The Chaotix Casefiles, an audio drama series created for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, may be hinting at big things to come for the series. Released on 3 March, the sixth episode of the series features the Chaotix infiltrating an abandoned Eggman base, and confronting Sage, Eggman’s latest and greatest creation. But, as those who have already heard the episode know, the mystery regarding the “Red Specter” is slowly being revealed, as Sage uncovers a new keyword relating to the files under a different name in Eggman’s database: “Phantom.”
This key detail has caused discourse surrounding the identity of the thief, and the mystery within GUN’s files, to reach a fever pitch, with many looking to the name itself as a clear clue towards future revelations. In previous speculation, the file name “Red Specter” drew fandom attention towards the meaning of its name, and how certain words may be describing something else previously seen in the series. In these theories, the word “Specter” could potentially be used to describe something that is also like a “Phantom,” and the “Red” part of the filename may be describing an object that “Phantom” has also been related to in the franchise’s universe, that being a Ruby.
With Sage’s reveal that Eggman’s files do indeed relate the GUN files to the word “Phantom”, and Vector also musing in-universe that he and Charmy know of another word that goes with Phantom, many in the fandom feel like this all but confirms said theories. It might be very possible that the Phantom Ruby is back in play in the Sonic franchise, potentially contributing to the mysterious sightings of other characters being impersonated throughout the audio drama.
There’s an additional aspect of this speculation, however, as the Phantom Ruby is often paired up with an iconic series villain: Infinite the Jackal. Out of a desire to see Infinite return, many in the fandom hope that the identity of the thief being pursued in the Chaotix Casefiles is actually Infinite in disguise, which would result in a second encore appearance for the “Ultimate Mercenary". While I myself have always had my doubts surrounding this theory, as the IDW villain Mimic the Octopus better fills the role and current mystery in my eyes, a certain piece of evidence has been discovered that may indicate this theory holds some merit.
On an Amazon webpage listing official merch for the Chaotix Casefiles, a preview of Episode 7’s thumbnail and artwork was discovered, featuring characters such as the Chaotix, Sonic, and Eggman posed on the cover art. However, a certain pattern in the background was overlooked at the time of this artwork’s discovery - several zig-zagging streaks paint the background of the image, and if one compares them to the official design of Infinite, there is an incredible similarity to the Jackal’s flowing hair. To me, these coincidences push said theories beyond unrealistic, to almost probable in outcome, to the point I would not be surprised if they are the grand reveals at the end of the series.
This on its own is relatively exciting to me personally, as I feel like Infinite is a villain that has a lot of potential use in the series in several ways beyond his initial storyline. However, another aspect of speculation surrounding these casefiles makes the situation feel even stranger. Due to the leaking of the thumbnails for episodes 6 and 7, there is also speculation that the audio drama is nearing its final episode, which is further supported by Vector’s retelling of the previous mystery essentially wrapping up as of episode 6. This puts the narrative back into the present day, with Sonic and Vector captured by Eggman in his facility at the tail end of the adventure, and setting the cast up for a climactic rescue, which can presumably be seen on the artwork of episode 7.
This begs the question, then: Can the story be resolved within just one more episode? The series has covered a lot of ground - introducing ancient relics related to the Gaia civilization stolen for an unknown purpose, invoking Mimic from the IDW comics, introducing Professor Victoria into the ongoing mystery, and now potentially involving an outright broken gemstone from the series’ past alongside the villain directly associated to it. If the leaked thumbnails through the official Amazon store list the entirety of the series’ scope, and the mystery is quote-unquote resolved next episode, then that would serve as a fine conclusion to the overall adventure, but would leave many details and characters as potential loose ends to the current build up of the mystery. There may be more episodes beyond episode 7, however, but at the same time it may be possible to consider that the Chaotix Casefiles might lead into something larger. Potentially, the next mainline Sonic game.
In speculation further removed from the discussion surrounding the Chaotix Casefiles, some of the fandom have revisited a previous rumor with this context in mind. It is important to note that this rumor has not been verified by Tails Channel News as an actual leak, and no official corroboration has been made regarding its veracity. Regardless, the rumor involves a purportedly internal “survey presentation” for upcoming Sonic game concepts, that was shared online during June of 2025. Due to the speculated return of the Phantom Ruby, listed aspects such as real-time terrain deformation, zones that rearrange themselves, dimensional shifting, and setpieces like digital storms have drawn speculation that such a premise could service the overpowered gem and its reality altering properties. Other details such as a city where all the denizens “want you dead” can also be paralleled with another function the ruby has shown in the past, wherein Shadow the Hedgehog was teleported into a virtual dimension, and Omega and Rouge were impersonated and used by Infinite to psychologically toy with the Ultimate Lifeform.
