle extending his hand! "Grrr! Come on!" he said, helping her up. Heather panted hard. "Wh-why are you here? You're not on this mission!" she gasped. "Grrr... Prisoners. I'm looking for... for Mia." he stated. Mia the cat was in a coma when Eggman took over. To think that she'd be here was a longshot, but Guard had exhausted much of his hope over those six months. Chaos and Shadow Chaos had continued to grapple, so Guard swung his scythe, sending energy beams at them. Soon, Chaos simply...disappeared. After that, Shadow Chaos let out an annoyed sound and dissolved into black water, slithering away. "Rrr... Strange..." Guard mumbled. Eggman was watching the Chaos brawl from a monitor, and shared the sentiment. "Blasted Shadow Chaos! I can't use Chaos because he keeps turning up wherever I send him! I guess Shadow Chaos emerged during my first test with the Phantom Ruby and the Master Emerald, while Knuckles was away at the Tournament. Test was a failure, but I guess it stirred Shadow Chaos somehow..." he grumbled. "That makes total sense and is in no way a stretch to claw out of a corner the writer wrote himself into!" Cubot remarked. Eggman shrugged. "It's of little consequence. Infinite is really all I need now..." he sneered. "While we're filling plot holes, boss, want to discuss the wherabouts of Professor Pickle?" Orbot asked. "Not really... He must be cowering in a 'safe house' somewhere. As if anywhere's safe from my Empire!" Eggman smirked.

During the distractions that Heather, Bunnie and the others were creating, Zipp neared the computer room. There, he bumped into Rouge the bat, of all people. "Hey! I was spying here first!" he snapped. "Cute. Thanks for the diversions, by the way. Our forces really need to communicate more." she stated, sitting at the computer and starting to type away. "For the record, I WAS here first." Zipp snapped. Rouge shushed him. "My gosh... Everyone needs to see this. It's a prison surveillance feed...But not this prison?" With a click of a button, the feed was put on the full screen. There was Sonic...alive! His hands and feet were bound, and he was struggling to pick up a chili dog on the floor. "I got it... don't help me... Seriously, don't. Your breath's horrible." Sonic muttered. Finally, he took a bite. "GAH!! You monsters!! Of all the tortures you've concocted, this is the worst!! TOFU!?" he cried, gagging. "I don't like seeing him like that..." Rouge murmured. "Yeah...why the heck isn't he dead?" Zipp added, "Guess what, dudes! Sonic is actually alive!!" Rouge pressed another key and frowned. "And here's the bad news... Those prisoners..." she sighed. Antoine and Bunnie had found the prison, and could see what Rouge meant. "Sacre bleu... We are too late..." Antoine sighed. The prisoners had been robotisized. Among them were Patch and Daisy, looking quite metallic and in no mood for laughs. Bunnie backed away. "Eggman'll pay fer this! C'mon, Ant! We gotta git outta this chicken coop!" she grunted, grabbing his arm and pulling him along. It was a good idea to get running, too, as the prison doors opened, sending the robotisized people out to capture the Freedom Fighters! Punchy and Kosmo had already run back, and Guard and Heather were quick to catch Lucky and start their retreat, too. Eggman might have won this round, but they'd live to fight another day...and now they knew Sonic was alive.

The intel of Sonic's survival hadn't reached the Resistance yet. They met in their war room, facing their harsh realities. Things were going poorly, for certain. However, Knuckles had pursuaded someone to join the cause, and now led her into their HQ to meet everyone. "Knuckles! What's the sitrep, Commander?" Silver asked as he entered. "Happy to see you're all still alive..." Knuckles said grimly, "Eggman's forces have chewed through our defenses at Green Hill, and the resistance in the city is reporting that whatever it is that finished Sonic... Sorry, I'm still not used to saying that... Whatever it is has got them running in fear. All except this brave kid, who survived the battle and made it here in one piece. Meet our newest recruit!" With that, the door slid open, revealing a nervous-looking Felicia, her clothes tatty and worn. She had been barely hanging on. As Knuckles and the Chaotix were meeting and greeting her, Amy and Silver exchanged worried glances. "Isn't that...?" Silver asked. "Yeah, that's Fera. She had a bout of amnesia last I saw. She won the Chaos Cards at the big Tournament, wonder if she has 'em?" she murmured. "Why are we whispering?" Knuckles asked. "That's Fera, Commander." Amy stated bluntly. Knuckles glanced back at her. "No it isn't. Fera's dead. Her name's Felicia." Knuckles stated. "She survived, Knuckles. She has amnesia. Wouldn't it...be bad if she...got her memory back?" Silver stated. Knuckles rubbed his head. "Okay, to avoid slipping and calling her Fera, let's all call her 'Rookie.' She looks too young to be Fera, though!" he babbled. Felicia was looking over a Wispon that Knuckles gave her, and at her Chaos Cards. "You know how to use those?" Vector asked. "Not really..." Felicia sighed. "Maybe Rotor can whip up something to help you." Espio suggested. Knuckles cleared his throat. "Okay, let's get going, everybody! The world's not gonna save itself!" he said. As most of the group started to clear out, Uncle Chuck suddenly appeared onscreen. "Yoohoo! Anyone there?" he called.

Knuckles and Felicia were the only ones left to respond. "We're here, Chuck. Good to hear from you." he said, glancing at Fera/Felicia. "Hmm... Hey, Rookie, how do you feel about handling communications with the Freedom Fighters? They're a separate group from us, but we have the same goal." he asked. Felicia nodded. "I can do that." she said. "Alright, but you're both gonna wanna hear this. Ready for it? Best news ever... My nephew's still alive!" he grinned. "Don't toy with me, Chuck." Knuckles stammered. Felicia smiled. "That's good...right?" she asked. Chuck looked in her hands. "Hey, the Chaos Cards, hm? But from the Wispon, I guess you can't use 'em. Send 'em our way. Between me and Rotor, I bet we can work somethin' out for ya." he said. Felicia nodded, and Knuckles smirked. "Tell us all you got about Sonic. Right now." he said excitedly.

Punchy was watching Uncle Chuck talk to Knuckles and Felicia, and shuddered. "They got FERA over there? FERA!? Are we screwed?" he asked Kosmo. "Hey, we got Gunner over here. At least I'm fairly sure Fera would be on our side." he stated. "I'm on your side because Ivo is against me!" Gunner quipped from across the room. Dulcy leaned down to glance at the screen. "Why are we freaking out? ...She looks nice enough." the dragon stated. "Ever hear of the Covenant of Despair?" Kosmo asked. Dulcy smiled. "Nope, can't say that I have!" she said cheerfully. Punchy let out a sigh, leaning against the ship's wall. "Well, if Sonic's alive, I guess there's hope. I just wonder...what happened to Rainbow..." he said with worry.

Little did he know, Rainbow was looking right at him. Through the Chaos Crystal she was charged with guarding, she found that she could see the locations of the Chaos Relics, including the boots in Punchy's possession. She sat in a crystalline room, while Illusi the shrew watched over her. "I know you wish to go to them, but you're safer here. If I hadn't saved you months ago, the Chaos Crystal might now be in the hands of the enemy." he said seriously, "Believe me, there are those I'd like to fight with, too. But... she's better off without me..." he added. Rainbow frowned. "We were supposed to be married by now..." she sighed, "And what about Two? And Wanda? I can't just abandon everyone..." she insisted. Illusi sighed. "You have a duty, Rainbow. You have not abandoned them. You are merely seeing to that duty." he stated. Rainbow watched Punchy in the Chaos Crystal, a look of longing on her face. "...Feels like abandoning them..." she sighed. Illusi frowned, but tried to speak comfort. "They'll...be okay. The power they're up against is like... large-scale illusionism. Except as weak as illusions are, my Wrongo pets have more soul than Eggman's dreamed-up forces..." he stated. "You send critters with souls to die!?" Rainbow asked him. Illusi scratched his head. "It, uh... It's more like they become unstable and phase back into their dimension. We just call them destroyed when that happens to simplify it." he stated. This talk wasn't really cheering Rainbow up. She watched Punchy through the Crystal wistfully, wishing she could help him...

In six months, Dr. Eggman had conquered the world.
Now, the surviving heroes would risk everything to get it back.

To be continued... BZZ ZZZT!!... our writer forgot something between this chapter & next...


Felicia was directed to a clothing bin, where the Resistance had collected what they could to send to refugees. Felicia dug through the bin to find something to replace the threadbare clothes on her back. Her gaze rested on something that pulled in her attention. It was...a Covenant of Despair uniform. She didn't know why, but something about it was familiar. She was compelled to try it on, while no one was looking. Checking herself in a mirror after trying on the tight uniform, she felt strange...like it was somehow right. She heard someone coming, though, and hastily grabbed a white karate robe out of the bin, tying it closed so the uniform was hidden. "Hey, uh... Rookie. We gotta get movin'. You ready?" Knuckles asked Felicia, shyly looking away from her in case she wasn't dressed, "You know you could've changed in the bathroom..." he mumbled. "Uhhh... Dunno where that is." Felicia said bashfully, "I'm ready, Commander! What should I do? Communications, like you said?" she asked. "...Maybe later. We're shorthanded right now. Gonna need your help...to save Sonic!" Knuckles announced, "...So, uh... How do you feel about checkin' out a Chemical Plant?"


Part 2 - Forces Gather

Sonic Forces & all related characters, scenarios and elements are (c) SEGA and Sonic Team.
GeneX and related characters belong to 2BIT.


"I've got a feeling you are there,
Somewhere here in the atmosphere.
I can't escape there's nowhere left for me to hide...

Nowhere to run... Nowhere to hide.
Destiny will vanish forever." - Prison Hall, Sonic Forces

"Hmm... That should've done it." Tails was still alive, after all this time. He was doing what he could on his own, and had managed to find the remains of Omega, who'd been destroyed by Eggman's forces, as far as he could tell. "I couldn't figure it out for you buddy." he said sadly as Omega sat lifeless, "I'm sorry I wasn't smart enough..." he sighed, his voice filled with regrets. Behind him, something was emerging from the city sewer. As he turned, he gasped in alarm. "Whoa! Chaos!" he cried, backing away and then crouching in fear, images of his beating at the hands of Eggman's forces flashing through his mind. "Sonic, help me!" he cried in desperation as Chaos reached for him. Surprisingly, Sonic came. A rift in the very fabric of time and space emerged, and a smaller Sonic sped out, swiftly jumping into Chaos and reducing it to a puddle! Tails turned, his eyes widening. "Sonic? You... you're alive!" he cried, overjoyed. However, he quickly realized it wasn't the Sonic he knew. "Wait, what?" he muttered, looking him over. "Oh, I know! You're one of those OTHER Sonics! Gosh, there's so many... Sorry, I can't quite tell which one you are." he chuckled softly. While they discussed how and why he might be there, Shadow Chaos slithered by, looking over the area Chaos had been. Tails noticed him after a moment. "Shadow Chaos, too??" he murmured. It wasn't paying attention to him. "It doesn't want my tailbands. Could it be looking for regular Chaos?" he wondered. Classic Sonic shrugged. "Yeah, we should probably find Eggman, anyway. That's a good place to start!" he stated. As Tails and Classic headed away, Omega's optical lights flickered. "...Recovery mode...activated..." his voice faintly said. Not too far away, a certain trio of birds broke out of an abandoned building, carrying bags of loot. "Not exactly treasure, but the world's loss is our gain!" Jet the hawk squawked. Wave stopped to examine the recovering Omega. "This bot has Shorty's fingerprints all over it. I wonder if he's nearby?" she murmured. "Who cares!?" Storm grunted, "Let's grab more loot!" The trio halted as a squad of buzzbombers noticed them. "Heat's on, boys! I'd say it's time for a tactical retreat!" Jet suggested.


Troblusk City didn't look great before Eggman's conquest. Now it was in ruins, with Eggtopia being the only building actually in better shape than before. Here, Tommy the porcupine was cautiously walking beside Ridley the coati. Gone was Ridley's police uniform. It seemed unwise to call attention to himself in that way now. "How long since you've last seen Razor?" the orange coati asked. Tommy sighed. "Over a month. You?" he asked. "Sounds about right. Lost track of him while we were evacuating the city... But don't worry, kiddo. We'll find him." Ridley said, trying to sound cheerful. Tommy knew their search wasn't too hopeful, but he smiled at Ridley's kindness in helping him. The two of them jumped as a sewer cover opened up nearby. Katie the coyote poked her head out. "Thought I heard someone up here... Come over here, quick!" she called. They obeyed, though they held their noses a bit. Katie led them down through the sewers. "It's dangerous above. I'll take you to a Resistance safe house. Man, I remember when I ran towards danger for a good story..." she sighed, missing her days of reporting. "I remember that, too..." Tommy groaned. They peeked out of another sewer cover near the town's clock tower. Unfortunately, they found robots attacking the doors, led by Metal Sonic! "If they don't surrender, end them! We're offering them a chance to become perfection, like me..." the robot said with its voice, restored to it roughly a year ago now. "Don't surrender, officers! Fend them off!" shouted former police chief Paynson from inside the doors. After a few shots inside, he changed his tune. "W-we surrender!" he cried. A Wispon flew out the door, clattering at Tommy's feet. He picked up the lightning-shaped weapon, shaking. Ridley then tossed a Chaos Splash attack at Metal Sonic's head! "Hey, bot! You're all washed up!" he yelled. "Tommy! Give me that and get to cover!" Katie stammered. As robots marched their way, Tommy lashed an electric whip at them, smashing a couple! "Uhh... Maybe you take cover, Katie!" he suggested. More shots came from the clock tower windows, angering Metal Sonic. "Don't think this place is safe... I may return with more of ME..." he warned, flying away in a rage.


A few robotisized citizens raged in the containment cell of Shadow Arcangel while Kosmo watched. "Not so fun, is it?" he remarked. "How do you even know? You were in suspended animation!" Punchy pointed out. "Bad dreams..." Kosmo muttered. Sally stood at the nearby war room setup, looking over some maps. "We need to make some sort of...de-robotisizer, or we've already lost. To do that, we need the plans for Eggman's actual robotisizer." she said, glancing across the desk at Uncle Chuck. "...I may have invented part of the technology, but I can't riddle the whole thing out. If I could, I'd fix me." he stated. "Would you, though?" said Zeke the dragon, Experiment 10 and recently added recruit. "Y'all better choose yer words more careful next time..." growled Bunnie, shaking her robotic fist at Zeke in response. Gunner walked over to the desk with Zipp and Spy in tow. "The nice thing about my spy, he's so incompetent no one expects him to sneak in anywhere." he stated. Spy nodded. "Me and Zipp found some intel!" he grinned. "Gunner just wants to give the human the credit! Eggman's storing the plans for his tech in the old GUN Fortress!" he snapped. "Glory hog!" Spy grunted. Sally rubbed her head in annoyance at their arguing. "GUN Fortress? If Eggman's smart he left GUN's security in place, and supplemented it with his own." she stated. Uncle Chuck nodded. "I can get us past Eggman's security. I AM a robot." he smirked. "And Guard can pass GUN's security. Easy." Gunner stated. The communications monitor flickered on at that moment, Felicia appearing on the screen. "Hey, guys... Taking a shuttle to the Death Egg to save Sonic... Um... Wish me luck!" she said nervously. "You'll do fine. I've received the Cards you sent me, Felicia. Rotor'll have a look at 'em while I'm on mission." Chuck stated, "...Save my nephew..." he added softly. As the monitor turned off, Punchy cleared his throat. "She's not going alone...right?" he asked. Vortex crossed his arms. "Knucklessss isss in charge. What do you think?" he hissed without confidence.


While the Freedom Fighters prepared for their mission, Felicia got pretty far into the Death Egg with just a burst Wispon to work with. However, she was soon surrounded by Phantom Pawns. She tripped as she backed away from them, but out of nowhere, Sonic arrived and smashed them to pieces! "Easy there! Everything's cool!" he said, helping her up, "Are you here to rescue me?" he asked, a little surprised, but not because he knew who she was; He didn't recognize her with her repaired eye. Felicia nodded. "Y-yes... It's nice to meet you, Sonic." she responded shyly. Sonic smiled. "Can't tell you how much I appreciate it. It's been a while since I've seen a friendly face." he said, motioning to the robots that had been his main company for six months. "Hey, rookie, you still in one piece?" Knuckles asked over comms. "Oh, sure, don't even bother to ask how I am!" Sonic joked, making Amy cry out in joy at hearing his voice and surprise him. "Hold up, Amy! We're all happy Sonic is alive! But he won't be for long if he doesn't get off that egg in a hurry!" Knuckles said seriously while Sonic and Felicia found their ride off. "Your concern is touching, Knuckles." Sonic said awkwardly as he and Felicia boarded the shuttle. "You can fly this, right?" Sonic asked. "Errr... I flew one up here..." Felicia stated, "Somehow..." she stammered. Sonic nodded with a chuckle. "Cool! You got this, buddy!" he smiled. Knuckles asked Felicia to hand Sonic her comms, so she did, and he whispered to Sonic so only he could hear. "Sonic...your pilot is actually Fera. Amnesia." he stated. Sonic's eyes widened and he started to sweat. "Uhmmm... Oh, whatever, I'm just glad to be outta that cell." he sighed.


