>>535792809
"The Hedgehog Paradox"

The void offered no distractions. No enemies to crush. No wars to wage. Just data, scrolling endlessly behind Infinite’s eyes—every battle, every failure, every frame of that damned blue hedgehog dissected like a lab specimen.

Sonic the Hedgehog.

A child. A joke. A force of nature.

Infinite’s fingers (did he still have fingers?) twitched as he replayed the memories. Shadow—the so-called Ultimate Lifeform—brought low by a grinning rodent. Omega, a walking apocalypse, reduced to scrap metal. And himself? Infinite, the perfect weapon, shattered by a spin-dash.

"How?" The word slithered out of him, barely a sound.

The Phantom Ruby whispered nothing back

Maybe it was the Ruby’s influence. Maybe it was the isolation. But Infinite began to study Sonic like a dying man searching for god.

Speed. Not just physics. Not just Chaos Energy. Sonic moved like time itself bent to humor him.

Resilience. No training. No enhancements. Just… existence. As if he’d been born inevitable.

"You’re not real," Infinite muttered.

But the alternative was worse. If Sonic was real—just a person—then Infinite’s defeat wasn’t tragedy. It was farce.

The Ruby showed him one last thing:

Himself, pre-mask, pre-Ruby—just a man. A man who’d gambled everything for power… and lost to a child who never even tried.

Infinite’s laughter echoed, thin and broken.

"I hate you," he whispered.

But the void didn’t care. And neither did Sonic.