#let her look like a hedgehog why do sonic shadow and silver kind of look like a different species from her

[sonknuxadow]

god its always so weird seeing a shot of amy from behind and seeing that her back just has nothing on it. put some spikes on that beast

[arahdow]

WHO?! pt. 1

Pairing. Sonic x reader. Shadow x reader.

Content. fem reader. they mention another girls name as a prank. insecurities, angst but most of all hurt to comfort bcs in this house we appreciate aftercare after a sad moment. mhm humor.

Word count. 1.7 k

A/N. this is a two part post!! the reason i divided it was bcs i’m having a lot of trouble writing for silver and knuckles (i’m thinking on adding scourge too) 😫 so i’m trying to give myself some more time BUT in the meantime please have this and forgive me for not posting something of mine in a while 🤧 i assure you i’m working on different requests and ideas, so pls be patient and wait for the best!!

+ no beta read anddd a lil too ooc maybe

Sonic was always a prankster, but his prank backfired? That’s new…

Another tiring day at work, helping her coworkers get their job done even when she had her own work, doing extra hours, even walking home felt like a burden. She only wanted to lie down for at least the whole weekend. 

Sighing, she opened the door of her shared home with the blue hero, Sonic the hedgehog. He called himself a hero, something along the lines of ‘blue justice’ and she always laughed at his antics. She wanted nothing more than to hug him and sleep in his embrace.

As she walked to the kitchen, she heard Sonic humming and washing the pots he used to make dinner. He wasn’t used to cooking, but he liked to treat his girlfriend, especially when she went overtime.

“Hello.” She greeted, her voice weak as she noticed the delicious smell of the food he made.

Wiping his hands, he turned to his girlfriend, kissing her on the forehead. “Go and change, I'll be waiting darling.” 

The girl nodded with a sleepy smile and went to their room, before she could enter, Sonic yelled: “Be sure not to get asleep, Amy!” 

And it’s like her whole world crashed. Feeling like a cold splash of water running down her body, she soon felt her stomach drop. Amy? Why Amy? Was Amy there before? Why was he mentioning her? What?

A whole world of ‘what’s’ and ‘why’s’ ran through her head. Still, it wasn’t enough for her to stop feeling hungry, so, even if she wanted to stay by herself now, she knew if she didn’t eat she'd probably pass out in their shared room. 

Feeling a sting on her chest and throat, the girl changed herself and walked to the kitchen again. Her appetite forced her to meet her lover, but was he really tough? Was he still… Hers?

In silence, she sat beside Sonic starting to eat. The man looked at her confused but followed her movements without a word. She always thanked him for the food and let him have the first bite. It was a cute tradition between them and now she just went straight to eat. He couldn’t blame her, so he accepted it and kept on eating.

Sonic almost forgot the prank. Honestly, he was expecting some kind of teasing back, as his lover always had a callback, but now? She seemed too tired to add something of her own so he left it at that. 

He was ready to talk about something else when he noticed tears staining her face. “Dear? Wha-” He hurriedly went for a napkin and gave it to her. “What is it?”

The girl refused the napkin and turned away from him, her tears running free. Then he stared at her barely touched food. “Lov-”

“Why Amy?”

Sonic bit his tongue, looking at her. Amy?

“What’s with-”

“Do you love her? Again?!”

The man flinched a bit at her broken voice. His chest constricted with pain. 

“Listen, I-”

“I don’t…” The girl scoffed and braced herself. “I don’t want to know the details, just, have you fallen in love with Amy again?”

He reeled back, inhaling with insight. Oh. He. Fucked. Up.

“No, love-”

“Then why mention her? Why is her name in your lips when I’m the one you swore to spend your life with?” Sonic was already panicking inside watching the meltdown his girl was having. 

“It’s not like that!” He managed to say, stumbling on his words to prevent her from cutting him off again. “Love, it was a prank.”

The girl looked at him, her tears suddenly stopping, it almost looked humoristic if it wasn’t for the whole reason she was crying.

“I’m sorry you’d thought I could do that to you,” he explained, standing up and wiping her tears by himself with the napkin she refused to grab. “I was trying to be funny like we always are but… I guess it wasn’t the right timing.”

“No shit.” She replied, a sarcastic tone in her voice as she sighed, the weight on her shoulders disappearing. “Ah, thank chaos.”

“I mean, how could I do that to you when I already have an engagement ring somewhere in my room?”

“Yeah,” She nodded. Wait. “Wait what?”

“What?” He echoed, the atmosphere in the room changing completely as he winked at her. They were in for a long night, but first, he had to make it up to her, and he knew exactly how.

Sonic told him about it and said it was funny, so Shadow mentioned it while his partner was venting because he thought it was good timing. spoilers: it wasn’t.

“Can you fucking believe it, Shadow? My sister wants me to attend this stupid gathering, I told her it was fucking useless, I don’t give two shits about them because of what they did in the past, they never… They’ve never even fucking apologized! I’m just so mad right now, how can they be so stupid? Idiots! But you know what’s worse? The fact that…”

Shadow looked at his partner, listening intently at her venting. His gaze went in between her and her hands folding the laundry. His mind somewhere else as he recalled a conversation he had in the morning with his blue copy.

“This is a good way to cheer your girl up! Believe me! I’ve tried it before and it totally works.” Shadow looked at him, a skeptic look in his eyes. 

“Are you sure pranking her is the best way to cheer her up? But why if it’s something vulnera-”

“Naaah, I don’t think anything is that bad that you have to care too much about it.” Sonic explained while munching on his fifth chili dog of the day. “And besides, it’s just a simple harmless prank, she’ll laugh and it’d be alright.”

“...And I was like, ‘You remember what auntie said the last time I was there, why do you want me to go so fucking bad?’ ugh, it’s like a nightmare, I can’t wrap my head around it, really!”

He knew it was something serious because she was cursing a lot, or maybe she felt kind of free now that she was letting it all out? Was it a great time to do that prank? Maybe she’ll stop running in circles and just give herself some time…

“That sounds hard, Sora.”

Silence.

His face was stern, his position sitting on the bed seemed relaxed, but on the inside he was gauging her next words or actions in response to his words. Pressing his lips, he waited for her reaction, but it seemed like the world just stopped, did he stop time unconsciously? No, because the ceiling fan was still moving over their heads. 

“What did you just say?”

But he didn’t reply. More like he couldn’t. He already wanted to say it was a prank, but he stopped himself. Maybe if he waited a bit more… He could hear the sound of her cries.

Her cries?

His mind shifted violently, attentive to the sound of distress coming from the girl. Shadow took a step, horrified at the scene. She covered her face with her hands and dropped to her knees as she kept on crying.

That was his sign. Kneeling in front of her, Shadow took her by the wrist, relieved that she didn’t push him away instantly. 

“Shh sh, it was a prank, I'm sorry, I wasn’t being serious.” He said, trying to reason with her. That seemed to make the trick as she stopped for a bit, head still on her hands as she seemed to take a deep breath. The calmness didn’t last long as the girl shook her head and kept on crying, her face still fully covered.

He tried getting her hands away from her face, trying to get a glimpse of her eyes, wanting his point to come across, but she wasn’t budging.

Shadow just stared at her, his capacity of dealing with emotions almost close to none as he tried to find a way to solve this situation he himself caused. Lucky for him, her cries started to die down, not because she was less sad, but because she was tired from crying.

Being able to see her eyes eased him for a bit, but something still pulled at the strings of his heart: what would she say now?

The girl got up from the floor, walking out from her room straight to the kitchen. Shadow followed silently, afraid of her next move or word. She took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and drank. Two, three gulps and then she stopped, closing the bottle again. Shadow felt his heart beating hard against his chest with suspense, when she turned at him, her red eyes from crying staring deeply into his. 

And then she smiled.

“Damn,” she said, sighing. “I needed that.”

Shadow blinked a few times trying to register her words. “What?”

The girl chuckled and wiped the tears off from her face, staring at him. “Yeah, you think I believed you?” a sarcastic laugh fell from her lips. “Chaos, you seemed so nonchalant trying to convince me you really had another girl, that was so funny!” 

“Wait, you… You faked it?” He asked, still not being able to wrap his head around the entirety of the situation.

“Yeah! Woah, I really needed to cry, I feel lighter now, thanks for the push, Shadz.” She said, winking at the black hedgehog, walking past him to their room again. “And, I recommend you practice your facial expressions, you seemed scared even before I started crying, if you plan on pranking Sonic, you’ll need to try harder.”