To get into the GUN Fortress, a diversion was needed. Shadow Arcangel floated a good distance away from the base, and several groups of Freedom Fighters shimmied down from it using ropes, while Dulcy and Zeke flew out to the fortress directly, blowing fire and wind at the Eggman ships patrolling the airspace. "Catch me if you can, Eggy!" Dulcy teased, leading some ships away. Lucky watched as Zeke led more away. "He's scary, but effective." the cat stated. "Do not be distracting your own self!" Antoine grumbled. "Never mind Antoine. C'mon kid, best foot forward!" Chuck stated. Guard was flying Heather ahead, seeking to get through the initial GUN security measures first. "Grrr... Keep those bees off me, Heather!" he grunted as he flew with her on his back. Heather tossed fire at any approaching Buzzbombers, and soon they reached the fortress. "Retinal scan required..." Guard let the door scan his eye. "Welcome, Agent Guard." it said as the door slid open. "Errr... Guard's really your name?" Heather asked. Guard grunted as they headed inside. "I've always been simply called the Guard." he said. Heather frowned. "That's kinda... like you're a slave. You deserve a real name. Gary...nah." she mumbled. Guard grunted again, but then glanced at Heather. "...What sort of name do you think Mia would like?" he asked. Chuck, Antoine and Lucky followed into the fortress behind Guard and Heather. "How are we knowing when GUN's security ends and Eggplant's security begins?" Antoine asked. They heard an explosion overhead, followed by Dulcy's dizzy voice. "I'll clean up my room later, ma..." Chuck frowned at this. "Whatever we do, better do it fast. I don't think the Freedom Fighters can fight Eggman directly for too long." he reasoned. Lucky held up his sword. "Alright... Let's do it to it! ...Right?" he said awkwardly. "I am thinking ze sword would work better for me, yes?" Antoine muttered. "Use your Wispon, Ant..." Chuck sighed. Antoine looked like he was about to protest, but then frowned and clutched his Wispon. "Maybe ze blue boxy weapon will be working for moi..." he mumbled.

Aside from a few minor skirmishes, there wasn't much trouble in the initial halls of the fortress. As they entered a larger room, though, the doors shut around them, and a strange energy filled the room. Antoine and Lucky shielded their eyes as Firepaw the virus cat appeared in the room. "Meowr! Hello, intruders! Welcome to Virtual Reality! A place where even I, a lowly computer program, can fully exist!" he announced. "Uhh... Does he exist? He is floating in the hair!" Antoine babbled. "In the air, Ant." Lucky corrected. Firepaw was holding a pinkish stone, and gave a toothy, fanged grin as he activated it, sending more energy into a specific point in the room. From that point... Mephiles the Dark emerged! Guard and Heather were observing from across the room, and Heather was shocked. "Him again? No, it can't be!" she cried. Mephiles started to fire energy beams at Antoine, Lucky and Chuck, who each jumped to evade them. "Graaah! Chuck, we need you to pick Eggman's lock!" Guard shouted from the exit. Lucky was busy trying to shoot back at Mephiles with Chaos Spears from the Chaos Sword. "No, no... Don't... More robots will pop out any..." he babbled, to see a robot run by under Mephiles. "I'LL STOP YOU!!" he shouted, firing a spear at the robot! Chuck's groan followed, and then his body sparked, his grunts becoming more metallic in nature. "Sacre bleu-cheese! You zap-ed Uncle Chunk!" Antoine stammered. Lucky gasped. "Oh, what did I do?" he muttered. Chuck snarled at them, stomping towards them with glowing eyes. "Capture Freedom Fighters... Priority One..." he mumbled. "Oh, magnifique job, kitty-cat! Uncle Chunk is robot-ized once again!" Antoine said to chastise Lucky. "S-sorry..." he babbled. Heather had taken over fighting Mephiles, and grunted as his beams pushed her back. "Now what??" she yelped. "Now, you all get robotisized! Me-owr..." Firepaw grinned. "Not if I am having anything to say about it! Take zat!" Antoine said, trying to fire his cube Wispon. A blue cube surrounded Mephiles, but he broke right out. "...Can we be trading, kitty cat?" Antoine asked.

Guard flew over to block a beam from Mephiles with his scythe, protecting Heather as the dark chose to go after her. "Grrr... Can you take care of that cat? ...The red one up there, I mean." he specified as Lucky squirmed. While they fought Mephiles and now Firepaw, Antoine and Lucky tried to get Uncle Chuck under control. "Capture...Freedom Fighters!!" he snarled, pushing the cat and coyote down. "Off! I am warning you, Uncle Chunk, I have ze black and blue belts!" Antoine grunted. A tap on his shoulder made Antoine jump. "What's happened to Chuck?!" came the voice of Sally. Lucky looked at her sheepishly. "I...I messed up, princess..." he murmured. Sally nodded. "I can tell that, I heard the yelling over comms. You guys forget about them?" she asked. Antoine poked his ears. "I am thinking mines are not working both ways..." he murmured. Sally had her handheld computer, Nicole, out and scanning Chuck. A hologram of a Lynx appeared to communicate with her. "His circuitry has been jolted, causing him to revert to old programming. I can supply a counter-jolt that should return his senses." she reported. Chuck was shambling toward her like a zombie, and Sally quickly took a cable from her vest pocket, attaching it to Nicole before jamming the other end into Chuck's nose. "That is not an approved socket, Sally." Nicole stated. "We don't have time for finesse, Nicole!" Sally insisted. A jolt surged through Uncle Chuck, and with a pained scream, he fell over! "...Why are my nose hairs tingling?" he grunted. "Later. Let's get that intel, quick!" Sally said urgently. Meanwhile, Guard and Heather teamed up, sending an energy beam from Guard's scythe writhed in flame, which knocked down Mephiles, causing him to vanish! "Meowr... You can look around here, but all you'll get is the runaround. Bye!" the cat taunted as he vanished, too. Indeed, moments later, Sally returned with a disappointed look. "I have a location on the robotisizer blueprints...which means they weren't HERE." she sighed, "Time to fall back!" she ordered. "Whatever! I need a break anyway..." Zeke replied via comms. "Comin' home, ma..." Dulcy added woozily.


Tails and Classic Sonic had tracked down Eggman after some searching. After hearing that Sonic was alive and catching wind of a "Phantom Ruby", Tails watched Classic Sonic wreck Eggman's third Egg Dragoon. As the duo met up at the crash site of the Egg Mobile, celebrating their win, Eggman cackled at them. "Look at you, fighting like you've got a chance to win! It's adorable!" he said as his Egg Mobile slid over a bit on the ground, "Almost makes me feel bad that we're never going to do this little dance again." The doctor held up three fingers. "In just three short days, my plan will eliminate the bothersome lot of you!" he announced. Tails looked skeptical. "Three days? And what's this plan?" he asked. "If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise!" Eggman said as he began working his Egg Mobile around to be ready to fly again. "You know what they say, the anticipation of the end is worse than the end itself." he sneered as his Egg Mobile began floating, "Maybe not in this case, though. Mwa-hahaha!!" he laughed as he flew away from Tails and Classic. Tails glanced at his friend. "This isn't good. We gotta tell somebody, right, Sonic?" he asked. Classic Sonic shrugged, and started running ahead. Tails scrambled to catch up, his eyes filled with worry. "Eggman thinks he can finish all of us... Oh, I hope Cream will be safe where I left her... But, wait... Hey, Sonic!! Slow down!! I think we forgot something else Eggman said!!" he called, trying to slow down his companion. Earlier, Infinite had told Eggman WHERE Sonic had been. This was worth checking out!


Felicia was able to make a report with Uncle Chuck once both had returned from their missions. "That's excellent! Hey, is Sonic there? Can I talk to him?" Chuck asked. Felicia looked around. "I think he's busy right now. There's been a big to-do over here. I guess you get that when you come back from the dead." she smiled. Guard was glancing over Chuck's shoulder as he talked to her. "Grr... I guess you would know..." he muttered. "Huh? What did your friend say?" Felicia asked. Heather tugged Guard away. "C'mon. We're finding you a name. How about Greg?" she asked as Guard winced. Sonic stepped up behind Felicia. "Hey, buddy! 'Sup! Is that my Unc? Hey, Unc! Still fightin' the good fight?" Sonic said excitedly. Chuck nodded. "Juicin' and jammin. Or whatever. We're hot on the trail of the original robotisizer plans." he reported. Felicia stepped away while Sonic caught up with his uncle. "Way to go, Rookie! I'll make a fighter of you yet!" Knuckles smiled as she approached, "Oh, hey, this came in for you. That Rotor's a quick worker. It's a Wispon that draws on your Chaos Cards for ammo..." he said, showing a compartment that held her deck of magic cards, "With this...you have access to ALL Wispon abilities! Or so Rotor says. Use it well, Fer...uhhh...my feral wolf friend!" he chuckled, handing her the Wispon. Felicia examined it. "...Will this help me get stronger? And if so...is that my...destiny?" she muttered. Sonic, meanwhile, whispered to Chuck. "They sent Fera to save me of all people." he said. Chuck rubbed his head. "What, Felicia? What's wrong with her, sonny?" he asked. Sonic chuckled softly. "Forgot... time travel. I still don't know how much you know. Well, she tried to kill me once..." he said, glancing back at her, "But you know, Unc... I think that's in the past now. I dunno... She looks like... I can trust her." he said. "War has a way of uniting people just as it tears others apart, Sonic. Take the blessings of friendship you get." Chuck advised him. "I will Unc! And I'll see ya soon!" Sonic winked. They'd worked well together taking out Eggman's arsenal at Green Hill not long ago, anyway. Felicia stepped up next to Sonic after a moment. "I just got called to the city. Our forces are busy at Seaside Hill and they... want ME to beat back Eggman." she gulped. Sonic patted her shoulder. "Hey, don't be scared! This is your moment to shine!" he winked, "If you need me, I'll race out there. Gotta rest a bit after Infinite beat me up again. Gotta learn the secret of his power..." he mumbled. Felicia nodded. "O-okay... Thanks, Sonic." she smiled.


Tommy and Ridley were ultimately led to a GUN Warship, which was taking anyone willing to fight to the Freedom Fighters. Katie remained behind, intending to continue helping at the safe houses. "Not all of us are cut out for combat." she'd said. Sitting next to Tommy on the warship was Gemini, who'd still been searching for the long-missing Libra through Eggman's invasion, but now also had Copter to search for. "And your brother's missing?" she said after talking with Tommy, "This war is awful... Maybe I can do something..." she said, clutching her wand in her hand. She knew she shouldn't. The past was the past, and she being from the future, she shouldn't change things she hadn't come to change. But she'd grown attached to this world now...not fighting for it seemed even more wrong. The GUN Warship rendezvoused with Shadow Arcangel, and Tommy and Ridley went to check in with Bucky since Ridley happened to be one of his experiments. Gemini, however, was quickly met with a hug as she stepped into the ship. "Gem! It's great to see you!" It was Punchy. Kosmo was holding a map behind him. "See Rainbow by any chance?" Punchy asked. Gemini sighed. "I've found no one. Glad I ran into you, though. Can I help?" she asked. Kosmo nodded. "We have a mission. Right up your alley; We gotta check out Eggman's library." he said. Gemini looked at him funny. "Well, you always lug around that spell book." Punchy said. "...Jokes aren't your thing, Kosmo. But okay, I'll go." she said calmly. How bad could a library be?


Rainbow could see through the Chaos Crystal that Punchy and Gemini were reunited. "Wanda's safe, good..." she murmured, glancing at Illusi. He was curled up, asleep on the floor. Rainbow looked at the crystal again and sighed. "One's doing his best to help the whole world. I can't just sit here!" she said, getting up. "I'll leave the crystal with Mousy. He'll keep it safe..." she muttered, heading for the nearest door. She hurried out of it so fast, she didn't see beyond it. They were high in the sky! Illusi had placed her in a large tower in the forest. "How many Dream Buildings are in this forest, anyway??!" she yelled as she fell from the doorway that didn't lead anywhere! "Noooooo!!" She shut her eyes as she fell, only to stop falling suddenly. "Hey! I caught a falling rodent!" Opening her eyes, she found herself in the arms of Jet the Hawk. Wave and Storm were flying beside him. "Hey...birdies... What're you doin' up here?" Rainbow asked in bewilderment. Storm snickered. "Gotta go somewhere safe when we ain't lootin'!" he stated. "Drop her off, Jet. She'll only slow us down." Wave suggested. Jet looked at Rainbow curiously. "Think you can help carry some loot? C'mon, you owe me for saving your life..." he grinned. Rainbow nodded slowly. It wasn't like she had much choice now...

"Destiny lies before you.
I believe we have the power.
Can you see the horizon?
Victory's for the taking!" - Park Avenue, Sonic Forces

"Why'd they send ME with you?" Rotor said, nervously following Punchy, Kosmo and Gemini as they headed for the library, "I'm our lead scientist, not a fighter." he groaned. "That's WHY you're here. We don't know robotisizer plans from toaster oven plans!" Punchy pointed out. Kosmo held them back as they neared the entrance. "Guards..." he grunted. The Deadly Six, all of them, were standing around the door. "Oh, how NICE of Dr. Eggman to give us this cushy library-guarding job..." Zik grumbled. "You didn't see the boss get CREAMED!" Zazz shivered. A seventh Zeti, Zim, was also there. "Worst part is we can't even control his robots anymore. It's like they're...fake." he mumbled. "How will we get past all of them?" Punchy wondered. "You won't." Looking up, they saw Cancer flying towards them. "Y-you!" Gemini gasped, recognizing him. She fired a bolt from her wand at him. "Go on ahead, I'll hold this guy off!" she cried. Kosmo nodded. "You guys run, I'll handle the Doofy Six..." he said, morphing into Zavok himself. "Stand aside, boys! That Zavok is an imposter!" he shouted. The other six Zeti jumped aside, giving Punchy an opening to speed Rotor into the library with his Chaos Boots! "You idiots! He's the imposter!! Do my eyes glow yellow!?" he shouted. Zomom looked at him. "...Kinda." he pointed out. "No, our eyes don't GLOW!!" Zeena hissed, turning on Kosmo. Meanwhile, Gemini saw Aries coming to aid Cancer. "Got a friend, huh? I don't care. I knew you couldn't be trusted the moment I saw you, vulture!" she shouted, firing a bolt at Aries, too. He repelled the first shot with a staff he carried, but the second struck his helmet, knocking it off! Gemini backed up, her eyes widening as she saw the face of Copter under the helmet. "Wh-what?? Copter...why!?" she stammered. Cancer grinned. "I offered him something your friends couldn't. Speaking of..." he said, glancing at "Aries." Copter saw Punchy running Rotor out of the library as he placed the helmet back on his head. "Take this..." he grunted, firing a blast from his staff that knocked them both over! Kosmo turned with a start, seeing Rotor holding his leg on the ground, the blueprints dropped beside him. "Let's go!" he grunted, rushing over to grab the blueprints while Punchy got back up to pick up Rotor. Cancer and Aries were fleeing when Gemini turned back around. "...What happened to you, Copter?" she whispered, warping her team away with her magic as the Deadly Six tried to pursue them. "...Eggman's gonna kill us..." Zazz whined. "We'll blame the Chao in the basement..." Zavok grunted.


Felicia had gone to Mystic Jungle, tracking a couple of life readings in the area. It was a treacherous trip through the Aqua Road, but she soon found her way to what appeared to be Eggman's lab. Outside the lab, she noticed something sparkling. It was a pinkish stone, which she picked up. It glowed a bit as she held it. "What is this? ...It's kinda pretty... I guess I'll hold on to it." she said, pocketing it, "But...where are those people I was looking for?" she murmured. Suddenly, Classic Sonic ran up, waving Tails over. "Hey... he looks like Sonic...like, a KID Sonic..." she babbled. Tails looked at Felicia carefully. "Have we met before?" he asked. Felicia nodded. "The Tournament of Chaos. I won the cards, you won those bracelet things." she smiled. Tails scratched his head. "No...it's not that... Or is it? When I flew up, I thought I recognized you from somewhere else. Weird..." he muttered. Felicia nodded, brushing her bangs with an awkward expression. "Yeah...weird..." she said, as though wondering whether it was actually weird at all. She glanced back at Tails. "I think I've been looking for you. Care to accompany me back to Resistance HQ? I think... Sonic might want to see you two..." she muttered. Tails' face lit up. "Sonic!? You know Sonic!? Well, sure, of course we'll come! Lead the way!!" he said excitedly. In the back of his mind, he felt weird about seeing Knuckles again after their fight, but his joy at being able to see Sonic outweighed it. Plus, there were more important things right now than who said what to who and why. They could have that out when Eggman wasn't about to destroy them. At least now, Mystic Jungle was officially reclaimed from Eggman by the Resistance!


