Fanfic / Memories of Infinite's Past

aka: Sonic Forces Chapter 2

"Weak….. Pathetic….. Worthless. Those were the three words that I have always hated. Ever since those days."

— Infinite, Chapter 1

Memories of Infinite's past is a Sonic the Hedgehog Script Pseudo-Canonical Fic that serves as (mostly) a Prequel to Sonic Forces and tells what might have been a possible Backstory for Infinite, the game's Big Bad.

For failing to defeat the Resistance, Infinite learns that Eggman was using him only as an Unwitting Pawn just to beat Sonic and then is trashed. The Rookie later finds Infinite in the dump and, after being uncertain for a while, sympathizes with and rescues him, just when he falls asleep and tells his backstory.

Because of his mother's death at his birth, Infinite's, back then known as Zero, father, Axel, blamed his son for the incident and emotionally abused him. Zero robbed and stole just to impress Axel, a retired professional thief, yet Axel cared little. When Axel ultimately revealed why he hated him, Zero ran away into the desert and was found by the Jackal Squad. After being accepted into the squad and inspired by the other members' backstories, Zero embarked on a journey to become the Ultimate Mercenary of the Jackal Squad, training heavily and helping his comrades to carry out heists. Meanwhile, Clyde, The Don of a crime organization, was plotting to defeat and kill the Jackal Squad…

The fanfic's writing used to be subpar, with blatant grammar errors over the place. The author has rewrote the story to fix the grammar errors, reformat the written-as-prose script, and add more details to some events.

Note: To prevent heavy wording, Infinite with the Phantom Ruby is referred to Infinite and Infinite without the Phantom Ruby is referred to as Zero.

Read it here.

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Sonic Forces Chapter 2 is a Sequel to both Sonic Forces, Sonic Mania Plus, and Memories of Infinite's past.

A new villain, only known as the Phantom Terrorist, has captured Classic and Modern Eggman, obtained and fused himself with the dreaded Phantom Ruby, and taken over the Eggman Empire and world just in 6 weeks. Sonic, his friends, and the Resistance team up once again to defeat the Phantom Terrorist and his Doomsday Corporation terrorist army. Meanwhile, Zero and the Avatar have settled in with the surviving civilians and Resistance, and Zero is now trying to atone for his sins.

In other words, it's Sonic Forces again.