The man stood there, shocked as he then turned and questioned. “What the- Why did you do that?”

“Do what?” She asked, stopping before entering the room, turning her head at him.

“That! I-“ He suddenly felt the weight of everything on his chest, making him almost suffocate from the whiplash of emotions he just experienced. “I almost had a heart attack.”

With a playful glint on her eye, she nodded before turning around and keeping on walking. “Suits you right.”

[kaylatoonz]

Amy meets everyone but Sonic

I think it would be funny/interesting if Amy doesn’t meet Sonic until the end or near climax of the movie.

From what I can remember from the games, Amy would almost always do something small within the sideline of the story that becomes impactful in the main story. Best example of this is how her interaction between Silver and Shadow both play a part in them switching from antagonist to friends/allies to Sonic and his friends.

If the SCU introduces Amy in the third film I think this would be the best way to go about it if she doesn’t get as much screen time. There could be a side plot where Amy is trying to find Sonic but she meets everyone that has some connection to him instead. Each person she meets she helps/supports them in a small but impactful way that helps Sonic and friends in a big way by the climax or end of the film.

They could give us a taste of Amy’s strengths and feisty nature by showing her teaming up with knuckles (maybe give them a dynamic similar to Sonic X or IDW). Then they can establish her kindness and determination to help those who have been wronged, by showing her helping tails at his lowest point (maybe Amy helps tails in his SA2 arc or help him break sonic out of prison island). Finally, by the climax of the film Amy indirectly helps Sonic in the biggest way possible by reminding Shadow of his promise to Maria which encourages him to aid Sonic in saving the world.

Bonus points if throughout the film there this running gag of Sonic and Amy keep just missing each other.

Amy just left after helping knuckles and wade defend citizens from strange creatures (black arms?)

Sonic: sorry I’m late to the party, I heard from tails that you guys might need some back up

Knuckles: no need little brother we have defeated our new foe with the help of a valiant new ally.

Sonic:?

Wade: yeah your pink girlfriend was a lot of help 😄

Knuckles:*look confuse then thoughtful*

Sonic:… Wade i don’t have a girlfriend why would you assume

Wade: oh she is a pink hedgehog like you and she got really excited when she found out that we know you so sh..

Sonic: Wade you can’t just assume we’re together just because we’re both hedgehogs I don’t even kno… wait! She's a hedgehog too?! And she’s on our side!

Where is she? I gotta meet her! * starts dashing round the battle field*

Wade: as I was just saying you just missed her and she was actually looking for yo..

Sonic: dang it! Maybe I can catch up to her, we could use all the help we can get if we’re fighting that faker. Contact tails for the deets gotta go! * runs off*

Wade: wait sonic she was look for.. and he’s gone

Knuckles: she could be a good partner, they’re both strong and reckless 🤔

Wade: I know right 😄

Amy get held up fighting off /distracting the guards while helping tails break sonic out of prison island

Sonic: thanks little bro I didn’t think I could broke out here on my own.

Tails: your welcome but I can’t take all the credit I had some outside help

Sonic: let me guess pink hedgehog

Tails: yeah you’ve met

Sonic: nope but I’ve heard great things. I seem to just miss her everywhere I go

Tails: *smirks* so the fastest thing alive can’t caught the girl

Sonic:*roll eyes* hardy har har, very funny… is she still around? I really like to meet this new heroine, maybe team up.

Tails: yeah she holding back the guards I can put her on speak if you insist 😏

Sonic: tails😑

Tails: ok ok Hey Amy do you copy?

Amy: yep still here though my hands are a bit full at the moment. How are things on your end? Did you find him? Do you need help?

Tails: yeah everything great I found him , we’re safe and he really interested in meeting you😏 (sonic: tails it’s not like that😠) so we were hoping we can make our escape and meet back at..

Amy: *wham!* That sounds great I.. *fzzzz* I can meet you guy at *fzzz* HEY! You better stay down or I’ll get my hammer and! *fzzz *wham!*

Tails and Sonic: hammer?

Amy: *fzzz* oops…

Tails: what do you mean oops…

* An explosion can be heard from the other end and the build shakes*

Tails: AMY! ARE YOU STILL THERE! ARE YOU OK?!?! AMY PLEASE RESPON-

Amy: I’m ok! I’m ok there’s just a lot more exits then we originally planned so I’m just gonna take one of those * awkward giggles* I’ll meet you guys at *fzzz* *line cuts*

Tails: * sighs in relief* well better luck next time Sonic I don’t think you’ll be catching miss rose any time soon.

Sonic: dang I was really hoping to catch her this time she sounds like a fun gal.

Tails:😏

Sonic: *lightly punches tails shoulder* welp we better make use of Amy’s specially made exits and get out of here.

After Amy reminds Shadow of his promise to Maria and so Shadow joins Sonic in facing the final threat of the film (black arm, bio lizard, metal sonic?).

Sonic: hey shads come to join the party? What changed your mind?

Shadow: your pink friend reminded me of something important…

Sonic: *looks confused for a second before realizing who he’s talking about*

Sonic: no way… she really is something special…😊

Shadow: she is…😌 now let get this over with this only one time thing got that faker😈

Sonic: whatever you say faker😈 now let’s kick some butts.

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

It’s Sonic Gang Disney Movie Night! And it’s the Unstoppable Forces vs Immovable Objects! Let’s meet our competitors:

Knuckles “the last of his kind on a noble quest to protect a gem with trust issues, badass fighting skills, and a water-based spirit most of his lost culture was based around who wants to live out his fantasy of his people coming back and enemies turning into friends via continued applied trust” the Echidna who wants to watch Raya and the Last Dragon

Tikal “the curious and empathetic chief’s daughter who was really close with her now-dead grandma who yearns to return to a culture her people once had but have now abandoned and works to make peace with the dieties of her culture while being best friends with sentient water who wants to live out her fantasy of resolving her daddy issues and bringing her people and gods to peace” the Echidna who wants to watch Moana

Blaze “the heir to an entire kingdom with a lot of huge expectations placed on her by her deceased parents desperately trying to keep her deadly and dangerous powers under control which is an issue because they burst out when she’s emotional and she’s been repressing quite a bit of emotions only for an energetic, bubbly person to bring her out of her shell and prove that she can be herself without hurting anyone else” the Cat who wants to watch Frozen

Elise also wants to watch Frozen so two points for Blaze

Shadow “an alien scientifically created to be a living weapon meant to destroy who ends up befriending a little girl who teaches him to have humanity, after which he begins to appreciate life on Earth and fights to protect both it and the found family he’s pieced together for himself” the Hedgehog who wants to watch Lilo & Stitch

Sonic who wants to watch Wreck-It Ralph because he’s in it and things go fast

Amy Rose who wants to watch Sleeping Beauty because it’s “romantic” and “beautiful” but also so she can wait until the dragon scene and then start blasting “What I’m Made Of” and scare the shit out of everyone

Silver “was left alone in a barren wasteland for far longer than he wants to admit and honestly probably longer than he can remember who ends up finding one last bit of hope and who wants to live out his fantasy of bringing life back to his planet and seeing society grow around him as he finds a family of his own” the Hedgehog who wants to watch WALL-E. he’ll also settle for Lightyear he guesses

Cream who wants to watch Snow White because pretty princess sing to animals and spin around

Sally “the heir to an entire kingdom with some severe dead dad issues who ends up on the run as a child only to return and find her kingdom decimated by someone she once trusted who now has to raise a rebellion with her childhood sweetheart to dethrone the usurper and retake the land before he can destroy the entire environment” Acorn who wants to watch The Lion King

Vector who wants to watch The Great Mouse Detective and say “that’s what we do. we do that”

Shahra who wants to watch Aladdin. do i even have to

oh and Jet wants to watch Aladdin too but that’s just because he thinks stealing things is funny

Merlina actually does not want to watch Sword in the Stone it makes her uncomfortable however she will BITE someone if they don’t watch Coco next

Marine who wants to watch Finding Nemo because oooh water ooh australia oooh look at the fishies go. no she doesn’t have abandonment issues why do you ask

alternatively, Marine will make everyone watch The Pirate Fairy

Tekno who wants to watch Big Hero 6 because look at those robots go

Omega who wants to watch The Black Cauldron cause it has the most death in it

Rouge who would rather watch everyone argue than see any movie

Mighty and Ray just wanna watch Bambi guys

Big who wants to watch Fantasia because it calms him down. Omega does a quick ecosia search of Night on Bald Mountain and immediately likes this plan

Belle who wants to watch Pinocchio for obvious reasons

Charmy who wants to watch Peter Pan just to point at the tv when Tink is onscreen and look Belle dead in the eye and say “that’s you”

Espio who wants to die

Miles “Tails” Prower who can’t decide if he wants to watch Dumbo or Meet the Robinsons or if both will just bring up a lot of traumatic memories

and finally, Sticks the Badger, who wants to beat the TV to death with a wooden club and then burn Disney HQ to the ground

who will win!! vote now on your phones

[the-sinful-voice-witch]

SONAMY ongoing evolution

I've been playing Sonic frontiers and I watched Sonic prime and I read the IDW comics... Omg where's do I start???

