Chapter 11 – The Hole in Everything

A/N: Hey everyone, things have been pretty hectic lately, but I'm managing just fine. I hope you enjoy this new chapter.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Sonic panted as robots all around him exploded. He glared up at the two, his vision dancing with power. Knuckles had a horrified look on his face while Noise was eyeing him with mild interest.

"Hmm, looks like you have more tricks up your sleeve. Interesting," Noise murmured with his hand on his chin.

"Shut up!" Knuckles snapped before to the hedgehog, his brows furrowing. "Sonic, come on. You….you gotta snap out of this!"

Sonic the hedgehog ignored him. White burning anger coursed through his body. He was blind to everything but the villain floating in front of them. Letting out almost a feral growl, he charged at him faster than before, a black flicker in the light. Noise glitched out of the way and went above him. Four robots lunged at him from all directions, weapons raised. Sonic released a burst of force and obliterated them. "Pieces of junk," he muttered coldly.

Feeling a red light fall over his head, he looked up to see Noise charging a dark sphere and aiming down at him. He leapt back to avoid it, watching it explode right where he had been standing. He didn't even wait a moment to recover, launching himself at Noise and throwing a punch. He blocked the hit with his hands, but the force behind it was enough to create ripples in the air and knock Noise straight into a tree, leaving a hole in the bark.

"Heh, not bad at all. That was actually the first time someone managed to land a hit on me. Paint me impressed, hedgehog," Noise remarked, watching the dark Mobian land on the ground, glaring at him. The white villain began charging energy in his hands. "Guess it's time I show you more of my own pow-"

Noise stiffened when his red eyes glowed faintly all of a sudden. A confused and startled look fell over his face as he looked at something in the distance, his interest in the two fading instantly.

"Hey, don't ignore me!" Sonic snarled, jumping at him again only for to knocked back down by a pulse of energy from Noise.

"Sorry, pal, but I have somewhere to be right now. See you later!" With that said, Noise blasted away while the rest of the robot army surrounded Sonic.

The hedgehog snarled and tore through them like they were nothing. A big one began firing at him with its rifle. Sonic dodged the barrage and leapt into the air, stomping down and crushing the robot's arm. Without wasting a second, he jumped and kicked its head clean off its shoulders while the body collapsed on the ground. Sonic turned, intending on going after Noise when Knuckles cut him off. "Hold on! You're not going anywhere!"

"Get out of my way!" Sonic roared.

"Sonic, you need to calm down," his expression then became concerned. "You know what will happen if you stay like this for too long,"

Sonic narrowed his eyes and tried to crush him under his heel.

Knuckles scowled and got into a fighting stance. "Alright, listen up, Sonic the Hedgehog. You may be our team leader, but I won't hesitate to take you down if it meant knocking some sense into you!"

But the dark Mobian was clearly not planning on backing down. Knuckles gritted his teeth. "So you're gonna be like this, huh? Fine, come at me then!"

Without hesitation, Sonic lunged and threw a punch at the echidna. Knuckles, already familiar enough was Sonic's speed, bent down just in time and punched him in the chest, knocking him back.

Sonic recovered quickly and attacked again, swinging his leg at him. Knuckles tried blocking the blow, but he hadn't been expecting the amount of the raw strength behind it. He felt the power shake his body before sending him tumbling away. Gasping in pain, he forced himself to stand up. He tried raising his right arm only to realize he couldn't. It was far too injured to move, falling limp by his side. No!

"What's the matter, Knucklehead? Can't fight anymore?" Sonic taunted.

Knuckles felt a sting in his chest at the nickname and glared on. "Yes, yes I am!" he gritted out stubbornly.

Sonic took that as his invitation and charged at the echidna once more while Knuckles could barely find the strength to move aside, his mind reeling with panic.

Suddenly, a wall of fire burst between the two, cutting Sonic off. Knuckles meanwhile stared baffled as the flames rose higher when the hedgehog tried stepping closer to him. The next thing he knew he was being grabbed by the hand and pulled away. A familiar female face greeted him.

"Y-you?!" Knuckles sputtered.

Blaze the Cat ignored him and stared ahead. "Hurry up!"

The two quickly rushed deeper into the forest, but Sonic made no attempt to follow them. They weren't his target after all. He turned and disappeared through the trees.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Knuckles panted as he was guided over to sit behind a tree near a river. He nearly cried out at the pain shooting in his arm, but he forced his mouth shut.

"How are you feeling?" Blaze asked.

"Not too bad," he lied through his teeth, his pride not wanting her to know how much pain he was in. He grunted. "You didn't have to intervene. I was doing fine on my own,"

"Clearly," she replied, rolling her eyes. Before Knuckles could protest, she took out a dark blue Sol Emerald, much to the echidna's surprised. She began whispering something into it, and in return, it emitted a soft glow.