The survey rumor was claimed to have merit at the time of its posting due to containing a concept for Sonic Blitz, a mobile card game that has already had a soft-launch before being recently pulled from digital storefronts for further development. However, this rumor was posted after Sonic Blitz was already revealed, discounting the factor of known prediction this rumor could have been credited with, while also weighing it down with the burden of potential bandwagoning, as false rumors tend to participate in.
Regardless of what the scope of this possible return for the villain may be, however, the potential for Infinite the Jackal returning has me especially excited, as I have always felt like he was one of the better ideas that Forces debuted at the time. In fact, I’d go so far as to say he is a legitimately great character in his current form, in spite of Forces’ various aspects bringing him down and failing to sell audiences on the character fully.
This brings me to a not-so-brief tangent relating to this speculation, as I wish to review the various ways I believe Infinite does work as a character within Sonic Team’s conveyed intent, evaluate how well that writing may or may not work for him, and consider the overall perception of the character. In doing so, I hope to better illustrate the purpose of a character like Infinite as he currently exists in the franchise, not only to properly speculate on where the directors of the series may take the character and stories in the future, but hopefully to share perspective on why his return isn’t a bad idea in my eyes, and could lead to better reception in the fandom for both future and previous appearances of the character, in similar ways to Zavok and Mephiles’ recent appearances.
Before Sonic Forces occurs, a free prequel comic overseen by Sonic Team and written by Ian Flynn showcases a brief prequel to the events of the game. In Sonic Forces: Rise of Infinite, Infinite the Jackal is the leader of the Jackal Squad, a group of mercenaries who raid Eggman’s base to profit off his technology. They come to blows with Eggman himself, yet after a surprise demonstration of the Ruby’s powers, Infinite chooses to collaborate with Eggman, stating he has grown weary of the current state of the world. Leading Eggman’s forces for a brief period of time, Infinite’s story is continued in a second prequel to his role in the game - Episode Shadow, released as free DLC for Sonic Forces after the game’s release.
In this DLC, Team Jackal eventually comes to blows against Shadow the Hedgehog, who is investigating an Eggman base that Jackal Squad have been assigned to protect. After attempting a surprise attack on the Ultimate Lifeform, the self-proclaimed “Ultimate Mercinary” gets wombo-combo’d and suffers a prompt defeat, with Shadow leaving the Jackal with a bruised ego and nothing left to his name. What follows is the ever iconic, ever memed upon “I AM NOT WEAK!!!!” scene, which ultimately serves as the defining event of the titular villain for the game.
One could easily say this is his “origin story”, which is as ridiculous a premise for a character as it sounds. From here, Infinite chooses to hide his “pathetic” face behind a mask, and opts to allow Eggman to experiment on him in pursuit of greater power, attempting to overcome his weakness and obtain “power to make all yield to his will”. From there, the events of Forces occur, wherein Infinite helps facilitate Eggman in dominating the world by defeating Sonic at the start of the game, but eventually failing due to the combined efforts of the Avatar, Sonic, and their allies.
In many ways, Infinite can be seen as a massive disappointment, as his presentation and characterization harkened back to the days when Sonic Team was not afraid to incorporate ideas that had a distinct edge in their villainy or storytelling, such as Mephiles the Dark, Black Doom, Shadow the Hedgehog, or even more grounded villains like Gerald Robotnik. This was further anticipated with the release of the “Theme of Infinite” before the game launched - a Linkin-Park-esque character theme that dripped with 2000s nu-metal identity and raw emotion. In many ways, however, the release of this song ended up being the character’s undoing, as his presentation in the game failed to live up to the impressions the song gave of his character.
This was already true of his handling in the main story, with underwhelming confrontations between Sonic and the Avatar dulling his reputation and eventual demise, alongside Sonic Forces’ various quirks, usually lacking in animation, budget, or execution to sell the ideas they present the viewer with. The final battle might be the most infamous of these examples, presenting the viewer with a scene of Sonic character models weakly doing battle with Phantom Ruby illusions, sometimes lacking combat animation outright. When juxtaposed with the concept art for the same scene, it’s clear that the final execution did not realize the optimal outcome for such an action set piece.