Sonic frontiers is just a work of art in general, but the sonamy inside is just beautifully portrayed, I can say that Ian Flynn totally ships them 😌😌. I'm just so utterly happy how things had changed even if it took so many years

Sonic changed a lot his perception of Amy! 🥲🥲🥲 Also the detail of the umbrella line, remember that sonic was created in Japan, say fellow anime fans what does usually means when two characters share an umbrella? What does it mean when students in Japan draw an umbrella in the blackboard with two names written under it? It is clear that Ian Flynn totally knows the meaning and the MUSIC! Seriously those scenarios with Amy and that music felt like it came right out of a shojo anime😖😖😖💗💗

But also the feels... THE FUCKING FEELS!! The way Amy is kind of too calm with her situation but Sonic is just so worried and you could tell how worried he was even if he tried to play it cool... His expressions girl... Look at him with his cute ears dropped 🥲🥲🥲 Guys this game fed us good stuff... We shippers finally got what we had always wanted.

Next topic: Sonic Prime.

So I'm a bit conflicted, cause i only liked one of Amy's different designs and that was Thorn Rose, I'm obsessed with her hair but dude Rusty Rose? That could have been better... Also why Rusty Rose and not Metal Rose? Cyborg Rose? Badnik Rose? Mecha Rose? Robot Rose? Rusty sounds a bit degrading... It is because she was made like that by the Egg council? Pff also her robot appearance is just so ugly! What with that eye? But I love the dark concept and I love her SASS 🤣🤣🤣🤣Anyway my problem with Rusty Amy and Sonic is that it feels like the situation is not treated nearly as serious as Nine situation and boy ok you are a hurt loner with bully victim issues but Amy is basically dead, like there's no flesh or organs in her, she literally has a Birdy as a source of life and what is the outcome of that? Is there another outcome different from Gamma's fate in sonic adventure? Because the second Amy gets back her emotions she will want to release the bird... But more importantly... I can't wait to see Shadow react to her... This is the girl that reminded him of Maria, i really shouldn't but I really have high expectations for what kind of interaction will they have, we really need to see Shadow and Amy interact more let's be honest. As for the other Roses, there's no much to say about Black Rose but with Thorn we got good stuff too:

But I have to say one thing... Ok I know Amy is a strong power character but... It's a bit ridiculous that she could fight off characters like Rouge and Knuckles THAT EASY is just...🙃🙃🙃 Well i loved the part when he tries to reason with her all like: you liked me... A bit? Remember? And she is just so irritated and done with him already 🤣🤣🤣 but then... We also got this:

Actually touch her cheek you COWARD!!😤😤 Also when he was about to smash her and but stopped because he has a flashback of his Amy 😭😭😭, it's curious that Thorn Rose seems to be more impactful in Sonic than Rusty Rose which is ok but is odd plot speaking, after all Rusty is the one in the worst condition and is the one hunting him down, I'll just wait for next season and see what happens

And last but not the least I Shall say something about THIS!!

This illustration hit me right in the kokoro, date with hands holding and Sakura petals... is pure shojo manga energy!! I'm so blessed 😭😭💗💗

And of course the important reminder that Amy is a POWER CHARACTER and that's why she and knuckles make a good POWER SIBLINGS team as I stated in their own post about them... And dear Silver fucking gave her a COLOSSAL hammer 😂😂😂do not mess with the pink hedgehog buddy, and of course Sonic knows exactly how awesome she is as it should be, seriously she is really getting better and better, i really hope we'll see her in the next movie

[tenebraevesper]

Sonic the Hedgehog Analyzer, Issue #59: Urban Warfare (Part 3)

Finally, it’s here! You guys have no idea how much I had been looking forward to this Issue, and for a good reason, but let’s first admire the art by Nathalie Haines, which was actually drawn like a classical painting. It’s magnificent!

*clasps hands*

Anyways, Urban Warfare (Part 3); what is there to say about it? Holy Hell, what isn’t there to say about it? Honestly, I had been losing my mind the moment I read the summary for it, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But, before I start, a little recap since it has been a while.

Sonic and the Diamond Cutters (Tangle, Whisper and Lanolin) arrived at Eggperial City to figure out what is going on, and have found out that the city is expanding by itself. As they plan their next move, the Diamond Cutters end up in a different dimension due to one of Eggman’s portals featured in The Test Run Arc, while Sonic calls for reinforcements. Tails, Amy, Blaze and Silver show up and as they progress through the city, they run into Team Dark destroying Badniks left and right.

So, I’m not even one page into the story and I’m already picking up Sonadow energy from this moment. Trust me, I had a field day with this one.

Sonic is genuinely shocked to see Shadow... and only Shadow. I can’t blame him though, considering how their last encounter went.

Yeah, I’m not sure how many of you remember, but Shadow’s last appearance was in The Chao Races and Badnik Bases Arc, where he made some rather questionable decisions, but not as bad as what happened during The Crisis City Arc (aka the Zombot Fiasco), based on how SEGA wanted him to be written in the story. Fortunately, regarding the writing, we had actually gotten some good news in the weeks leading up to Team Dark’s, and especially Shadow’s, reintroduction to the comics.

To keep it short, all that talk about Shadow having a bunch of locks and chains placed on him to keep him in line with their vision... well, they started to break. From what I understood, SEGA gave more workable guidelines for him that allow for more liberties with writing his character - or in other words, Vegeta!Shadow is finally gone!!! As a matter of fact, while reading through the story, the improvement in his character was remarkable. Admittedly, it might not be for everyone, but goddamn, I’m loving it!

Not to mention, this is the first time since The Crisis City Arc that we see Team Dark working together once again. Also, Rouge, why are you calling everyone else kids when you’re only 18? (And yeah, I know SEGA removed the ages for all the characters, but let’s be honest, who pays attention to that?).

Sonic quips how he’s flattered that they’re here to rescue him, but they’re late to the party and... Silver, what the hell are you doing with Blaze?

*laughs* Even Tails and Amy have noticed that Silver is holding Blaze upside down, while he didn’t register any of it. I suppose Silver is too focused on Team Dark’s reappearance to realize what he’s doing.

Shadow just leaps off the scrapped Badniks, replying to Sonic how he has no idea what he’s talking about, nor does he care. Sonic, on the other hand, looks a little disappointed with that answer. I suppose he had been hoping for some banter.

Rouge then quickly brings him up to speed, explaining how she called in “her boys” (I see this as another win for everyone who say Team Dark are friends!) to see what they could do about Eggperial City - aka destroy everything in their path, foil Eggman’s plans and maybe steal some kind of treasure.

Sonic figures that makes sense, but I’m still convinced he’s disappointed they (or rather Shadow) weren’t here to help him out.

Cue Amy shoving Sonic away to talk to Rouge. I saw people saying how she’s just being overprotective of her crush, but I was questioning where Amy’s line of sight is. Amy notes how this is awfully altruistic of Rouge, but as I said above, she’s in because she wants to raid Eggman’s private vaults for a handsome reward.

Tails and Silver are hyped up to work with them to destroy the city though.

Omega notes how the conversation is irrelevant to their mission, and Rouge notes how Team Sonic would just slow Team Dark down and they’d be going off on their own, with Omega also promising to not hit anyone in the crossfire. Honestly, I think this is the nicest thing Omega could tell them.

Meanwhile, Sonic looks so done with everything. We don’t get annoyed Sonic often, so it’s neat to see him like that, and it makes sense, considering how in a (I assume) very short time-span (depending on when Scrapnik Island takes place), he had discovered Eggperial City and was chased by Metal Sonic while keeping Tails, Kit and Belle safe and having his leg injured, fought Surge at least three times, discovered what Starline had done to them, got separated from the Diamond Cutters and is now trying to foil another of Eggman’s plans while being on his territory and having to deal with Badniks.

That, and Rouge said they were slowing Team Dark down.

