Silver POV 3rd person 

Searching for hours and finding nothing left a stale taste in his mouth as frustration built. How was he supposed to stop Infinite and prevent this from ever happening if he couldn’t even find any information on him?

Huffing out a grunt, he leaned his head on the desk, before banging it lightly; feeling thankful that Blaze wasn’t there to watch him drown in his misery. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but still! This was so aggravating!

Feeling a slight itch in his quills, digits scratched gently at his scalp before sighing out again in defeat. 

Sitting here won’t do anything for him. Coming to a decision, Silver decided to continue searching for now, and if he doesn’t find anything before Blaze returns, he’d just have to go back to the other dimension and see if he could dig up anything there. Granted, he hadn’t been successful last time, but he couldn’t give up! Not now!

Clicks on the mouse and keys continued.

————

Sonic POV 3rd Person

In the other dimension, Sonic left Gadget’s room awhile back, and worked with Knuckles and Espio to see if there was any way to perhaps track the shuttle that the Rookie ‘borrowed’. Unfortunately, they came out empty handed. Kytra mentioned that Gadget might have blocked or disabled the signal, as he was good with technology and could probably very easily do it.

Now, they were just at a stand still. Rouge and Shadow had been contacted to see what they could figure out. It was a waiting game now as no hints or leads had been found at the base for both tracking down the wolf or to finding Infinite’s location.

A portal opened up suddenly in the Main Room of Operations, and a familiar white hedgehog jumped out. Relief was felt as Sonic was glad it wasn’t an enemy appearing or anything.

“Hey Silver.” The hero greeted.

Currently, it was just Sonic in the room, as Knuckles and Espio left to try getting a signal again, but using another shuttle rather than the main computer, hoping maybe it’d be easier to track from there. Gadget’s siblings went back to the medical bay to check on the wounded and do any rounds needed. 

“Did you find anything in your dimension Silver?”

“Well, I didn’t find any hints of what Gadget might know about Infinite, but he is definitely dead in my time.”

“What?!... But, things can vary between timelines. It’s just, hard to picture.”

“I understand that.” 

Silver replied before pulling out a flash drive from a pocket in his boot. He floated to the main computer and plugged it in. A window opened with an article on it. Sonic now approached the monitor to see what Silver was showing him.

“Gadget Kola. Died at the age of sixteen. Body found in an abandoned warehouse that had exploded along with the corpses of multiple jackals.”

“Jackals?”

“Yeah. According to the information I found, Gadget had been on vacation with friends. His parents thought he was with friends from school, so they didn’t think much of it, but it wasn’t until after he died that they found out he’d been traveling around with a group of jackals.”

This was some new information. Sonic wasn’t sure what it meant, but he suddenly remembered his dream. The younger Gadget had been running up to a jackal at the docks of that small town. That odd jackal who had heterochromia eyes and looked as if he’d seen a ghost when Gadget approached.

“Do you think maybe…?” The hero paused, hesitated.

“Huh?”

“What if, Gadget doesn’t necessarily have information on Infinite?”

“Um, what???”

“I mean… do you think it’s possible that Gadget knew Infinite, before he was, Infinite?”

A stunned expression fell on the white hedgehog’s face, “I honestly, never even thought of that as a possibility. But, wasn’t Infinite created in a laboratory?”

“The Phantom Ruby prototypes and the final version were tested in labs, according to what Tails found when he found one of the power sources. Our reports don’t actually say much on Infinite himself.”

“Hm…” Silver hummed, “I guess it’s possible, if Eggman didn’t create Infinite, but only the Phantom Ruby, then the gem has a host, who had a life before the war. I haven’t been able to find much supporting that theory, but we can’t completely throw it out either.”

“But, it would make sense, right? Eggman works more with machines and inanimate objects, than on actual living things.”

“True. But he has done a few experiments with living Mobians though…. This sucks.” Silver grumbled.

Just then, Knuckles walked in solo, and approached the two. Sonic glanced at him, and immediately knew they had no success by the deep frown on his face.

“No luck?”

“Nope,” the Commander shook his head, “Hey Silver, welcome back. I would ask what you found, but my brain feels like jelly, so I’ll ask in the morning after some sleep.”

“I thought your brain was always jelly.”

“Shut up Sonic,” the azure hedgehog grinned. “Espio will be in shortly for the night shift and he’s going to keep searching for the signal while up. Just FYI, Vector and Charmy left earlier this morning to go check up on a sister base down south. Espio will probably head there tomorrow. They need more supplies so they’re making the run. How about you two get some sleep? Silver, you remember where the extra beds are right?”

“Yep! Sure do!”

“Get going then. I’m not sure how tomorrow will go, but we should try to get plenty of rest.”

“Tomorrow? Did something happen while I was out?”

“I’ll tell you in the morning.”

“Alright. Good night Commander.” Silver left the room.