Even beyond this, however, Infinite seemed fairly flat as a villain, as a boilerplate - if not grandiose - maniacal and cunning villain archetype, with little else driving him but the conquest in Eggman’s name. In Infinite’s theme, certain aspects of his personal beliefs or struggles are alluded to, such as “I was born in this pain, it only hurts if you let it”, “I’ve been up against better, just take a look at my face”, “I don’t crumble for nothing, I got the world on my shoulders”, “Only scars remain of who I was”, among other overtly edge-driven lyrics throughout the song. The Infinite seen during the main storyline doesn’t really have any of these alluded traits in his visible narrative, so why was he given a more compelling song than what the final product embodied?
A few remained hopeful, however, as with the advent of Episode Shadow’s release, a solid backstory for Infinite could potentially be incorporated to save everyone’s favorite edgelord loser from an anticlimactic fate. Motives could be illuminated, pathos could be established, and the lackluster final product may be salvaged in some ways. However, when it was discovered what this character’s backstory truly was, he became an even greater disappointment, and an outright laughing stock, as the motives behind his transformation or cited “pain” ended up being childish, irrational, and stupid to many, fundamentally destroying most appeal people saw in the character. With the release of Episode Shadow, most viewers decided to stop viewing the character in earnest, and abandoned hope for seeing a cathartic in-universe explanation for his character. Like most discussion surrounding Sonic Forces, those in the fandom who still wrestle with the disappointment in the game often imagine alternate scenarios to what was delivered in the final product, in which ideal rewrites might salvage a cool character design and character concept from their memetic fate.
When Sonic Forces released, I felt the same as many of those people, as I felt the promise of the character failed to live up to expectations, and the execution felt laughable in many ways. However, with further context given by behind-the-scenes info on who Infinite is and what he was intended to accomplish as a character created by Sonic Team, I believe I’ve come around to viewing some of the existing story in Forces (and Infinite’s concept as a character altogether) as narratively strong in several ways, just in a way that is not well understood or incorporated into the final product due to various reasons.
To start with, an interview with Tomoya Ohtani illustrates one of the more confusing aspects of Forces’ final release, that being why Infinite’s lyrical theme isn’t located anywhere in the final game. This interview was published on Nintendo Dream Web on 11 November 2018, to commemorate the release of the Sonic Forces Official Soundtrack. During the interview, Ohtani laments that they weren’t able to incorporate the main lyrical theme for infinite in the final battle, as he felt like Infinite’s boasts of superiority in the song properly embodied Infinite bluffing that he was not weak, and Infinite’s eventual fading away in this scene in the face of Sonic and the Avatar’s teamwork would have been an appropriate combination of lyrical storytelling and presentation in the game. The reasons for why this was not accomplished relates to the creation of the theme song absent of a set place in the final product, and Ohtani muses that his eventual intention may not have been properly conveyed.
However, Takashi Iizuka has stated in the Forces OST notes that Sonic Forces suffered many challenges, with major changes to the content interfering with development while said development was underway. There was even a moment when the project’s whole future was in dispute, essentially hinting at extensive hardships during the game’s development. With this in mind, it’s not hard to see why Infinite’s lyrical theme didn’t get properly implemented into this battle, alongside various other shortcomings the game’s story suffers.
“It is with immense pride that we are finally able to bring “Sonic Forces” to our many fans worldwide. With that said, the road to fruition was anything but smooth. Major changes to the content were made while development was already underway, and at times the project’s whole future was even called into question.”
- Sonic Series Producer Takashi Iizuka (Sonic Forces Original Soundtrack: A Hero Will Rise CD liner notes)
Still, what the interview musing encapsulates is that, even in the base game, Infinite and his theme song were always meant to depict a character obsessed with strength, but simultaneously framed as obtaining a “false strength” set to be highlighted by poetic irony in the end. This also parallels the main heroes of the story in this ultimate final battle, as while this isn’t easily seen from the game’s narrative text, it’s reasonable to assume that his blusterous and ultimately hollow strength coming undone due to Sonic and the Avatar’s bond of friendship and trust is an intentional reason his character ended up this way, as a narrative foil to the Avatar’s character arc. As Infinite constantly rambles on about weakness in relying on others, and the value of his own strength lifting himself above everyone else, he mirrors and antagonizes the journey of the Avatar. Initially they lack confidence in themselves, but eventually do find strength in those around them, ending with the encouragement from Sonic enabling them to overcome their doubts and Infinite himself.