Never tell Sonic he’s slowing you down. Never.

Oh, and as the cherry on top, Eggman decides to make an announcement. But instead of talking about how he’s gonna blow up the moon, he decides to explain to everyone how the Eggperial City works. It is a self-replicating and self-repairing metropolis. Anything they destroy, dozens more will rise to take its place. Eggman also figures that this would be a nice time to rise the stakes a little, so he calls in for a little surprise.

IT’S THE SHADOW ANDROIDS!!!

To note, we haven’t seen these guys since Whisper’s backstory way back in the Tangle and Whisper Miniseries and before that, we haven’t seen them since Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog.

Going by Shadow’s reaction, he’s clearly shocked to see them again, and Eggman’s obviously going to use the Shadow Androids to their fullest potential.

Hell, Eggman has already the popcorn ready, all to happy to watch the carnage unfold. He calls it a stroke of genius in regards of building robots that mimic Shadow’s skills and holding onto them for the right moment (and that’s not even accounting for the mindscrew Shadow had to deal with when he encountered one for the first time).

Metal Sonic, though, is not happy about the Shadow Androids being dispatched. I’m certain that he wants to be the one on the battlefield.

While this is happening, the Diamond Cutters have infiltrated the control room, Lanolin and Whisper sneaking in, while Tangle just strolls inside like she owns the place, much to Lanolin’s chagrin, and points out how no one’s gonna spot them as she places her hand through Metal’s head. Lanolin just sighs, figuring this should make checking the room out easier, while Whisper stares in the screen in pure shock, realizing that the past is about to repeat itself.

She breaks down, and honestly, I really love the backgrounds in this page. We can see the darkness surrounding Whisper as she tells them how everyone’s going to die. However, the moment Tangle reaches for her and comforts her, the darkness slowly fades away, replaced by a ray of light. Tangle hugs Whisper, promising her how things will be fine, and even Lanolin joins in on comforting Whisper. While these three are still learning, they do make a great team.

Speaking of the Shadow Androids, we see Team Sonic fighting them, everyone being clearly in shock to what they are, with Tails being unable to get clear readings about them as they’re too fast. Even Blaze’s fire is not enough to keep them back and they’re strong enough to deal with Amy’s hammer.

Now, I’ll stop here to put a reminder. On the heroes side, no one but Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Whisper and Tangle here knows about the Shadow Androids. Whisper’s encounter with them is obvious, and Tangle saw footage of that, while Shadow, Rouge and Omega ran into them in Sonic Heroes, and Shadow had another (dubiously canonical) encounter with them in Shadow the Hedgehog.

Realizing just how dire the situation is, Sonic calls Silver for help so they can escape. Silver, being the awesome psychic he is, lifts the ground into a ramp and with Blaze frying the Shadow Androids that are after them, Sonic grabs everyone to get away from the robots in pursuit (also, nice Sonamy moment with that little blush).

Team Sonic finds Team Dark after the groups have been briefly separated, with Blaze grabbing Sonic and Amy’s hands and rushing over to help Team Dark. Yeah, there is an error in the panels, as both show Blaze grabbing hands with rings around them, suggesting she was grabbing only Amy’s hand. I suppose the artist forgot to erase the ring to make it clear she was also grabbing Sonic.

Back with Team Dark, Shadow assesses how Eggman’s trying to overwhelm them with sheer numbers and how there’s no strategy to their movements, meaning they can be easily manipulated. He figures that, once they move to a better position, they can take them out.

Cue Blaze throwing Sonic and Amy (another error, both are blue instead of being blue and pink) with Sonic spin-dashing and Amy smashing the Shadow Androids that were about to attack Shadow.

With a nose flick, Sonic is right back to quipping, asking Shadow whether he had some cousins he never told them about, while Shadow responds with “Please. These cheap copies don’t deserve to wear my place.”

Have I told you how much I love these two together? (≧◡≦)

As the battle continues, Shadow explains how the Shadow Androids are cheap copies created by Eggman, and how he’ll pay dearly for this insult. Unfortunately, Omega loses his footing and is being brought down by the Shadow Androids, but he keeps on fighting. Realizing how things are getting dire, Rouge asks Shadow to use his own powers against the Shadow Androids, but he responds how it is impossible without a Chaos Emerald (makes me wonder what happened to the Chaos Emerald Rouge stole in the Sonic Annual).

Tails rushes in, telling Shadow how the crystals are also generating Chaos Energy, with Shadow agreeing, but notes how the energy is distorted.

“Fake Emeralds... I hate to stoop to using such a pale substitute, but... it will do.”

Okay, can I say that this panel is absolutely amazing, and what’s about to happen is jaw-dropping!

I swear, this was my reaction to seeing this page:

Not only is the art absolutely gorgeous, but it finally shows Shadow as a pure badass who has the skills to support his title of The Ultimate Lifeform! Honestly, words cannot describe how much I love this! Bow your heads low, all hail Shadow!

And to add a cherry to the top of this moment of awesomeness:

Absolutely badass! It’s really great to see Shadow let loose from time to time. Hell, even Team Sonic is amazed!

Tails, Amy and Silver are starstruck, Rouge is proud of her boy, Blaze is... stunned, to say the least (I suppose she never saw what Shadow was truly capable of), while Sonic figures he should too give it a try.

And yeah, I saw the Dark Sonic jokes floating around. Are you guys forgetting that Sonic was the first to use a Fake Chaos Emerald for Chaos Control back in Sonic Adventure 2? He knows how to handle them.

Shadow then points out that they’re not done yet and goes for another Chaos Control, only for something to happen...

A giant crystal shoots out of the ground, throwing everyone off, while Rouge asks Shadow what’s happening. Shadow is crackling with Chaos Energy, warning her that it’s too much and...

Holy frigging Hell! Shadow unleashes a blast of Chaos Energy, nuking everything surrounding him. Everyone escapes, and when Rouge tries to get back to Shadow and Omega, she’s stopped by the crystals, which are now shooting out from everywhere.

Eggman quickly attempts to regain control of the situation, figuring Shadow would cause trouble. Tangle wonders what happened, with Whisper answering how it was Chaos Overload (how does she know that?). I suppose Shadow used to much of the surrounding Chaos Energy and it was too much for him to handle since the Fake Chaos Emeralds were spread out all over the city. He may be a Master of Chaos Control, but even this would overwhelm someone like him.

Eggman activates the emergency limiter, rebooting the system, noting how it’ll take more to take out his city.

Team Sonic and Rouge observe the destruction Shadow had caused, with Tails figuring it was some runaway feedback loop. Rouge is worried about Shadow and Omega, but Sonic, Silver and Blaze assure her that not only are the two tough, they also know what they’re up against and they can deal with Eggman. Rouge is cheered up, while Sonic looks forward to Shadow’s expression when he saves him.

Yeah, Sonic will never let Shadow live that down.

Back with Eggman, the power has returned, the system got rebooted... and Eggman lost Sonic and co. Lanolin points out how the power surge nearly crippled the entire city, so if they trigger another bigger one, this should destroy it. But in that moment, all three of them become suddenly visible, with Eggman spotting them.

In two magnificent panels, we get an Eggman obscured by shadows, really creeping me out, as he figures they ran into his spatial-displacement trap. He explains how they almost got out when the power dipped, but he has a way of dealing with them, summoning another model of the portal and telling them how this will scatter their atoms into oblivion.

Whisper takes the shot, and honestly, if she still hadn’t been trapped in that other dimension, she would’ve killed Eggman then and there. The blast went right through his chest. Like, this was probably the fourth time she attempted to kill someone in cold blood (first Mimic, followed by another attempt at Eggman’s life, then Surge and now Eggman again).

What’s even more chilling is how calm Eggman is, well aware what his trap had done. It then surrounds Whisper.

Tangle screams for her as Whisper is trapped inside the device, and then spots another one flying for her, only for Lanolin to ram her out of the way and tell her to tell everyone what happened and what to do before getting captured herself.

Tangle is cornered, but she suddenly phases through the window, falling out of the command tower. The story ends on a literal cliffhanger.

Holy Hell, I absolutely loved this Issue! It was beyond awesome for all the reasons I already talked above, but there is one specific thing I wanted to discuss in the ending of this analysis - Shadow’s portrayal.

Honestly, I had absolutely no complaint with how he was written in this Issue. People might not agree with me, but I think Urban Warfare really redeemed him, as rather than being prideful and arrogant, he was more business-like and focused on the mission, pragmatic and patient in explaining to everyone what is going on, as well as having his moments of banter with Sonic.