“Take it easy Knuckles. Good night.”

“Night guys.”

————-

Gadget POV 3rd person 

To be honest, traveling in the middle of the night by shuttle made for one to two passengers, was not ideal. Gadget felt very bad about taking this without permission, leaving everyone, and not telling anyone goodbye, especially his siblings and Sonic. Kytra and Brian were probably worried but fine; Sonic, he wasn’t sure if the hero would be mad at him for not asking for help, or hurt because the wolf hadn’t trusted him enough to even try. 

Despite all of those feelings, the Rookie pressed on, and hoped they didn’t assume he ran away. Maybe, he wished, they could forgive him for this one day. Surrendering to the enemy wasn’t what he’d ever thought he’d do. If he was being completely truthful, Gadget didn’t think he’d even make it this far. He was nowhere near the soldier many others who sacrificed their lives already were. He thought his siblings died a few months back, and he felt they were way more capable than he was on a battlefield.

But here he was, breathing, alive, stole a shuttle from the Resistance he felt so loyal to, went to give himself up for someone else, and didn’t even try to ask for help… He really felt like shit.

This sucked! Why did Zero have to turn out to be such an asshole?! And why was he still in love with that stupid jackal!? Just thinking about getting to see him again made butterflies flutter in his stomach for joy. It had been, what, two days since he’s seen him, yet it felt like an eternity… What was wrong with him? Why did he have to be this way?

Even though Gadget felt guilt about this situation, there was this sliver of himself that felt it was easy to surrender to Infinite’s will. The thought of seeing him again, mask on, baritone type voice, before taking off the metal on his face to reveal those blue and yellow eyes he missed so much, that mischievous grin and suggestive gestures, but sweet actions and teasing words, made Gadget’s face flush.

Thoughts went back to his realistic dreams. He tried not to think about it much, but with nothing to do as he traveled, he couldn’t help his mind wandering to that last dream he had; Zero’s kisses and touches, and making out in the shower...

His head banged on the dashboard.

“Damn it!” He yelled out, “Why does everything have to be so complicated?!”

Exhaustion hit him suddenly. Clicking a few buttons on the dashboard, he double checked the cloaking device, which was still operating and working perfectly. He then put it on autopilot, as he had the directions set in the shuttle to go where he needed to be. If everything goes as planned, he should be there either late morning or early afternoon; plenty of time since Infinite gave until sunset.

Since the autopilot was fully functional and now running, the wolf leaned back in his seat and decided to get some shut eye, even if only for a short time. Tomorrow would most likely be a stressful and busy day, and he needed to be prepared and at his best. Hopefully, Tails wasn’t hurt too badly, and everything would go smoothly. He could only hope…

-----

Tails POV 3rd Person

Sluggish, crystal blue eyes opened as Tails slowly scanned the area around him. He looked to be in an abandoned building of some kind. Desolate machines covered in dust, and debris bits scattered the ground below him, which would almost make him sad, if not for the realization that he was tied up high above the ground.

Tussling to get a feel of if there was any room or loose ends in the rope that was tightly wrapped around his body was unfruitful as he saw no means of escape, yet.

“You’re awake.”

It was then the fox noticed the one person he wished he hadn’t as Infinite sat in a chair that provided him both a view of Tails hanging up from the ceiling, and of a door, most likely the entrance door to the room they were in.

“I-Infinite…”

“...”

“What do you want? What are you after?!”

“You’re annoying,” the jackal retorted. “You may as well shut your mouth and sleep. You are not getting out of there anytime soon.”

Quiet for a moment, as Tails tried to think of what was going on, there was one thing he was sure of. “Am I by chance bait?”

“No, I plan to cook you in a giant pot of stew,” that comment made the fox shiver, “Yes dumbass. For a supposied genius, you sure are stupid.”

“Hey!”

Infinite closed his lone eye briefly, before opening it to once more focus on the door ahead of him. It wasn’t missed by the genius. Of course he knew he was bait, and assumed whoever Infinite was waiting for, most likely Sonic of this dimension, was supposed to enter the doorway the jackal so fixedly held his gaze upon. Still, despite knowing these things, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t ask to not only get confirmations for his guesses, but hopefully get him to give more information.

“Sonic’s going to kick your butt.”

“Hmph, think whatever you want.”

“Isn’t that why you set this up? So you can fight Sonic?”

Glancing up, the jackal only snorted, “I have better things to do than kidnap a kid just for a showdown.”

Huh?

“Then why…?”

Tape instantly appeared on his lips, ceasing anything he may have tried to inquire on.

“I know what you are doing. Nice try though. Granted, you will see who comes soon enough.”

Now the two tailed fox felt puzzled. If this wasn’t a setup to fight Sonic, then what was this for? He wasn’t sure, and at this rate, he wouldn’t know until the mystery person walked through that door.