After a while, Rotor was set up in a wheelchair back in Shadow Arcangel's lab, a cast on his foot. Much of the Freedom Fighters were gathered in the lab so Uncle Chuck could present his analysis of the strange energy they'd encountered back at the GUN Fortress. "At first, I couldn't tell anything about the energy signatures that Nicole happened to read while we were in that room with Mephiles; Thanks for naming that thing, Heather. But then Lucky reminded me that Firepaw said something about Virtual Reality. Turns out, that's what it is. A form of Virtual Reality." he announced. "So, Eggman can recreate people with Virtual Reality tech, now?" Bucky stated. A monitor in the room showed Rouge the bat's face. "Yep, you got it, rat boy." she said, "The Shadow working for the doctor was fake, too. His agent, Infinite, can create well, infinite copies of just about whatever Eggman wants." she stated. Gunner groaned. "Leave it to Ivo to keep data on that Dark freak lying around." he grumbled. Sally sighed. "Well, I hope the Resistance has a plan for this. We'll be working on the de-robotisizer in the meantime." she stated. Rouge shrugged. "Might not matter. According to Tails, Eggman's got a plan that'll wipe us all out in just three little days." she informed them. "Three days!?" Tommy stammered. "Who let a kid in my lab?" Bucky grunted. "His reaction is valid, though. How can he even do that??" Gemini stated. Sally crossed her arms. "We can't ignore that intel, but we can't let it rattle us either. Everyone take five. I need to think about our next move..." she announced. "WE need to think about it." Gunner growled. "...Your help would be appreciated." Sally told him. Gunner scoffed. "I'll bet..." he grumbled.


At the same time, Sonic found Shadow back at Resistance HQ. The real Shadow was with them now, but Sonic wondered why no one knew he wasn't working for Eggman before this point. "So, you're back, Sonic..." Shadow scoffed, "For how long, though? Do you know why I disappeared?" he said. Sonic shrugged. "It was because you dropped out of the Tournament. You haven't been taking this little rivalry of ours seriously. The only reason I entered that dumb tournament was to get a chance to spar with the only hedgehog that almost equals myself in power." he told him. Sonic sighed. "Well, gee, Shadow, sorry my uncle going missing wasn't CONVENIENT for you. It's not like I was avoiding you specifically." he pointed out, "And... I had no idea you missed our little play dates, Shadow." he winked. Shadow looked away from him. "Whatever... I buried myself in my work out of boredom, that's all." he said. Not far away, Tails and Knuckles were having something of a reunion, too. They both looked at each other a bit awkwardly. "...I'm...glad you're okay, Tails." Knuckles said. The fox nodded. "Yeah, me too. I... I'm sorry, Knuckles... I said some awful things..." Tails started, only for Knuckles to raise his hand. "I'm sorry too, buddy. I got so wrapped up in the Resistance, I lost track of your feelings. And lost track of you, too. We could've used you. Maybe if my pride was less hurt by you, we'd have worked harder to find you... Ugh, that didn't come out quite right..." he grunted, rubbing his head. Tails sighed. "Don't worry about it. We both messed up. Let's just try to work together now, deal?" Tails asked. Knuckles shook his hand. "Sure thing, heh!" he smiled.


Meanwhile, the Freedom Fighter recruits had a moment to rest and take in what they'd heard. "Three days?" Lucky whimpered, "And I thought I was nervous before..." Zeke laughed at him. "You should be! How'd a wimp like you end up with the Chaos Sword?" he taunted. Conan the raccoon sat across from him, having recently joined up with the Freedom Fighters. "I wonder that, too, dragon." he grumbled, glaring at his old sword in Lucky's hands, "I'll put my Chaos Wing to good use here, but...it's not the same." the raccoon grunted. A wild-haired human was making his way through the hall that the recruits were resting in, and saluted when he found Guard. "Dr. Nammad, uh, reporting for duty, uh, sir! I heard your chief scientist was, uh, out of commission!" he stated. "Grr... No, he's just gotta stay out of the field." Guard stated, "But whatever. Gunner's that way..." he said, pointing. Heather was sitting nearby. "Hmm... You sure you're happy with your name?" she asked. Guard shrugged. "Grrr... I think there are bigger things to worry about now." he stated. Tommy and Ridley were trying to chat with another recent arrival, Bark the polar bear, but he only responded in grunts and growls. "Not a talker, but I get the sense he's missing some friends, too..." Ridley sighed. Antoine was busy bragging about his last mission to Bunnie, overselling his contribution a bit. "Uh, huh... Real great, Ant. So, you're not worried 'bout the whole three-days-to-doomsday thing?" she asked. Antoine thought about it. "Wait... We are doom-ed? Are you sure!?" he stammered, nervous. "Uhh... Nooo, never mind..." Bunnie sighed, walking away. If he missed that detail earlier, best he not fret about it. Amidst all this, Gemini took a deep breath and looked for Punchy. She had to tell him exactly who hurt Rotor. She found him heading for the war room. "Punchy! Wait! ...I'm sorry you guys got shot at..." she sighed. "Eh, you froze. It happens." Punchy shrugged. Gemini tugged his arm. "I froze because of who was under that helmet..." she stated. Punchy stared at her. "What? We know that dude?" he muttered. "Punchy... It was Copter. He... he's working with that nasty vulture." she told him. Punchy stared at her. "What?? That...makes no sense. So, do they work for Eggman?" he asked. Gemini shrugged. "I don't know, but I don't think Copter's in his right mind... He wouldn't even talk to me." she said. Punchy nodded. "No choice. You'd better tell Bucky. He'll know what to do. Or he'll have some weirdly fatherly thing to say about it. Or he'll zap you. Dude's unpredictable as heck." he said, walking away. Gemini stared at him as he left. "Th-then why do I have to tell him!?" she stammered. "Because we want to watch!" said Zipp, flitting across the way with Vortex beside him. "Now we've lossst Crasssh and Copter? Jussst great." Vortex sighed. "Yeah, what's next, Whisk gonna turn up robotisized?" Zipp smirked. Vortex swatted at him. "You sssaid that jussst to upssset me, you pessst!!" he hissed. Gemini groaned as she watched them. "Fine, I'll spread the word..." she whined.

In the war room, Sally was in communication with Knuckles. "Eggman's base in Metropolis is vulnerable. I'm launching an attack to try and take it! I'm callin' it 'Operation Big Wave!' We could use your help, just in case Eggman puts up a fight!" he stated. Sally scratched her head. "Sounds kind of like a trap, Knuckles. Why would Eggman leave his capital vulnerable?" she pointed out. Knuckles nodded. "I hear ya, but with three days until annihilation, we can't afford to pass on any breaks there might be just to be cautious. You gonna help or not?" he asked. Sally looked unsure. "Is Sonic going?" she asked. "Well, uhhh... A Sonic..." Knuckles replied sheepishly. "I don't like how you said that. I really can't spare anybody. We wouldn't make it in time, anyway..." she sighed. "I can make it!" Punchy announced, coming up behind her, "I'll save your tail, red!" he smirked. Kosmo joined him. "I'm obviously not gonna find Carrie here. Might as well check the Resistance." he said. Knuckles nodded. "Great! Uh, you don't mind workin with, uhhh..." he said, glancing back at Felicia behind him. Punchy and Kosmo groaned together. "I'll swallow my pride. Maybe this is karma. Dark me did try to kill her." Punchy said. "I don't need your karma!" Kosmo sighed, "But I'll still come." Sally nodded. "Okay. Come back in one piece, you two. We could really use you back." she said, heading back to her maps to continue thinking of plans. Felicia approached the monitor to talk to Punchy and Kosmo. "Hey! Haven't seen you guys since the big Tournament! Glad to have you on our side! I was nervous Sonic wasn't gonna be here. Good to have other friendly faces! See you!" she said before hanging up. Punchy and Kosmo shared looks of shock. "We sure that's Fera?" Kosmo asked. "I'm sure of nothing these days..." Punchy replied. With that, the pair struck out to join Operation Big Wave. Could Eggman be stopped within three days? The gauntlet was thrown, and it was up to everyone to do their best to save their world now!


Part 3 - Passing Days

Sonic Forces & all related characters, scenarios and elements are (c) SEGA and Sonic Team.
GeneX and related characters belong to 2BIT.


"Nothing's real, it's all a game.
We will win, make no mistake.
You must trust your heart, not what you see." - Capital City, Sonic Forces


Word had reached the Babylon Rogues that Metropolis was undermanned, and likely to be invaded. As such, they began flying around the outskirts of the city, planning to steal what they could take. Eggman had to have tons of valuables stashed in his capital, right? Metropolis was a very modern-looking city, where even the trees were robotic. Rainbow was nervous as she wandered behind the rogues. "This can't be a good idea. Don't you think Tubby will still have lots of security?" she murmured as they proceeded into the city. "Don't be a coward! We'll handle anything dangerous. You just grab stuff!" Jet squawked. "Looks like the attack is underway." Wave pointed, seeing squads of animals charging into the city ahead. Felicia had swung across the sky with a grapple hook the Resistance had supplied her with, and gritted her teeth as Infinite flew by her. "Infinite! Activate the Phantom Ruby! Make them wish they'd never been born!" Eggman ordered over his own comms. As strange energy erupted from Infinite, the entire city seemed to transform! Giant monsters wearing Infinite's mask began to rampage through Metropolis, and gravity itself turned topsy-turvy in places! "Wh-wh-whoooa!!" Storm stuttered, flying out of the way as an enormous clawed foot stomped down on the spot he'd been hovering! The rogues scattered in the sudden chaos, and Rainbow fell back from the shockwave caused by the monster's stomp! "Eeeek!! Wh-what is that thing!? Someone help meeee!!" she cried, covering her head in her hands as she shivered before the horrific creature. Suddenly, she heard blasts whiz past her head, and the monster lifted its foot away in response to apparent pain. Rainbow looked up to see Shade the echidna, wearing the Chaos Gauntlets on her hands! She glanced at Rainbow. "You okay? Where's your Wispon, soldier?" she asked. Rainbow stuttered nervously. "Uhhh, I'm n-not a soldier..." she said. Shade nodded. "I see... Come with me, then. I'll keep you safe!" she offered. Rainbow nodded. "Thanks, Nocturna!" she smiled. Shade tilted her head. "Ohh... I remember you now... Greeeeat..." she sighed.

"Snake Squad, requesting reinforcements!" Punchy could tell over comms that the battle wasn't going well. "This is Fox Squad! We can't hold out much more!" Kosmo looked at him grimly as they walked on the side of a building thanks to a change in gravity. "80% of our Forces have been wiped out! We've lost contact with the rest!" Amy reported in panic. "One flip of the Phantom Ruby switch, and everything falls apart on us!" Vector added in frustration. Punchy and Kosmo nodded and switched off their comms at that moment. "On our own..." Punchy grunted. "You mean on my own..." Kosmo sighed, spotting Infinite flying around. He morphed into his gargoyle form and took off after the jackal while Punchy took off into a run, hoping to find a way to catch up. "Let me know if you need a big chunk of building tossed at him or something!" Punchy shouted. Infinite noticed Kosmo headed his way, but he was focused on following Felicia. "You bore me... Fight with something more your league..." he murmured, activating the Phantom Ruby again. Kosmo suddenly found his progress halted by his exact duplicate, even mimicking his gargoyle form! "Real creative! If you're gonna use me, you could at least use a different form! Like this!" Kosmo said, morphing into a feral eagle and starting to peck viciously at his copy. The copy morphed its hands into saw blades and started to slice them in his direction! Punchy stopped running and stared in shock at the scene. "Infinite can copy Kosmo... Yeah, we're screwed." he said, and then dashed out of the way as a giant Infinite monster slapped its hand into the building he was standing on. "Your big wave washed out, Knux..." Punchy groaned before turning on comms and hearing Knuckles say the same thing. "Damn, I am his clone..." Punchy groaned.

Infinite stood bored as the attack continued, but was fizzling out. "More ants to crush. I wonder if this world can offer me a real challenge." At that moment, Felicia caught back up to him. "And as if to answer, the world sends me a trembling child." Felicia certainly looked rattled. The trip had been nightmarish. Infinite sped over to her. "Are you going to fight and die here? Or run away in fear again?" he whispered in her ear. Felicia backed up, but began to remember some encouraging words Sonic had said prior to their missions. "...Sonic... You're right... I can't be scared." she thought, and made a fist. "Fine. I will teach you fear, then pain." Infinite stated, rising up, "And then... well, at least the fear and pain will end." he sneered.

While fleeing in a panic, the Babylon Rogues flew directly into the path of Silver, who held them still with his powers. "You guys didn't come with us..." he stated, "You with Eggman?" he asked. "Oh, please, Eggman's only in it for himself!" Jet squawked. "Kinda like us!" Storm added. "That's not helping, Storm..." Wave groaned. Tails and Classic Sonic were there, too. "...You're lookin' short today, Sonic. But hey, I heard you were dead." Jet muttered. Classic shrugged, and Tails sighed. "We'd better keep an eye on these three. They're not exactly trustworthy... Hey, guys, where's the Rookie?" he asked through comms. "We've lost contact." Espio stated. "Oh, I hope Eggman didn't get her..." Amy sighed. "Why didn't we bring Sonic and Shadow again?" Charmy asked. "More fake Shadows were spotted in the city..." Knuckles groaned, "I wonder if Eggman DID know we'd try this. Sally was right. It was a trap..." Tails nodded. "Then we'd better retreat... Hopefully the Rookie will meet us at the rendesvouz point..." he sighed.

Felicia had been fighting Infinite. During the battle, one thing he said stuck with her. "Those eyes...I feel like we've met before..." But she couldn't linger on anything too much. Her special Wispon, equipped with the Chaos Cards, switched between spouting flames to take out oncoming robots to firing "asteroid" projectiles to fight back against Infinite. Ultimately, though, he began to gain the upper hand as Felicia dropped the strange gem she'd found earlier. "I remember you!" Infinite declared, "You ran from me before. You survived then, but you throw it all away now. Curious." he said as Felicia picked up the gem again. Infinite created a ring of turrets around Felicia, ready to finish her off. "This will be good bye." he said. However, as the shots fired, and Felicia tried to duck, clutching the gem, the bullets fizzled and went through her, causing no damage! "What? How is this possible? It can't be... How did you?" Infinite babbled in shock. He tried to fire again, but Felicia managed to jump out of the way, only for Infinite to smack her back down! "No matter. They only have two days left. Let them contemplate the inevitable until I end this once and for all." Infinite said before leaving Felicia alone. Realizing the mission was failed, Felicia slowly stood up and started to retreat, clutching the odd gem. "...How DID I do that?" she asked herself. A strange memory flashed in her head, one she didn't recognize. "...Illusions..." she babbled, rubbing her head.


Elsewhere, a think-tank of scientists were gathered around a metal tube in Shadow Arcangel's lab. Bunnie Rabbot sat inside, looking nervous. "Don't, uh, worry. No harm will come to...me." Dr. Nammad said, his small glasses replaced with huge safety goggles. Rotor sat back in his wheelchair and sighed. "We're sure you won't robotisize further if this goes bad, Bunnie." he assured her. "Well, we've calculated the best we could. I think the Phantom Ruby might be involved with Eggman's final design, though...possibly." Bucky murmured, looking over the blueprints. "No time for checkin' our work now, Stein! It's testing time! Let 'er rip!" Uncle Chuck shouted, throwing a switch. Sally and Gunner watched as well as the metal tube shut, and the ship experienced turbulence as it drew power to try and de-robotisize Bunnie. Sadly, as the tube opened, all Bunnie had was a bad case of static electricity and the same robotic limbs. "Y'all can be the guinea pig next, Chuck..." she coughed. Bucky groaned. "It's like I said. Our power source isn't compatible!" he stated. "Well, uh... Not like we can get a Phantom Ruby." Nammad grumbled. "We can't give up..." Chuck sighed, "There must be an alternative." Gunner scoffed and began to walk away. Outside the lab, he found Guard casually standing with Heather, who was cheerfully chatting with him. "Stand away, feathers. I have personal business with my guard." Gunner snapped. "He deserves a real name, you know." Heather scoffed as she stepped away. Gunner smirked at her. "Ridiculous. But Guard... You haven't forgotten your feline friend, have you?" Gunner asked. Guard looked at him with curiosity. "Grr... Why do you bring her up?" he grunted. Gunner held up a smart phone. "I received this image via intel... You need to see it." He seemed to take sadistic pleasure in showing Guard an image of Mia...robotisized, and marching with Eggman's troops. Guard's normally gruff face showed a flicker of emotion...of sorrow, even. Gunner nodded. "We need a power source for the de-robotisizer. I can count on you to do ANYTHING to get it, right?" he smirked. Guard nodded. "Anything..." he said, turning. Heather was behind him. "...You're not going alone." she said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Gunner nodded. "Whatever..." he grumbled, turning away, "Anything to wreck Ivo's army..."


Resistance HQ was turning into more of a hospital after Operation Big Wave. Shade had gotten Rainbow there in one piece, though, and the pair soon found where the Babylon Rogues were being held prisoner. "Serves you three right for ditching me." she huffed. Shade nodded. "Cowards. What good will looting be after Eggman kills everyone?" she snapped. "Hey...That's a good question..." Storm mumbled. "We don't answer to these guys!" Jet squawked. Rainbow nodded. "Of course you don't. But this is your world, too. How can you just let it die?" she asked. She yelped as a sudden hug from behind startled her. "Rainbow! You're alive!!" Punchy cried, cuddling her in his arms as she blushed at his unusually affectionate reaction to finding her. "One! Y-yeah, I'm okay. I came to find you, actually! Lucky you were here!" she giggled. "Lucky about a lot of things!" said Illusi as he stomped over. Punchy glared at him. "You... You kidnapped Rainbow, didn't you!?" he growled. "You're lucky I did or she'd be dead! How could you let her out of your sight during an invasion!?" Illusi snapped, "And you! It's not MY job to guard your crystal!" he said to Rainbow. "Mousy, quit trying to control things. We can't hide in your tower when there's a war going on." she said. "What's all the yelling?" asked Felicia as she walked by. Illusi looked at her in surprise. "N-nothing... Y-you're..." he babbled. "Felicia. Are you okay?" she asked, noting he was looking rather pale. "Y-yeah..." he said, turning to see Rainbow talking to Jet. "Alright, girlie. We'll help out here. You talked me into it..." he sighed. Illusi blinked a bit, and Rainbow turned with a smile. "...Fine, maybe... I have been a bit shortsighted. In that case, how can I help?" the shrew asked. "Any medical training?" Shade questioned, "As you can tell, that operation went BAD." she stated. Illusi nodded. "Herbal medicine, mostly. I'll see what I can do..."


