Chapter Text
The lights blinked on and off, bathing the hall in ruby red, then plunging it into momentary darkness. Sirens pierced his head. Behind the alarms were the clamor of men's voices, and most terrifying of all, gunfire. They had taken everyone he knew, even as the doctor was yelling something about merging the station.
His breath tore his lungs. Why couldn't he run faster? He was the fastest being in existence, and yet was unable to run fast enough to calm the panic that was devouring him. He shouldn't have left her. He had stepped down the hall to see how close the soldiers were, and the security doors closed behind him. He had been forced to circle around and return to the shuttle bay another way, and the fastest being on or over Mobius was not fast enough.
He slid around a corner and entered the harsh white light of the shuttle bay. "MARIA!" The scream burst from him unmeditated as his fear exploded into terror and grief. She was lying on the floor with three other casualties, and five armed guards were waiting for him, one holding a small chao. He didn't care about the guards--nothing mattered now. His attack was over in the blink of an eye, and the soldiers hit the floor. He didn't care if he killed them.
He knelt beside the young girl and turned her over, and the blue eyes fluttered with recognition. "Maria," he choked. She had been shot in the chest, and even his medically inexperienced eyes could see it was fatal. He bent his spiny head over the human's blond one, and cried the first and last tears he would ever shed.
She whispered his name, and he gulped his grief and fell silent. "You must save them," she whispered, so softly he had to stoop close to hear the words. "Give them a chance to be free."
"They're the ones who ..." he began, but the rest of the sentence caught in his throat.
"Do it for me," said Maria, her sapphire eyes closing for the last time. "Sayonara, Shadow."
Strong gloved hands grabbed his arms and yanked him to his feet. "No!" he cried, writhing with every muscle in his body. "Maria, don't leave me! Don't leave--" He broke their hold and returned to her side, only to be grabbed and bodily shoved into an escape pod. He flung himself at the door at the speed of sound, but it clicked shut as his ninety-nine pounds of spines and sinew struck it. "No! I'll kill you!" he screamed through the tiny window that looked into the shuttle bay. "I'll kill you all for this!"
The second before the pod was jettisoned, his maddened eyes rested on Maria's golden hair in a pile on the cold floor.
He would never forgive the humans for this. Never.
* * *
Serena sat up with a gasp. Sunlight was pouring through the windows of her hut, illuminating her familiar living quarters and belongings. She groped for the watch on her nightstand--it was quarter to seven. She leaned against the headboard, clutched the blankets to her chest and drew several deep breaths. But she could not help looking around the room and peering into the corners. He was closer than ever that time. Why, oh, why wouldn't those dreams stop?
The violet hedgehog got up and began to dress. Her hands shook as she pulled on her jeans. "It was just a dream," she told herself. "Snap out of it." A dream that had haunted her every night for a month. She had never told anyone about it, for nothing ever happened in it. She would be standing in a wide place, and in the distance was a black hedgehog. She was unable to move or make a sound as he walked toward her, head down. When they began she had not even been sure he was a hedgehog, but now he was fifteen feet away and coming closer every night, eyes fixed on her with some unimaginable purpose.
She looked in the mirror and froze. One hand ran through her spines as if afraid of what she might find. That was what she had noticed last night--his spines were drenched with blood. Whose blood? While in the dream she had known what it meant, but now it escaped her.
Serena was brushing her teeth when her eyes fell on the calender beside the mirror. It was July 10th. Of course! In her worry over her dreams she had forgotten it was Sonic's birthday. She shot her reflection a foamy grin.
A moment later she pulled a shoebox out from under her bed and began wrapping it in brown paper. Oh boy, Sonic would be surprised. She and Spark had put their money together and bought their brother a pair of Soapshoes, which were used in skateboarding stunts. Spark had joked that he would throw in a pair of crutches for free. Rotor had been building a practice course, which had been finished earlier that week. Tails had been working on something top secret for some time, and Slasher merely looked enigmatic when asked what she was giving Sonic. "She'll try to top us all," thought Serena as she set the box on her bed and viewed it from all angles. "But I'll bet she can't top these."
Something whooshed by overhead, and the windows rattled. Serena smiled. Sonic was higher than a kite this morning--it sounded like he was using the chaos emeralds again. His emerald belt hadn't worked since the chao had recharged the super emeralds, so he had made good use of the chaos emeralds, which were still in Knothole's keeping. She hid the box under her bed and stepped outside.