Read it here.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

Memories of Infinite's past

• Abusive Parents: Axel has never treated his son, Zero, with love since his birth, just because of his wife's Death by Childbirth.
• Action Girl: Claire, member of the Jackal Squad and a great Gunslinger.
• Alas, Poor Villain: At the beginning, Infinite is defeated by the Resistance, only to rip the Phantom Ruby away and be thrown into the dump by Eggman.
  • Zero sheds a tear after defeating and slaying his father, as he was so heartbroken by his wife's death.
• An Aesop: To have your title as the strongest one, you must earn it.
• Animal Jingoism: The Jackal Squad is made up of black-backed jackals and Clyde's crime organization of side-striped jackals. Quite interesting to know.
• Arch-Enemy/The Big Bad: Clyde, Stryker's Rival Turned Evil and The Don of an organized crime group, who wants to kill Stryker and the whole squad.
• Art Shift: The part in which Zero tells his fake backstory is stated to be presented in a Picture Book-esque slideshow.
• Ax-Crazy: Clyde. His old dream was to kill his boss and rule the organization. He tried to kill Stryker and his squad in his own twisted, slow, painful way, and he killed some of his own henchmen.
• Backstory: The fanfic is dedicated to telling Infinite's backstory. However, other major characters' backstories are given too. Some of these examples may fall under Dark and Troubled Past.
  • Claire: Claire was born to Lock-On Larry, the best gunslinger and most wanted bandit in Tombstoneville, and an average woman, Anna, who didn't care about her husband's reputation. He left his criminal life to help Anna and raise Claire, yet taught Claire how to shoot guns. They lived a happy life, until one day, the police found Larry's secret hideout. Claire and Anna were forced to flee and Larry was presumably killed. After 6 months out surviving in the desert, her mother died from illness and the Jackal Squad encountered Claire, offering to accept her. She refused at first, but gave in.
  • Brawn: Brawn was abandoned in the woods as a baby and found by an orphanage. After being adopted by and given up by many parents, he was finally Happily Adopted by Joseph, an army soldier. He, wanting to follow his adoptive father's footsteps, became a soldier in the Honor Among Men (HAM) army and led a happy life serving his country. One day, Brawn was chosen as a test subject for a HAM Super-Soldier experiment, Project Alpha. The procedure worked, however, just after the transformation, Brawn rushes to a sudden battle and later passes out. This results in him losing his ability to talk and becoming weaker than he was before, since he didn't rest and allow the body get used to the Super-Soldier chemicals. With the addition of Joseph being killed, Brawn was discharged from HAM and later was found by Stryker, who was just starting the Jackal Squad.
  • Radar, Ace, and Scar: Radar, Ace, and Scar were brought to an orphanage in Greycity. The orphanage was so poor that the staff were too lazy to name the nameless three. The three jackals escaped by tying bed sheets together to make a rope and climbing out of the window. They sneaked into Stryker's truck and threatened Stryker to drive them away from the city. Stryker offered to accept the three into the Jackal Squad and they accepted.
  • Stryker: Stryker's mother, a prisoner of war, died shortly after his birth in the hands of a terrorist organization, Men in Arms and Glory (MIAAG). The terrorist leader decided to raise him as a Child Soldier. He lived a harsh and unpleasant life, fighting weak countries. One day, the terrorist leader stupidly called an attack on a country known as Metropolis. With most of his squad wiped out, Stryker had no choice but to surrender and escape to the base by sewer. The leader was very furious at his decision and exiled him to a faraway desert. While he was waiting to die, a villager found, rescued, and nursed Stryker back to health. Four years later, Stryker left to follow his dream.
  • Clyde: Clyde was also raised and trained by the MIAGG leader, often performing better than Stryker. Egoistical and bloodthirsty, he mocked anyone below his level and even dreamed to kill the leader and take over the organization. At that war in Metropolis, Stryker retreated to a school building and Clyde was there, attempting to fight him to the death. The building collapsed, presumably kill Clyde, and Stryker fortunately escaped. Clyde was found by the Metropolis soldiers alive and sentenced to life in prison, while MIAGG collapsed. He and his inmate friends escaped, left Metropolis, settled in Silvertown, and begin building his crime organization, making a living off selling illegal weapons and assassinations.