Tommy was training with his lightning Wispon as Ridley watched, when Guard and Heather passed them on the way out of the ship. "Hey, sis and bro, got a mission?" Ridley asked them. "We're...not related..." Heather grunted, glaring at him a little. Ridley sighed. "Still cross about my history with Despair, are you? I've been a cop for about a year, what have you done lately?" he asked. Guard grunted. "We're headed to Angel Island. Grrr... The Master Emerald may suffice to power the de-robotisizer." he said. Tommy looked at him curiously. "Did we ask Knuckles first?" he asked. Guard grunted and resumed heading for the exit. "H-hey! You two can't go alone!" Tommy stammered. Heather glanced at him. "I'd hate to see you get hurt..." she frowned. Tommy cracked the lightning whip at a bottle set up across the room, shattering it. "...I'll be fine." he smiled. Ridley nodded. "I'll watch the kid." he grinned. "Hey!" Tommy chuckled. Guard rolled his eyes. "Fine. Grrr... Don't slow us down anymore!" he grumbled.


The Resistance came to the conclusion that the Phantom Ruby had to be dealt with in order to defeat Eggman and Infinite. In order to learn more about it, Classic Sonic and Tails ventured to Chemical Plant to check out Eggman's database for information. This left the rest of the Resistance with little to do...except deal with the reappearance of Metal Sonic. Sonic and Felicia had gone to check it out, finding a powered-up Phantom Ruby duplicate of Metal Sonic. Together, they defeated it at Red Gate Bridge. While Felicia caught her breath, Sonic was looking a bit excited. "Hey! That was great! We were like a well-oiled machine...fighting a well-oiled machine." he said, looking at Felicia and giving her a warm smile as he extended his fist. She smiled back and gave him a fist bump. "Thanks, Sonic... You're really making me feel like a member of the team." she giggled. Sonic chuckled in response. "Well, that's 'cuz you are...partner!" he winked. He never thought he'd be such friends with Fera...these were strange times, but they were bringing out the best in everyone, it seemed.


Guard and company took a re-purposed Eggman shuttle to Angel Island, but they didn't get far before they found the path blocked by fighting. Eggman's forces were trying to contain a very angry Shadow Chaos, while Anubis watched the robots get trashed with irritation. "How did they conquer the world if they cannot capture a puddle of dirty water?" he growled. Freeze the Gizoid stood beside him. "I'd deal with it myself, but I'm only here to keep you in check... Eggman doesn't trust you." the robot hissed. Heather pointed Guard's group down a different direction. "Let's go around. No sense wasting time fighting if they're busy." she stated. After some walking, they found themselves starting to feel chilly. "I th-thought we weren't going into the snowy region?" Ridley complained, wishing now he at least still wore his uniform for a little extra warmth. Guard grunted. "We weren't... This isn't IceCap..." he stated. Looking around, they saw the frozen remnants of ferris wheels, colorful barrels, and deflated balloons. "A... carnival?" Tommy stammered. They proceeded through the frozen carnival, careful where they stepped so as not to fall through the ice into frigid waters. Soon, they heard an angry roar ahead of them. "Uh oh... Someone's here." Heather muttered. One of the colorful barrels was suddenly smashed aside as a black echidna emerged... Dark Punchy!? He flickered before them, apparently a Phantom Ruby duplicate. "Grrr! So, Eggman acquired data on him, too?" Guard grunted. Robots were approaching as well, but Guard remembered Mia's robotisized face. "...Whatever it takes!" he snarled, flying up and ditching the others! "G-guard! Wait!!" Heather shouted, dashing after him! Dark Punchy tried to catch her as she passed, but Ridley hurled a Chaos Splash attack at him, which shattered as an ice ball as it hit! "...Dang, it's cold here!" Ridley remarked.

Tommy started lashing his lightning whip at oncoming Phantom Pawns while Ridley tried to keep Dark Punchy occupied. "Put a Knuckles clone to guard the Master Emerald, real funny Eggman!" the coati grumbled as he dodged a dark energy blast tossed from Dark Punchy's fists! "I'm even better! I'm free of any of those other echidna's self-righteous ideas of morality! No one will stop me from killing you...not even the child!" Dark Punchy sneered, turning in Tommy's direction. "Hey, you leave him alone! Chaos Splatter!!" Ridley's explosion of water turned into an explosion of icicles, forcing even Tommy to do a little dance to dodge them. "Ridley!!" he whined, and hastily lashed the whip at Dark Punchy as he approached. The dark echidna caught the whip, and sent dark lightning coursing back through it, zapping Tommy and making him yelp in pain! "N-no!!" Ridley gasped, unsure what to do. Suddenly, bolts of light rained down from the sky, systematically taking out the robots before piercing through Dark Punchy, making him vanish! Looking around, they saw a figure standing on the frozen ferris wheel. He jumped down, letting them get a better look. It was...Razor the porcupine! He had a great bow strapped to his back, and a very serious expression on his face. "Bro! Y-you're alive!!" Tommy cried, running over to hug him, but Razor backed up a step. "...I am Sagittarius. You need to leave this place. It's not safe." he said. Ridley rubbed his head. "Aw, Razor...Don't tell me you've been brainwashed like Copter? Please, come back with us!" he said, hoping his partner was still in there. A pair of angelic wings spread out from Razor's back. "I haven't seen Copter. And I'm not brainwashed. Get safe." he said before flapping his wings and flying away. Tommy stared sadly. "Did... Did he die?" he asked.

Guard arrived at the Master Emerald's shrine, and Heather wasn't far behind him. "You can't just ditch your teammates!" she cried. "Grrr... I work alone." Guard grunted. "Like fun you do! You work for GUN!" she snapped. "And GUN is no more!" Guard snarled. As they argued, Shadow Chaos emerged before them, heading for the Master Emerald. "Gr? Stop!" Guard stammered, moving to chase it, only to find Aries suddenly in his path. "I'm not here to make your resistance fail..." he stated calmly, "Just to weaken you... to draw out our true enemies." he said, pointing his staff at Guard. "Grrr... I know you're Copter. Your friend told everyone." he growled. Aries opened the front of his helmet, glaring at Guard. "Then think of this as payback...old 'friend.'" he said, preparing to fire at Guard, only for Razor/Sagittarius to land in front of him and parry the blast with a bolt fired from his bow! "You wanted our attention, Aries. You got it!" he said, the Deathbringer also landing beside him. Aries smirked. "I've been dead before. Good luck making it stick..." While the three of them started fighting right in front of Guard, Heather noticed Anubis and Freeze coming their way. "I think Eggman's on to us! We gotta get the emerald!" Heather stammered. Guard flew around the conflict and found Shadow Chaos sinking INSIDE the Master Emerald, disappearing within. "Grr... I hope that isn't a bad thing..." he murmured, moving to pick the emerald up. "Guard, look out!!" Heather shouted, leaping between Guard and an errant bolt from the Deathbringer! She collapsed with a hole in her chest, her body bursting into flames as she began to revive. "Grahh!? H-heather?!" he gasped, watching her writhe in pain as the flames were bringing her back from death. "...You...saved me..." he murmured. "D-don't gawk. Let's go!" Heather stammered. As Anubis' mummies surrounded Aries, Sagittarius and the Deathbringer, they began to fly away, Aries using his twin tails now that all knew who he was. "Cancer sends his regards to your master!" he shouted, retreating for now. Guard lifted the Master Emerald along with Heather, and took off into the sky to flee as well.


It had now been months since Tails sealed Cream and others into the hidden bunker. "So hungry..." Big whined, their food rationed so that it would last hopefully until Tails returned. "And I'm bored. All the TV shows is the Alpha and Metal Eggman comedy hour... I don't get their jokes." Gator mumbled. Cheese, Chocola and Froggy sat hunched in a corner looking sad, and Bill, Dave, Agent 77 and Talon the griffin were playing poker to pass the time. Cream sat with her mother, but she was getting fed up with all this. She got up and walked to SPOT. "Tails hasn't been back yet. Our food supplies are starting to run low." she said. "You have not been authorized to leave." SPOT's monitor read. "What about when our food runs out?" she asked. "I have not been instructed for that outcome." SPOT replied. Cream knelt down to the robo-puppy's level. "It's been so long since Tails was here. He could be in danger. He could be hurt or..." she stammered, tears in her eyes, "Sh-shouldn't we help him?" she asked. SPOT looked up at her. "Processing..." Cream stood up and sighed. Tails was just like Eggman, it seemed. His robot was as cold as any of Eggman's machines... Or was it? SPOT stepped forward and nudged Cream's hand. "Acknowledged. Tails gone too long. New directive: Rescue!" Cream looked at the message and smiled. "Thank you... Okay, everyone! Listen!! We can leave now!" she shouted. "Thank goodness. I've had to tinkle for a month..." Dave whimpered. Cream pointed to the door. "Somewhere out there is Tails. He put us here to protect us. Since he's not back, I guess Eggman... still has the world. But we can't sit here and leave our friends behind anymore! Will you all come with me to fight?" she asked, a tad nervous. Cosmo looked awkwardly. "I've witnessed my world fall before..." she sighed, bringing down the whole room for a moment, "...But I won't watch this world meet the same fate! Let's go!" Talon looked around nervously. "Was I the only one happy to be locked up?" he stammered. "Yes. Now come on, help carry the food!" Gator told him. Cream looked to SPOT. "Fire up your Tails Tracker, SPOT! We've gotta catch up to our friends!" she winked. "Yes, ma'am!" The robo-puppy replied. There was just one day left until Eggman's plan went into motion. Could they make it in time to help?


Guard's group soon arrived back at Shadow Arcangel with the Master Emerald. Felicia was on the monitor, giving a report to Sally and Uncle Chuck. "Tails has an idea about how to weaken the...Phantom Ruby, he called it? Anyway, we've launched an attack on the Death Egg. Hopefully Sonic...the other Sonic...can bring it down and cut the power supply! ...I still have no idea how that works. But we should be ready for a final assault on Eggman's capital if this succeeds!" she announced. Chuck nodded. "Keep us posted, kid! Stay safe!" he said. Bucky was watching from afar while Lucky stood next to him, clutching the hilt of the Chaos Sword. "You should stay out of the assault. Every one of your missions has gone poorly." Bucky told him. Lucky looked up with a frown. "I'm sure I can make a difference. I just...need to keep trying, right?" he murmured. Bucky snatched the Chaos Sword from his hand with a scowl. "We can't afford any more screw ups! You're done, Lucky! This sword should be used by one who can wield it!" he said, walking away as Lucky stared in shock. Conan watched from the shadows with a grin. "Finally..." he whispered. Meanwhile, Sally had been talking to Guard about the Master Emerald. "It was reckless to run off like that without telling anyone...but hopefully this'll work. Chuck! Get this emerald to Rotor! We need that de-robotisizer now!" she ordered. "Yes, ma'am!" Chuck said, running over to grab the emerald. Tommy and Ridley watched the emerald get run out of the war room, their minds on anything but. "...Think Razor's alright?" Tommy asked. Ridley shrugged. "I dunno, kid. Who gives people those wings?" he mumbled, rubbing his head nervously. Antoine nudged Bunnie as the Master Emerald went by. "Will you be testing le de-robot-izer again, Bunnie?" he asked. Bunnie growled at him. "Maybe y'all should test it, Ant. Your hair could use a retouchin'" she remarked, making Antoine pat his hair insecurely. "Umm... How am I needing to touch it?" he mumbled.

The Freedom Fighters spent some time preparing, hoping that the Death Egg would soon explode and they'd get the word to move in on Metropolis. However, while they were busy, a sudden explosion rocked Shadow Arcangel! Vortex stumbled awake in his seat at the control room. "Sssshoot! What?! We're under attack!" he shouted over the PA. Bucky scrambled into the control room as well, to see an Egg Carrier before them, enemies launching from it in droves! "Get off your butts and fight!" he shouted. Zeke and Dulcy were quick to exit the ship and fly out to meet the aerial forces, while others headed for the entrances to hold off enemies as they came in. Lucky held a hover Wispon, hoping to blast anyone that entered right out the door. He wasn't prepared for who he saw. He was robotic-looking now, but Crash the rhino entered the ship. A robotisized Spiny was also with him. "Me-YOW!! I-I can't toss them overboard!" he stammered, tossing aside his Wispon and running away. "Well, we can't ignore them!" Ridley grumbled, tossing Chaos Splash attacks as Crash charged towards him! Zipp was on his way out to join Zeke and Dulcy, and passed Crash. "So, there you are! I'd say the metal is an improvement, but you're still a pain in my stinger!" he said, pistol-whipping him briefly before flying out of the ship! Guard hesitated as a robotic Mia stomped in from another door. "Grrr... Eggman!! This is beyond low!!" he growled. Heather tossed fire at the robotisized people as they came. "War is war! We can't hold back!" she said, a scared look in her eye. Sally shared her sentiment. Her father was among the robotisized entering. "This is why I started this..." she growled, grasping a Wispon. "Hi, dad..." she grunted through tears. As Bucky and Vortex manned the Arcangel's weapons from the control room, something crashed through the windshield! "Ssstop breaking that, people!!" Vortex groaned. Bucky looked to see the Deathbringer...but with a flicker, her hood was removed, revealing her as a phantom of Hope. Bucky breathed heavily. "Dr....Eggman... You pit my love against me?" he grunted, his fingers sparking, "NOOOOOOOOOO!!" he roared, unleashing massive jolts of electricity at the false Deathbringer! She flew out of the way and sped past him, into the ship! "I will KILL you, Eggman!!" Bucky snarled, breathing heavily. "You go, bossss." Vortex smirked. "Try not to zap us out here!!" Zeke shouted from outside. "Sorry I burned the toast, ma..." Dulcy grumbled shakily.

In the chaos, Conan found the Chaos Sword unguarded on the map table. He reached for it, but Shade the echidna slapped his hand aside. "I knew I was right to transfer here. You have a relic. They're split up for a reason!" she warned. Conan smirked at her. "You have two." he pointed out. The gauntlets were a set though, and he knew it. Shade raised her fists. "Want a demonstration?" she asked. Who but Gunner arrived to stop them. "Cease this, idiots!" he shouted. "You want to rephrase that, old man?" Conan growled. Gunner motioned around them. "There are bigger things going on right now! We've no time for infighting! ...And I have a file on you. You can use the sword. So use it!" he ordered, glancing at Shade, "I'm aware how this could backfire, but damn it, it's war! If I won't make the tough calls, you freaks damn sure won't!" he told her. Shade backed up a step. "O-okay... But the consequences are on you." she told him as Conan lifted the sword. "Oh, I know it..." Gunner sighed. "I'm back, my baby..." Conan said to the sword, before stabbing it right through an incoming robotisized animal! "C-conan!! We could save these people!!" Shade stammered. Conan scoffed. "Save ourselves first!" he grumbled as Gunner smirked, assured he'd made the right call.

Lucky had fled to the lab, where wheelchair-bound Rotor was tinkering on a special Wispon. "Robotisized mobians! Robians!! We can't fight back!!" Lucky babbled. Rotor glanced at him. "Mobian? ...Oh. That term hasn't caught on in Spagonia where I was working before all this. Never mind. Try this!" he said, handing Lucky a gray Wispon. "Were you listening?" he asked. Just then, Spiny burst into the room, snarling like a "Robian." Rotor gasped. "Don't stand there! Zap him!" he cried. Lucky shakily pointed the Wispon and fired. Light surrounded Spiny as he fell to the ground, and in the next instant, he sprung back up with a pleasant yawn, startling Lucky. "Meee-yow!! It's alive!!" he yelped. Spiny was smiling. "Of course I am, and such a great day it is to wake up in a world where Sonic the Hedgehog is dead!" he grinned, "Thanks for getting me outta...hey, what's with the look?" he muttered. After that, Lucky ran through the ship, de-robotisizing Robians as he went, though none were as peppy as Spiny as they woke. Mia, Crash, Sally's dad and others escaped back through the doors, though, leaping clear to the earth below as Eggman's forces began retreating. "Graah! Mia!!" Guard grunted, trying to chase her, but stopped by Heather. "Guard...WHY are they leaving?" she asked. "Because a copy of my departed beloved is heading for the engine room!" Bucky said as he passed them, "BRACE YOURSELVES FOR CRASH LANDING!!" he cried. He'd tried to catch Hope, but she was too fast for him. And now, with a sickening explosion, Shadow Arcangel began to plummet out of the sky!