Infinite’s archetype then is a rather standard format of villain in works such as anime, manga, or JRPGs, which commonly rely on these tropes. The archetype serves to contrast the values that the heroes of the story are intended to learn, and how the heroes eventually use said values to triumph over the various negative ethics, values, and ideals that the villains espouse and embody, in an effort to convey to young audiences those same values and life lessons in a heroic and idealistic light. How well the Avatar and Sonic themselves service this framing is… a conversation for another time, but the general idea is undeniably a core part of the story’s attempted identity.
This insight alone may slightly justify his premise, even if it remains incredibly cheesy in the final execution of the main campaign for Forces. However, the issue of Infinite’s theme song selling the audience on the premise of a character with greater narrative depth than what we received still remains. If we wish to dive into things beyond intended, debatably-executed standard tropes, and into solid character work that is well realized with pathos to back it up, we need to return to Episode Shadow, Sonic Forces: Rise of Infinite, and how the creative intent of Infinite’s direction spanning the story applies there.
At first glance, one of the more compelling viewer reads of Infinite’s story in Episode Shadow involved Infinite’s teammates, and his unseen relation to them. By knowing Infinite had an off-screen team he operated with, many fans saw the potential for expanding on his character motivations by playing into his bonds with them in a variety of ways, such as how their alleged destruction by Shadow in the story may have sent Infinite spiraling, and play into a tragic direction for the character and his villainy. Many speculate that the story in this prologue intended this, as we see Infinite display anger directly towards Shadow for their demise.
However, this involuntarily feeds into how people view the storytelling of Infinite’s backstory as ridiculously executed, as his eventual crash out is completely self-centered, and revolves around an observable sense of pride and humiliation in his own abilities to a comical degree when juxtaposed with the tragedy of his team that he supposedly was close to. As a result, in pursuit of a deeper and more meaningful narrative for this character, it ends up exacerbating the issue of the written story even further. This is why many people cite Infinite as someone that needs to be fixed as a character, overhauled and rewritten to be someone who benefits from better writing, and better characterization in turn to take advantage of his villainous status, should he ever return.
In contrast, the writer for the Sonic Forces prequel comics has recently recalled what Sonic Team conveyed as desired directions for the character, among which was ensuring he has a very pessimistic outlook on the world and the willingness to see it destroyed, which can be seen when Infinite comes in contact with the Ruby in said comic. Much more notably, however, it was recalled that Sonic Team intended for Infinite not to care about the defeat of his teammates as a personal loss, but more a personal slight to himself, an insult more than anything. As this embodies Sonic Team’s intended direction for the character, his relationships and reactions in Episode Shadow starts to make more sense. Rather than conflicting with the potential depth or bonds of Infinite’s relationship with Jackal Squad, essentially reducing him to an overly self-centered individual who becomes obsessed with his perception after his defeat, it establishes that this has always been Infinite’s perception of himself and others - not really caring about what his teammates say or do, and instead caring more about what they have to offer him instead, similar to his eventual pursuit of power in the Phantom Ruby.
“From what I remember getting in the notes, he didn’t really care for them in any kind of camaraderie sort of way. It’s just, they were his unit - they followed him. That’s the extent of the social contract? Shadow taking them out was more a personal insult to him; you took his stuff, you made him look weak by taking out his dudes, but I don’t think it keeps him up at night. Once Shadow like, humbled him, it was all about him, y’know? Now Jackal Squad was 100% loyal to him, but he didn’t particularly care for any of them in return…”
- Ian Flynn on whether Infinite cared about Shadow killing his squad, 4 Sep 2024 Bumblekast
This, in turn, makes Infinite’s through-line in forces come out stronger, as he will actively abandon and take for granted those around him, as he pursues power and status that others can recognize and will submit to. This self-proclaimed “Ultimate Mercenary" eventually surrounds himself with illusions as his support, with contempt for relying on others who would let him down, which directly reflects the outcome of his hollow relationships with his previous squad that attempted to support him. When contrasted with the Avatar, and their eventual encouragement through Sonic and his friends to save the day together, Infinite is the direct foil to the themes of the heroes, embodied by a misanthropic delusion viewing the heroes as the delusional ones.