  • Axel: Axel was a homeless child living on the street, stealing food to survive. Clyde adopted him and taught him to rob and be a great bandit. Axel served as Clyde's Lancer, until Clyde started his organization and kicked him out. Axel met a woman at a bar and they fell in love.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: In Zero's fictional backstory, the coyote and his friends, in which Zero and his partner stole from, wear tuxedos and are armed with guns.
  • Clyde's organized crime members wear tuxedos.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Subverted. By the end of the climatic Mob War, Stryker dies, as Clyde wanted him to, but the Jackal Squad has won and most of them live on, until the meeting with Shadow…
• Bedsheet Ladder: Radar, Ace, and Scar escaped the orphanage with "the old tying the bed sheets and used it to climb out the window trick".
• Bittersweet Ending: Zero successfully becomes stronger than Shadow, who slaughtered his Jackal Squad, by transforming into Infinite via the Phantom Ruby. Thanks to the first chapter, Infinite is defeated by Sonic and trashed by Eggman. Fortunately, the Rookie realizes the good person inside and rescues him.
• Blackmail: Clyde threatens the Silvertown mayor with files detailing his corrupt actions to raise the reward money to 10 million dollars, or else he will release the information to the public and possibly assassinate him, his wife and children. He also requests that if he does capture the Jackal Squad, he will be labeled as innocent.
• The Caper: Last part of Chapter 5, "Zero's improvements", and Chapter 6, "The heist", follows the Jackal Squad attempting to rob the Silvertown Museum and steal its artifacts. They fail, as they are forced to escape without the artifacts.
• Caper Crew: The Jackal Squad depicted in the fic is detailed more elaborately than in the Sonic Forces comic. Stryker is the Mastermind, Radar is the Hacker and Gadget Guy, Brawn is the Muscle, Scar, Ace, and Claire are the Burglars, and Zero is the New Kid.
• Child Soldier: Stryker was one in a terrorist organization. He was even sent out to battle in foreign countries at the age of 10. Clyde was also a child soldier in the same organization.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: During his MIAGG days, Clyde did this to an innocent soldier. All we know is that he stepped and pressed onto his face, but the whole torture process probably wasn't pleasant.
  Clyde: Now here's what I'm gonna do. I won't kill you now. I'm going to make you suffer unimaginable pain until I get bored and decide to finish you off. You can cry and beg all you want, it won't convince me to stop. I'm going to make you wish you don't exist in this world. Oh, and don't worry about your family. I'll make sure they'll get the chance to see you again... in the afterlife.
• Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: Clyde is a multi-millionaire Don and his organized crime group hang out in his large mansion, complete with wine and an arcade.
• Darker and Edgier: While still PG-level and dark as Shadow the Hedgehog, thus not edgy enough to be a Dark Fic, Memories of infinite's past gives Dark and Troubled Pasts to members of the Jackal Squad, throws in swordfights and bombs, averts Never Say "Die", and uses child abuse as the driving trope behind Infinite's backstory.
• Death by Childbirth: His mother, Ellie, died when Zero was born.
  • Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Oh boy, this is the number one reason Axel abuses his son.
  Axel: Your mother is dead. She is dead because of you! I hated you ever since you were born for what you have done! Your entire birth caused my one true love to die!
  • Heck, he later tries to kill Zero in order to avenge Ellie's death.
  Axel: The boy who killed my wife is still alive and well while I'm still grieving over her death. Now I'm going to do what I should have done in the first place. I'm going to avenge 'ellie' by taking your life.
• Denial of Animality: Despite the cast being Funny Animals, they still call each other "men".
• The Don: Clyde