As for him being taken out of the battle, alongside Omega, I’m actually fine with it, as it’s the manner with how he was put out of commission.

Seriously, compare this:

To this:

It’s not about pride, it’s about saving everyone with his own power, and that’s what I had been missing from IDW!Shadow for so long.

I really hope we’ll see more of this in the future.

Links:

#Previous Issue

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#Sonic the Hedgehog Analyzer (Masterlist)

[suna1suna1]

Hello, Tumblr! It's WIP Wednesday!

I think I'm gonna switch some stuff up because I haven't been getting much interaction with my WIP Wednesday game for a while, which is understandable. After a while of the same things, it isn't as exciting anymore and just gets boring.

So for this week, I'm gonna start a (no pressure) tag game! If you don't like participating in these, you don't have to, and if I tag you and you don't want to, PLEASE feel free to let me know. I don't want to be that annoying moot in your activity every week.

That said, here are the rules.

If I tag you, you can send 500-1000 words if your current WIP if you're a writer, your current WIP or WIPs if you're an artist, or both if you're both!

Then, once you're done, you can tag as many or as few people you want! Once again, NO PRESSURE! You can do or not do this as you please! ^^

Gonna get the tags out of the way first

@deadrabbithq @killingthecringe @nodulemodule

Starting with the art WIP, I have Silver's ref that I'm working on for To Catch a Hedgehog (as requested by the poll I put out)

And underneath the cut, here's about 500 words from To Catch a Hedgehog (if you don't like sonadow, no need to look under this cut. Ik at least one of the people I tagged isn't too big on it so yeah, no need to read if you're not into it lol)

"Informant. Now, why haven't you moved yet?" 

Sonic: "SO YOU WERE STALKING ME! GO AWAY!" 

Shadow: "I told you, it's not stalking. And I'm trying to save your ass."

Sonic: "After trying to take me out? Nah. I'm good." 

Shadow: "Look, I get it. But if you don't get out of the city, Robotnik is going to fire me and sick somebody else on you, and I doubt they'd be as merciful as I have been." 

Sonic: "Huh... 'have been'... interesting word choice. Okay, I'll bite. Why do you want to save me so bad when it's obviously putting your job at risk? I'm literally the person trying to wake people up and get Butt-nik out of power. Why are you turning on your boss?" 

Shadow didn't respond for a while. Why was he doing this? Sonic was right. He was putting his job, hell, maybe even his life on the line for a random guy. But this random guy was the only person stubborn enough to pull the kind of stunt he did. But if Robotnik wanted him dead so bad, then maybe it was because it was working. 

Besides, while Shadow had a job, it wasn't pleasant. It had never been something he wanted. He remembered wanting to help people, help Maria. He remembered saving up for medical school... before Ivo took out the council. Now he'd ended too many lives with his own hands.

Maria would have hated the person he'd become. He sure did. 

Her face flashed in his mind's eye. Her smile, encouraging. 

He swallowed. Then he typed out his reply.

Shadow: "You're not the only one who's lost people you loved to that monster." 

Sonic didn't reply for a bit. Shadow wasn't sure if he was going to, if that was a good enough reason to listen to him. 

Several minutes later, there was a new reply. 

Sonic: "I guess everyone has. But then why have you gone along with it for so long?" 

Shadow: "In the moment, I guess it beats starving." 

Sonic: "...Yeah, I still don't trust you. How do I know you're not gonna come here and murder me in my sleep anyway?" 

Shadow: "If I were going to do that, I already would have."

Sonic: "Sure... Anyway, is that all? Because I'm hungry and I can smell my roommate making chili." 

Shadow: "No. I want to know how you got those paintings up so fast. And you said you'd seen it when people become completely cybernetic. How?" 

Sonic: "Question numero uno, trade secret. Question numero dos, you don't want to know." 

Shadow: "I work for the government and even I don't know. I didn't even know that could happen." 

Sonic: "Oh, it does. All the time. Not pretty." 

Shadow: "How do you know?"

Sonic: "...Alright, look. I'm gonna set up a more secure account (and probably burn this one). I'll message you on the one condition that you don't tell anyone who I am. We can go from there after I've eaten." 

Shadow: "Fair enough."

[bread--quest]

im not making a fancy ask for this because its technically not even dashboard based. sonic

ok uhhh lets see. now this is partially based on what ive absorbed from you and partially based on what ive absorbed from my friend leo who is also really into sonic

so like sonic is a hedgehog except not really because he is blue and doesn't look anything like a hedgehog and is actually an alien from space. specifically a planet called morbius or something. he goes really fast. i'm not even going to try and recap the plot of it because theres like. an entire video games and a movie and several comic runs so i think trying to recap the plot would be a fools mission. instead i will discuss the characters.

sonic: the hedgehog. blue. very fast. the protagonist so he has to be just some guy so that he will be easily relatable. kind of like spiderman i think.

tails: sonic's little buddy. fox. actually named miles prower (per hour). has several tails. can be a helicopter. deserves the world. your favorite <3

amy: also a fox?? the world's PRETTYEST PINK PRINCESS and she's going to KILL YOU with her HUGE FUCKING HAMMER

rouge: or rogue??? bat. known for not being drawn sexily by doctors. on tumblr dot com. rarity energy i think

shadow: the hedgehog. emo before there was emo. created in a lab by a mad scientest and his best friend maria died. dave strider/zuko avatar for little kids who are going to be furries eventually

silver: shadow's friend i think? gnc swag honestly. they and shadow and rogue/rouge are sort of like team rocket maybe

knuckles: the echidna. no idea what he's doing here

dr. robtonik/eggman: may or may not be the same person?? villains. very weird looking. hate this fucking hedgehog soooo much for some reason

chaos emeralds: important for unclear reasons. maybe whoever gets all of them can do a magical girl powerup? part of why sonic and the egg robot men fight so much.

elise: in at least one video game (?), kind of the princess peach of it

[shadamyheadcanons]

Headcanon #272: Shellshock

This is the sequel to that headcanon with Blaze, Silver, Shadow, and Amy at the pizza place. They’re cross-posted as a set on AO3.

It’s such a shame that so many people only know Silver from Sonic ‘06 when he’s usually such a cute, lovable dork:

Shadow teleported to Seaside Hill, bringing Amy along with him. He held onto her hand as long as he felt he could without being too obvious about it, then let go and took a look around the empty beach. “How long do you think it’ll take Silver to get here?”

Amy checked the time on her phone. “Not too long. He’s punctual like we are. It’d be pretty ironic if the chronic time traveler always showed up late, right?”

Shadow’s heart fluttered at her charming smile. Secretly, he didn’t mind if Silver took his time, as he cherished every moment he got to spend one-on-one with Amy; he’d even shown up at her house a little early that morning just so he could spend a few extra minutes with her.

Oblivious to Shadow’s thoughts, Amy wandered off to take a look around, then made a small sound of excitement when she spotted something at the base of a cliff. Shadow followed her over and examined the plants she was admiring.

“These flowers are so pretty! I was in such a rush last time I was here that I never noticed them.” Amy grinned brightly, stooping down to inspect the plants more closely. “What do you think they are?”

“Rosemary,” Shadow replied easily. “It’s lucky that we’re here now. They only bloom for a couple months in the summertime.”

Amy turned her brilliant smile Shadow’s way. “You sure know a lot about plants!” She hopped back up and dug her toes into the sand, almost looking shy. “I’d love to stop by and see your garden again, if that’s alright. You take such good care of it!”

“I’d be honored,” Shadow answered immediately. He cleared his throat and tried to rein in his excitement. “I’m free this Sunday. If you want to, that is.”

She nodded. “I’d love to!”

Shadow considered leaving it there at the small victory, but he packed up his courage to add, “I’ve been growing some red roses lately. They made me think of you.” Suddenly afraid he’d spook her, he hurriedly added, “You know. Because of your last name.”

Any fear that he’d gone too far vanished when Amy beamed and playfully shoved him. “You’re too sweet!” He couldn’t hide his own smile.

After that, though, her expression turned distant. “You know, that actually would’ve fit my dad’s name better.”

Shadow’s ears perked up. Amy rarely spoke of her late parents. “So...your dad’s name was Red Rose?” Unexpectedly feminine, but I guess I don’t have much room to talk when it comes to unusual names.

“Mm...kind of. His first name was actually ‘Swift.’”

Shadow frowned in confusion. “’Swift’ is a fine name for a hedgehog. Why did he go by ‘Red?’”

