Unlinked is an Infinity Train fan webcomic by Euphreana. Taking place ten years after the events of Book 3, 16-year-old Hazel has spent the intervening years working as Amelia's assistant: traveling the train alongside the engineer to quarantine and fix damaged cars. But when one of their routine maintenance trips goes wrong, Hazel is determined to fix the damage, whether Amelia wants her to or not.
The comic can be read on the creator's Tumblr
, as well as on Tapas and DeviantArt. A "pay-what-you-want" version of the comic featuring additional behind-the-scenes content such as rough sketches, scrapped concepts, and commentary on each chapter can be purchased on Gumroad.
Unlinked provide examples of:
- Book Ends: The first chapter ends with Hazel terrified, believing that Amelia was dead and that she was now alone. The final chapter ends with Hazel scared that Amelia will leave and she'll be left alone. But now, Amelia assures her that they'll figure out a way for her to tag along as well.
- Calling the Old Woman Out: In "The Library Car", Hazel calls Amelia out for her inability to accept help, pointing out that she's only in this mess because she refused to let her handle the wiring in the desert car instead. Hazel goes on to complain about how Amelia is not only refusing her help in trying to get her number back, but outright discouraging her from even trying.Hazel: I care because you're my mom and I don't like seeing you miserable. Why don't YOU care?
- Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Amelia, shocked that she's now stuck on the train with no number, asks Hazel to leave her hospital room so she can launch into one of these.
- I Have No Son!: Downplayed. Amelia cares deeply about Hazel's wellbeing and enjoys having her in her life despite her general distaste for children. However, she dislikes thinking of the girl as her daughter and hates when Hazel calls her "mom".
- Involuntary Shapeshifting: While Hazel does usually have control over her powers, preferring to engage in partial transformations, she instinctively shifts into her turtle form when she's stressed.
- Logic Bomb: Hazel tries to invoke this, hoping One-One's confusion over Amelia's existence will buy her enough time to hack into the storage car, since the robot is convinced she's dead. Unfortunately, Amelia herself doesn't feel like saying anything that would propagate the loop, and One-One exits it relatively quickly once he decides Amelia must be a clone and turns around to ask Hazel how she feels about this.
- Mama Bear: Amelia immediately beats a Ghom to death using a wrench for attacking Hazel.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Hazel's reaction when she realizes Amelia will realistically get her exit in the near future. She instantly deems going through the effort of trying to get Amelia registered as a passenger again a huge mistake, feeling the older woman is going to abandon her without a second thought.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Amelia was able to survive her electrocution thanks to Hazel quickly getting her to a hospital car, but since she was clinically dead for several minutes, One-One and the train itself believes she really is dead. When One-One does see Amelia live and well, he assumes that she's another clone, like Hazel.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: When Hazel goes to retrieve a copy of Amelia's tape from The Cat, the feline — believing that Amelia is dead and that Hazel is just seeking mementos of some kind — is more than happy to remind the teenager that her mother figure spent most of her life both directly and indirectly causing disorder and chaos on the train.The Cat: If you ask me, dying early was mercy.
- Unperson: This happens to Amelia, to an extent. Since her number has been removed and the tape recording her life is moved into a "storage car", One-One is incapable of comprehending that Amelia isn't dead. Undoing this is Hazel's goal in the story.
- You Are Not Alone: Amelia's insistence at doing difficult tasks on her own is the inciting incident for the story. Amelia accepting that she both needs and wants Hazel's assistance is what results in her number rapidly dropping down to 12 once she gets it back.