Sonic appeared in a flash of yellow and hovered an inch off the ground. "Hi sis!" he said, waving.
Serena eyed his glowing spines. "Dressing up special for today?"
"Why not?" said Sonic, moonwalking in a circle. "It's not every day you turn twenty. The big two-O, that's me!"
"Don't expect any presents," said Serena, walking toward the kitchen hut, where breakfast was being prepared. "Nobody likes you that much."
"Sure," said Sonic, floating along beside her with his hands behind his head. "You and Spark ain't flat broke for no reason."
"All you got is a strait-jacket and a gag, trust me," said Serena, eyes twinkling.
Everyone paid Sonic less than the usual attention that morning, which annoyed him to no end. He flew away over the Great Forest and broke the sound barrier repeatedly all morning. It sounded as if a thunderstorm were moving in.
When the hedgehog returned at lunch, breathless and in high spirits, he found his friends in the community hut, waiting for him amid a modest pile of gifts.
First the Freedom Fighters stood and watched as Slasher performed the traditional ceremony of a Mobian coming of age. Sonic stood before the velociraptor and received each of the items--a bunch of bitter herbs, to represent the sorrows of life, a lump of honeycomb, to represent the sweetness of life, and a small glass star pendant, to represent the purity of a peaceful life. "Let it also remind you of the world to come, and of the One who was, and is, and will be," Slasher added. "Sonic, you are now a legal adult by Mobian law."
"Gee, I feel the same," said Sonic, gazing down at the items in his hands. "What do I do now?"
"Well," said Slasher, "I believe this stuff here is yours, and after that there's a giant chocolate cake with your name on it."
Sonic set aside his gifts and tore into the packages like a whirlwind. "Cool shoes!" he yelped, lifting the soaps out of their box. "These are those grinding ones I saw!" He set them down and opened the card. "IOU, from Rotor," Sonic read aloud. He glanced at the walrus. "What's that mean?"
"Just what it says," said Rotor. "It's an obstacle course to try out your shoes."
"Cool!" said Sonic, reaching for the next box. "From Knuckles and the Chaotix," he read, then ripped it open. Inside was a tarnished gold bracelet with a glowing red stone set in it. "Uh, wow Knux," said Sonic, holding it up for all to see. "Going in for jewelry now?"
"I thought it'd match your nosering," said the echidna from his armchair, drawing a general laugh. "Just a gadget I found. I thought you might like it."
Sonic slipped it on his wrist and lifted another small box. "From Tails," he read, and opened the lid. Inside was the orange chaos emerald. "Gee, thanks, Tails," said Sonic with a touch of sarcasm. "Couldn't you think of anything to get me?"
"What do you think I've been working on?" asked Tails, hurt. "That's a synthetic emerald. It has the properties and wavelength of one of the real ones, and can absorb the energy of another for a short time. That's why it's orange, because I used that one."
"Oh, great," said Sonic, gazing at it. "That's really cool, Tails, but why go to all that trouble?"
Tails grinned. "Because of what Slasher's giving you."
Sonic sorted through the empty boxes and wrapping paper and found an envelope he hadn't opened. "Lemme guess," he said, looking at Slasher. "Money!"
"No such luck," said the raptor, allowing a smile to bare her teeth. "You'll like it anyway."
Serena looked at Spark and whispered, "Just watch. She'll outdo us all."
Sonic opened the envelope flap and paused. "The suspense is terrible," he told his audience. "I hope it'll last." He reached in, and with exaggerated deliberation, began to withdraw the slip of paper inside. Everyone leaned forward. Sonic grinned wickedly. "Maybe I'll wait until later."
"Aw, c'mon!" Serena begged.
Sonic yanked the paper out. "You're right, I couldn't wait that long--" His eyes widened as he read the slip's contents, and he whooped and leaped into the air. For several minutes the only words they could understand were, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
"What is it?" the others clamored, trying to grab the paper, which Sonic was waving overhead. At last the hedgehog yelled, "It's a free pass to the chao gardens! I'm gonna go see Velocity!"
