This is me attempting to rewrite the Rise of Infinite comic released on Twitter on the same day Sonic Forces was released in America. This is just a small part of a much bigger story that is basically me attempting to rewrite all of Sonic Forces' story in a way that is much more complete and satisfying than the story we were given. Because this is just a part one of a much bigger story, I should say that this is just a part one and the complete story will be revealed over time and while I could write them all into one HUGE story I find that some are better off splitting into their own stories for the sake of ease for the reader, limitations to to managing stories and because some stories in this "saga" I've started (because I'm insane) can honestly stand on their own. This little saga I like to call "Sonic Forces: At Full Force". This is part one of that saga rewriting Infinite in a way that makes sense and just gives him more character as well as making the story from the actual Rise of Infinite comic as well as Episode Shadow (later on) more satisfying. So with that out of the way I present to you my attempt at rewriting Forces as a whole and Rise of Infinite in the form of:

Sonic Forces: At Full Force Part 1:

The Making of a Phantom

Chapter 1: Rise of Infinite

Anarchy. Chaos. Destruction.

Around the jackal without a name was a barren desert with disheveled towers long abandoned, rusted and ready to crumble should someone even walk up to them and touch them with the tips of their fingers. The heavy, humid winds blowing dust and debris through the air, making it inhospitable – his lungs begging him to stop breathing the stuff in because it was more pollutants than oxygen. In the sky above there was only the roar of thunder as bolts of lightning danced from cloud to cloud – the clouds themselves thick and dirty gold in color no doubt full of acid rain ready cleanse this hellscape by melting it away.

Oh the joy it brought him to witness the world in such a state of despair-inducing decay! He reveled in the mere sight of this world, exasperating and breaking out into a cold sweat as soft wines of pleasure escaped his lips. How he wanted to hold this world in the palm of his hands and crush it to pieces!

And then a hand pushed him and released him from that world...

On the ground he looked around him, the world no longer in a state of disaster – skies of blue and clouds of white and the hot desert sun searing his eyes. A fat mustached man looked down on him as he sat on his flying throne, that horrendous looking machine! How the jackal wanted to rip that machine to bits and tear that fat man's arms off as he laughed to celebrate his petty victory!

Hearing the sound of footsteps from his squadron the jackal growled. He didn't want them near their leader in his state of... no... not weakness... he was not weak by any definition of the word. This was but an unexpected step back he would no doubt counter with an attack of his own.

It was that precious gem in the doctor's hands...

As soon as he tapped his sword against that thing he entered that world – that ugly, disgusting, horrendous and wonderful world without life!

"That world..." he muttered. "I must see that world again!"

The fat man looked intrigued. "And what world did the Phantom Ruby show you?"

One of the other jackals spoke up: "Boss, don't be tempted by him!"

But the jackal without a name looked back at his squadron with a low growl and venomous look in his eye. "None of you move! I'm fine!"

"You have a nice rag-tag team. Jackal Squad, was it?" the fat man asked.

The jackal without a name growled louder, jumping back onto that machine with the sword to the fat man's neck. "I want that ruby! I want to go back to that world!"

And while the good doctor would normally tremble in his boots he had the advantage: the very key to that world the jackal desired which made him smirk and look at the wild dog with absolute delight. "If you kill me, you'll never be able to go back."

That barren world called to him, it urged him to come back where it would welcome him back with a warm embrace and give him all of it's splendor. He salivated at the thought of that world, his sword hand shaking as he weighed his choices: kill the doctor and take that gem in a world he may not get back or hear what the fat man had to say and risk his dignity to get a taste of that world again...

He couldn't weigh out which decision would be worse.

Then the sword dropped. "What is that thing? Tell me Doctor."

"This THING is the Phantom Ruby! I was studying it in my lab before you showed up. See: what you saw as an illusion from the ruby itself. It's capable of creating life-like illusions that are so life-like that they might as well be apart of your reality." the doctor explained. "I didn't think anyone else would be able to see it! But then again, I didn't have anyone organic to test out it's effects. I suppose that's one downside to your only friends being robots."

"And how did you get such a valuable item?"

"I just so happened o find it. Not a very exciting story whatsoever." the doctor smiled even wider. "It still need a great deal of testing before I can figure out how to make the most of it's abilities. It's powers of illusion far surpass any form of virtual or augmented reality we have on the market! But with such power must come a lot of drawbacks... So without a way to contain and keep this power stable, the Phantom Ruby as it is now shouldn't be used or put in incapable hands."