The crash landing was rough, leaving everyone aboard rattled. Punchy, Rainbow and Kosmo were just arriving after having spent the previous night at Resistance HQ, and they immediately set to work helping anyone who needed medical attention to the lab. "Wh-what do we do now?" Tommy sighed, beaten up but mostly okay. "We got a de-robotisizer working, but now we can't move." Lucky sighed. "How'd they fit the Master Emerald in that?" Heather asked. "It's a Wispon. Wisp energy. Sorry, but they didn't use the Master Emerald." Uncle Chuck stated. Antoine was holding his foot while Bunnie consoled him. "It's okay, darlin', the crash is over..." she sighed. Even Bucky and Sally looked grim. "That Egg used my lost love to cloud my emotions..." Bucky growled. "And my father... He's been a step ahead of us all the time..." Sally sighed. Gunner stepped to the nearest usable door and pried it open. "All luck. Listen, I know Ivo. He just wanted to hit us. He didn't know or care who was here, or what their relationships were. He probably tracked his own tech to find us!" he said, pointing at Chuck and Bunnie. "I... I'm sorry..." Chuck sighed. "Never mind, because if all goes right, he'll be too distracted to watch for us now..." Gunner smirked. "But I can't even walk!" Spy whined, laying it on a little thick. "Then stay, Spy." Gunner scoffed. "I don't get it." Sally stated, "How are you saying we'll get there?" Nicole beeped as she said this. "Signal approaching, Sally." she stated. Gunner stepped outside, leading the Freedom Fighters out with him. "You freaks didn't think I'd throw all my eggs in this dilapidated basket that Stein calls a ship?" he said as something was coming over the horizon. Something big. "Colonel- I mean... Mr. Gunner... It took some doing to procure this, but I've arrived!" came the voice of former Sergeant Drol over the comms! Before the Freedom Fighters flew the GUN Assault Carrier, the most impressive of GUN's Warships! "Now... You freaks want a ride, or should I leave you here?" Gunner smirked. "Stop being smug and admit you need us!" Punchy shouted. Gunner frowned. "Gah... Fine! ...I can't pull this off on my own. Are you happy!?" he strained to say. Kosmo smirked at him. "That wasn't so hard, was it Richard?" he chuckled. Sally turned to the group. "Alright, everyone! We have a chance! I know we're rattled, but time is short! Let's defeat Eggman and get back our world! Let's do it to it!!" she cried. The final battle was surely nearing. With the tides turning, could the heroes keep it up and defeat Eggman before it was too late?


Part 4 - Infinite Crisis

Sonic Forces & all related characters, scenarios and elements are (c) SEGA and Sonic Team.
GeneX and related characters belong to 2BIT.


"Right now I realize,
I know that I can't deny,
Nothing's impossible!
The rhythms' set in motion now!" - Guardian Rock, Sonic Forces

Blackness. Utter nothingness. Felicia looked around nervously. Dr. Eggman had ordered Infinite to summon this void to consume Sonic, and in attempting to pull him to safety, she'd been sucked in as well. Null Space, Eggman called it. "Sorry, Sonic... I tried to save us..." she sighed. "This isn't where we were meant to end up..." Sonic muttered awkwardly as he walked along the long, purplish road before them. Felicia sighed. "Eggman always seems one step ahead of us..." she frowned. Looking at Sonic, though, she began to perk up. "So, what's the plan?" she asked him. Sonic shrugged. "Let's head back. Everyone's waiting for us!" he said, giving her a knowing glance. The two jumped up and hi-fived one another before speeding ahead. "Double Boost!!" They took off at incredible speed through the vast nothingness, and somehow their speed seemed to be creating a reaction. "We've got this! Keep it up, partner!" Sonic shouted, "Nothing can contain the two of us at max power! Not even Null Space!!" The two soon emerged on a grind rail, leading them to a spring. They then briefly dashed across a building before leaping and coming to a landing on a small rooftop! "'Sup everyone? I missed this place!" Sonic remarked casually as he emerged. "What happened, Sonic? You two just up and disappeared!" Knuckles asked over comms. "Nothing happened. Literally. Now let's track down Eggman!" Sonic responded. Felicia nodded, looking out across Metropolis. "That foul human won't get away from us!" she said. Sonic looked a bit nervous as she briefly sounded like Fera. "Uh... Y-yeah. Let's do it, partner!" he chuckled softly.


The GUN Assault Carrier was en route to Metropolis, along with a number of GUN Warships the Freedom Fighters were able to call in for good measure. Still, the Freedom Fighters were mostly in low spirits, the attack on Shadow Arcangel having taken its toll on them. Rainbow and Gemini sat beside each other, looking rather glum. "Well, I found One... But all this time... I never got to find out if my sister was okay during all this..." Rainbow sighed. Gemini nodded. "I understand. I never found Libra, and now Copter... He's working for that creepy vulture..." she sighed, "I wonder...what drove him to it. Did he really think we'd think less of him for having lost his tailband in the tournament?" she stated. "Who knows?" said Punchy as he joined them, "All I know is he shot at me. It's gonna take some knocks to that thick skull to get our Copter back..." he grumbled. Shade stood with Bark the polar bear, talking out her fears with him, though he only grunted in response. Vortex and Zipp talked about what had happened to Crash. "Metal as a Sonic robot." Zipp sighed. "If we'd only all ssstuck together...maybe he'd ssstill be okay..." Vortex sighed. Zipp rubbed his head through his helmet, an awkward look on his lips. "...I'm sorry I said that about Whisk. She 'ports all over, I'm sure she's fine." he said. "An apology from you? Thessse are the end timessss..." Vortex hissed. Antoine, Bunnie and Dulcy were looking glum, too. "Bunnie, shouldn't you and Chuck be gettin' de-robotisized?" Dulcy asked. Bunnie looked at her metal arm. "Not yet... These metal parts might come in handy in the battle ahead, much as I hate 'em..." she sighed. Antoine patted her shoulder. "I will do my best to be seeing you return to your un-robot-ed self, safe and sound." he stated in his sloppy manner. "I...think that was sweet, Tony." Dulcy giggled, barely following him. Bunnie nodded. "Yeah, it was." she said, smiling briefly. Her worries were still on the coming battle, though.

Uncle Chuck stood beside Sally at the upper entrance to the hangar where everyone was packed in, waiting for the ship to arrive. "Princess...sorry, I know you hate that name, but it suits you. You're a real leader to us." he said to her, "And our people are low on hope now. It's times like these, they look to a good leader..." he stated. Sally took a breath. "How can I give them hope? I barely have any... My father's a robot now..." she whimpered. Chuck patted her back. "You've been strong so far. Just speak from the heart." he said. Sally nodded, and stepped to a balcony overlooking the hangar, clearing her throat. "Fellow Freedom Fighters! I know it's been a rough couple of hours... No, forget that. It's been a terrible year! This year of our lives has been ripped from us. Our families have been torn apart. Our friendships have been tested in every way. But as I stand before you now, I don't see defeat. I see hope! For as long as we survive, there is still hope. We will join forces with the Resistance, and together, we will finally end this war, today!! Who's with me!?" she cried. One by one, Freedom Fighters stood up, and soon they collectively gave a rousing cheer. They were ready to battle!


Eggman, on the other hand, thought his battle was all but won. While he was taking a breather, and Orbot was seemingly sleeping on the back of his Egg Mobile, Sonic and Felicia dropped from the sky behind him, startling Orbot. He tapped Eggman's shoulder. "Excuse me? Boss?" he said nervously. Eggman glanced over, and then hurled Orbot out of the way as he turned clear around. "What? It can't be! It's impossible to get out of the Phantom Ruby's Null Space!!" he shouted as Cubot fumbled with a monitor he was looking at and Infinite barely glanced at the intruders. "Maybe by myself." Sonic replied, "But I had a little help from my friend!" he said, motioning to Felicia, "Something you wouldn't understand since you don't have any friends." Sonic teased. Eggman growled in frustration. "This changes nothing!" he shouted, slapping Orbot as he spoke, "Dr. Eggman will still have the last laugh!" he declared before taking off in his Egg Mobile, followed by Orbot, Cubot and Infinite. "Maybe he'd have more friends if he didn't talk about himself in the third person." Sonic said to Felicia, who smiled and gave him a thumbs up before glancing out at Infinite. "Sonic... Infinite said we met before. I'm an amnesiac, so... I don't know... But I've been having memory flashes lately... I think...I may have met someone like him. Tried to...recruit him for something? I don't know..." she murmured, holding her head. Sonic took her hands and looked her in the eyes. "Buddy... Don't worry about it. Whatever your pasts were, it's the present that matters. Right now, he's... a bad dude. But you're not. What he's become isn't your fault, either." he said, hoping to steer her away from looking into her past any further. Now just wasn't a good time for that. "You're probably right, Sonic..." she stated, and smiled, "So, I'm your friend?" she asked. Sonic chuckled. "Always, buddy." he smiled, winking.


The Freedom Fighters were busy getting equipped for battle, choosing their Wispons and making any other necessary preparations. Ridley had found a GUN uniform aboard the ship, and tried it on. "Not as comfy as my police uniform, but armored is good..." he smirked. Tommy nodded. "Yeah, too bad there's none in my size." he chuckled. Ridley patted his head. "But you're not all that scared. You're braver than me kid." he said. Guard was talking to Heather, a bit shyly. "Rr... I'm sorry, Heather... For flying off without you before. You were right, I shouldn't try to do everything alone." he stated, barely looking at her. Heather chuckled. "That must've been hard for you... Garen." she winked. Guard looked up at her. "It means 'guardian.' But it's an actual name." she said. Guard gave her a small smile. "Hmm... Garen..." he murmured. Gemini was off in a corner, reading her spell book, when Lospecter floated over to her. "Good of you to pick a dark corner where no one will see us. And man, have I been missing a lot in my dimensional travels!" Gemini looked up and instantly raised her wand. "I wondered why you weren't taking advantage of the chaos, Lospecter!" she growled. "Hey, you might wanna lower that, I have a peace offering behind me you won't wanna hit." he smirked. Gemini raised an eyebrow. "Peace? Yeah right..." However, she gasped as Lospecter floated aside, revealing the very reason she was in the past to begin with. Timothy the Fawn, alive and well, was nervously standing behind him. "Th-this is a trick! Infinite can create illusions!" she stammered. Lospecter shrugged. "I don't know who that is, but how would he know of your future-friend? How do I know, for that matter? Well, I asked an alternate-reality you." Lospecter grinned. Timothy ran up and hugged the bewildered Gemini. "They faked my death, Gemini! To fool you... To use me as leverage against you..." he stammered. Lospecter nodded. "See, I can't time travel, but you two can, pesky mages. So, finding out your weakness, I waited until the time was right. I made Losipher use a little restraint. He's a better actor than Loskeletor- or maybe it was Loskeletor you saw killed? Oooh, you'll never know! But here's the deal..." the ghost said, hovering between Gemini and Timothy, placing a hand on their shoulders. "I can make deer-boy's death real anytime. Just carry the order through history. Heck, if I don't carry the cease-fire through history, he dies. So, Gemmy...your hands are tied now. Game over. We take our toys and go home." he said, floating away. Gemini looked from Timothy to the escaping Lospecter, and she pulled Timothy into her arms. "I get it... He sent you to this time so as not to create a paradox." she said, "I won't let him hurt you, Tim...but right now we've got other problems." she sniffled. Timothy nodded. "Yeah... Why don't you catch me up as quick as possible, heh..." he asked awkwardly.

The Assault Carrier landed a distance away from the Eggman Empire's Fortress, and Sally led their main force partway to the rear of the base. "Okay, guys! Here's the plan. While Sonic and the Resistance attacks Eggman directly from the front, we'll take on the rear and try to take that tower!" she said, pointing to the main tower at the center. Punchy stared at it. "Huh... It's like an upgraded, more lit up version of Darkegg Fortress. Eggman's all-in with nostalgia these days." he stated. "Are you kidding, One? It looks nothing like Darkegg Fortress. No island views! The balcony's all rotaty! IS that even a balcony?" Rainbow retorted. Sally shook her head. "Now, hopefully the rear of the base will be less defended than the front, but we still need to be ready for anything." she stated. Bucky nodded. "And she does mean anything! Eggman controls reality, and he uses that to summon out the deadliest foes we've ever encountered. If you see multiple Kosmos, try not to hit ours." he stated. Kosmo shrugged. "As if any of you could hurt me!" he joked. "I wouldn't mind trying!" Spiny retorted. "Come on, you ninnies! Don't fight each other!" Gunner snapped, "Is this how you always react to a crisis? How does Eggman EVER get defeated?" Timothy joined Gemini as she stood out with the Freedom Fighters, waiting for the order to fight. "...Hey, Wanda, who's that?" Rainbow asked, noticing him. "Uhhh... It's complicated. His name is Timothy." she stated. Rainbow shook his hand. "Hey, Timmy! Any friend of Wanda's is a friend of mine!" she smiled, rushing back over to join Punchy. "...Wanda?" Timothy asked. "...It's complicated." Gemini shrugged. Sally turned to Nicole, the holographic lynx emerging from her computer to address the group. "I have received word from the Resistance, Sally. Their attack is about to commence. Now would be the ideal time for our strike." she stated. Sally glanced back at the group. "All right... For our loved ones... For those who were robotisized... For FREEDOM!!" she cried. No more words were necessary. The Freedom Fighters followed her, charging towards battle...and destiny!

The Freedom Fighters found a horrific sight awaiting them. Though Eggman had an impressive force out front to meet the Resistance, there was arguably an even nastier army in the back for the Freedom Fighters to contend with. The entire E-X series of robots was assembled, along with Anubis and the Deadly Six, and they were just for starters. Dozens of phantom projections of Kosmo, Dark Punchy, Mephiles and the Deathbringer awaited the Freedom Fighter army. "W-w-we are doom-ed!!" Antoine gasped, nearly fainting. "There's no turnin' back now!" Chuck shouted, rallying the army to charge forward. Anubis huffed at them. "Dr. Eggman anticipated an ill-conceived attack on the tower's rear. You charge into the jaws of death!!" he snarled, summoning his army of black mummies ahead of himself. Punchy shook his fist as he saw them. "I'll tear those things apart and kill ya for real this time, Anubis!!" he yelled. "Oh, don't go dark on us, Puncher, I'd hate to get confused and stab you!" Conan taunted, eying his Chaos Boots. Guard flew at the duo of Terra and Firma, slashing his scythe at them. "Grrrrr!! Where's Mia, you metal trash!!?" he snarled. "Your questions are insignificant! You shall be ANNIHILATED!!" Terra roared. "But if you survive long enough, you may see your pitiful friends." Firma stated. Sally was shooting at copies of Kosmo and Mephiles with a Wispon while Bunnie fought at her side, when a bright light toward the front of the tower caught her attention. "Infinite?" she asked. "Affirmative, Sally." Nicole spoke. It wasn't too long after that that another burst of light shot into the sky, and a massive virtual reality sun appeared over their heads! The fighting stopped as everyone stared, trembling in helplessness. "Th-that can't be real, right?!" Tommy stammered. "It's as real as it gets!" Illusi shouted, rushing over from the Resistance's side of the battle, "Or, it will be when the Phantom Ruby's finished manifesting it. Otherwise we'd be burned to ashes NOW!" he explained, his eyes wide and his body shaking. "Fera... Where are you..." he whispered, worried for her. Dr. Eggman was observing the terrified reactions of his enemies, and took a moment to gloat. "The sun will fall upon you all. BOOM!! THE END! Your pathetic lives are over." he said with an evil smile.

Elsewhere, on a cliff overlooking the battle, was Felicia. She'd been hanging back, nervous to fight, and still a little curious over the past she couldn't quite remember. Tails flew up beside her as she stood, holding that strange gem she'd found a while back. "Look, it's reacting!" Tails noticed, seeing the stone glow, "Eggman said something about the Phantom Ruby prototypes!" he stated. Felicia glanced at him. "Prototype...?" she muttered. "Let me see." Tails asked, taking the stone from Felicia and noting that it stopped glowing in his hand, "Whoa, it is! He said the Phantom Ruby prototypes only react to the person who activated it! That must be you, buddy!" he said, handing it back to Felicia. "Your courage and heroism are probably what triggered it!" he added, making Felicia blush a little. "Me? I don't know..." she muttered. "Of course it is! You saved Sonic!" he smiled, "Just maybe, if you use this, it can make that sun disappear!" he told her. Felicia looked at the Ruby, then at the tower with the sun hanging over it. She then grabbed her Wispon and loaded the Chaos Cards into the special slot in it. "I... I'll do my best, Tails. No, I'll do it! I have to!" she said, gritting her teeth. Tails took her hand and started to fly her down from the cliff. "Come on! You have to hurry!" he said. Some buzzbombers started coming their way, and Felicia pointed her Wispon at them, the cards changing its form and letting her fire a void that pulled them all in and crushed them! "Whoa... Can we trade relics?" Tails chuckled. "Haha, nope!" Felicia smirked. Her face quickly became serious as Tails dropped her off at the foot of the tower, panting in exhaustion from flying her there. It was up to her now...