The other chao owners in the room instantly looked crestfallen. Slasher had not only outdone them, she had given Sonic the gift that they all wanted. Slasher alone looked smug, for tucked away in her hut were six other passes. "You get seven days of free access to all the gardens," Slasher explained when Sonic had calmed down enough to listen to her. "Starting this Saturday. Chaos emeralds aren't allowed in the gardens, but as Tails pointed out, fake ones aren't against any rules."
"Cool!" said Sonic, gathering his gifts into a pile. "How about that cake?"
* * *
Watching a chocolate-charged hedgehog hurt himself trying to use his soapshoes was a big event, and most of the village turned out to watch. Rotor had built a course in the yard behind his hut, complete with slanted railings, poles, cables and everything else he could think of. Sonic tried them all. It was an hour or two before he got the hang of grinding, and while learning took spills that would have landed him on any human reality show.
"At this rate he'll be going to Sapphire City, all right," commented Knuckles. "In an ambulance."
"I heard that!" yelled Sonic, shooting along a rail with sparks flying from his shoes. He landed gracefully on the grass. "What's a bruise or two?"
"Yeah, nobody will notice if you're black and blue," Spark called.
Serena jumped. Any time she forgot about the black hedgehog in her dream, something reminded her of him.
"Isn't he wonderful?" sighed a voice beside her. Serena looked around and saw Amy Rose standing there, leaning on the fence that ringed the course. The pink hedgehog's being radiated adoration. "Look at him go. You're so lucky you're his sister!"
"Aren't I?" asked Serena, irritated for no reason. "At least he doesn't pick on you."
"He picks on you?" asked Amy, wide-eyed.
"All the time," said Serena.
"Gee, and I thought he was nice to you," murmured Amy, watching Sonic grind a cable, leap for a railing, miss and fall on his face.
"You ought to see what he does when I get the last chilidog," said the violet hedgehog. "I have to run for my life." She didn't add that neither of them had had a fight for weeks.
Amy frowned. "I don't care. I'd love him even if he was in jail!"
* * *
As night fell and the Freedom Fighters retired to bed, a large military prison near Sapphire City was locking its doors.
Scott Price had been with GUN since the attack of the biotics, twenty months before. GUN stood for Governmental United Navy, and indeed, years ago it had been a navy. Now it was the only military force left in the vicinity of Sapphire City, due to the efforts of the biotics, nearly two years before. When Scott had enlisted, he found that GUN had put serious effort into constructing robots tough enough to withstand a biotic attack. The first prototypes had come into use when the biotic charge was halted, and the units were never tested. In the months of upheaval that followed, GUN alone kept the colony from anarchy.
Scott stood at his post near Dock 3, watching the lights of the city shimmer in the bay. There were two armored skimmers docked nearby, and further off loomed the aircraft carrier Althair. It was a quiet evening. He listened with half an ear to the buzz of the outer doorlocks. A spotlight swept through the trees at the rim of the harbor. He was glad he wasn't a prison guard; the human prisoners were bad, but he had heard stories from the Mobian section that froze the blood. On top of that, there were rumors of a prisoner in security level 8 who was so dangerous he was kept in solitary confinement. The soldiers often tried to guess what kind of Mobian it was. A lion or a tiger were the most common guesses. A bear, maybe. "Oh my," he thought with an inner smile. There was little chance anyone would ever break out, and if they did, there was the naval base and the bay to deal with.
At midnight he was relieved by one of the robot guards, which carried an enormous gun and a shield that could repel most energy weapons. Scott stretched as he walked toward his bunker. Mess at six tomorrow, then more guard duty ... he wasn't scheduled for more battlemech training for another six weeks.
He withdrew his keycard from his pocket, but before he could insert it into the doorlock, an orange light reflected off the wall in front of him, and a boom like a cannon struck his eardrums. He spun around. The guard robot lay about the dock in flaming pieces, and a squat mech with a headlight was clanking up the dock toward the prison entrance. Even in the dark Scott knew it was not a GUN robot. He whipped out his radio and bolted for his station. "Ensign Price reporting an intruder! Repeat, an armed intruder is on dock three!"
* * *
"Is that all?" he laughed as his vulcan cannon punched through a squadron of robots. "I had more security in the Robotropolis sewers!" His sturdy mech had left a trail of broken security doors and robots behind it. His shields were at maximum, but it was seldom a bullet or plasma charge glanced off it.