"You're just talking big! How do I get back to that world it showed me?!"

The doctor waved his finger. "Temper, temper Mister Jackal. The ruby is unstable. Even if you were to chop my head off and take it from me there's no guarantee you'll be able to see the same illusion again."

"Then how DO I see it again? How can I go back?!"

"Well I certainly like you. Why don't we work together? I'll hire your squad to act as my body guards while research on the ruby is being conducted."

Looking back at the squadron of jackals, each one seemed uncomfortable looking at the pair with questioning glances as their individual loyalties toward their boss were all beginning to waver. And noticing this caused their boss to growl louder than he had before, roaring and causing the human doctor to cover his ears at the sound.

"THE LOT OF YOU! GET YOUR ACTS TOGETHER!" he barked. "If ANY of you have doubts, you should leave immediately – but don't you DARE expect to leave the way you came!"

A jackal in a green bandanna stepped forward, looking up at his boss with sweat rolling own the side of his head. "Boss, whatever you want to do we'll do it. But just think what you're doing! There's a bounty on the technology in that lab!"

"And that ruby is the most valuable thing in this fat man's possession." he looked down at the jackal attempting to reason with him, stepping on the human's bald head and then the front of that machine, leaning over so the other jackal could feel his hot breath. "That ruby is something I want. That ruby has a great amount of power and I want to make that illusion it showed me reality."

The jackal in the bandanna gulped hard enough to hear.

The jackal without a name – the leader of this squadron – turned back to the doctor, extending his hand. "Let's do it Doctor. My squad protects the premises while that ruby gets researched..."

"And what do you want out of the deal?"

The jackal laughed under his breath, salivating and tail wagging. The gem called to him, right there in that human pig's hand! But he argued with himself... Oh how he argued with himself.

How he desired to chop off the fat man's hands and run off with that brilliant stone, abandoning the world he knew in favor of the one in that illusion – forgetting his squad, forgetting the terrorist sitting behind him and make off with the stone forever never to be seen again.

But to take it now and risk the stone being a plain stone for the rest of his days?

Leave it to the fat man and abandon it to go back to his normal life?

No... A stone with power like that needed to be researched; it's power properly harnessed multiplied by an infinite number. It was for the gem's sake...

Licking his fangs at the thought of that much power he responded: "I want that ruby's power for myself."

"Meaning what?!" asked the doctor, perplexed by the animal's desire.

"I mean I want that gem's power inside of me... And as such I'm willing to become a test subject to make sure it's power is perfect."

"Boss, you can't be serious!"

"Shut up you." the jackal without a name spat, jerking his head back to the jackal trying to reason with him. And then he remembered: the lot of them. He turned back to the doctor. "How is my squadron going to be compensated for their work?"

"Room and board, food, and should I achieve my goals you and your squadron would get high in the ranks of the Eggman Empire!"

"Pft. Eggman Empire..." the jackal rolled his eyes. "You think too small, Doctor!"

"Then what is it YOU suggest Mister Jackal?"

Looking up at that boring bright blue sky and breathing deeply he thought back to that world, the sensations from the illusion already fading in his memory. He didn't want to lose that. He didn't just need to go back to that illusion – he needed to make that illusion become reality – the ONLY reality for this pathetic, boring world that was a mere shell of it's former glory; it's roots having gone rotten, it's egg cracked but the chick dying inside, a gem with too many impurities...

"Well? Speak up jackal!" the doctor shouted, only to have the jackal come face to face with him with a deadly look in his blue and yellow eyes.

...

"Well it's simple Doctor. With a power like that, ruling an empire is child's play. I like to think bigger, grander! Why be a king when you could be so much more! You could be infinite!"

That word. In that instance he fell in love with the word.

"Yes that's it. I'd much rather become infinite."

...

It was weeks of toiling the hours away in a lab, watching the infamous Doctor Eggman work from a few feet away and absorbing every detail regarding the illusive Phantom Ruby into his psyche. He had fallen in love with the stone and was obsessed with the taste of power it presented to him. He studied it constantly, foregoing food, sleep and sunlight, sustained only by his love of the beautiful and mysterious red gem while his squadron guarded the facility 24/7.

He had fallen asleep looking through the doctor's notes on a computer small enough to store in the pocket of a pair of human pants. The computer still turned on and about the shut off due to the low battery he snored quietly, hunched over in an office chair with his head on the desk and unaware of the red robot putting a blanket over him and turning the small device off.

