Soul Eater but it's Sonic

Chapter 23

Tails, Knuckles, Sonic, and Shadow walked through the streets of a busy city. They had just completed their mission, and it had been snowing for a short while. Tails and Knuckles collected their second soul after defeating a corrupted weapon that barely put up a fight. Much to Sonic and Shadow's relief, they hadn't had to fight together so far. Unfortunately for them, the night was still young.

"We came all this way for such a boring mission," Knuckles sighed.

"Seeing Empire City was pretty great though,"

Tails glanced over at Sonic and Shadow, who were ignoring him as well as each other. Their displeasure radiated out into the air around them. Sonic had barely talked during the whole mission, while Shadow had yet to speak at all. Tails knew they were here because their training hadn't gone well, but he didn't think things were this dire. He decided to focus on heading home.

The group of four walked down a street that was absent of any cars or people. A blue hedgehog walked out of a condemned building, entering the sidewalk about half a block ahead of them.

"Sonic?" Tails

"What?" Sonic groaned, still facing the side.

"Not you, him!" The young fox pointed at the doppelganger ahead of them.

The group of four starred in dismay. The person ahead looked exactly like Sonic aside from his eyes and mouth. His eyes were completely black aside from the glowing, red irises. His mouth was full of sharp teeth that formed a twisted smile. He laughed, but it sounded more like hissing. Blood poured from his mouth, adding to the red stains on his clothes.

Sonic flinched. "What the hell?"

Sonic's double took off running, and the real Sonic gave chase alongside his team. They followed the figure through the cold night toward the outskirts of the city. Tails focused his soul perception, then noticed something.

"That other Sonic doesn't have a soul. It's just energy. Some kind of illusion,"

"We can still kill it, right?" Knuckles asked.

"Let's just keep following it for now,"

The other Sonic kept running until reaching an old, broken bridge that stood high over the ocean surrounding Empire City. Unlike the interior of the city that was still bustling and maintained, this bridge sat abandoned and covered in a thin layer of snow. Sonic's doppelganger stopped abruptly and stood up straight. The image of the duplicate flickered with red while sitting in place, frozen.

After arriving, the four students saw a man with long silver hair standing at the edge of the broken road. He was looking out at the bridge with his back to them. After turning to greet them, his mask was revealed. It was gray with red plates of glass forming jagged eyes. Pronounced ears with black and white circles jutted out of the top. All of it came to a fine point where his nose should be. His clothes were tight fitting and black, matching most of the fur that was hidden underneath. A tuft of thick silver fur wrapped around his neck with another tuft at the end of his long tail.

"Four fledglings from the DWMA," Infinite watched the group through the red eye plates of his mask to verify their faces. He stared at Shadow and tried his best to remain calm. The black hedgehog looked exactly the same as the last time they'd met. Tikal said the scythe had no memories of his past. Infinite believed her, but it was still so tempting. He decided to stay in character. "Seems my messenger was effective after all,"

"Who are you?" Sonic asked.

"Call me Infinite,"

"Sonic, there's something embedded in his soul," Tails said.