Knuckles hissed when a hot pain spread through his limps for a moment before a soothing feeling washed over him, like dipping into a cool bath. Once the emerald stopped glowing, Knuckles blinked. The pain was gone. He looked up to see the cat looking down at him with an almost smug look.

"Fine, thanks," he said reluctantly.

She nodded back.

"Now, are you going to explain what are you doing here? I thought you went back to your dimension a while ago," Knuckles asked, stretching up.

The princess' expression grew grim. "It was the Sol Emeralds that brought me here. They've been sensing a mysterious disturbance in your dimension for quite some time and it only got worse recently. Whatever it is that's causing this, I was sent to deal with it,"

Knuckles' brows shot up. What could be so terrible that the emeralds would send someone from another dimension to fix it?

"But anyway, who was that you were fighting? I have never sensed such dark force before. He might be the thing I am supposed to stop," She asked seriously.

"That…was Sonic," he answered awkwardly. The cat jerked back in shock.

"What?! Be serious! Now is not the time for jest!"

"Yeah, because I'm well known for my hilarious jokes," he replied back sarcastically.

"But how could-"

"Look, I don't think he's the threat the emeralds are sensing. He only became like that minutes ago," he said and raised his hand before she could bombard him with anymore questions. "How about we keep the questions for later? We need to catch him before he could get any further,"

The cat sighed in frustration, but nodded.

I can't lose them both. He refrained from adding, his face falling briefly before putting on a stoic look again.

XXXXXXXXX

For the past half an hour, Infinite had tried everything he could to escape his binds, but struggling didn't seem to be getting him anywhere. He could only sit there in the dim room while the two humans murmured to each other. From what he managed to overhear, it was mostly about the other Phantom Ruby user, the reason he was here. He didn't understand how connecting him to this machine would help, but he already knew that nobody was going to explain anything-

The computer suddenly emitted a horrible sound that filled the room. The woman sitting there ripped her headphones off and backed away in fright. While the two humans were freaking out, Infinite was trying to get a better look at what was happening when a phantom cube appeared in front of him.

Infinite would have reeled back if he could. Wait…did I do this? For a moment he perked up, thinking he finally tapped into his powers again only to gasp when it glowed ominously and the insides of the truck faded away.

When the light disappeared, he found himself somewhere in a forest. Before he could question how he got here, a new voice reached his ears. One he never heard before.

"Well, well, I can't believe I got to meet the infamous Infinite at last!" He glanced back to see a white furred Mobian standing behind him, his tail moving around in a pleased manner while his eyes scanned him excitedly. "I'm Noise. Pleasure to meet you, kid,"

Infinite felt affronted and stood up straight. "What? I'm clearly older than you!"

The stranger flicked his tongue and shook his head. "So petty, but I like it," he added with lopsided grin.

This guy is insane. Despite trying to maintain his anger at the weird stranger, the jackal was actually feeling beyond uneasy. He didn't what it was or what caused it, but the mere sight of this guy made the hairs on his back stand on end. All of his instincts were screaming at him to get away from here as fast as possible.

Noise was about to speak again when something burst from the trees and landed in front of them. The dark hedgehog was panting while glaring holes into them. Infinite had no idea who that was, but the aura of power surrounding him was enough to leave him breathless. His mind came to a screeching halt when he noticed the familiar red and white shoes. "Wait….Sonic?!"

"You!" Sonic growled back, his dark aura somehow growing stronger at the sight of Infinite. The jackal meanwhile could barely think. He had never seen the hero like this before. What happened? "I'm going to tear you both into shreds!"

Sonic suddenly vanished.

Noise quickly stood before Infinite and formed a barrier. In that exact second, a dark spinning sphere slammed against it with a terrifying force that shook the air. When did that idiot get so strong? Infinite thought, stunned.

Noise huffed. "We're never going to get anything sorted out this way. Wait here," he waved his hand and Infinite found himself inside a glowing bubble. Noise's eyes then went black as he turned to face Sonic. In a flash, the two attacked each other, exchanging blows without stopping and tearing through the clearing. The brute power behind their attacks was enough to send anything lightweight on the ground flying without even touching it.

Infinite watched Sonic strike at Noise again, but in that moment, the world glitched. Noise's form melted away and a see-through silhouette appeared out of it. Before he could react, it kicked him in the chin, sending him flying upward where two phantom clones appeared and kicked him at the same time in the stomach.

He was falling down toward the ground fast, but Noise was not done with him. He appeared right below him and the second Sonic was lined up with him in the air, he drew his hand back and charged it with dark energy, punching the hedgehog directly in the abdomen. The force knocked the wind out of him and he went flying several feet away. Sonic lay there, struggling to get back up before the dark aura slowly faded and a battered and bruised hedgehog was all that was left.