The jackal without a name had grown weaker – though he would bite your throat if you dare say that to his face. But speaking in a strictly medical sense 'weak' was the perfect word to describe it.

Foregoing food caused him to lose weight. Foregoing sleep gave him bags under his eyes. Foregoing sunlight and much exercise all together gave him a variety of ailments that challenged him daily. The jackal who once proudly barked out orders with authority was now prone to dry and sore throats that needed gallons of water and warm soup to rid himself of. He was prone to dizziness, headaches, fatigue, and he was quick to anger (more so than he used to be). He had trouble paying attention to even the simplest of things unless it involved the Phantom Ruby and even when he did manage to get any amount of sleep he dwell on his obsession, seeing in hues of red, black and gray – those swirls imprinting onto his very brain and dyeing it in it's brilliant colors and hearing the gentle hum of the spectral corundum singing to him in his dreams.

But on the other hand: there was the doctor.

"Doctor, I have something to report on Mister Jackal." Orbot said as he held a clipboard in his hands while Eggman furiously typed notes on the ruby on a keyboard connected to a giant monitor. "Mister Jackal's condition is getting worse. He's refused to eat for several days and his sleep has been rather erratic. No doubt this has something to do with the ruby."

"He hasn't had any direct contact with the ruby since I first hired him. He's just making himself mad over some gemstone – a brilliant gemstone that could help me take over the world and worth obsessing over mind you! But his health is his problem."

Orbot countered with: "Seeing as how he agreed to be your test subject you should consider his health a higher priority. You can't do anything with his corpse! You're no veterinarian!"

"While I may not have a degree or a license to work with animals, that's never stopped me before!"

"But in the event that something does happen to Mister Jackal before we can offer him a chance at-!"

Eggman turned to the robot with a smirk. "If his health is deteriorating then that gives me more of an advantage. Haven't you ever noticed that he hates being called 'weak'?"

"I have. I wrote it down in my notes!" Orbot flipped through several pages, citing a particular incident of this nature. "Just last week: when Cubot commented on Mister Jackal's lack of muscle by using the word 'weak', Mister Jackal responded by cracking open Cubot's hard shell and pulling out his voice chip."

(Cubot had been ordered to stay away from 'Mister Jackal' from that point forward, getting his voice chipped replace without incident and on permanent 'bring the rest of Jackal Squad refreshments' duty to prevent it from happening again.)

Eggman went back to typing and looking at the ruby that floated in a test tube. "Well if his physical condition is deteriorating and his health is going south then he'll get desperate – having no choice but to come to ME for assistance! Not to mention he already signed his life away to me when he agreed to work with me! Something tells me he's wanted this all along!"

"Well, perhaps not the part about physically deteriorating but he did agree to become a test subject..."

"Healthy or unhealthy I've studied to ruby enough to come up with a few prototypes to implant in him as well as the other jackals should they agree." and stepping away from the computer Eggman took seven small black boxes out of his pockets, putting them all on a table but opening only one of them. "One for each of them. The question is which ruby prototype and which jackal would be the most successful! See each prototype has a slightly different level of power! In the event I have seven test subjects, each one of them can be tested. In the event I only have one jackal to use as a test subject we'll have to go from lowest to highest."

"Would you kindly explain the differences between each one?"

"At the lowest setting-" he tapped on the box that was open. "-you can create and shatter illusions and realities brought about by the ruby."

"Can you not already achieve such a thing with the original?"

"Ah, yes but the original is far too unstable! That's why the original must be contained – if not it creates a by-product of an inconsistent measure that distorts space-time in the affected area. With these prototypes the by-product is far more controlled allowing for close range and long range illusions!" he continued explaining what each prototype did to the sphere-headed robot and watched him take notes.

"And what of your base in the Mystic Ruins?"

Eggman had sent a few of his construction robots to go reclaim an old base of his in Mystic Jungle – the site where he planned to test the ruby prototypes and perform the necessary procedures on the jackal(s). The Mystic Jungle base had been abandoned for quite some time but ruins has their own advantages – plenty of space and a variety of spaces to test the full effects of the ruby and the illusions it could create at various levels of power...

"Send half of the defense squad to the Mystic Jungle. I need to have a little talk with Mister Jackal."

With a nod Orbot left the lab.

Chapter end