"The sun is fallen in the sky beyond,
And light is fading from our world.
Now's the time of reckoning.
The final battle has begun." - Imperial Tower, Sonic Forces

Infinite's focus was now on powering the sun. Many of his other illusions had faded. But that didn't mean Eggman's tower was defenseless, much the contrary. To keep the resistance away, Eggman sent robots and Robians forth to occupy them. There were fewer robots, too, as the Phantom Ruby had created much of Eggman's massive army used to conquer the world. This was what the Robians were for, a distraction while the sun was being manifested. Conan had no qualms about killing Robians, and Spiny felt much the same way, but the others felt differently. "Try to focus your attacks on actual robots!" Sally ordered, "Detain Robians as best you can! Where's that de-robotisizer Wispon!?" she called. Lucky was holding it, but he was standing at the back, staring up in shock at the sun. "Kid? Yoo-hoo..." Zipp called, waving a hand in front of his face. Lucky blinked. "I c-can't do this... Y-you take the Wispon!" he stammered. Zipp shrugged. "Hands are full. Besides, those are like blanks. I wanna drop bots!" he said, flying off. Punchy tried to use his speed to his advantage, but the Deadly Six surrounded him. "Speed is no challenge to us! It only angers the Zeti!" Zavok sneered as he and Zomom cut off Punchy's escape and proceeded to pound him! "Ugh!! Any help, guys!?" he shouted. Kosmo had been stopped in his tracks upon finally finding Carrie...robotisized. "No... not possible. How do you capture a mirage?! And a psychic one at that!?" he stammered, smacking aside robots as they swarmed him. Guard and Heather were being ganged up on by Terra, Firma and Freeze. Ridley was getting zapped by Jolt, who was also unaffected by Tommy's lightning Wispon. Knuckles' Resistance found copies of Zavok, Metal Sonic, Shadow and Chaos still around to deal with. Overall, the battle wasn't going well. The odds were stacked against the heroes.

At this point, Dr. Nammad, Rotor and Bark arrived on the outskirts of the battle. They were wheeling over the gadgets needed to complete the full-sized de-robotisizer, including the Master Emerald. Once the emerald neared the battle, though, it glowed, and Shadow Chaos leapt out of it, startling Nammad! "Yaaaah!! D-did you guys know, uh, th-that was in there!?" he stammered. "What was where?" Rotor asked, having been too busy to notice. Bark scratched his head and grunted with uncertainty, also having missed it. Shadow Chaos splashed through the battlefield, tearing past Terra and Firma as it went, stunning the bots long enough for Guard and Heather to break away from the battle. "What's that doing here?" Freeze questioned. Shadow Chaos slithered past Kosmo as well, and turned to attack Carrie, angering him. "Get away from her, you big drip!" he snarled, leaping in front of Shadow Chaos. More Robians were approaching, and Guard stopped short as he noticed Mia among them. "Grrr!! How can we fight our friends!?" he grunted. Kosmo was kicked in the back by Robian Carrie, and fell over. "I don't know, but this is ticking me off!" he said. Gemini and Timothy were watching this from not far away. "Hold on! Maybe I can restrain them with magic!" she offered. However, Aries suddenly landed in front of her, blocking her way. "Don't go, Gem... You'll miss the show." he told her. Cancer and Eddie, who was now wearing a scorpion-based helmet for his role as Scorpio, also landed beside him. "Eeee hee hee! That sun is an impressive uber-illusion! Guess if we're all gonna die, best go out in a blaze of glorious violence! Hey, Anubis!!" Scorpio waved, though Anubis was busy with Zeke in a bit of a firefight. "Friends of yours, Gemini?" Timothy asked. Gemini sighed. "Still complicated." she stated. Cancer grinned. "We don't want to watch the world burn, but we'll cut it close to draw out my adversaries. They'd hate to see the world end...here. Hypocrites, the lot of them." he sneered.

Conan saw Aries land and kicked away a Phantom Pawn, taking to the sky on his Chaos Wings to catch up to the unfolding drama. "Aries, is it? Rumor going around is that you're Copter under that gaudy helmet! Oh, how the wheels of fate turn! Now I'm on the side of the righteous and you're out for villainy! I might be hailed as a hero if I kill you!" he smirked. Gemini stood in his way. "Please, let me talk to him! Copter... you don't have to do any of this! We... we're your friends!" she cried. Aries brushed her aside with his staff and glared at Conan. "Tried friends. Made me weak. And the name is ARIES!!" he cried, firing a bolt from his staff at Conan, who deflected it with his sword. "This is licious! No more small talk, then. Now, die!!" the raccoon snarled, charging at Copter and clashing his sword against his staff! Eddie headed for Gemini, keeping her from interfering. "Eee hee! I'm Scorpio now! Wanna see why?" he said, raising his hands to summon dozens of illusory scorpions, all crawling straight for her! Gemini yelped and frantically fired shots from her wand at the creatures, but Scorpio caused them to surround her! Timothy didn't stand idle, though. He produced his own wand, and cast his own spell. "Hiccatastrophe!!" he cried, a gray smoke shooting into Scorpio's face. He suddenly started to hiccup wildly, stumbling backward as his illusions faded. Gemini looked back at him and raised an eyebrow. "You always picked funny spells... So, uh, did you swipe your wand from me? I had it for a while but I lost it." she said. Timothy nodded. "I had to be sneaky about it, or Lospecter... But yeah, I swiped it before you time traveled." he explained. "Nice story, kids!!" said Shade as she somehow got caught up fighting Cancer, "But could you get back to helping!?" she shouted. Cancer smirked and surprised her by controlling Alpha, sending him crashing into her and knocking her far away from him! Alpha looked oddly dizzy as Cancer's control wore off. "Where did I go? Are you my mother?" he asked Shade. The echidna stood up and backed away, looking for the nearest place to resume being useful. Across the battlefield, things weren't looking good. The Robians were pushing the Freedom Fighters back as they struggled with how to fight them safely.

Eggman's forces were starting to surround the Freedom Fighters on the ground, while in the air, Dulcy and the Babylon Rogues were feeling pressure from quite a few buzzbombers. The resistance wasn't doing much better, even with Omega having arrived to help. Tails, Amy and Classic Sonic found themselves backed into a corner eventually. "It... It was an honor fighting beside you, Sonic..." Tails said, hugging him while Amy nervously clutched her hammer. However, they suddenly heard a familiar robot voice; one that was actually comforting. "Tails detected!" Lasers suddenly knocked down a few Phantom Pawns, while Cheese and Chocola flew about knocking aside the Robians that were advancing on them! "Tails!!" Cream flew up to the fox and hugged him, tears flowing from her eyes. "Cream! SPOT!! No, not here! The...the sun!" he stammered. "Then we die together... I won't leave you..." she sniffled, and glanced at Classic Sonic. "You're alive? B-but... That haircut's too short..." she murmured. "I kinda like it..." Amy giggled, winking at Classic Sonic as he recoiled from her. Elsewhere, Big the Cat body-slammed a number of robots to take the pressure off one batch of Freedom Fighters, while Talon took to the air, attacking buzzbombers to help Dulcy and the Rogues! Even Dave, Vanilla and Bill ran in to help the battle, using makeshift weapons to attack the Robians in a way that wouldn't blow them up. Cosmo even used her laser, on stun, to help Kosmo get away from Carrie. "...Thanks..." he said awkwardly, and resumed following Shadow Chaos, along with a few others that became interested in where the creature was going. Punchy, Guard, Heather, Sally, Shade, and even Knuckles followed Shadow Chaos...right to Infinite. The creature seemed angry at the jackal. "What? Was I infringing on your likeness? What do I care." he stated. Knuckles growled. "Maybe if we take you down, that's another way we can make that sun go away!" he suggested. Kosmo smirked. "Sure, I owe him a beatdown!" he said. "We all do!" Sally added. Infinite sneered at them through his mask. "Enough! I have nothing more to say to any of you. You're already dead to me!" he said, hurling orbs of energy at several of them, splattering Shadow Chaos and knocking back Kosmo! Shade shot back with a blast from the Chaos Gauntlets, while Heather added her own fireballs and Guard hurled a beam from his scythe! Infinite dodged and weaved to avoid them, and sent a shockwave to toss them all away. "Annoying insects!" he shouted, hovering out of their reach. "Coward! Get down here!" Kosmo shouted, only to be pulled away by the tail by a Robian.

Time was just about up. "Make peace with your fate, because your lives are now over!" Infinite declared, soaring beyond the reach of his enemies. "Mwa-hahaha!" Eggman cackled, "Three, two, one, zero!" he counted as Felicia made a last, desperate leap towards the sun from the top of the tower. "Buddy?" Tails said nervously as he flew up to get a look. Cream watched from below, hugging Cheese tightly. Illusi looked up to see Fera make contact with the sun. "Please, no..." he gasped. After a tense moment, however, the sun menacing the sky vanished! The collective Resistance began to cheer and rally, and Illusi felt a tear come to his eye in that moment. "She...she did it. She finally...controlled an illusion! Not quite what she'd had in mind, but... I'm proud of you, Fera." he sniffled. "Wh-what? What just happened?!" Eggman stammered. He'd noticed someone climbing his tower earlier, sure, but he had no idea there was any way they could stop his sun! Felicia stumbled to a landing atop the fortress tower, the prototype ruby shattering in her hand as she collapsed on the ground. Tails flew up to meet her, and so did Eggman. "Impossible! I thought all the prototypes were destroyed!" Eggman cried in frustration. "A costly oversight, doctor!" Tails said as he helped Felicia to her feet, "This is why I always check and double check, as any good scientist would." he said. Felicia looked up at the doctor with a smirk. "What's the matter? Didn't think this scared lone wolf could burn out your sun? How were you going to survive that, anyway?" she asked. Eggman growled. "I had a plan for that! I did!!" he shouted, driving his Egg Mobile away, "I...totally did!!" he stammered. Knuckles turned to the Resistance, while Sally and the others ran to rally the Freedom Fighters. "This is the turning point, guys! Time to press our advantage and kick major butt!" Knuckles announced as his forces cheered!

Gunner sat on the bridge of the GUN Assault Carrier, which was back in the air, acting as the flagship of the Resistance fleet as they launched a full-scale assault on the tower. The Phantom Ruby had expelled immense energy summoning that sun, and this was their chance to defeat Infinite while his power was low. "All troops! ...I can't believe I'm saying this... Support Sonic the hedgehog! Clear the skies as he gets into the tower! We must eliminate Ivo's weapon in order to win this war!" he said to all ships. He lived for this. He would coordinate the air strike while Sonic rushed to catch Infinite. Sonic tore through the Fortress, smashing robots with homing attack after homing attack, searching for Infinite. He could hear chatter over the comms, brave animals fighting to help him and his friends move ahead. Gunner was trying his best to manage the battle, but the GUN Assault Carrier soon took a nasty hit from one of Eggman's fighters. "Ship 3 took a direct hit to the bridge! They're falling back! Ship 7 has been crippled by heavy fire!" a general reported. "Damn! Sonic, where are you!? ...Sonic?" Gunner called. Sonic's comms were set to ignore Gunner, it seemed. "Damn freak. I hate you too!" Gunner grunted as another nasty hit struck the Assault Carrier. "It's no good! Sound the evacuation! And someone tell Sonic!" he yelled. "Brace for crash landing!!" Drol announced from the bridge. Agent 77 and Spy had joined Gunner aboard the ship, and looked to be regretting it. "Any barf bags up here?" Agent 77 asked. "I keep a few on hand..." Spy sighed, reaching into his jacket pocket. "That freak better finish this...or I'll finish him!" Gunner snarled.

Eggman wasn't just cowering during this, though. He flew his Egg Mobile down to face the Freedom Fighters directly as they reached his back doorstep. "Why helloooo! You must be this Princess Sally!" he said, looking at Bunnie. "Flattery'll getcha nowhere, Eggman. I ain't who ya want." she said. "I'm Sally." the chipmunk stated, stepping forward, "And you're the scumbag who kidnapped my father and made a robot out of him!" she shouted. Eggman stroked his mustache. "Ah, yes, I see your resemblance to old Maxie. He wouldn't cooperate. But now he will! You may notice that I ordered your friends and family that I 'upgraded' to return to the tower. A few are still out here as insurance..." he said, motioning to Carrie and a few others. "You slime! Hostages, Eggman!?" Kosmo growled. Eggman nodded. "Now you're catching on. Attack me here, and the Zeti or Anubis will toss them off the bridge to their doom. Make too much trouble for me, and I'll blow the tower, incinerating the lot of your hapless loved ones! Ready to surrender? Hoo ho ho ho ho!!" he cackled. Sally smirked. "You'd blow up your Phantom Ruby?" she asked. Eggman shrugged. "You wanna test whether I would? I tell you what, Sally. Surrender yourself, here and now, and I'll release these hostages here into your group's care. Maybe you can figure out how I gave Chuckie-boy his will back. Deal?" he asked. Sally was silent, looking as though she was considering it. However, Lucky pushed through the crowd, and fired his Wispon. "No deal, Eggface!!" he cried, zapping the hostages and causing them to de-robotisize! Kosmo looked at him with a smirk. "Well, well! Found your gumption, eh? Great timing, runt!" he said, patting him on the back. Eggman growled angrily. "Toss them before they recover!" he ordered. Carrie was quick to recover, though, and gripped Anubis with her psychokinesis. "Gaahh!! P-put me down!!" he snarled. "What? Oh, okay..." she sighed, dropping him over the bridge! "I don't die this easyyyy!!" Anubis roared as he fell. The Deadly Six started to casually walk away as Eggman growled some more. "You're losin' your grip, doctor! We'll see you for revenge REAL soon!" Zazz warned. Eggman turned his Egg Mobile and started flying off. "Just you watch! I'll take Infinite out of here, and BOOM! You're all dead!!" he shouted, "I win anyway! Ah hahahaha!!" he cackled. Sally looked back at the crowd. "...Who's up for disarming some explosives?" she asked.

"You!" Infinite was about to attack Sonic, but Felicia arrived on the scene, using her grappling hook to startle Infinite and land beside Sonic. "My friends got me this far, and together we're gonna win!" Sonic declared. "Whether we met before all this or not, Infinite, you're going down!" Felicia added. Thus began a tense battle. Sonic's homing attacks and Felicia's Wispon, equipped with asteroid powers, battled Infinite's virtual energy fiercely. In the end, they teamed up for a double boost, and knocked the jackal down. Infinite himself seemed to be fading as he tried to stand. "Impossible. I cannot be defeated!" he growled. Sonic wagged his finger at him. "Wrong, loser! The things that can't be defeated are heart, soul and the bonds of friendship, three things you and your counterfeit cronies lack!" he declared. Infinite pounded his fist on the ground, and then started fading even more. "No, wait! I can still fight!" he protested before being apparently whisked away to the top of the fortress tower. Sonic and Felicia exchanged confused looks before they heard Eggman's voice overhead. "You never fail to surprise me, Sonic. I didn't believe Infinite could lose." he stated as his Egg Mobile approached them, "Victory will be so much sweeter when I defeat you." he said, an angry look coming over his frustrated face. "Don't think this is over yet, you blue nuisance! My plan just went into overtime!" he declared, flying away from them. "...What does that mean? Doesn't he ever quit?" Felicia sighed. "No, not really..." Sonic muttered, "Come on, partner! Let's finish the job!" he said, giving her a quick fist bump before moving on. They'd have to move fast...if Eggman got the Phantom Ruby out of his base before it could be evacuated, a fiery end might still await the Resistance after all!


Part 5 - End of Resistance

Sonic Forces & all related characters, scenarios and elements are (c) SEGA and Sonic Team.
GeneX and related characters belong to 2BIT.

The lyrics to Fist Bump, and really practically all lyrics ever used in my stories to date, were not written by me. Credit goes to the talented songwriters and musicians who contribute to the works I borrow said songs from.


"Don't give up until we see the dawn.
Together we'll bring back our home.
Trust in those we stand beside.
Believe that we can win this war." - Imperial Tower, Sonic Forces

"The Phantom Ruby's signal is moving underground!" Tails reported via comms, "Eggman is up to something!" Felicia nodded as she looked around the front entrance to the tower. Classic Sonic was busy looking for a proper entrance. The wolf suddenly heard another voice come over the comms, and she switched frequencies to hear him better. "Hey! Kid! I gotta warn yer group!" it was Uncle Chuck. "What is it? We're trying to catch that rotten egg over here." she said. "Eggman's got the tower rigged to blow. If he gets to the Phantom Ruby and we can't disarm the self-destruct, it'll get real hot in there real fast!" he warned. Sonic was nearby, listening on the same frequency. "No problem, Unc. We've come this far. I know you'll get the self destruct disarmed! ...But I could send Tails if you think you need him?" he asked. Chuck chuckled. "Nah, I think we got a general idea how to pull this off... There's plenty of smart folks on our end, sonny. I think you need your smart guy there." he said. "Hey! I'm smart!" Felicia quipped, sharing a giggle with the trio. On Chuck's end, the Freedom Fighters were making their way into the back entrance of the tower, but they found a surprise waiting for them: the doctor's regular, non-phantom army was lying in wait! "Sacre bleu!" Antoine exclaimed. "I wondered where Tubby's normal robots were all this time..." Rainbow gasped. "Can I switch sides now?" Spiny asked. "If y'all wanna be a robot!" Bunnie told him. Sally breathed hard. "Okay! Plan's unchanged! You've all been given your roles; just do a little fighting on the way!" she ordered.