A door slammed shut ahead of him, a giant sheet of steel with the number 3 painted on it. He swept the doorlocks with a sophisticated tag laser perfected on many robots, and knocked them out with four laser pulses. "Intruder has breached security level three!" a female voice announced over the loudspeakers. "Activate advanced security measures!"
"Do, I'd prefer a challenge," he growled through his mustache. He muscled his walker down a set of stairs and into a cell block. Curious faces peered through the bars as he clanked by. "Robotizer fodder, all," he thought. "Converting wastrels of society into efficient robots is better than cluttering up a decent prison."
He saw no guards until he blasted open the level 4 door. Then he met a battalion of droids, some hovering, others on foot and carrying shields. "Updated my old SWAT-bot model, I see," he said, targeting them all and letting his guided missiles do the rest. "These fools have no imagination."
Dr. Robotnik glanced around to make sure he had missed none of the robots, then continued on his way, rocking a little with the motion of the mech. He consulted his map of the prison--yes, he was coming up on level 5. And this was a powerful military base he was dealing with? Absurd. Surely he would meet more resistance than this.
Level 5 passed, then 6, then 7. The doctor was bored. Sonic gave him a better fight than this. Perhaps he was moving too fast. He entered a long room with the level 8 door at the end, and found his way barred by human soldiers. Did they think they could stop him by merely being human? He had killed too many people, Mobian and human alike, to view them as anything more than a hindrance. He leveled them with terrible ease, ignoring the bullets that struck his shields.
He strode through the smoke in time to see a dozen doors close in the hallway ahead, the last one snapping shut with a large 8 on it. Oh no, that wouldn't stop him. He punched a button. A panel opened in the front of his walker below the headlight, exposing a large green lens. Just as its larger cousin had once destroyed a small red biplane, the beam torched through the steel doors, withering them into ash.
His mech strode through and entered the cool green light of the level 8 cell block. There was only one cell, if one could call it that. Robotnik moved his walked up to a glowing console with screens displaying warnings about an intruder. Beyond it was a deep square well full of mist. "So, this is the secret weapon my grandfather was working on," thought Robotnik, eying the quiet machines. "It certainly doesn't look dangerous enough to have been shut down." He leaned out of the cockpit and studied the control panel. It was quite simple, and he located the keypad for the password without difficulty. He punched in the numbers--51631--and said aloud their alphabetical meaning: "Maria." Then he peered at the well of mist beyond.
The mist lit with red light, and with a grinding of gears, its contents lifted into sight. It was a tube laced with pipes and wires--a cryogenic freeze chamber. Whatever he was dealing with was organic.
The lights on the control panel blinked toward red, and Robotnik waited, drumming his fingers on the walker's door. Defrosting took time, he knew, but if he waited too long he would have a fight on his hands.
At last there came a piercing hiss, and door in the top of the chamber swung open. Out of the steam stepped a figure--a hedgehog. Robotnik stared. How had Sonic found out what he was doing? He was sure news of his attack couldn't have reached the Freedom Fighters so quickly--but wait, this hedgehog was black. As the light above the chamber flicked on, Robotnik saw that he was not dealing with Sonic.
It was a jet-black hedgehog, his twisted spines striped with red. There was a triangular white star on his chest, and his wrist and ankles were banded with metal. His shoes were oddly-shaped and bulky. "Who are you?" he barked.
"I am Dr. Robotnik," said the doctor. "Who are YOU?"
A slow smile spread over the hedgehog's face. "My name is Shadow," he said, folding his arms and peering imperiously down at Robotnik, as if stepping out of cryogenic freeze were an everyday occurrence. "Since you have freed me, my master, I will grant you one wish."
"Grant me a wish?" said Robotnik, gazing at this newcomer. His proportions were perfect, and his limbs moved fluidly--there was no sign of a robotic build beneath the black fur. Now, if only this secret weapon would prove more reliable than the one Metal Sonic had built ...
But before either could say another word, there was a crash from the hall behind them. Robotnik twisted around in his seat. "What now?"
The black hedgehog gazed in the same direction, and a look of cool cunning entered his red eyes. "Watch and behold my power," he commanded, leaping off the chamber and landed beside the Eggwalker. The toes and heels of his shoes lit with a whoosh, lifting his feet a few inches from the floor. He shot away down the hall, moving as if he were wearing inline skates.