“Because ‘Swift’ was also his dad’s name, and his grandfather’s, and his great-grandfather’s,” she explained. “It’s kind of a tradition at this point. They go...went...by their fur colors to clear things up: Red, cousin Crimson, Grandpa Vermilion, uncle Copper...heh. I even had an uncle Blaze. Threw me off when our Blaze turned out purple.” Amy’s smile turned sheepish. “It’s a little silly, isn’t it? You’d think they’d just pick something else! It’s a weird tradition, but...” She fiddled with her fingers. “If I ever have a son, I...kind of feel like I might do that, too. Just...to feel a little closer to them. Is that weird?”

“Not at all. I think it’s very meaningful that you have a way of connecting with your family.” He averted his gaze. “I wish I could have something like that. It sounds nice.”

Amy gazed at him for a moment, but then her sympathy made way for a grin. “So make one!”

“Huh?”

“When you start your own family someday! You’ve said you want kids, right?” He nodded slowly. “Then you’ll be able to start your own traditions. I’m sure you’ll do great!”

Shadow’s heart pounded. “...Thank you!” She nodded. He bit his lip. “That means a lot coming from you, because I’ve always thought...that you’d be...”

Silver appeared in a bright green flash, temporarily blinding Shadow. “Hi, guys!”

Damn it.

“Morning, Silver! You--” Amy gasped. “Oh, no!” She stepped forward and took his face in her hands. Shadow’s eye twitched. “Silver, you look exhausted! What happened?”

“Oh, I’m fine!” Silver brushed aside her concern. He grinned despite the bags under his eyes. “Tails showed me this game called Creature Crossing, and I’ve been playing it nonstop! You can grow plants, go fishing, dig for things, talk to these cute animal characters...”

You mean like in real life? Shadow thought, unimpressed.

Amy put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot rapidly. “I’m glad you’re having fun, but you need your sleep, Silver!” she scolded. “I know you get headaches when you’re tired. It could affect your powers. I don’t want you getting hurt!”

“Pfft, I can handle it. Today won’t be too tough!” She didn’t look convinced. He changed the subject. “I’ve been trying out those new quillstyles you showed me last weekend. Did I get it right?”

He gestured to his quills. The ones in the back looked the same as always, but he’d side-parted the ones in the front to frame his face.

I have to admit he does look better, Shadow thought. At least they’re actually doing something instead of just sticking up like usual.

“Hmm...” Amy scratched her chin. “Almost. Let me see...” Just as she had a few days ago, Amy ran her fingers through Silver’s quills to tweak them a bit.

“Amy, you don’t have to! I can do it!” Despite his words, Silver didn’t sound particularly upset and even leaned his head forward to give her more access. He was grinning fondly down at her.

“I won’t hear it! I know what this is like,” Amy reminded him, standing on her tiptoes as she worked. “I want to help you look your best!”

Shadow looked away pointedly. He scratched his chin, silently contemplating the possibility of purposely leaving his quills messy when Amy stopped by on Sunday in the hopes that he could enjoy her attentions, too. The concept warred fiercely with his compulsive need to keep his quills pristine at all times, and it worried him that the dumb idea held so much sway over him.

“Okay!” Amy’s peppy declaration snapped Shadow out of his silly thoughts. “Does everyone remember the mission?”

Shadow stayed quiet, secretly admiring Amy’s cute energy and trying not to look as smitten as he was. Silver raised his hand and stood on his tiptoes excitedly, looking just as excited as Amy. “I do!”

Amy giggled into her hand. Shadow tried to ignore how charmed she was by Silver’s antics. “You don’t have to raise your hand, Silver.”

Silver dropped his hand and rubbed his upper arm, but he didn’t stop smiling. “Sorry, I’m just excited. I’ve never seen a Seaside Sunshell turtle before, let alone a whole bunch of hatchlings.”

A hint of sadness crossed Amy’s face. “Not many people have. They’re critically endangered, after all.” She shook it off and brightened up. “But that’s why we’re here!”

Shadow nodded, and Silver pumped his fist in the air. “Yeah!”

“So what’s the plan, Amy?”

Her face turned serious. “We need to make sure as many of those hatchlings get to the water as possible. The conservationist I’ve been in contact with said the turtle nests are over there at the base of those cliffs,” she explained, pointing to a spot halfway down the beach. She pressed her fingers together. “Now...Sunshells are fragile and need to imprint on this sand specifically, so they have to make it to the ocean on their own. We can’t just pick them up and bring them to the water. And that is where you come in, Silver!” she said, turning to him. “You can use your psychokinesis to clear obstacles and help protect them on their way to the ocean!”

“Hmm.” Shadow glanced in the direction of the nests and eyed the soaring seagulls warily. “That’s a good idea. Baby turtles are prey for just about everything.” He turned back to Amy. “So what about the two of us?”

“You see the cracks on those cliffs?”

Shadow narrowed his eyes and spotted the crevices she was pointing to near the top. He nodded.

“For some reason, these cliffs have been weakening and crumbling in recent years, and no one’s sure why. It’s degrading the turtles’ habitats, and the rocks fall and crush them sometimes, too. It’s one of the biggest threats to their survival.” She clasped her hands in front of her sadly.

“What can I do to help?”

Shadow’s bluntness set her back on track. “There’s not much we can do about the crumbling, but I figure you can use your Chaos Spears to break up and deflect any falling rocks. You can also help scare off any predators. Just aim carefully, okay?”

“Hmph.” He waved off her concerns. “That won’t be an issue. I was built for precision.”

Amy giggled. “’Built for precision?’ You’re spending too much time with Omega!” Silver’s laughter joined hers. Shadow just shrugged, seeing no reason to feel insulted.

“So what’ll you be doing, Amy?” Silver asked after a moment.

“I’ll be keeping a lookout from the peak. Someone needs to redirect people away from the site.” She narrowed her eyes and scratched her chin. “And I’m hoping I can figure out what’s going on with the cliffs, too.”

Shadow’s heart sank as he examined the height of the cliffs and realized he wouldn’t be able to talk to her. She caught his look and pouted. “Is that alright?”

“Of course it is!” Silver answered for him. He threw an arm around Shadow’s shoulders. “Shadow and I can handle this!”

Shadow looked down at the arm around his shoulders and fixed Silver with an unimpressed look, the kind of blunt stare that would scare off most people. Silver kept beaming brightly at him, seemingly oblivious to his disapproval. Shadow sighed. “We’ll be fine.”

Amy’s bright smile tempered his disappointment. “That’s the spirit! We can do this!” She marched down the beach, and the other two followed her.

She scanned the ground as she went, clearly looking for something. “My contact couldn’t be here this morning, but she said she marked the locations of the nests so we could...aha!” She jogged over to a small shrub with a length of blue twine tied around its base. She knelt down beside it, holding up her arm in warning. “She said you can tell the hatching’s about to start when the sand collapses down like this,” she explained, gesturing to a sunken patch of sand about two feet in diameter. “And the other nest should be riiiight...there!” she added, pointing to another shrub a little ways down. She wrinkled her nose sadly. “I wish we could’ve found that last one...the conservationist said there were supposed to be three nests, but she could only find two.”

“What happened to the last one?” Silver asked, drooping noticeably in disappointment.

Amy crossed her arms. “I don’t know, but I’m not going to stop looking. And in the meantime, we can still help out the rest of them!” Silver perked up and nodded along.

Past them, Shadow heard a soft noise. He angled his ear toward the nest to listen more carefully. It was low and muffled by the sand, but he could hear it. His eyes widened. “Huh. So it is true.”

“What is?”

“Turtles vocalize to communicate with each other even when they’re still in their eggs,” Shadow explained. “They coordinate their hatching times so they can all come out at the same time. There’s safety in numbers.”

Amy and Silver both made intrigued noises. They bent down low to the ground to try and listen as well. Shadow shook his head. “You won’t be able to--”

“I can hear it!” Silver chimed in immediately, sounding excited.

Shadow remained skeptical. “You must be hearing something else. It’s way too quiet for normal Mobians to pick up on it.”

“What does it sound like?” Amy asked.

“It’s like a low chirping sound. It’s kind of cool!”

Shadow stopped and uncrossed his arms, baffled. “I have enhanced hearing. How can you hear it?”

Silver stood back up. “Just runs in my family. All our senses are off-the-charts for some reason.” Upon seeing Shadow was still staring at him in surprise, he shrugged and half-smiled. “It’s kind of overwhelming sometimes, isn’t it?”

