Sonic the Hedgehog: Transformation Into Infinity

Chapter 3: Pastries, Gems, and Trains: Part 1

(Author's note: Sorry for the long hiatus everyone! This chapter is a lot longer the last 3 and will be the standard length for future chapters. Hope everyone enjoys this new chapter!)

 On the other side of the village Shadow was taking Cream out for a walk to get some things from the bakery. Cream and Cheese were ecstatic to go hoping to see whatever delicious goods were freshly baked. Shadow walked along behind them agreeing to go since Vanilla was busy helping out some resistance members and thought some sweets would help boost morale. They were getting close to the bakery. Shadow noticed something was off. The faces of the people there were awfully pale, shaking in terror but trying not to show. Their eyes were looking at something or someone constantly shifting so as to not be noticed. Cream had noticed as well and as though answering Shadow got a call from Tails in his communicator," Everyone. Infinite is alive and is currently in this village headed to the bakery. Whoever is closest keeps an eye on him and get ready to fight." Like a ghost appearing after calling its name, both saw Infinite ordering food at the bakery with a sheet of paper in his hands. Shadow balled up his hand into a fist ready to the finish off the last member of the jackal squad before Cream held his hand for a moment, silently insisting not to fight at least not yet. Cheese on the other hand managed to build every ounce of courage in his small body to charge at Infinite straight for his head in hopes of dealing a blow so powerful that it would get rid of him.

Cheese lunged at his target with his stubby fist forward with tremendous speed. Shadow and Cream couldn't react in a team to stop him or even tell him to. At last he connected his fist to the back of Infinite's head only to be met with no response. Infinite quickly turned his head to look at what hit him with the Chao being frozen in fear believing to be it's end, even the baker in the back assumed the worst and braced slightly for the potential death he was about to witness. The eyes of the jackal stared into his soul one blue and one yellow with a slight intensity that a hunting animal would have staring down its prey. This was broken by the light brush of his hand over the chao that then quickly turned into gently petting. "Aww. Look at this little guy! Are you looking for something?" asked the jackal with a childlike glee as he continued to pet the dumbfounded Cheese. Shadow and Cream rushed over with Cheese quickly getting closer to them. "He's my Chao mister. His name is Cheese." Cream responded with a subtle nervous quiver in her voice. Infinite responded happily with compliments to cheese, mentioning his bowtie as quite formal for the chao. He quickly turned his attention back to the baker asking if the food he ordered was ready, being shakily a large bag of boxes almost causing the plastic to tear at any second. Infinite placed the bag on a nearby table before pulling out a small flip phone in which he pushed in some numbers and suddenly a small flame began to form. It suddenly turned into a small portal surrounded by fire red rings with various symbols inside, having a hand which bore a striking resemblance to shadow's arm grab the bag before closing the portal. All but Infinite were stunned at seeing this. Where did that portal come from? Did Infinite make it? What or who did that hand belong to? These questions were murmured by all the people who witnessed this but unfazed Infinite thanked the baker and began to walk away. Shadow grabbed his arm, turning him around to face him, "What. Was. That." he asked angrily. "Um... A magic portal?" responded Infinite, "It was made by my friend who looks a lot like you just less.." He hesitated for a moment, "Mad?"

Shadow paused for a moment and let go of infinite, to the relief of Cream. How could there be someone like him? It clearly wasn't a robot or clone made by Eggman since whoever it was just grabbed a bag of sweets from a magic portal. Begrudgingly Shadow decided to let Infinite go, he needed to get what Vanilla needed and was somewhat unsure of what he was capable of. Without a second thought Infinite casually walked off as though the entire confrontation hadn't happened. Once he was far enough away Shadow contacted Tails through his communicator," I just met with Infinite. He didn't seem to put up much of a fight and managed to summon a portal with an arm sticking out. He also mentioned that arm belonged to someone who supposedly looked like me." Tails responded," It seems like you're not the only one who has a doppelganger. Me and Sonic just saw a fox who looked like me use bottles to destroy Metal Sonic," Shadow was surprised to hear that there was a clone of Tails, "Plus resistance HQ had been getting reports of Amy, Blaze, Knuckles, and two other hedgehogs no one has ever seen before showing in other parts of the world, always followed by random train tracks appearing too!" Shadow signed off the communicator and ordered the food from the bakery which had its mood lightened with the removal of the jackal. Despite this Shadow still wondered about all of these copies remembering Infinite's usage of the phantom ruby to make those replicas of Sonic's enemies. If he saw Infinite again he'll make sure to finish him off so he won't ever be able to hurt anyone else again. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that Infinite was almost naive about his own presence not even noticing Cheese's poor attempt to fight him, perceiving it as a cute chao bumping into him. Could this really be the same ruthless monster who took over the world?