• Evil Laugh: Clyde lets this out at the end of Chapter 6. Word of God says it sounds like Steve Blum's.
• Eyepatch of Power: Stryker wears one.
  Young Radar: That isn't what I'm worried about. It's those guys. They look to be pretty strong and also scary. Especially, the one with the eye patch.
• Eye Scream: Stryker lost his eye during Training from Hell at MIAGG.
  • During a swordfight, Axel scratches his son's right eye.
• Face Death with Dignity/Obi-Wan Moment: Stryker is happy to die, for that he had done his job to raise a mercenary squad and having a certain someone look up to him.
  Stryker: Wow…..what a life I had. What a life I had.
• Flashback Nightmare/Recurring Dreams: Stryker, as a Shell-Shocked Veteran, has recurring nightmares of his Child Soldier life.
  Stryker: Those dreams, again?
• From Camouflage to Criminal: Brawn was a HAM soldier who later joined the Jackal Squad.
  Shrieff: So the big strongman was a soldier who now becomes a criminal? Disgraceful!
  • Stryker was once a terrorist soldier working for MIAGG and now leads a Caper Crew.
  • Clyde was also a MIAGG soldier, before he found his organized crime network.
• Good Parents: Larry and Anna to Claire
• The Gunslinger: Claire's main weapons are guns. It helps her father was a gun-toting thief.
• How We Got Here: More so, how Infinite joined the Jackal Squad and became the leader.
• Implied Love Interest: Claire to Zero. She's the same age as and has become kinder to him.
• Initiation Ceremony: Horrific example. To join the Jackal Squad, Zero must retrieve a cardboard key without making too much noise, touching the robotic lions or the wires, or attempting to jump high over the obstacles, or else the alarm will be triggered and the robotic lions will hunt him down. Worse, the alarm will even trigger if the key is gotten. No wonder many jackals didn't survive. Justified, as the trial was designed to emulate the risky and life-threatening ways of robbing valuables.
• Jerkass: Claire acts rude and insulting to Zero at first, often teasing him, but she Takes a Level in Kindness.
  Claire: Hey, what's wrong? You scared or something?
  Zero: WHAT? ME...AFRAID!? DON'T BE RIDICULOUS!
  Claire: Hey now you don't have to deny it that you're just a big baby. Hey boss, maybe we should have brought a diaper with us for poor wittle zewo.
  Zero: WHAAAAT!?
  Stryker: Claire stop teasing zero!
  Claire: Aaw boss you're no fun sometimes! I was just joking with him.
  Zero: (thinking) I hate this women so much!
  Ace: Don't mind her kid, that is just her way of being friendly.
  Zero: That is one of the worst excuses I have ever heard!
• Karma Houdini: Clyde survived that supposedly-fatal building collapse, escaped from a maximum-security prison, is still carrying out his crimes without any authority to stop him, and has yet faced any retribution for his Sadist deeds.
• Lovable Rogue: The Jackal Squad. They keep running afoul of the law by stealing valuables, but manage to be likeable for their sympathetic backstories, respect for and cooperation with each other, and how mild their crimes are compared to Clyde's.
• My Hero, Zero: Zero is ashamed of his name that his father gave him, until he hears Stryker's remark about it.
  Stryker: What is your name?
  Zero: Um…. Well, I don't have a name.
  Stryker: Don't lie to me! Every living being on this planet was born with a name. Now I'll ask you again, what is your name?
  Zero: (thinking) Darn it, this guy is good! (speaking) Fine. My name is… Zero. My name is Zero the jackal.
  Ace and Scar looks at Zero funny after knowing that he lied to them about not having a name.
  Stryker: Zero, huh? Hmph… not a bad name.
  Zero is highly surprised from that comment. He was expecting Stryker and the rest of the Jackal Squad to laugh at him.
  Zero: What? You really think so?
  Stryker: Yeah, it's a decent name for a mercenary.
• Mob War: Between the Jackal Squad and Clyde's organized crime group in The Climax
• Never Found the Body: What's known is that Clyde disappeared after the explosion of his mansion, but the Jackal Squad's sure that he was killed in it.
• Never Given a Name: Radar, Ace, and Scar were never officially named. They named themselves based on their traits.
• New Meat: Zero, to the Jackal Squad.
• Non Sequitur: Chester/Chatterbox Chipmunk, Clyde's annoying non-anthropomorphic pet, who comes out of nowhere and uses Mind Screw to Mind Rape Radar into insanity.