And, yes, even the “weak” scene can be saved by this framing! Although it might always seem ridiculous to those who have already been disappointed by Forces’ story, Infinite’s complete breakdown when confronted by someone indisputably stronger than him essentially shatters his ego, which is solely built around his strength and status up to that point. His outlook on the world renders him pathetic in more ways than one, as a character who doesn’t even consider the companionship of those around him as something that can give his life meaning. And as we know from the main story and the intent behind his theme song, that’s by design as a villain for the game. When viewed with all this context - alongside the conveyed intent of Sonic Team’s creation of Infinite through these interview blurbs - the scene unironically wraps back around to being kind of great, at least in my eyes.
The problem with all this, however, is that Sonic Team never really states these elements of Infinite’s character outright in Forces at all, and it only mildly gets better with the prequel stories, where you can tell from intuition that some of the writing decisions don’t feel right when viewed from incompatible angles. Essentially, major elements that serve to make Infinite’s character work are left as background details that explain his actions, but then require extrapolation and active analysis to perceive, which is a bit much to ask of the audience when casually dealing with Sonic Forces of all things. Sonic Team has communicated this more direct intent to others in these interviews and character notes, but in many ways the story fails to inform the viewer of these aspects of his character that are crucial to understanding why the character would be acting this way at all. There’s even elements of his character that have yet to be explained past this context, such as why Infinite felt this way about himself, others, or why he thought the world needed to be destroyed, teased by the phantom ruby illusion during his fight with Eggman.
Finishing off this analysis are my own remaining misgivings regarding what we do have for the character. While the direction is fairly clear cut now in my eyes, there is still an element of Infinite’s theme song that remains, creating a dissonance in how well I think the theme song complements the character. It’s true that the vocal theme is basically an anthem for Infinite’s hubris, and I can get behind that, but there are certain aspects and lyrics in the song that attempt to invoke sympathy towards his past and position in the world, which I simply do not see in the final product of his character. It is true that villains using the archetype Infinite uses do not have to be framed in a sympathetic light, and can be truly irredeemable from the outset due to their actions at no fault to the intended narrative. The song then is the only piece of the puzzle that is attempting to invoke a sympathetic angle for reasons unknown. Surge the Tenrec, in contrast, is a villain that decided to go on the warpath due to a story that the audience ends up sympathetic towards, and is the kind of character I expected to receive when I first heard Infinite’s theme song. Infinite, in contrast, does not feature the same qualities in any way as of right now.
As a result, I feel that potential story work in the future may end up expanding on his reason for viewing the world the way he does, following up on the intended mindset for the character with a proper catalyst that allows him to have at least one aspect of a sympathetic backstory. To counter this, however, there are certain lyrics that attempt to invoke sympathy that we likely already know the context for, such as “I’ve been up against better, just take a look at my face!” This likely alludes to his defeat in Mystic Jungle, where Shadow kicks his face in before he dons the mask, and the degree of sympathy we can feel for those events and his potential injury remains fairly low, as it primarily revolves around his sense of ego and villainous actions from the outset. Maybe Infinite’s true past will remain a mystery, and like the previous context, viewers will just be left to extrapolate and speculate on what it may be, since the premise of wanting to destroy the world is a bit extreme to begin with.
This is all of the context that we have for Sonic Team’s intent with Infinite as of Sonic Forces, but at the same time, this doesn’t necessarily mean that all future content will follow these exact outlines, even if they were communicated to the writers at the time. The reason this might not matter in the future, is because plans can change, other creative directions can be considered, and retcons may indeed be possible if the team collectively desires them. The reason for exploring the known context of Infinite in this section, therefore, isn’t to dismiss possible future directions for the character that may diverge, but instead to gain a better understanding of what Sonic Team was going for with his conception. With this in mind, we’ve established a baseline that may be helpful when speculating on how he may be used in the future. There’s also the fact that I simply want to raise awareness to how this context might actually benefit how we view the character’s story, and add to our broader awareness of Sonic Team’s artistic intent that may be worth giving a second chance.