Noise was panting and grinning at the same time. "That was…good. I knew there was more to you than what you let on," he then gave a brief glance to the jackal behind. "Now, back to business,"

Summoning a cube in his hands, Noise concentrated and the world around them began melting into a dark, warped space. It was a familiar place to Infinite, one he only got a few glimpses of, but never stepped into.

"Hello, Infinite. Welcome to the Void," Right in front of Infinite stood Noise with a grin so sharp it could cut the jackal in half. "Such a wonderful place, wouldn't you agree? Not as fun as your world though,"

Infinite gritted his teeth and tried to move his limps, but his hands and feet were bound by weird glowing cuffs. "Let me out of this!"

Noise shook his finger at him. "I can't do that. We won't get to talk then,"

The jackal took a deep breath and tried to gather his thoughts. A lot didn't make sense to him at the moment, but there was one thing he did understand in all of this. "So you're the maniac the government is after now? Fit the bill by the looks of it," he jabbed at Noise who scowled. "Don't get cocky though. You really think you can waltz in and take what's mine. I earned that power and I'll be taking it back as soon as I'm out of this!"

Noise's anger faded and he smirked. "Heh, straight to the point, aren't we? But then again, you were always like that. Fighting first and thinking later,"

"Shut up! As if you know anything about me!" the jackal snarled, but that for some reason got a laugh out of Noise, one that sent a chill down his spine.

Noise stepped closer. "Infinite, or should I say…Zero, I know everything about you,"

Infinite stiffened at the mention of his real name, but the villain didn't stop there. "You were once a leader of a group of mercenaries in the desert only for your dear team to abandon you in the face of that hedgehog, Shadow. You worked for Dr. Eggman and then later on became the subject of his Phantom project. You conquered the world with your given powers and then lost everything to Sonic and his friends. I know all of it. How lost and alone you felt while being hunted, your innermost thoughts, your secrets, everything,"

By now Infinite's blood had frozen. His fur stood on end and his lungs screamed for air because he forgot to breathe moments ago. How…How does know all of this? So many questions stormed in his mind, but when he finally found his voice, he could only mutter one. "Who…who are you, really?"

Noise's grin somehow grew wider. "You may not know this, but you and I have actually worked together before. This is the first time we meet in person though. It's funny how the first thing you say to me was to give you back what is yours, but is it really?" he cocked his head to the side. "That stupid doctor spent so long researching and harnessing power from the phantom stone without even knowing what he was really messing with,"

"W-what?" Infinite stammered.

"This demon was born from that same power," he said, pointing himself with a smile. "I may have not had a physical form back then, but I was still aware of some things. I spent centuries trapped in that prison, with the world far beyond my reach, but that doesn't matter anymore. I'm free now and nothing can stop me from doing what I want!" he grinned, his teeth growing sharper. The Void flickered back at his words.

He then walked over to Infinite and smiled. "I know you've been feeling pretty worthless ever since you lost your powers, partner-"

"Hey, I'm not-"

"But you shouldn't be feeling like that at all…" he leaned closer and whispered. "Don't tell this to anyone, but you're actually my big surprise for the world,"

Infinite blinked in surprise. "Me?"

"Yes, that pulse in your chest….did you really think it didn't mean anything?" Noise asked, tapping the scar on the mercenary's chest.

Infinite's mind reeled as he recalled the chronic pains, the visions and the white figure in them. "W-what are you planning to do?"

"Oh, you'll find it really soon, but until then, don't disappoint me, partner!" he cackled and the Void disappeared along with Noise. This time Infinite was dropped off into another part of the forest.

Infinite remained on the ground for what felt like forever before silently reaching for his chest. It throbbed with pain.

What have I gotten myself into?

XXXXXXXXXX

Back outside the forest, Captain Winter was staring at the multiple screens inside one of the vans. "We found him, sir. He's in our radars now," one of the soldiers said.

Winter scowled darkly. "Finally, prepare the Alpha Cannon. That freak won't have anywhere to run this time,"

"B-but sir, the blast will cover a radius of 500 meters! We still have people in there, including agent Shadow and his team," the solider stammered.

The captain gritted his teeth in frustration. "Then send them a call to fall back without alerting the enemy!"

The solider nodded and did as he was told.

Meanwhile, Silver was still trying to force the mecha back with all his strength, but there didn't seem to be any way for them to take it down. Its body was too heavy for him to lift and the armor was just unbreakable. He glanced down to see if Shadow had better luck only to find him staring at the walkie-talkie with a confused, but also frustrated look on his face.