  Chester: Hi. I'm Chester Chipmunk! But Clyde and the others calls me, Chatterbox. Anyway, I have a crazy story I want to share with you. I had a bizarre dream last night, I was in a forest, and all of the trees were floating in the air. Yes, yes, they were! Bizarre, right? [The chipmunk has a very irritating high-pitched voice, and he is talking without stopping to breathe.] Then as I was walking while gazing upon the trees, the sky changed from blue to purple. [The chipmunk is starting to make Radar lose his sanity, as he looks at him crazy, and his left eye is twitching.] Then sparkles was falling from the sky, I don't know why, but it was so weird. Then the next thing that happened was

  Radar: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! BRAWN! ZERO! CLAIRE! BOSS! EVERYONE! GET ME OUT OF HERE!

  Chester: The flowers started to speak to me, and they said—

• Patricide: Near the end of The Climax, Zero defeats and kills his own father, Axel.
• Potty Emergency: One of the Silvertown Museum night guards ends up having to use a toilet from eating too much burritos. It becomes a Chekhov's Gun as Radar fails to spot him, allowing him to call the police.
• Pseudo-Canonical Fic: The fic is written to be Infinite's most possible Backstory based on the canon and to fit in the canon as well.
• Professional Killer: Clyde happens to be an assassin.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Axel upon meeting his son, Zero, just after his release from prison:
  Your mother is dead, she's dead, because of you! I hated you ever since you were born for what you've done! Your entire birth caused my one true love to die! The only reason why I chose to keep your pathetic self, is because if I sold you away, you could be with people that will treat you like a prince. While I'm sitting here suffering from the loss of my wife alone. So if I was going to suffer, you're going to suffer with me! And you want to know something else? That name of yours, the name that I gave you, "Zero", describes everything about you. I called you that, because I predict that when you grow older, you will be nothing. A weak, pathetic, and a worthless man, who'll never amount to anything but be a failure. That's why I called you that! And the fact that you even tried to follow my footsteps, because you thought that I will suddenly start to care about you, just proves my point how pitiful you really are. Face the facts, brat! You don't deserve love from me, and you never will!
• Rival Turned Evil: Clyde was Stryker's rival in MIAGG. Now, when he discovers Stryker as a rich crime leader, he sets off to kill him. Stryker realizes this when he wonders how Clyde's henchmen know about him.
• Sadist: Clyde. His Ax-Crazy/For the Evulz personality and Backstory should say enough.
• Script Fic: The fic was originally written in pure screenplay script format, as if it was supposed to be turned into a video. Later, due to Fanfiction.Net's rule against such Script Fics, it was rewritten to prose, but still kept its screenplay terminology. The third rewrite returns some of screenplay terminology and wording to pure format, but keeps most of the sentences prose.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Stryker has frequent sudden memories of his life as a terrorist soldier, implying that he has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
• The Social Darwinist: Stryker believes in this, as a result of his Backstory, and passes this belief to Zero.
  Stryker: You see zero the world Is not all about peace, kindness, and all of that utter nonsense. Its about struggle and fighting for personal goals that you desire to want to achieve. It is a world where you can't live a blissful life as you want it if you are weak. It is about survival and only the strong survives. And live there lives as they deserved to live. While the weak gets trampled by the strong
• The Speechless: Brawn is unable to speak as a result of a Failsafe Failure Super-Soldier accident. He communicates by writing down his words in his notebook and showing them.
• The Smurfette Principle/The Squadette: Claire is the only female member of the Jackal Squad. Furthermore, she's the only major female character.
• Super-Soldier: Brawn was chosen as a guinea pig for HAM's experiment, Project Alpha, which was supposed to increase a soldier's speed, strength, and invulnerability. He went through it and it worked. Unfortunately, it later resulted in a Failsafe Failure (see Brawn's Backstory example).
• Sympathy for the Devil: Avatar rescues Infinite after thinking about the good humanity left inside him.
  Infinite: (Flashback) Friends are nothing but a fleeting illusion, you can count on nobody but yourself!
  What infinite said to sonic and the Avatar, was starting to effect them [Avatar] somehow. Like they were starting to feel sorry for him. They turn around and look at him again, but with an stern look on their face. Then they decided to help infinite rather than leaving him to die.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Clyde blows up his own mansion just to kill the Jackal Squad along with him.
• Tragic Villain: Zero fused himself with the Phantom Ruby and became Infinite, simply to avenge Shadow for killing off the Jackal Squad.
• Unwitting Pawn: Zero was only allowed fusion with the Phantom Ruby so he could be used by Eggman to Take Over the World and defeat Sonic, instead of being the strongest as he wished.
• Veteran Instructor: Stryker is this to his fellow Jackal Squad, especially Zero, training them to execute the best heists.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It is unknown what happens to Chester Chipmunk after that Mind Screwing Radar incident.
• You Have Failed Me: Upon revealing that he just used Infinite as an Unwitting Pawn to Take Over the World and that he failed to do defeat Sonic, Eggman sends Egg Pawns to beat up Infinite and later throws him into the dump.
  • After one of Clyde's Henchmen fails to capture Stryker, just before he reveals who sent him, Clyde fatally electrocutes him through his headset.

Sonic Forces Chapter 2

WARNING: Spoilers for Memories of Infinite's Past and the Mid-Season Twist^note Shows up early and remains important to the plot, so it's useless to mark are unmarked! You Have Been Warned.

• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 10: "Episode Team Dark" focuses on Shadow, Rouge, and E-123 Omega's mission to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds.
• The Atoner: Zero is trying to make up for what he did as Infinite by joining the Resistance and fighting the Phantom Terrorist.
• Call-Back: Clyde's 4 Phantom copies of Chester Chipmunk return to Mind Rape the Eggmen.
• Curbstomp Battle: When Sonic first fought the Phantom Terrorist, the battle was one-sided. The Phantom Terrorist was slapping Sonic around the entire fight to the point where Sonic was on the ground and was struggling to get back up.
• Darker and Edgier: Even more so than Memories of Infinite's past, which is why it has a T rating instead. For starters, a merciless terrorist army has risen up, taken up the world, and is enslaving and killing off poor innocent civilians. The Reveal of the Phantom Ruby as Clyde does not help.
• Decomposite Character: This fic makes Clyde into one for Infinite. After taking up the phantom ruby and becoming The Phantom Terrorist, he takes up canon Infinite's sadism and complete desire to see everyone suffer and watch the world burn to the ground, compared to the more tragic Zero.
• Disney Death: Clyde turns out to have survived the explosion and became the Phantom Terrorist.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In chapter 2, a family kept begging the Phantom Terrorist for a break, so he banished them into Null Space.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Clyde ends up overpowering, glitching, and exploding himself along with the Phantom Ruby.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Modern and Classic Eggman's reaction to Clyde vaporizing his own henchmen:
  Eggman: You… You… You blasted your own henchmen.
  Classic Eggman: That's cruel even for me!
• A Fate Worse Than Death: The Phantom Terrorist banishes an innocent family to Null Space for an eternity.
• Forgiveness: The ultimate moral of the story. It's clear that Zero is desperately guilty for what he has done for the Jackal Squad and as Infinite, and is really willing to redeem himself and do good. The Resistance finally forgives him.
• Insult Backfire: In chapter 7, Modern Eggman insults the Phantom Terrorist for not being willing to kill Sonic quickly anymore. He responded with this:
  Modern Eggman: You're going to stop trying to destroy him as quickly as possible? Ha! And here I thought you were smart.
  Phantom Terrorist: You're one to talk. After Infinite knocked out Sonic, you had the perfect opportunity to finish him, once and for all. Yet you decided to have him locked up and use pathetic attempts to make him suffer for 6 months. He escaped then you allowed him to defeat you once again when you could've ended him at that moment.
• Karma Houdini: Played even straighter. Clyde still has managed to escape the explosion of his mansion and fuse himself with the Phantom Ruby.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Clyde eventually gets retribution for not only his past actions, but also for his monstrosities in the present thanks to Hyper Sonic and Hyper Zero leading the resistance in a final charge against him.
• Karma Meter: The Phantom Ruby functions like one. While still granting great power and turning one's personality down to the evil side, its effectiveness depends on how evil the user is.
• Nepharious Pharaoh: Elizah, the coyote from the Ancient Egypt who used the Phantom Ruby selfishly to overthrow the pharaoh, take over, and rule Egypt with an iron fist, seeing if he could win praise from all.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When Shadow took off his inhibitor rings to unleash his full power against the Phantom Terrorist, he manage to trade blows with him for a little bit. But when he was starting to get exhausted, the battle turns into a complete one-sided beatdown. The terrorist was dominating Shadow during the remainder of the fight by punching and kicking Shadow, sending him flying all around Grand Metropolis. And none of Shadow's attacks were affecting the Terrorist in the slightest. Even his strongest attack, the Chaos Blast, couldn't damage him.
• Posthumous Character: A literal example. The Phantom Terrorist summons Phantom Ruby replicas of the deceased Jackal Squad and commands them to do his bidding.
• Psychometry: The Phantom Terrorist reveals this as one of the powers the Phantom Ruby can grant and uses it against Zero and reads his memories.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Phantom Terrorist, after his Reveal as Clyde, gives one to Zero, which simply drowns him in nothing but guilt.