Shadow hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. It really is.”

Amy glanced between the two of them and grinned. “Well, so long as you two are bonding, I should get going to do my part.”

A part of Shadow ached at the impending loss of her company. He only felt sadder as something occurred to him. “If you leave now, you won’t get to see any of the baby turtles.”

“Oh...yeah, that’s right,” she realized, deflating. After a moment, though, she recovered. “It’s okay! This is more important than my desire to see baby turtles! Even if it would be adorable...” she lamented, pouting.

“If you want, I’ll switch places with you,” Shadow offered. “I’ve seen you break rocks with that hammer of yours.”

Amy’s eyes shone in gratitude and indecision. It warmed his heart. If she says yes, she’ll be spending time alone with another guy who’s clearly head over heels for her...but if it’ll make her this happy, it’s definitely worth it.

But she shook her head furiously instead. “No, no. It’s alright! Your Chaos Spears are much more precise than my hammer, and precision is essential here! I’ve got my role, and you two have yours.” She nodded definitively. Shadow’s heart softened further at her dedication.

“So selfless!” Silver gushed, echoing Shadow’s own thoughts.

Amy snorted good-naturedly and lightly punched his arm. “Don’t patronize me!”

“I wasn’t!”

She tried to wave it off, but Shadow was having none of it. “I agree with Silver. It’s generous of you to stick to the original plan.”

Despite her best efforts, a genuine smile spread across Amy’s face. She pulled the two of them into a quick, tight hug. “Thanks, guys.” She pulled away.

Shadow thought for a moment. “You could always stay for the first few and then get going,” he suggested.

Amy shook her head. “No can do. All it takes is one unsupervised dog off-leash for things to get out of control.”

“Very well.” Shadow looked back down at the sunken sand, then added, “I’ll take pictures for you.”

“Thanks, Shadow.” Her smile returned, and she clenched her fists eagerly. “Alright. It’s time. Good luck, you two!”

“Right!” Silver agreed, matching her enthusiasm. Shadow just nodded. Amy turned and started to leave, and Shadow watched her go. When she was about twenty feet away, though, she froze, as if remembering something. “Shadow! C’mere!” she called out.

Shadow glanced at Silver and exchanged a curious shrug with him. He jogged over to Amy.

When he got there, she took out a radio. “I almost forgot! I brought these so we can keep in touch.” She pressed it into his hand, but she didn’t let go afterward. After casting a furtive glance over Shadow’s shoulder, she took his upper arm to pull him closer. He ignored his heightened heartbeat as she spoke. “This is kind of silly, but...” she started, murmuring so they wouldn’t be overheard. “I know Silver’s older than me and he can look after himself, but I always kind of worry about him. It’s stupid, but I can’t help it for some reason. Do you think you could, um...” she trailed off.

“That’s not stupid.” He looked over his shoulder to see Silver was gazing dreamily around the admittedly scenic beach, not paying attention to his surroundings at all. Shadow scoffed. “Don’t know what it is, but I feel the same way sometimes.” She was looking up at him hopefully, so he added, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t try to make friends with a crab or anything.”

Amy sighed in obvious relief. “Thank you, Shadow. I know I don’t have to worry about you!” Pride swelled in his chest, and his stomach flipped when she grinned warmly and squeezed his hand in both of hers before dashing off. He gazed fondly after her for a moment, then turned back to Silver, who was grinning expectantly down at the nest, the very picture of innocent enthusiasm.

Maybe I’ve been too harsh on this kid lately. It’s not a crime to have great taste in women.

Silver gazed after Amy as well, then smiled up at him. “She’s the best, isn’t she?”

Shadow held back his feelings of jealousy and examined Silver’s expression more closely. “You really like her, don’t you?”

Silver’s smile turned sheepish. “Is it that obvious?”

Dammit. Dammit. Why did I have to say that? I don’t want to have this conversation! Shadow nodded in response, doing his best to hide his inner turmoil.

Silver scratched the back of his neck self-consciously. “This is a little weird, so don’t tell her, but...”

How should I react? Am I supposed to tell him I like her, too? What should I--

“She reminds me of my mom.”

Shadow’s thoughts ground to a halt. “What?”

Silver chuckled shyly. “It’s a little embarrassing.”

Shadow barely heard him as the pieces fell into place. She does act kind of motherly towards him, and he never seems to mind. Have I been stressed over nothing all this time?

Silver looked uncomfortable. “Is that weird?”

Realizing he’d been staring intensely at nothing, Shadow snapped out of it. “No, that makes sense. What is your mom like?”

Silver stooped down in front of the nest and gazed absently at it. His face was impossibly fond. “She was...amazing. I’ve never met anyone quite like her.”

Shadow winced in empathy. ‘Was?’ So he’s already lost his mom?

Silver’s affectionate smile didn’t fade as he spoke patiently of his lost loved one. “She was as compassionate as anyone I’ve ever known, but it was a fierce kindness. She wouldn’t just sympathize, she would fight for you. For anyone who was hurting.” He laughed softly. “Dad always said she was too forgiving, but she never let up. She always said that everyone--everyone--deserves a second chance.”

Shadow thought of his own history with Amy, and his heart softened with affection. That sounds exactly like her.

Silver picked up a stick and started drawing aimless patterns in the sand. His brow wrinkled in slight pain. “I was so young when I lost her. I wish I’d gotten to know her better.” His lips quirked into a half-smile. “I know I’ll never really have her back, but when I spend time with Amy, it makes me feel closer to her again.” He chuckled. “She even has the same soft green eyes Mom had.”

Shadow’s heart clenched. He squatted down opposite of Silver. “She sounds wonderful. I won’t tell Amy, but for the record, I think she’d feel honored to be compared to someone like that.”

Silver beamed up at him. “You might be right. My dad always told me I was a lot like her. It was the best compliment I could ever think of.”

His dad ‘told’ him? Past tense again? Don’t tell me this poor kid’s already lost both of his parents. Shadow was afraid to ask, so he just responded with a solemn nod and waited to see if Silver would add anything. He did.

“When I was really little, she used to sing this song to me when I couldn’t fall asleep. I wish I still remembered it. It was kind of sad but hopeful, if that makes sense...?” Shadow nodded, and Silver frowned in thought. “It was something about the stars and constellations, and how I’d always be okay...”

Shadow’s eyes lit up. Could it be...? He started to sing softly, experimentally.

“As the stars start to align I hope you take it as a sign That you’ll be okay Everything will be okay

And if the seven rings collapse Although the day could be my last You will be okay--”

Shadow stopped. “Silver? Are you alright?”

Silver had been staring at him with wide eyes. At Shadow’s words, he snapped out of it. He wiped a tear off his cheek and looked down at it in surprise. “Oh! Ah, sorry! I just haven’t heard that in a while, is all.” He laughed nervously and averted his gaze, hurriedly wiping off his face. Clearly embarrassed, he kept the topic moving. “How do you know that one? I’ve never heard anyone else sing it.”

“Professor Gerald taught it to Maria, and she sang it for me on the ARK whenever I was upset. It always calmed me down.” Silver was smiling again, but it still looked a bit strained. It tugged at Shadow’s heartstrings. He hesitated before adding, “...I don’t get to sing it very often. If you’d like, I can sing it for you some other time.” Maybe sometime when we both feel comfortable crying.

Silver’s grin turned sincere. “I’d really like that.” Shadow nodded.

Just then, the little squeaks under the sand grew louder, drawing Shadow and Silver’s attention. They spotted a bit of movement on the ground between them. The sand sank and shifted just slightly at first, then made way for a tiny, wrinkled head. The baby turtle lazily blinked its eyes open.

Silver gasped. His eyes went wide. His gaze snapped briefly up. “Shadow, it’s happening!” He looked right back down as the turtle started pushing its way up, sluggishly trying to shake off the sand as it went. “This is incredible!”

Shadow kept quiet, though he couldn’t help but agree. Remembering his promise to Amy, he took a few pictures as more tiny turtle heads pushed their way up. Flippers emerged to drag the turtles up through the sand, and the turtles started working together to fight gravity. Soon enough, ten or fifteen turtles had escaped the nest and were dragging themselves determinedly toward the water as one, aside from one or two confused, misdirected stragglers. Shadow peeked over his shoulder and found a few turtles were escaping from the other nest, too. Silver was completely captivated by the sight, but Shadow focused on the challenges ahead.

“We should clear some of the rocks and vegetation if we can. It’ll give the turtles a clear shot.”