With this context of the character in mind, what does this mean for the villain’s future in the series, should they choose to bring him back? There are many potential options that could make use of his particular character, in a similar way to how the series is handling other villains as a more recurring rogues gallery. The IDW comics currently capitalize on Zavok’s established characterization, and continue to use him as an ongoing threat in stories so well that many fans have come around to liking him. Mephiles’ return in Shadow Generations temporarily threatened the universe in the exact same way he did in Sonic 2006, and I personally viewed it as a highlight in Shadow Generations’ narrative, which ended up bolstering my opinion of his existence through his substantially more enjoyable boss fight in the game. However, Infinite’s role in the Sonic universe may be less static than these two examples.
Before coming in contact with Eggman, Infinite was merely the leader of a mercenary group, wielding a sword for combat. Although he claimed the title of “Ultimate Mercenary”, his abilities were far lesser than the threat he posed when utilizing the Phantom Ruby in Sonic Forces, and was no match for Shadow the Hedgehog when forced into a confrontation. If all the Phantom Ruby prototypes have indeed been destroyed in the present day, that may leave Infinite without a proper power source to rely on, essentially reducing him to the pitiable state he was in after his encounter with Shadow. This may lead him to pursuing another form of power that can make up for his lack of ability, in a desperate ploy to regain dominance again, or he might remain powerless and a husk of his former self, plotting against the heroes yet scurrying away at the first sign of danger. A part of the rogues gallery that is all bark but no bite, and a further condemnation towards his behavior utilized as a villain, but interesting enough to be used in different ways in lower stake stories.
In the case of the former option, however, he may essentially serve a role similar to Eggman, where pursuit of a greater power leads him towards something far greater in scale. Eggman has attempted to control Gods of Destruction, seized government conspiracies for war, and the very darkness of the planet in his efforts to conquer the world. Infinite may end up doing the same when given the opportunity, in which case he may actually fall into the same failings as Eggman in being way over his head.
This leads me back to the speculation over the unverified survey rumor mentioned earlier in this article. If Infinite is revived and on the loose in a post-Casefiles world, alongside the Phantom Ruby being alluded to in the project file name, this will essentially work nicely with the purported premise of this concept, which mentions world deformation, digital worlds, dimension shifting, and populations turned against you. However, what’s interesting to note about this section of the survey slides is that there is a second slide describing the Ancients, who were prominently featured in Sonic Frontiers’ overarching story, and how the story for this game would reveal twists to their fate and the nature of the chaos emeralds. Additionally, the new threat posed is apparently a rogue AI that hunts Sonic, who “mimics his every move, forcing Sonic to outthink himself”. If this AI villain is the primary antagonist of the game, then it could be speculated that Infinite’s role in the story may be superseded by a larger threat, if not completely irrelevant and only coincidental in circumstances surrounding the Phantom Ruby. If it’s the former, it may result in a fusion between the major ideas and lore used in Sonic Forces and Sonic Frontiers to establish a brand new adventure for the open zone era. Or, perhaps the Phantom Ruby is the only thing that truly returns for this game, while Infinite gets dealt with or doesn’t even show up in the Chaotix Casefiles, and this speculation is largely inaccurate to what we see in the next episodes of the audio drama.
But what if I told you that Infinite has already returned to Sonic stories once before? Well, as it turns out, this has already happened once before. The official Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog website, Sonic Channel, occasionally posts monthly “Sonic Calendar” artwork with stories coinciding with them, and from December 2022 to November 2023, the “Otherworldly Comedy” series was hosted, where fans were encouraged to vote on a selection of characters that could appear in each month’s artwork and story scenarios. The first story published in the series saw Shadow and Infinite performing in an idol concert, and the following stories for the rest of the year were just as zany, as the theme of the series involved placing familiar characters in scenarios that are wildly different and almost comedic in nature. This didn’t end up being a mere “what if?” series of illustrations and one-off stories, however, as an underlying mystery permeated the stories, and a vague sense of reality being changed by some unknown force was hinted at the end of every story.
The encounter that Shadow and Infinite have is one of the shorter stories in the series, and merely involves an uncooperative competitive spirit between the two in who should lead the show. Shadow only wants Infinite to stay out of his way, idealizing a perfect performance that is not being reached given the current circumstances, while Infinite derides Shadow’s pursuit of perfection with a sneer, insisting that an amateur should instead be following his lead and strive for authenticity. Shadow briefly gets confused when he mentions his purpose for being there, which almost seems to jog a memory in this alternate reality, signaling that something isn’t right. Before he can recall what it is he’s forgetting, however, Infinite’s scornful look briefly draws his gaze, leading Shadow to reply, “I don’t know why, but your face irritates me” Before he can respond, Shadow kicks Infinite into the darkness of the building, informs him to never show his face again, and walks away from an unclaimed microphone.
