Fighting Flatlines (War Over Mobius Saga: Rebel Route #2)

Turning the Tides

Gadget pressed through strong headwinds. He had to keep going. If he turned back, he was a coward. He had to do this. For Nadia, and for the eighty percent of the Resistance that had died because of Infinite. But mainly for Nadia. He put his left paw in front of his face to shield his eyes from the wind.

Gadget came to a cliff that led to Eggman's base and Infinite. He took his gloves off and placed them in one of the pouches on his utility belt before jumping up.  His claws dug dangerously into the cliff causing him to winced in pain. Why did his paws hurt so much? Had he dislocated something during the battle? No.... It had been three days, it would've hurt before today. He climbed up the cliff with his claws, pain shooting through his paws, and reality disappeared; replaced with a past reality that burned inside his head with the morbidity of it all:

The Battle Of The 80%. 

A fiery and bloody day where hundreds died at Infinite's paw. But this time, all the pain and death was coded in an irrepressible depression, hued in a deep blue. Especially Nadia's last conscious moments. What if she didn't wake up? What if he came back, and she had died in his absence, never to see him again? What if, as soon as he returned she died right in front of him? Gadget couldn't bear to hear her flatline. It would seal this horrible, irrepressible depression. 

Forever.

However, the looming fear of her death felt like reality, as more and more Mobians were slaughtered in this deep blue dystopia. The pain and the memory of that horrid day cause him to start crying. He needed help. He had two different mental illnesses.

 All of the Resistance also had the first disease, this never-ending bloody memory, and most of Rookiez Special Forces was trapped in the same blue dystopia as Gadget. Blood hit him in the face, but it wasn't someone else's, it was his! 

And it was real!

Something in his paws had snapped, blood flowing out of where his claws met his paws. Gadget snarled in pain, as he climbed onto level ground at long last. He gasped as cold burned near his hidden wounds. The ground was covered in snow. The blood from his paws stained the snow underneath. Gadget ran to a nearby bush and hid. He then arched his back and walked on four legs, assuming a primitive hunting position. He had located his target: 

Infinite the Jackal.

Infinite turned. 

Gadget froze.

Infinite hovered to one of Gadget's bloody paw prints. He lifted it with his claws as the bloody snow fell through.

There was a rebel around. 

He snarled loudly. This meant the Resistance wasn't dead! 

The bushes rustled. 

Infinite turned and looked at the bushes. He hovered closer, only about two feet, before pausing. 

Glowing amber eyes, alight with fury and hatred, met his different colored ones. 

Without thinking, Infinite muttered a name that could never be. 

"Amara?" 

Gadget pounced. 

He took Infinite down with his momentum and weight. 

Infinite shouted in shock. 

They struggled in the snow, claws and illusions slashing as they tried to land a blow on each other. Gadget's claws drew blood from Infinite's back. Infinite slammed knife-sharp illusions into Gadget's shoulder, causing the wolf to howl in pain. Eventually, after both male canines dealt many injuries to the other, their struggle ended with a fearful Infinite being pressed into the snow by a enraged, yet bleeding, Gadget. 

Blood from Gadget's wounds stained the white fur on Infinite's chest as he let out a sound that was as infuriated as he, Infinite didn't know how such a sound could belong to a living creature. 

Before he knew it, Gadget's bloody paws were next to his face.

And his mask was five feet in the air.

Whoosh.

Infinite's mask had landed in the snow seven feet from the fighting males. 

Gadget flipped his head back to see Infinite.

But paused.

Infinite's true face consisted of one yellow eye, and one blue eye, with a scar crossing over the blue eye, frozen and glimmering with the warlord's sudden terror. 

Gadget stared at Infinite for a few moments before recovering from the shock and continued his assault; since the only thought in his mind was to gain revenge for Nadia and the Resistance.

Gadget raised his right paw in the air, the higher it went, the more Gadget bared his teeth.  

Infinite, the ruthless killer of thousands, was helpless and terrified. He was afraid of an eighteen year old wolf that he, in any other situation, could kill instantly. But he was helpless. His survival depended on the level of rage in the wolf.

It was not looking good for Infinite. 

His blue and yellow eyes shrunk as he began to panic.

Gadget's paw stopped rising, Infinite hoped he had decided to quit attacking him.

It was a forlorn thought.

Before even a second had passed, Gadget's paw swooped down, and slashed the left side of Infinite's face. 

Blood immediately seeped out of the wound in streams. 

Gadget stood tall, looking even more terrifying in the light, the red wispon strapped to his back glittering with the promise of pain and death, and told Infinite something Infinite had told him during Operation Big Wave. 

"First, I will teach you fear, then pain, then.... Well, at least the fear and pain will end." Gadget's face turned into a vicious smile for one second, before turning just plain vicious, then he raised his paws, showed the full extent of his teeth, and prepared for the final blow. 

Infinite tried to escape, flailing his arms hopelessly. 

Gadget snarled, harshly pressed into Infinite's shoulders with his body weight, and stared him down.

 "Make peace with your fate, Infinite, your life is now over."

Gadget slashed down his claws.

And disappeared in a flash of light.

~~~~

"Infinite Jackal, you are under arrest for war crimes, mass murder, torture, and terrorism. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you." Infinite heard handcuffs clinking.

He blinked. 

He was still alive?

 A few officers from a liberated area then led Infinite away. 

Infinite turned his head to see, about ten feet away, a few officers muzzle Gadget and restrain him with rope. 

"Don't let him escape! He's deranged!" one of them cried.

"Don't worry Rookie, we're going to help you." Commander Knuckles kneeled next to Gadget. He wrapped gauze and bandages around each of Gadget's bleeding, bloody paws. 

They chained Gadget to a first aid falcon transporter as Infinite disappeared from sight.