Gemini had lost track of Copter when the sun disappeared. She and Timothy were ready to put their magic to use in the tower, but Cancer caught up to them. "You two would probably be a great asset to the Resistance here... So we'll delay you." he smirked. Jolt suddenly jumped into their path, his eyes glowing a weird pink color. Aries and Scorpio joined in, cutting off their escape. "Don't bother teleporting. Divine masters can track such parlor tricks." Cancer sneered. Gemini looked at him in surprise. "You're... a Divine Master?" she stammered. Just then, bolts from Sagittarius' bow shot amongst the group, scattering them! He was joined by the Deathbringer, as well as Capricorn the divine ferret. "Cease and desist meddling with the timeline, Cancer!" Capricorn shouted. Jolt stepped in front of the vulture. "Negotiate with my friend here. Or do you have qualms about destroying a bot not meant to be destroyed yet?" he smirked, "But I'm glad to finally have your attention, Capricorn!" Not far away, Ridley and Tommy noticed Sagittarius' arrival. "Razor!" Ridley gasped. They nodded to each other and ran over, but they were too late, a battle was already unfolding. Razor and Copter began exchanging shots, while Scorpio and the Deathbringer began a tense battle of their own. Capricorn was busy trying to get around Jolt, whose lightning was keeping her at bay. "Copter, stop!!" Gemini cried. "Brother! Don't! We-we're all friends now!" Tommy shouted. Aries and Sagittarius didn't listen, and continued fighting anyway. Ridley created a ball of water in his hand. "There may be only one way to break this up, Tom... You with me?" he asked. Tommy clutched his Wispon. The Freedom Fighters were down a few members for their bomb-disarming mission, but Sally didn't let it deter them. "Don't stop for anything! Press onward!! Don't let Eggman win this war!!" she cried out. And so, the fights began...

"No looking back.
Till we're done, we're on the attack!"

Kosmo and Punchy led the charge into the tower, Kosmo barreling through enemies in the form of a raging elephant! Punchy slowed down his Chaos Boots upon running into Terra and Firma again. "Chaos Avalanche!!" he cried, crumbling the ground beneath them a little to trap them while Kosmo charged into them, knocking them clear across the room! "Nice teamwork!" the morph grinned.

"Full speed ahead!
Running to the sunset!"

The Babylon Rogues flew about, finding a set of explosive charges, which Wave set to work disarming. Jet and Storm began to get overwhelmed as electro Spinners and Orbinauts came after them, but Zeke and Dulcy soon joined them, burning and blowing away the bots respectively. "Don't mess with dragons, Eggman!" Dulcy laughed. "I miss racing..." Jet sighed.

"Such a different feeling,
Both of us believing,
We can make it better!"

Antoine and Bunnie found another set of explosives. Bunnie pulled open a metal hatch with her robo-arm while Ant tried to disarm it nervously. She gulped as Alpha approached them with a batch of Egg Pawns. "S-sugar..." she gulped. However, a few Chaos Gauntlet blasts took out the Pawns as Shade sped by, and Bark the polar bear tackled Alpha away as well. As Antoine sat up with a sigh of relief, Bunnie snatched him up and kissed him. "Life's too short, sugar-twan..." she sighed.

"Together we can show the world what we can do!
You are next to me and I'm next to you;
Pushing on through until the battle's won!"

Ridley attacked Aries with Chaos Splatter while Tommy pulled away Sagittarius with a lash of his lightning whip! In the meantime, Gemini and Timothy stood back to back, firing their wands at Motobugs and Eggrobos to keep them away!

"No one�s gonna give a thing to us.
Into each other we put our trust.
Standing united, after the fight is done!"

Vortex and Zipp were on the front lines of combat, bullets and Chaos Inferno lasers piercing through robots as they made their way through the tower. "My helmet's picking up some bombs! Let's get 'em, 'Tex!" Zipp smirked. The chameleon would use his smarts to do quick work disarming them.

"It's a brand new day!
We have turned the page!"

Sally was coordinating the mission via comms and with Nicole's help scanning the tower. She herself managed to arrive at a set of bombs at the center of the base, and plugged in Nicole to disarm them, but Robians surrounded her! Fortunately, Lucky had joined her. He fired his special Wispon, curing any that got too close! "Looks like you're earning your wings with that Wispon, kid!" she smiled.

"Never knew how much I needed
Somebody to help me this way!"

Spiny ran through the base, smashing bot after bot with Chaos Spears. Suddenly, his progress was stopped when his feet were frozen by Freeze the Gizoid. Conan suddenly landed and fired his own Chaos Spear from his sword, repelling him. "...My spears are still better." Spiny pouted.

"All alone, we will never be.
The two, of us, are holding the key.
We see, today, a world we couldn't see."

Rainbow used a drill Wispon to tear through a wall, revealing a room full of hostages awaiting robotisization. "Oh, gosh! Get outta here, guys!" she cried. Kikis landed to stop them, but Illusi arrived, sending a wave of Wrongos to distract them. "...Good thinking, Rainbow. Let's get them to safety!"

"Before I say goodbye to you,
One more last fist bump!"

Guard and Heather came to blows with Metal Sonic at the site of the final set of bombs. "The world is ours! Sonic was defeated! You will not take this from me!!" Metal roared. "Grrr... You were better without your voice chip!" Guard snapped, smacking him with his scythe while Heather knocked him away with a fireball. She then created a shell of fire around the bomb. "I think I can contain the blast..." she said. Guard nodded, and shot a beam from his scythe, detonating the bomb! The blast was contained in the flame shell, and after that, the teams of two each shared collective fist bumps to celebrate their victories... Even Aries and Sagittarius were worn out at this point, between fighting each other and their friends.

While the Freedom Fighters were busy regrouping to determine their next move, Sonic and Felicia had successfully taken out the tower's reactor. With his robot army defeated as well, Sonic, Tails, Classic Sonic and Felicia met to celebrate. "We did it! Eggman's army is officially butt-kicked! We won!" Sonic said, going to fist bump Felicia only to have it interrupted by the ground shaking. "Oh, come on! Now what? Can't we ever just win and have that be the end of it?!" Sonic complained. In fact, they had far from won. As the Freedom Fighters exited the tower, they found a larger force than ever waiting for them! "What the!?" Punchy gasped. "Th-this is imposible!!" Antoine gulped. "Mephiles, Kosmo, Dark Punchy, Shadow..." Heather murmured. "Metal Sonic, regular Chaos, Firepaw, that Zeti..." Ridley mumbled. "...and Infinite! Multiples of Infinite!?" Kosmo gasped. It wasn't looking good, and on Sonic's end, Eggman had re-emerged with a nightmarish new machine. "Gotcha! The fortress reactor was just a decoy! A true winner always keeps his trump card hidden until the end!" the doctor crowed. The Resistance called in to inform Sonic of the situation with the increase in enemies, thousands now manifested, and Sonic looked up angrily at the doctor. "What have you done!?" he snapped. "Heh ha ha ha! I merely incorporated the Phantom Ruby into this Death Egg Robot!" Eggman announced. "...When did he have the time?" Felicia murmured. Tails looked deeply concerned. "But...that means the Phantom Ruby no longer has a vulnerable energy supply. It's an invulnerable ruby?" he said with shock. Eggman stroked his mustache with confidence. "A good deduction, Tails. This Death Egg Robot has- No, I have surpassed Infinite to become the complete and ultimate form!" he declared, "You will be crushed by this Death Egg Robot powered by the Phantom Ruby, and in the end everything will still be exactly as I planned!!" he bellowed, breaking out in maniacal laughter before activating the Phantom Ruby to intimidate the heroes. However, Sonic stood up to him. "Your plan will end like all your plans do: With you sitting in a pile of busted robot parts wondering how you failed SO badly!" he taunted as Classic Sonic and Felicia stepped forward. "Let's get 'em." Sonic told them, and with nods of agreement, the trio went to face Eggman in a final confrontation. Tails watched, a twinge of fear in his eyes. What if they couldn't do it? What if they needed him, and he failed again? He gulped and got out his tablet. "I can't join them, but I'll see if there's any last intel I can give..." he thought. It appeared Eggman was overclocking the Phantom Ruby...


Seeing Eggman's massive force arrive, Cancer started to fly away from Capricorn. "I think I've made my point. We'll be in touch again, soon." he said as he took his leave, resulting in Jolt shaking off his control and looking very confused. Scorpio and Aries leapt into the air as well, vanishing into a pair of portals that appeared above them. "No... I've lost Copter again..." Gemini sighed. It was no time to get sad, though. Capricorn's group stood beside her as Robians started emerging from the tower. "Be on your guard..." she said, "And Gemini... Our council will be having words with you soon." she added sternly. As a Zavok duplicate charged at Sally, the real Zavok suddenly leapt in front of her, beating it into the ground! "I've had enough of these phonies! Come, fellow Zeti! The moment of our revenge is now!" he bellowed as the other Zeti ran into the fray! The battles quickly became fierce, but on the outskirts stood Uncle Chuck, Dr. Nammad and Rotor on crutches. Bucky ran up to join them as well. "How's the de-robotisizer coming!?" he shouted. "Well, uh, we can't exactly perform a test run." Nammad shrugged. Bucky turned and shot lightning as a Metal Sonic and Deathbringer copy flew too close to them. "Whatever! Can we convert it into a mass de-robotisizer!? Like, NOW!?" he snapped. Rotor grunted. "Maybe if I wasn't on crutches." he grumbled. Chuck nodded. "Those Robians are one army too many. We got to give it a shot! We're four of the smartest guys I know, so we oughta be able to pull it off!" he encouraged them. "Someone has a, uh, high opinion of himself." Nammad said smugly. Bucky fired a jolt in his general direction. "Behave, Ivan. We're working together again, just like old times..." he grumbled, none too happy about it. Rotor nodded. "Okay... let's get started then..." he said awkwardly.

Punchy, Conan and Shade were the first to rush out into battle, their Chaos Relics filling them with confidence. As Tommy and Ridley fled out of the tower along with Gemini and Timothy, they noticed Tails and Knuckles get cornered by Chaos and Shadow copies. Fortunately, Shadow Chaos was furious, and jumped in to fight Chaos. "Tails!!" Tommy shouted, lashing his Wispon whip at a Metal Sonic as it approached. "What are you doing!? You've got the Chaos Tailbands, don't you!?" he called. Tails reached for them nervously. "And didn't you win something, too, Knuckles?" Ridley added. Knuckles had the Chaos Claws in his possession. He punched aside Shadow and scoffed. "I'm tough enough to handle this on my own! ...Well, I hope. The Chaos Claws are cursed, I don't wanna get them stuck on me..." he explained. Tails nodded, and decided to slip on just one of the tailbands. "If Copter can handle one, so can I! Take THIS!!" he yelled, smashing a Zavok copy with a tail whip as it came at him! "Dang! Where were you those months before we saved Sonic!?" Knuckles stammered. "...Oh, here and there..." Tails murmured. The other forces were taking the fight to the copies, too, but it was dangerous. Even with the Phantom Ruby producing so many copies, they were still similar in power to their actual selves, only perhaps more breakable. This made the Deathbringer a foe to be avoided, as any rookie who dared face her found out too late. Cream instead focused on pushing back the Robians, directing Cheese and Chocola to carefully knock them back. Her mother, Bill the hedgehog, and Gator helped as well using weak standard Wispons to keep pressure on them. "I think I miss watching TV in the bunker..." Gator sighed. Big the cat snuck up on and flattened some Firepaw duplicates. "Sorry pal... Hey, where'd you go!?" he muttered. Dave and Cosmo fired lasers from either side of a Kosmo duplicate, then kept shooting as another came at them. "Ow!! Hey!! Stop it, I'm real!!" Kosmo shouted. "Sorry!! How was I supposed to know?" Dave whined. Talon teamed up with Carrie to battle a Mephiles copy, Talon distracting him until Carrie got close enough to psychically grab him and throw him away! "Aw, yeah! Glad to have ya back, sis!" Talon cheered. "Where was I, anyway?" Carrie wondered, scratching her head. Punchy faced off against Dark Punchy for a moment, running circles around him with his Chaos Boots. "What's wrong? Didn't get copied with this little skill?" he teased, only to get tripped up when Dark Punchy used Chaos Avalanche to put rocks in his path! However, Rainbow arrived to take him out with her drill Wispon. "I hate Dark One so much!" she cried. Punchy shrugged. "Just remember, you're marrying me!" he chuckled, rubbing his head a little.

Despite the battle going well in some places, Infinite's force was quite the terror. Between duplicates of Infinite and the Deathbringer, the Freedom Fighters and the Resistance began getting pushed back. Gunner and his agents approached the edge of the battlefield after having ditched the GUN Assault Carrier, and Spy was quick to hide behind his boss. "Yes, for once I might agree, Spy. It may be prudent to hang back and see what happens." Gunner stated. Drol was less inclined to do so. "That's treason! I didn't bring the Assault Carrier here to just watch our forces fall! As GUN's Noble Knight, I shall fight to the last!" he declared, pulling a gun from its holster and charging to battle. He soon found Antoine and Bunnie pinned down by a Deathbringer. "I-I shall protect you, Bunnie!" Ant cried, finally managing to fire his Wispon, only for the Deathbringer to block it with her wings. "Oh no!" he yelped as she charged a killing shot! Drol jumped between them, firing his gun at the hooded phantom, but not before her shot fired! Though the Deathbringer faded, Drol fell backward as well, mortally wounded by her blast. "Mah stars... I-I don't even know who that was..." Bunnie gasped, sniffling a little. Antoine steadied his shooting hand. "We shall not allow zis sacrifice to be in vain! Charge!!" he cried, rushing forward with Bunnie.

One Infinite among the duplicates was more conscious than the others. And he didn't bother fighting, initially. "If Sonic isn't here, why should I dirty my hands? They could all challenge me at once. The hedgehog is wrong. The bonds of friendship are weak. It's something about him... How did he defeat me?? Was it him...and her?" he questioned. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that one Deathbringer was fighting against the others. "Well, it seems the real deal is out there. The morph and the Zeti were both unimpressive. But one called the Deathbringer? I wonder if you live up to such a fearsome moniker?" He then sped over to the Deathbringer in a blink of an eye and began to engage her in hand to hand combat. Not far away, Gemini was busy zapping Kosmo, Firepaw and Chaos duplicates with Timothy's help. She noticed Infinite fighting the Deathbringer, the two seeming evenly matched for the moment. "I wonder if that one's a Divine Master, too... He came with the ferret lady..." Gemini murmured. "I don't think now's the best time to wonder!" Timothy stammered, exchanging blows with Mephiles. Suddenly, Infinite began to gain the upper hand, knocking the Deathbringer back and causing her hood to start to fly off! Gemini watched, and everything seemed to switch to slow motion as she saw the familiar light blue ears, and the fennec-shaped head. The Deathbringer stumbled back, and Gemini got a clearer view. "...No...it can't be...H-how can it be!?" Gemini stammered. The Deathbringer was the very one she'd spent the past year searching for. It was Libra the fennec! The hood quickly came back on, but Infinite laughed at seeing her face. "I see why you keep that covered. Such a fluffy, cute face is far from intimidating. Now I see your true nature...hiding your weakness...trying to be something you're not." he mocked. "Hmph... I believe that's YOUR true nature, Infinite!" the Deathbringer snapped.

Infinite activated the Phantom Ruby to produce a glowing sword in his hand. "I think I'll kill you the old fashioned way..." he said. Gemini was quick to run between them now that she knew who the Deathbringer was, though. "Solare!!" She fired a powerful beam from her wand that Infinite held back with his sword. "Oh, you have magic, girl? Allow me to show you MY magic!" Infinite sneered, using the Ruby's power to summon dozens...hundreds more of himself! "The real phantom ruby is inside the Death Egg Robot now. But... in duplicating me... Eggman has duplicated IT! We can't be stopped!" he stated. Gemini turned to the Deathbringer. "Libra... why?" she murmured. The Deathbringer looked at the ground, and Infinite looked bored. "You can work out your feelings in the next world..." he stated. "Oh, look! It's the over-compensation squad! What do all of you look like under that mask, a bunch of sad clowns?!" Looking to see who would dare talk about him like that, Infinite found Kosmo flying over in gargoyle form before landing in his normal form. "If it takes 'infinite' of you to beat a little girl, I think you've gone soft these eight months!" he taunted. Guard and Heather had fought their way to Infinite as well. "Grrr!! Your fakes killed Sergeant Drol!" he snarled. "And I'm ironically siding with the person who killed me the other day. But that's war!" Heather shrugged. Tails and Knuckles hurried over, too. "We'll help even the odds!" Knuckles said. "W-we can do this!" Tails added shakily. Infinite laughed at him. "No prophecy-monger will save you this time, fox boy. Are you prepared to die?" he said darkly. Sally joined the growing opposition as well, firing a blast from the hover Wispon she was carrying. "You won't win, Infinite! We'll defeat you and Eggman, and save our robotisized friends!" she shouted. "Your robotisized friends were merely a diversion while our true plan gained momentum. They have no further use, and they will die with the rest of you. The only question... Which of you to obliterate first? I could end you all at once, but I want to savor this moment..." he said, cackling at them.