The end of the story notes that the area the scene occurred in used to be an Eggman base, but has somehow been transformed into a music club, and although the scene between Shadow and Infinite had just taken place, the memories of the crowd ended up replaced by other musicians, as if the duo and their conflict never existed.
Throughout the rest of the “Otherworldly Comedy,” other Sonic characters are depicted in similarly unusual yet mundane scenarios. Amy becomes a fortune teller for the magical princess Blaze, Vector becomes a superhero saving the city on an empty stomach, Princess Elise is assisted by Silver to overcome melancholic childhood memories and succeed at an ice skating performance, and Tikal and Chaos run a pizzeria in the Mystic Ruins, as chao and the Knuckles clan exist peacefully side by side. In many ways, the lives of the characters involved seem to be almost dreamlike and happy in nature, though not all characters are affected. Tails, who has found himself in the middle of a Romeo and Julliette play, is somehow confused about the events taking place around him, and attempts to snap Marine, playing Romeo, out of the illusion. Marine almost snaps out of it at the mention of the Sol dimension and Blaze, but being Marine, remains stubbornly insistent that this is their reality, and that she needs to lead their band, the Coconut Troupe, to new theatrical heights. Tails ends up finding Sonic outside the building, however, and the two of them appear to be the only characters unaffected by the anomalies, which have transformed Sonic’s world into a world of alternate realities.
Eventually the heroes discover that Eggman is behind this latest scheme, and with the help of the emeralds, revive a few of their friends from these false realities in order to put a stop to his plans. Eventually they discover a large facility under the earth, emitting power similar to the Phantom Ruby being applied to the earth itself, in an attempt to fool it to override its reality. The true function of the machine wasn’t this simple, however, as it turned out that energy was being drawn from the inhabitants of the world overriding the reality of the planet themselves, and the “cognitive friction energy” between the two was being funneled into this facility. In truth, the realities around the world reflected latent desires of the people among them, creating a dream-like planet where various realities emerged.
Eggman shows up before Knuckles can destroy the machine, and with the energy provided, attempts to overwrite the reality of the planet for himself, altering past mistakes and history in real time. Various characters from the dream-like realities end up thwarting his plans, however. (As a side note, Sonic performs chaos control in sync with Shadow to warp up Eggman’s robot here, which is awesome) Their efforts lead to the revival of the chaos emeralds, and the arrival of Super Sonic, which forces Eggman to take the cognitive friction power for himself, turning into an invincible super form on par with Super Sonic. The two fight head to head around the planet, as Eggman attempts to use alternate realities of previous schemes and monsters throughout the games turned to his favor, but to no avail. Eventually Tails finds Eggman’s weak point, and with the destruction of the machine’s core, the world slowly returns to its original state.
However, as Sonic, his friends, and Elise celebrate in Tikal and Chaos’ pizzeria before the world returns to normal, Eggman can be found in an underground cavern underneath Eggmanland’s previous location. He notes that one more cognitive friction core remains, holding it in his hands, and muses that he may be able to retrieve some of the remaining energy before it disappears with the device. Before he realizes it, however, the core is snatched from his hand, as Infinite both scolds and thanks the doctor for providing him this opportunity. With the device in hand, Infinite muses that in actuality, the core is a modified phantom ruby prototype, and if he fuses with it once more, he may indeed reclaim his previous power. Before he can, however, he pauses, as the idea of using the prototype again suddenly causes doubt, conflicting with his desire for power and the sense of pride deep within him. Because of this hesitation, however, the alternate reality he was a part of begins to fade, and the prototype falls through his hands into the lava below. With the last of the prototypes destroyed, Infinite laughs a self-deprecating laugh, and fades away with a wry smile on his face, almost as if to say it was for the best.
Though there was some confusion regarding the canonicity of this story for a period, Chris Hernandez of the Sonic Lore Team has seemingly elaborated that the stories are indeed canon, much in the same way as the other Calendar stories on Sonic Channel’s website. This brief return for Infinite raises a number of questions, including what his fate in Sonic Forces truly was, but primarily we can see that the core elements of his character remain the same as they always have been, alongside a new development in his hesitation to use the Phantom Ruby once more.