  Clyde: His wife, Ellie the jackal, passed away by bringing you into this world. He hated you for the death of his beloved, just like you hate Shadow for the death of your squad. When I tracked him down, I thought that you might be related to him because you two share a resemblance to each other. After I showed him that wanted poster, he told me that you're his son, and he joined me for one last time so he can get the chance to kill you out of vengence. You fused with the Phantom Ruby — not only to get stronger, but to destroy Shadow for the same reason. Am I wrong? It's quite tragic to see the ones you love die in front of you. Especially, when they died from your foolish mistakes. You killed your mother when you were born, but it was Axel's decision to have children in the first place. Shadow killed your squad, but you were the one who got them involved with Eggman to begin with. Are you sure that Shadow killed them out of cold-blood or did he do it out of self-defense? Are you certain that they all didn't attempt to murder him when they first saw him? After all, Eggman did ordered them to destroy any intruder who enters his facility, did he not? You're just as guilty of their demise as he is. And Infinite's birth was no one to blame but yourself. Do you really believe that becoming a hero can help you redeem yourself from the lives you took? The jackal squad wanted to build their own empire, right? That's quite an interesting motive. I say it would've took them 10 more years for it to happen. But at least they would've lived to get the chance to see it come true. I wonder how Stryker would feel about you now. Wouldn't he have wanted you to take care of the squad as the new Ultimate Mercenary? Do you think that he would've wanted you to join Eggman for power? And after what Infinite's done, do you really have any right to think I'm a Scumbag?
• The Reveal: The Phantom Terrorist is Clyde.
• Terrible Trio: Scatter, Ice, and Stone, Clyde's henchmen.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Clyde. Ice, Scatter, and Stone saved Clyde's life from the explosion, then took him to a hospital afterwards and spent the last four years working to earn money for his recovery and insurance. He ended up dismissing them as useless and murdering them instead.
• Villainous Breakdown: In Chapter 15, Clyde's attempts to execute the Resistance is suddenly interrupted by the Eggmans, Hyper Sonic and Hyper Zero, leaving the Jackal furious. He then gets curb-stomped by the two heroes and learns of his forces getting overwhelmed. This causes him to snap and attempt to destroy the universe.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Sonic approaches Zero, who has fled from the Resistance Infirmary still under the guilt and shame of his past. After Zero explains what he has done, his motives, and his regrets, this conversation follows:
  Sonic: Y'know, I actually feel sorry for you.
  Zero: Why?
  Sonic: At first, I thought you were just some homicidal maniac who teamed up with Eggman without any reason at all. But now I see you as a misguided individual who's just sad, lonely, and is suffering with grief. I don't know Stryker or any of your squad personally, but do you think that they would want you to be miserable over their deaths?
  Zero: What do yo-
  Sonic: Answer my question.
  Zero: Well, Stryker did kill a lot of people when he was a soldier. And… he…he still wanted to move on and continue to live life.
  Sonic: Exactly. I don't know what went down with Shadow and your squad and knowing him, I doubt he remembers. But don't you think your boss would want you to stay strong and move on from your mistakes?
  Zero: Well, he always wanted me to be strong. So…yeah…I think he would…but it's not easy…"
  Sonic: I think you'll be fine. And regarding this whole "Strong survives while weak dies", that doesn't seem true to me.
  Zero: How would you know? You were born to be the fastest creature in the universe and the earth's defender. Your friends also have powers that no ordinary person has. I'm nothing compared to you, even your little fox friend could take me down. You don't know what it's like to feel inferior, how could you possibly know that it's not true?
  Sonic: You're right, you and I are different. But you could have something deep inside you that even I don't have. Heck, you probably have advantages over me in some things.
  Zero: Like?
  Sonic: That's what you'll have to find for yourself. You're not weak, Zero, and you're not worthless. What you did wasn't right, and you'll have to live with it for the rest of your life, but you standing around here feeling sorry for yourself is not going to help you. We forgive you, but you'll have to forgive yourself.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Clyde, upon fusion with the Phantom Ruby, revealed to Scatter, Ice, and Stone that he was using them as mere tools that no longer serve any purpose. Then, he vaporized them into ash.
  Clyde: Hahah… Fools. You were nothing but tools to me since the very beginning. Besides, it's your fault. You were the ones who decided to save me. You could've left and lived your own lives, but you chose to stay and serve a man who never cared about you to begin with. Now, that I have the Phantom Ruby in my hands, I can create henchmen that are far superior to you three in every way. It's been fun, boys, but your assistance is no longer needed. Sayonara.