In that moment of distraction, his control wavered and the robot broke loose. "Shadow!" The white hedgehog exclaimed as it brought its saw down at the Mobian below. Shadow quickly teleported out of the way and fired a barrage of chaos spears at its arm, but they didn't even leave a dent on its armor. How is this thing so tough?

Silver's eyes scanned its body once more and then caught something. The areas of the joints weren't protected. "That's it!" Charging up his energy, he slashed at the air and cut the robot's arm with a psychic blade, but he didn't stop there. He got a hold of the fallen arm with his telekinesis and slammed it with all his might against the robot's neck. Sparks erupted and smoke rose from the open gash. The robot's head exploded and its body collapsed on the ground, the impact creating a massive shook wave that knocked Shadow off his feet.

Silver expelled a sigh of relief at the defeated robot and then went down to check on the other hedgehog.

"You alright?" Silver asked, hovering next to him.

"Yeah," he stared briefly at the mecha and then turned away. "Now let's go find Noise,"

"What?! You can't seriously think you can take him on like this! You're hurt!" Silver stammered, pointing at the wound on Shadow's side among the other injuries he sustained. "We need to head back and get you treated immediately!"

"This is nothing," he said stubbornly. "I'm not going back after all of this. Feel free to run back if you wish, but I'm getting this mission done!"

Silver scowled. "Are you crazy?! You…."

He trailed off when a tremor sounded somewhere in the forest and something in the air around them suddenly shifted.

Shadow turned to see a wave of light charging toward them rapidly, consuming everything in its way. Shadow absently tightened his grip on the emerald, ready to get them out of there when he realized with sinking horror that he ran out of power to do that.

In that split second, Silver jumped in and formed a barrier in front of them just as the light consumed them both.

XXXXXXXXXX

"…onic?...Sonic!"

Moaning tiredly, the hedgehog cracked his open to see Knuckles and Blaze looking down at him, the latter was putting something away.

He groaned and reached for his head, the memory of overwhelming pain clear in his mind. "Wha…what happened?"

Knuckles bit his lip. "I…would rather get you out of here first," he said, but there was a subtle hint of relief in his voice.

Sonic then turned to the other Mobian and raised a brow. "Blaze?"

"It's good to meet you again, Sonic, but I wish it was on better circumstances," the cat said, arms crossed.

Knuckles helped Sonic up and put the hedgehog's arm over his shoulder to support him. "Let's get out of here,"

The walkie-talkie suddenly buzzed to life and knuckles took it out with his other hand. "Hello?"

"Evlwpo….gET…wskfe…wrkt, ackba,"

"What? I can't hear!" Knuckles growled, shaking the device slightly.

"Oh, don't bother. It won't work," The three turned to see Noise watching them with a long smile, but the malicious glint in his eyes was present as always. "Not when I'm around,"

Noise's eyes flashed red and an ear-piercing, electronic screech came out of the walkie-talkie, startling the three and causing Knuckles to toss it just to make it stop. The sound died just as it hit the ground.

"You little punk!" Knuckles growled, wincing.

"So you're the one doing that!" Sonic accused, recalling the same thing happening in the city as well with Tails' phone.

"Yup, and I'm proud of it," Noise replied, as if they were just joking around.

Sonic scowled. This maniac never took anything he was doing seriously and he just about had enough of it. "Quit that! Stop treating this as if it's all some sort of game! Just tell us what you're up to already!"

Noise eyed Sonic for a moment as if considering it before sighing and shrugging. "Alright, since I have the final piece of my plan secured now, I see no reason for secrets anymore," he placed his hands behind his back and grinned. "To be honest, my original goal was to be part of your reality. I was fine with causing as much havoc as possible at first and it was fun for a while, but then I found myself wanting more than that. I want to take over,"

"How original," Sonic spat.

Noise cackled. "No, no. I don't just mean this silly, little world of yours. I mean…everything. Every world…every machine… every mind!"

As if responding to his words, their surroundings flickered.

Noise's grin grew feral. "My chaos will be all there is. It will be the only thing that makes sense,"

Sonic was at a loss of words and neither his two friends spoke. He swallowed. "T-that's…you're out of your mind,"

"Yeah, as if we're gonna let you do that!" Knuckles joined in.

"Well, it's too late for you guys to do anything. You'll see that tonight, if you live until then,"

"You wanna fight again?" the echidna asked, clutching a fist at him. Noise shook his head and smirked knowingly.

He leaned in and whispered. "By the way, that call you got was kind of important," was all he said before vanishing, leaving the group confused.

"What did he mean?" Blaze asked. Sonic opened his mouth to respond when a new sound reached his ears. Something was falling from above.

Acting on pure instinct, Sonic blindly reached for their hands and dashed as fast he could just as the projectile hit the ground and the forest erupted into light.

XXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: Thanks for reading. Sorry for the all cliffhangers, but we're very much close to the end now.