Knuckles turned on his comms to give Sonic a final pep talk. "End this, Sonic! Defeat him!" Wherever Amy was, she added "Go for it, Sonic!" Little did they realize, Sonic, Classic Sonic and Felicia had been drawn into Null Space with the machine within the Death Egg Robot's armor. They sped after it together, beginning a climactic final battle. Outside, Sally fired another shot from her Wispon at Infinite. "Fool! That toy doesn't affect me!" he sneered. "We'll find something that does, then!" Sally said defiantly. Infinite glared at her. "Your resistance...All of your fighting...It has annoyed me for the last time!" he said, and before anyone could react, fired a beam from his hand that pierced Sally's chest! "N-NOOOOO!!" Tails cried, running furiously at Infinite only to have him fly down and smack him onto his back with his tail. "So eager to join her..." Infinite snarled. Knuckles and Gemini stood in shock at what they'd seen, but ran over to try and help Sally. "Recoveration!!" Gemini shouted, trying to save her with magic. Sally didn't move, and didn't heal. "D-damn you, Infinite!!" Knuckles snapped. Kosmo and Heather ran to Tails' side, Heather's flames pushing Infinite back! "Fire! You remind me of Anubis. I think I'll give the three of you a special burial, to show how sick you make me..." he said, floating up and extending his hand. Guard flew after him, slashing his scythe at the deranged jackal. "GRRRR!! You won't kill any more!!" he shouted. "How will you stop me when you're dead!?" Infinite snapped, grabbing Guard's chest with his other hand! "Garen!!" Heather cried, only to watch as a hole got blown in Guard's chest as well, and his body tossed into the distance. "We'll finish this...in Null Space!" Infinite said, creating a hole and flying into it as Tails, Heather and Kosmo all got sucked in! "Oh, god... Wh-what do we do?" Gemini stammered as Timothy approached to embrace her. "We... We don't give up!" Knuckles huffed, "You can make it, Tails... Please, make it..." he murmured.

As Tails stood up, he saw Kosmo exchanging blows with Infinite's sword, his own arm morphed into a blade to counter it. Heather was leaning over him, steam coming from her as she cried. "H-he killed Guard... He was my...friend..." she sniffled. Tails stood up shakily. "Mine too, sorta... We can't let him get away with this..." he whimpered. Heather nodded. "I didn't want to be a weapon...but now...I will fight to end this!" she said, flames surrounding her body. Tails took out his second tailband, looking up at where Kosmo and Infinite were fighting. "I can't do it alone...but I'm not alone." he touched his heart, and looked up with determination, "No, I'm never alone! I forgot for a while, but seeing what the resistance pulled off... seeing Cream come to our aid... even getting help from the other Sonic... I know now. Even if we're separated, something always connects us. And if I keep these positive feelings in my heart..." he said, slipping on the second tailband. No further words were needed as his body began to glow golden, super energy coursing through him! "This is no time for heartfelt speeches, Tails!!" Kosmo shouted as Infinite hurled him across Null Space. "What's this?! Your so-called friends have given you power?? Impossible! IMPOSSIBLE!! I will show you that this power is naught but an illusion!!" Infinite shouted, charging at Tails! To keep Heather and Kosmo occupied, he created a seemingly endless supply of duplicates of himself. However, they were disposable. Kosmo turned into his dragon-like Kosmogon form to burn through them, while Heather followed along beside him, burning the others in her own way! Tails charged back into Infinite, whipping him with his tails and knocking him back. "You're stronger than I imagined possible, but you cannot win!" Infinite stated, virtual reality shifting around him until he became a giant! He tried to stomp Tails, but the fox flew around him and smacked into his eye! "I don't have to overpower you... Just out-think you!" he said. Kosmo slammed into the other side of his mask, and Infinite latched on to it. "Don't you dare! Beyond this mask is a dead being. The old me was weak, undeserving of life. I am reborn. I am INFINITE!!" he cried. "You are messed up!" Heather retorted, leaping up and throwing fireballs at him. He swatted her away with his other hand, and Tails flew over to catch her. "I have a plan... His weakness is his strength. The Phantom Ruby! But we have to attack it together!" he said. Infinite clapped his giant hands, the shockwave sending all three away. "Fools. I can just snap my fingers and alter reality to finish you. In fact, why don't I do that?" he said, raising his hand. "Now!!" Tails cried. Infinite snapped his hand, and the Phantom Ruby started to activate. Tails and Kosmo soared towards Infinite's chest while he stood, occupied with channeling the Ruby's energy. Tails tossed Heather onto Kosmo's back. "This is for robotisizing Carrie!" Kosmo growled. "And killing Guard!" Heather shouted. "And taking Sonic from us...TAKE THIS!!" Heather jumped into Kosmo's arms, and he tossed her at Infinite, her body engulfed in flames as she soared at him! Kosmo also added his Kosmos beams, shooting above Heather to strike a different point on the enlarged Phantom Ruby. Tails charged in as well, beside Heather. Their speed combined to form a Double Boost, and as they struck the Phantom Ruby, it shattered! "N-nooo!! It's not...possible!!" Infinite roared as his virtual reality powers faded away. Elsewhere in Null Space, Sonic, Classic Sonic and Felicia teamed up for their own final move. "TRIPLE BOOST!!" They smashed through Eggman's robot, ending his Eggman Empire at last!

The two trios emerged from Null Space together, just in time to watch as the illusions all began to fade. The Phantom Rubies were gone, it seemed. "All right! We won!" Knuckles cheered, reuniting with his Resistance in time to hear a collective cheer from them. The survivors helped out the wounded and celebrated Eggman's defeat, but the party couldn't last forever. After many of the rookies left the battlefield, Sonic, Tails, Felicia, Knuckles, Silver, Amy, Team Chaotix, Rouge, Shadow and Omega realized they had to say goodbye to Classic Sonic, who'd only been able to arrive due to the Phantom Ruby. "I guess this is goodbye." Tails said sadly as Classic Sonic started to fade, "Get home safely, Sonic." he told him, shaking his hand, "And thanks for everything!" Tails managed to share a fist bump with Classic Sonic before he faded away, but he was still sad to see him go. Sonic placed a hand on his shoulder. "Cheer up, Tails. I'm sure we'll run into him again. Whichever of me he was." Sonic stated. He'd thought it was his past self upon meeting him, but now he wasn't so sure. "Alright, guys!" Sonic said, turning to the group, "It's time we cleaned up the mess that Eggman left this world in! And I'm not talking about those illusions he dreamed up for us! We need to fix the real world we all live in!" he announced as everyone nodded. "True dat!" Tails said to Felicia. "...Why are you talking like that to me?" she asked, finding it jarring to hear him speak that way. "C'mon, let's go!" Sonic said, as everyone chimed in with agreement.

The Freedom Fighters were nearby as well. They'd faced the heaviest losses, and their post-celebration moments were a bit more somber. Heather and Gemini stood over Guard's body sadly, thinking about burying him, when Gunner and Dr. Nammad approached. "I knew showing him that his little girlfriend was a robot would impassion him. Pitiful." Gunner smirked. Heather stood up with her fists raised, but Nammad raised a hand to stop her. "Easy! You didn't, uh, think he was dead-dead, did you?" he asked. "That's...exactly what we thought." Gemini said. "Come on, freaks. We keep saying he's an android! He can be repaired! ...He can be repaired, right?" Gunner asked. Nammad nodded. "Not sure he'll, uh, be happy that we didn't find his girlfriend in the tower, but he'll live again." he stated. There were, in fact, a number of people still missing after the battle, such as Libra, who'd vanished along with Capricorn and Sagittarius/Razor. Vortex and Zipp were also disappointed to find that Crash was not anywhere around, either. "Eggman must've moved some Robians to another location as insurance. Think they're dead now?" Zipp wondered. "No... But where ssstasssh them?" Vortex hissed. Nearby them, Rotor and Uncle Chuck were unveiling their mass de-robotisizer: a Mega Wispon on wheels. Bunnie and Uncle Chuck stood in the path of the beam, where a large quantity of Robians were held in a series of capsules. Not humane exactly, but it was the most convenient way to restrain them available. The beam fired, and in a moment, Bunnie and Chuck were flesh again, and they went to work freeing the others within the capsules, including Sally's father, who was devastated to learn of his daughter's fate. "Sally... No... She died trying to save me? I-I don't know if I can go on!" he said, stumbling to his knees. Antoine, Chuck and Bunnie watched, unable to say anything to console him. "She was a hero." Bucky said, "You would be proud of her." As everyone was preparing to leave the Eggman Empire Fortress, Cream caught up to Tails. "So... we did it." she said. "Yup..." Tails sighed, looking at her awkwardly, "I-I'm sorry Cream... I wasn't thinking straight..." he told her. Cream frowned. "When you locked us up? No, I think you were thinking straight. You were too afraid of losing me. That's kind of the problem. Tails... I don't want to lose you either. It's not fair of you to protect me if I don't get to protect you." she said. Tails nodded. "I... I understand... I think..." he said. Cream sniffled a bit. "It hurt, Tails. Being separated like that for months. Thinking you might be gone... I- I don't think... I can be your girlfriend for a while..." she stammered. Tears formed in Tails' eyes as he heard this, but he nodded. "I deserve that..." he sighed. "I still care for you, Tails, but... I... I need to..." she murmured. "Work things out? ...Maybe I do, too. It's okay, Cream." he said, accepting a hug from her. And just like that, they went their separate ways. They were back to just being friends again.

Sally's body went missing during the cleanup after the battle. Despite her father's urging to find it, the body was no longer in their time. "Strong-willed chipmunk... Hero and champion of freedom... Your time is not yet done." a voice stated, standing over her body in a dark room. "I bestow upon you a divine rebirth... Awaken to your new life and your new name!!" Light surrounded Sally's body, enveloping her and illuminating the owner of the voice. The Mobian had the head of a serpent, but arms and legs bound in armor. He wore a hood, and had broad golden wings. Sally herself was growing white wings as her body was being restored. As her eyes opened, the serpent spoke her new name. "Virgo... Rise!" She stood, looking around. "You are confused. Do not worry. I am Ophiuchus... your new master!" he stated as Capricorn, Libra and Sagittarius stepped out of the shadows. "Welcome... to the Zodiac Council!"

Back at Resistance HQ, everyone was resting and thinking about what was next. Knuckles walked in with a look of relief. "Finally, an end to this endless battle. Everyone can go back home and relax... And I can get that Master Emerald home, too. I dunno who gave Sally permission to take it, but, eh, can't yell at her..." he mumbled, "Anyway, there's no more need for the Resistance." he said. Silver hopped off a crate he was sitting on. "Hold on, there's still a lot we need to do! We're just getting started!" he stated. "Shouldn't you be extra eager to get home, future boy?" Rouge mumbled as Felicia whispered something to Knuckles. "What? You're leaving us? There are others who need your help!" Knuckles stammered, "But, okay, I'm not gonna stop you." he sighed. Felicia smiled at him. "I'm sure you'll do fine." she said. "Man, the first time I saw you stumbling around, I had no idea you could pull this thing together and see it to the end!" Vector commented, patting her on the back, "I've changed my mind about you!" he grinned. "...He still doesn't know who she is?" Amy murmured. "Not a clue." Silver shrugged. "Some detective." Amy sighed. Felicia looked awkward about Vector's words, but Knuckles was reassuring her until Rouge pushed him aside. "You did good out there. It's not like you just waited till the last minute to come in and act all cool saving the day!" she said, dodging a smack from Omega and slyly winking at Shadow. "Our battle is done." Tails said, stepping up to address the group, "And our Resistance has come to a conclusion, but we'll be friends forever! A single person cannot restore the entire world. We have to work together and make a diligent effort!" he said as everyone agreed. "You've grown a bit through this, huh, Tails?" Knuckles smiled. "You're better at speeches than Knuckles. Maybe you be commander next time?" Charmy asked. "Gah! We don't want there to be a next time, Charmy!!" Espio said in exasperation.

Felicia found Sonic outside as she was heading out. "Hey, you takin' off too? I was thinking the same thing." Sonic smiled. Felicia stood beside him, glancing at him. "You gonna keep movin' forward? No matter what, yeah?" Sonic said, looking at her. "Heh, you and I aren't so different." he said, making her blush a little. "That might be laying it on thick, but thanks, Sonic." she chuckled. Sonic nodded. "See you later, buddy!" he said, giving her a last fist bump before taking off, giving her a thumbs up as she waved to him. Felicia looked out over the horizon, and then down at the Chaos Cards in her hands. "Back to Central City for me... Gotta find my friends." she smiled, a light frown coming to her face next, "I still don't know the full story of my past... but that's an adventure for another day!" she said, leaping from the nearby ledge and throwing her grappling hook to carry her on her way!

The reconstruction of the world would take time. Hearts may take longer to mend from the wounds suffered during Eggman's war. Heather was there to meet Guard upon his rebooting, and she promised to help her now-friend find Mia and restore her from robotisization. Illusi returned the Chaos Crystal to Rainbow, but she, Punchy, Gemini and Timothy had no immediate place to go. It was then Kosmo caught up to them, and offered to show them a new place to stay, since Darkegg Fortress was no longer safe. Ridley decided to keep Tommy company while Razor was off being Sagittarius, the two of them determined to find him again one day. Tommy convinced Ridley to put on his uniform again and return to police work, as they all had to move forward with or without him. Gunner put out a call to any surviving GUN agents, hoping to rebuild the organization from its ashes. Bucky took in any of his Experiments that needed homes, and got Shadow Arcangel back up and running with Vortex and Zipp's help. Crash's absence left a darkness hanging over their lives. Lucky, however, was glad for the return to peace. Overall, everyone was returning to their old lives as best they could...

The Freedom Fighters that started it all met in Spagonia, near AcornCorp's International HQ, to hold a funeral for their fallen leader. Sonic brought out Uncle Chuck for the occasion, and they all dressed in black, as appropriate. Knuckles attended the funeral as well, as did Shade and a few members of the Freedom Fighters who joined later and deeply respected her. Antoine held Bunnie to comfort her as she held Nicole, the computer having been willed to the rabbit. Rotor's foot had been healed, but he sniffled sadly remembering his lost friend and commander. Max Acorn was devastated throughout the ceremony. Chuck stood up to give the eulogy once everyone was gathered. "...Sally...wasn't exactly a general. Not when I first knew her. I knew her as a young girl. Bright mind. Bright future... There was always a light inside her, and she used that light to brighten up people's lives. When she saw injustice in the world, she wouldn't sit there and let it happen. She stood up, defiant, and fought for freedom and goodness. Our Sally... Our Princess Sally died for those ideals... And for all of us. I... I miss her every day..." he said, fighting not to break down crying and failing. Sonic stepped up and hugged his uncle. "I wish I'd known her better... I think we'd have hit it off..." he sighed.

There was another guest at the funeral, hanging in the shadows. Gemini, who stood as though expecting something. "...Capricorn said she'd have words with me..." she murmured. Timothy stood beside her. "I'm sorry. It's my fault you're in trouble..." he sighed. Gemini shook her head. "I don't care. I'd do it again... I WILL do it again." she stated. Timothy shivered. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Sally was so noble. And she was right. When injustice happens, we do not back down and let terrible people have their way! I can't let Lospecter use you as leverage! I can't let Cancer manipulate Copter! I can't let Libra be twisted into being a killer!" she said defiantly. Timothy looked at her nervously. "What are you gonna do? You can't take on the Divine Masters! That's insane!" he stammered. Gemini nodded. "I have to think of something, though! Will... will you help me?" she asked, not sure what he'd say. Timothy took his hands in his. "Gem... You've grown so much since we separated in the future... I think I'm now LESS experienced than you...but I'll do my best to help!" he smiled.

The crisis caused by Infinite was over. However, new adventures awaited just around the corner. No one knew what would happen next, but through teamwork and sacrifice, hope had been restored to the world!

"So much has happened, it's hard to bear.
Shadows of sadness, within your stare.
But, still you're standing here.

Moving on, future's down the road.
But the journey won't be easy.
Rising up, standing on your own.
With the beauty in your eyes,
Shining...

...Find the strength, lies within your soul,
And believe that you can do it.
Rising up, standing on your own.
With the beauty in your eyes,
Shining...

You, have not lost a thing.
Whatever may come,
The light of hope is always shining there in your heart.
You've not lost a thing.
Whatever you do,
Just know that your tomorrow will be waiting for you." - Light of Hope, Sonic Forces Ending Theme

The End....  BZZZTT!! ZZZZZZTT!! FZZZZTT!!


The Eggman Empire Fortress had been abandoned. Somewhere within it, shattered pieces of the Phantom Ruby lay scattered. It might be THE Ruby, it might be the duplicate. Either way, it was broken and useless, supposedly. Dr. Eggman and Infinite's whereabouts were unknown after the battle, but they clearly weren't at the tower. However, one missing entity was still there. A black fluid slithered about, a yellow eyed face peering up upon nearing the sparkling pieces of the Phantom Ruby. Shadow Chaos was still there. The dark form of Chaos slithered to the shards, taking them into its black body. Its body churned for a bit, and then suddenly began to shrink, swirling inside an object. As Shadow Chaos vanished, a fully restored Phantom Ruby accepted the dark creature inside itself, housing the entity as the Master Emerald had before! The Ruby glowed briefly, and then dimmed. The world was silent around it. And so it waited...waited for one who would find it once more...

To be continued... in Sonic GeneX: the Series, Season 4!