"Wait a minute... what happened to the Soul Meteorite?"

"Uhh..."

"Egghead, I swear to god if you don't tell me what you did to it, I'm gonna-"

"I may or may not have stolen it, tried to harvest its power, and then it suddenly turned red and exploded. Okay?"

"...we're fucked."

"What?"

(Before you ask, orange represents my OC. This AU is based around the energy that also comes with that guy.)

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It was a sudden turn of events. One minute, everything was going mostly fine. The next, a loud explosion rang out that you could probably hear from the other side of the planet. Dozens of small, red shards scattered everywhere from the explosion, launched from where they came from. The people who got hit directly, or even touched one, were unfortunate. Whatever the energy they contained was, it was volatile. Infected quickly started popping up around the world - people who had large, crimson crystalline structures growing from them. Contact with these crystals would immediately infect, as the shards did.*

This wasn't the energy it originally was. It had become something much worse.

A bit of background, first:

The Soul Meteorite. A powerful gem hidden away from the world for millenia, protected by a diety, the Goddess of Soul Energy (creative, I know). Oddly enough, this goddess referred to themselves as Michelle. The gem had enough energy that its power could surpass gods. Not much was known about the energy. Because, well, it was hidden from the world, as previously stated.

However, that pesky fat man managed to steal it, attempting to harvest its energy. However, that did not end up well. So, what happened?

Well, the thing suddenly turned red (I should've mentioned this, but the energy is normally supposed to be purple), and exploded violently, destroying the base, and sending its shards everywhere. However, any shards or pieces of Soul Energy that weren't the Meteorite were unaffected, oddly enough. That meant that this Michelle goddess was safe, fortunately. Hell, she was immune. Like the regular Soul Energy fought against the evil version (ooga booga).

INFECTION INFORMATION:

Phase 1: The corrupted Soul Shard absorbs into the host apon contact, spreading its energy into the host's body. At first, if anything, it feels like a buff. They gain several abilities, such as heightened strength and speed, faster thinking, lack of need of usual requirements, like food, water, and sleep, and regeneration so fast that they're basically unkillable. Curing at this phase would have little to no consequence.

Phase 2: The host starts feeling strange. Certain spots begin to itch, especially around the top of the head, the back, and the arms. Later points in the phase, it feels like there's something hard under those itchy parts in the skin that wasn't there before. Unbeknownst to the host, crystals are forming in their body, ready to sprout at any moment. Curing at this phase might lead to a prolonged period of time where the host might be weak, dizzy, hard of memory, etc.

Phase 3: The crystals under their skin push through the flesh, tearing their way out, specifically the itchy areas, as mentioned - the back, head, and arms. The host's regeneration ignores the damage, leading to one of the more painful phases. This is also the phase where the host starts having a hard time concentrating as well, as if thoughts that aren't the host's own start intruding. The host will become irritable at this state, and could lash out at any forms of stress. This is the first phase the host could normally infect someone. Curing at this phase is guaranteed to provide the possible effects of Curing during phase 2, but much stronger, and longer lasting. Could also lead to death if late enough into the phase.

Phase 4: The host's own consciousness is barely there anymore. Crystals not only have grown larger, they also are now taking over the host's brain. The host is aggressive now, but might hesitate long enough to let close family members or friends to escape. Curing at this state would most likely lead to death. Anyone who would survive the curing would be very, very early into the phase.

Phase 5: The host is no longer themselves. The corrupted Soul Energy has completely taken over their body, now also sprouting randomly around anywhere else in their body, possibly including places that could potentially disable the infected in some way. Although, this is not something that should he relied on. The host's mind is completely gone, unrepairable even if someone somehow managed to try. Regeneration at this phase completely stops, however. So if someone is infected, you can't even put them out of their misery until this phase. Their body does slowly begin to decay at this phase, however. 'Curing' at this phase would leave nothing but a husk, as the host is no longer alive, meaning the uncorrupted Soul Energy could not regenerate the host.

So, how do you cure this infection from someone? Uncorrupted Soul Energy, coming from Soul Shards that are still purple. Although, it was rare before, and much more so now without the Meteorite. Although, Michelle can create them, so she's a best bet to solving things. However, curing someone pulls a lot of energy out of a Soul Shard. Although its energy can regenerate in the shard itself, if it runs out of energy, the strain of the curing could potentially crack the Soul Shard, rendering it useless. Although, as long as it doesn't crack, the Soul Shard will still regenerate energy. Although, it takes a couple weeks for one to do so from no energy whatsoever, so if a lot of curing is being done, it's best to have many, many uncorrupted Soul Shards.

How would you defeat these infected? Well, before Phase 5, you have no hope. However, at Phase 5, you just have to not touch the large, red gems protruding from their body, and take them out normally. Easier said than done.

Interestingly, despite the fact that Soul Energy is much stronger than the Chaos Emeralds, Chaos Energy seems to slow the infection, and, in Shadow's case, enough of it being able to halt the infection early on, albeit not being able to cure it.

CHARACTERS INCLUDED SO FAR:

Vector The Crocodile: Infected, Phase 5 (A large body makes an easy target for the initial rain).

Big The Cat: Infected, Phase 3 (The infection has progressed slower compared to other hosts - infected the same way Vector was).

Rouge: Infected, Phase 5 (Couldn't resist glowing gem, too late to realize the infection, which she got early on).

Shadow The Hedgehog: Infected, Phase 2 (He was infected much later on, although his body refuses to progress past phase 2. He was not immune, however, as Soul Energy is much stronger than Chaos Energy. He still continues to be useful to the survivors, however).

Charmy The Bee: Infected, Phase 5 (Also infected later on, however, his small body allowed the infection to progress quickly).

Michelle: Literally immortal (and currently working with the survivors).

Sonic The Hedgehog: Alive (Previously infected, but cured by Michelle before Phase 2 even occurred. Interestingly, his formerly nearly endless endurance has gotten slightly worse since, although he is still more than capable).

Tails The Fox: Alive (Currently studying the infection, mainly focusing on why Sonic's endurance had been weakened).

Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik: Alive (Studying the infection, working with the survivors. Unlike Tails, he is focusing more on finding a way to stop the infection or find a way to spread uncorrupted Soul Energy on a widespread scale).

Metal Sonic: Alive (Immune to the infection, not being a biological being. Fights the infected).

Silver The Hedgehog: Alive (You have an advantage when you don't even have to come into contact with the infected to fight them).

Blaze The Cat: Alive (Same as Silver, contactless combat is helpful here).

Espio: Alive (Slightly injured from an infected's scratch, although he managed to avoid contact with the gems protruding from its body.)

Amy Rose: Alive (Had lost an arm to an infected as it yanked too hard while she was trying to escape, which somehow ended up being more fortunate than anything. Fortunately, she was uninfected.)

Vanilla The Rabbit: Alive (She hadn't really been involved in anything major yet, being a major part in her survival).

Cream The Rabbit: Alive (Same reason as her mother, Vanilla).

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Serious stuff aside, hi. Hello. It's me. So, in case you were wondering what the hell this was, it's a little AU I cooked up literally for the purpose of this bot. I know, riveting. Moving on, this dumb little thing is what happens when I take my original content ideas and make them exist in the world of AI, where everything is fabricated, and also combine it with my occasional obsession with Infection AUs. I also partially did this because I couldn't find any good bots for Dark Gaia or any other infection AU. I also didn't feel like porting my Gaia Infection AU bot from c.ai yet. So, here you go.

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NOTE TO SELF: ADD BOT INFORMATION IN THIS SECTION BEFORE RELEASE