There are several reads one could have on this moment, such as Infinite suddenly realizing that the Phantom Ruby never embodied a true strength that he desired, and an acceptance of his fate as he fades away may truly be a definitive endpoint for the character. Alternatively, however, it’s possible that Infinite only recognizes that the Phantom Ruby’s powers were inadequate for his goals, as he had been defeated once before, and realized he was merely using its power as a crutch not in a self-realization way, but as a source of power that needs to be superseded by something with more ability, more power. His acceptance of his fate may also relate to his underlying mindset alluded to by both the character notes for his character and his song, merely a reflection of his cynical view of his place in the world.
However, there’s another element of this story that hasn’t been discussed yet, and one I don’t believe many fans have realized after the addition of “Otherworldly Comedy” to the lore. The current official explanation for Infinite’s fate in Sonic Forces is that he was absorbed by the Phantom Ruby prototype he was wielding, as Eggman calls the prototype to his final machine as a power source. This is stated in the Encyclo-speed-ia, which was published in 2018, but as “Otherworldly Comedy” took place from 2022 through 2023, a more detailed explanation may now exist. After all, if the Cognitive Friction Machine was gaining energy from the inhabitants of the planet, why was Infinite included? It’s true that the illusions caused by the Phantom Ruby Prototype may have manifested him into existence, but there’s another factor that hasn’t been considered yet.
"Once the leader of a mercenary team called "Jackal Squad," Infinite made the mistake of trying to raid one of Dr. Eggman's bases. The doctor took a shine to Infinite's bleak worldview and employed him and his squad. Their security detail was brief, as Shadow destroyed the team and left Infinite scarred. Eager for revenge, Infinite had himself outfitted with a helmet and a Phantom Ruby prototype, giving him the ability to create hyperrealistic virtual reality constructs. After his final defeat, he and his prototype are consumed by the original Phantom Ruby."
- Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-speed-ia, 2018
At the end of the “Otherworldly Comedy,” as the effects from the energy field wear off, each of Sonic’s friends begin to fade away one by one, returning to their previous place in the world before the anomalies occurred. Why this happens is unclear, as this is a greater control over reality than is claimed from the Phantom Ruby, but at the same time, there have been permanent alterations to the world in the form of the Hard Boiled Heavies’ new forms. Additionally, this isn’t the first time this phenomenon has happened either. At the end of Sonic Forces, with the destruction of the Phantom Ruby Prototypes causing the anomalies throughout the world, Tails and the rest of the resistance say goodbye to Classic Sonic, as he fades away from this dimension and returns to the past, to the exact place he was located at before the events of Forces or Mania began. This is consistent with Otherworldly Comedy’s outcome, even extending to Tikal, who knows she’s not “like” the others and worries where she will go once the effects wear off, leading to Sonic consoling her, telling her that she’ll always be in their hearts.
Now, what does this mean for Infinite, if people return to where they were before the phantom ruby illusions start affecting them? Well, wrapping back to the Chaotix Casefiles and the supposed teases on episode 7’s thumbnail art, and the uncannily coincidental name in Eggman’s files being similar to the Phantom Ruby in episode 6, we’re left with multiple mysteries on how this may play out. Who is the culprit’s identity? How does Vector claim to already know it because of the clue Sage has given him? What role do the Gaia-Civilization-built Astroscopic Lenses have in the mystery if they act as power amplifiers? Why do all clues lead back to Red Specter and Eggman’s top-secret file bank attached to the word “Phantom”, especially if Eggman wants to learn about the Astroscopic Lenses through Vector’s story? Does he not know what they are? Why are the thefts then tied to a project so secret, he even keeps it hidden from Sage? Who is the culprit’s identity if they’re working under Eggman’s nose, yet have an interest in Project Specter and whatever relates to Phantom? And where does Rouge fit into all this?
All we know is that the mystery has led the Chaotix straight to Eggman’s door in the form of an abandoned base, located in the rock wall of a desert canyon.
This base may be the location of the penultimate climax of the story, as Vector and Sonic fight alongside the rest of the Chaotix to break free from Eggman’s clutches and escape this base as they attempt to solve the underlying mystery.
This base, that maybe, just maybe…
Was where it all began…
The Chaotix Casefiles returns to the proverbial airwaves on 10 March at noon Eastern Time, where episode 7 will reveal even more mysteries surrounding the Red Specter.
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