Spirit of the Phantom Ruby

Part 6 - A Frightening Exchange

"Tails," Sonic suddenly said, staring wide-eyed at the camera footage. He looked at his best friend. "I think we have to do it."

"N-no!" Tails exclaimed. "We need to diffuse Infinite from the ruby first!"

Eggman suddenly laughed, and the trio realized that the intercom was still on.

"You want to separate him from the gem?" He grew serious again. "That's as good as killing him."

"What do you mean?" Gadget exclaimed, but his question was forgotten as the Resistance's own private intercom suddenly began blowing up with frantic voices.

"Don't give him the ruby, Sonic!" Amy cried. "He might blow up the base even if we give him what he wants!"

"We should definitely not give him the ruby." Vector called. "It'd be a death sentence!"

"If we don't give him the ruby, he would end up destroying it himself!" Rouge added. "The doctor's smarter than that!"

"We can't trust he'll stick to his words!" Charmy exclaimed. "We can't give it to him, Tails!"

Suddenly Silver's voice pierced through the chaotic chatter.

"You need to give him the ruby!" Silver commanded, making the entire group chat fall silent. "Trust me, I know what happens afterwards!"

Tails and Sonic stared at each other as the group chat went silent.

"Are you sure, Silver?" Amy asked nervously.

"He won't blow up the base, I can promise you that!" Silver replied exuberantly.

"But won't he use the gem's powers to-?" Knuckle's question was cut off by Silver.

"Trust me, a lot's about to happen. Just give him what he wants."

Another uncertain pause, before Knuckles cautiously said, "Shadow, take the ruby to Eggman."

Shadow, who was running down the hallway, stopped abruptly.

"On it. Chaos-!"

The black hedgehog suddenly appeared behind Eggman up in his war balloon with a flash of green magic.

"-Control!"

Eggman turned around with a large frown, turning off his loudspeaker. "Why do you keep referring to Infinite as 'the ruby'?"

"Just take the stupid gem." Shadow answered, thrusting it out towards him.

Eggman took it from him with a look of bewilderment. "Where's-?"

With another flash of green magic, Shadow was gone.

"Hello, doctor." The jackal was suddenly next to Eggman, arms crossed.

The evil genius did a double-take. He stared at Infinite, then looked down at the stone.

"The mutant fox built a machine that was supposed to detach me from the ruby," the jackal explained quickly. "However, he had it on the wrong setting. Do you think you can fix me?"

Eggman twirled his mustache thoughtfully as he placed the ruby into an opening on his dashboard. The gem floated peacefully in the space as Infinite watched the doctor coyly over his shoulder.

"I'll see what I can do." Eggman replied, pressing several buttons on his dashboard. "First, though, let's go home."

The battle ships closed away their weapons and slowly turned around, heading back to the doctor's lair. The Resistance watched him go and all let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Well now Eggman has the ruby." Sonic said, frowning. "Silver, what's supposed to happen next?"

"I can guarantee that nothing bad will happen for us." Silver said with the same, reassuring voice. "For Infinite, however, I can't guarantee anything. But that's about as much as I'm currently aware of."

"We're supposed to just ride off from that?" Shadow asked, sounding annoyed.

"Shadow, don't you remember the doctor saying something about an 'indestructible mech suit'?" Gadget suddenly asked, looking to the dark hedgehog.

Shadow nodded and looked to Sonic, who explained for him. "Eggman had a mech suit he built to destroy the gang and me a while back. He never had anything strong enough to power it, though. Wait, Shadow, why did you and Gadget never mention this?!"

"Well Infinite had told the doctor that the ruby wasn't fully powered yet, and that nothing they did would be able to power it." Shadow's look of thought turned into one of slight disturbance as he realized something. "With Infinite combined with the ruby, though..."

"Ugh, we need to keep the ruby away from Eggman." Sonic groaned, folding his arms and shaking his head. "But we can't keep it here at base!"