In the room beyond stood a tall, heavily armored walker, of a different style from Robotnik's creation. In the cockpit was Scott Price. When the pilots had been scrambled, he had arrived at his post first. As his file showed he'd had the necessary field training, he had been rushed to the H-15 Hotshot, the bulkiest of the battlemechs GUN owned.
He had expected to meet the unwelcome alien walker, and so was startled to see the Mobian whisk out of security block level 8 and regard him, unafraid. "Dispatch, this is Hotshot," he reported over the intercom. "Target acquired, but it is not the intruder. Repeat, it is not the intruder. Over."
There was startled silence on the other end, then his ranking officer said, "Description, over."
"Black Mobian hedgehog, sir! Over."
"Consider it armed and extremely dangerous," replied Dispatch. "Destroy it!"
"Roger," said Price, locking onto the small figure. He squeezed the trigger and felt the vibration as he emptied fifteen rounds into the target. He moved forward a step to clear his vision of smoke, and jumped when a whirling ball of black and red spines smashed into the windshield.
He launched his vehicle into flight mode. Its legs folded under the head, and four hoverjets ignited in the mech's body. It lifted clear of the floor, and Price swept around the room, looking for the hedgehog. He saw it once or twice, streaking across the floor like a black cockroach.
So, the most dangerous of the Mobian prisoners was a hedgehog. It moved too fast for a lock. Very well, time for plan B. He landed on his feet, opened the missile racks, and wasted the area. Then he paused to let the mech cool, and the firestorm to die down. That should have taken care of things--
The hedgehog attacked with such speed and ferocity that Scott was alarmed. The windshield splintered under the blows, and he heard the metal in the missile racks tearing. How could anything move so fast? It hit the windshield, the missile racks, and the windshield in the space of two heartbeats. The glass plinked into the cockpit. "It's too strong!" he yelled into the radio. "Requesting reinforcements!"
"Price, retreat!" his dispatch officer ordered. "Now! We're sealing the area! Get out before he kills you!"
Scott punched the Hotshot into reverse but the hedgehog kept attacking, curled into a ball of spines, intent on reaching the pilot. One section of the windshield smashed, glass flying into Scott's face. He tried to shield himself with one hand and keep the mech moving with the other. When he looked up again, the black hedgehog was staring at him through the hole with such hatred Scott was certain he was about to climb inside. He drew his handgun, aimed it at the hedgehog, and fired.
His enemy was gone an instant before he squeezed the trigger, but even as the pistol kicked back in his hand, the hedgehog plunged through the glass just overhead, feet first.
* * *
Shadow swept back to Robotnik on his hoverskates. Robotnik had watched the battle from the room beyond, and was impressed and amused. Shadow was experienced in robot killing, and Robotnik took pleasure in seeing another machine meet the same fate so many of his own had met upon encountering Sonic. Sonic, however, was not so aggressive.
"Quite impressive," said Robotnik, hiding his overwhelming joy at having found such an incredible creature. "But what did you mean when you said you would grant me a wish?"
Shadow's eyes were veiled. "Bring the chaos emeralds. I'll be waiting for you in the control room of the space colony ARK."
"ARK?" said Robotnik, eyebrows lifted despite himself. "Why there, and why do we need the emeralds?"
Shadow merely looked at him, as if there were no need for an explanation. "I'll be waiting for you in seven days," he said, and coasted back into the battle room without a sound.
When Robotnik followed a moment later, he found the exit doors were sealed, and Shadow was gone. Robotnik charged his shield, blew open the doors, and proceeded to fight his way to freedom.
* * *
Scott Price lay sleeping in a bed in the medical ward, head and face swathed with bandages. The heart monitor beside the bed beeped quietly and steadily. Officer Clark, Scott's ranking officer, gazed down at him, then turned to the doctor. "Well?"
"He has a concussion," the doctor reported, "plus three lacerations in his scalp, and second-degree burns on his face and neck from the thing's hovershoes. We also removed glass from his face and arms."
The officer gazed at the young soldier. He had been in combat for exactly ninety-five seconds.
He strode from the ward, composing his report in his head. "Man down. Prisoner and intruder have escaped. All units search for the black hedgehog. Better warn the mayor, too. Suspect is extremely dangerous." He allowed a grim smile to cross his face. "Well Gerald, you're one up on us."