At his words, Silver snapped back to the task at hand. “Right!” They worked together to shift boulders out of the way--Silver with his psychokinesis, Shadow with his strength. Shadow looked back at the cliffs behind him when a low hum emitted from them. He frowned as he felt a slight vibration.

“Do you hear that?” Silver asked. Shadow didn’t answer. He was too preoccupied with the crack that grew along the top of the cliff. Soon enough, a large hunk of rock fell. Shadow gritted his teeth.

“Chaos Spear!”

Shadow flicked his wrist as he hurled the projectile, making it curve to smash through the rock and hook away from the fragile cliffs at the last second. He threw a few smaller spears in the same way to break up the larger chunks until only harmless dust fell to the beach.

“Wow, nice job!”

“Stay focused,” Shadow shot back, brushing off the compliment and pointing to some seagulls that were swooping in. Silver turned around and quickly projected a barrier to deflect them, keeping it malleable to push the gulls away without hurting them with the impact. Shadow relaxed and activated his radio.

“Amy? You there?”

“Yup! Any turtles yet?”

Shadow sighed in relief. “Yeah. They’re safe so far, but the cliffs are crumbling, just like you said. Avoid the edges if you can.”

“Aww, thanks! I’ll be careful,” she replied, sounding endeared.

Shadow opened his mouth to say something along the lines of ‘I wouldn’t be able to stand it if something happened to you’ or ‘I’ll always be there to catch you if you fall,’ but he lost his nerve and instead opted for a simple, “Good. Shadow out.”

With the excitement out of the way, Silver squatted back down to admire the baby turtles as they scuttled toward the sea. He held up a hand to maintain the forcefield above his head, while he leaned his free elbow against his knee and rested his chin in his palm. He smiled dreamily at the cute, determined little creatures, each adorned with the vaguely sun-shaped pattern on their backs that gave Sunshells their name.

Shadow rolled the remaining boulders into place to block the turtles from going the wrong direction. He snapped a few more photos before addressing Silver. “You’re really fond of them, aren’t you?” Silver nodded absently. Shadow’s expression grew concerned as he kept working. “I can tell why you want to help them so much. They’re still rare in your time, aren’t they?”

Silver’s smile barely changed. “They’re extinct.”

Shadow’s head whipped over to him. After a few seconds of silence, Silver looked up at him and panicked. “Oh--oh, crap! Sorry! Uh...pretend I didn’t say that!” He hid his face in his hands and groaned. “Man, Blaze is right. I really am going to break something, aren’t I?”

Shadow shook off his surprise. “That’s...uh...” He paused, then asked, “What do you mean, ‘break something?’”

Silver looked back up. He was cringing. “Yeah, as in, breaking the timeline. She’s always stepping in to keep me from telling people things they’re not supposed to know. It’s really hard to let everyone make the mistakes they need to make, you know?” He let out a laugh that was half affectionate and half embarrassed. “I sometimes say that I’m useless without her. It’s not entirely a joke.”

Shadow wasn’t so sure about that, but he shifted the topic out of curiosity. “If they’re extinct in your time, why are you bothering with this now? You know it’s pointless.”

At that, Silver stood back up and squared his shoulders. “’Pointless.’ People always say that, and I’m tired of it. They say one little misstep can ruin the whole timeline, but they never believe that good deeds can do the opposite!” Shadow blinked in surprise at the switch in his demeanor. He stayed quiet while Silver continued. “If I can mess up the future with just a few words, then why can’t I fix things just as easily?” Silver noticed that one turtle had gotten flipped over onto its back and was flailing its flippers uselessly. He made a hill out of sand with his psychokinesis to flip it back over. “I’ll change the future with my own two hands!” He lifted more sand behind the turtle, making it slide down. The turtle flailed for a moment, but then it used its momentum to resume its scramble to the sea. Silver put his hands on his hips and nodded proudly.

Shadow just gaped like a fish for a moment, thrown off by the powerful, optimistic message--coming from the mouth of such a normally goofy hedgehog, no less.

He really is a good kid.

Oblivious to Shadow’s feelings, Silver scratched his chin, then grinned. He started pulling the waves farther up the beach to meet more of the turtles halfway, helping them into the ocean. Shadow took a step forward and watched him work.

“You’re well-suited to this. You could probably handle the whole job by yourself.”

Silver beamed, flattered, but his smile turned sheepish. “Thanks, but...no. I’d get way too distracted. I can never get over how beautiful nature is from your time period.” A soft noise on the sand nearby drew both of their attention, and they turned to see a hermit crab scuttle over toward the turtles. Silver’s eyes lit up. “Oh, how cool!”

He held out a finger and tried to get closer, but Shadow stepped in front of him. “Hmph.” He carefully threw a small Chaos Spear near the crab, aiming it just in front of the animal to startle it without actually hitting it. The scared crustacean scurried away.

Silver looked heartbroken. “Why’d you scare it off?”

“Crabs are one of the worst predators of baby sea turtles,” Shadow replied, crossing his arms.

“Oh.”

Shadow examined Silver’s slumped shoulders and disappointed expression. He shook his head. I was kidding about you befriending a crab. I really can’t leave you alone with this job, can I?

Silver scratched the back of his head. “I don’t like working alone anyway,” he admitted, mirroring Shadow’s thoughts. “I get too lonely. I’ve spent way too much time fighting by myself.”

The way Silver held himself after he said that called out to Shadow, prompting him to respond in a way that surprised even him.

“I can understand that.” Silver looked up in confusion. Shadow looked away and smoothed down a lump of sand that a few turtles had gotten stuck on. “Nature on the ARK was practically nonexistent. When I first came to Earth, I was floored by every plant and animal I came across, and I hunted down every scrap of information I could find about them.”

Silver’s eyes widened. “You, too?!”

Shadow nodded. “My past and your future aren’t so different.” He paused. Before he could stop himself, he added, “I tend to a garden at home. It’s pretty expansive. Amy’s visiting me on Sunday to take a look at it. You can join us if you want.”

Silver smiled wider than he had all day. “You mean it?!” Shadow nodded. “I’d love to!” He sprang to his feet and jogged in place in excitement.

Inwardly, Shadow nearly facepalmed. Hums and vibrations emitted from the cliffs behind them, alerting Shadow to more falling rocks, and he welcomed the distraction of shattering them once more.

I can’t believe I just did that. I gave up a chance to spend time alone with Amy--and in a romantic setting, no less! He looked back to where Silver was pumping his fist, still giddy over the simple invitation.

Why am I being so nice to this kid? Do I just feel bad for him? He watched as Silver hurriedly re-conjured the forcefield he’d accidentally dropped in his delight, blocking a rogue seagull in the process. I guess it’s kind of hard not to. He acts like a lost puppy, and he probably hasn’t ever seen half the flowers I look after. Shadow sighed in sympathy. I think I’m starting to understand why he likes “Creature Crossing” so much.

“Thanks again, Shadow!” Silver enthused, having run over to stand close to him while he was distracted. Shadow took an automatic step backward at the proximity. “Hmph.” He roughly ruffled Silver’s quills to distract him in response.

“Hey, Amy just fixed those!” Silver laughed as he tried to preen them back in place himself.

Shadow heard a giggle over the radio before Amy chimed in. “Did you know you two groom your quills exactly the same way?”

Shadow blinked in confusion, then realized he’d been subconsciously mimicking Silver’s motions. He took his hands away, then smirked as he replied. “Can’t take your eyes off me, can you?”

Amy laughed again. “I can’t help it! There’s nothing to do up here. No one’s come by at all,” she whined.

Shadow grinned at the opportunity. “Come down here.”

“Hmmm, I dunno...”

While she hemmed and hawed, Silver jogged over to Shadow, taking the radio from him to reply, “I can help! I’ve been working on a new skill lately. I can sense the presence of other life forms. I can pick up on anyone passing by for you!”

Amy squealed in excitement. “Oo, that’s so cool!”

Shadow glared and snatched the radio back. “Yeah. How useful.” Would’ve been nice to know that twenty minutes ago. We could’ve been spending time with Amy this whole time!

“That settles it, then. Incoming!”

Shadow was confused until Silver pointed up at the cliff. Amy leapt off of it. Before Shadow could panic, she whipped out her hammer and spun, using it to glide down slowly. She landed gracefully in the sand at the base of the cliff. Shadow relaxed, at least until he felt the hum and bizarre vibrations once more. The rocks above Amy started to crumble, then fell.

“Amy!” Shadow and Silver cried out in alarm.

Shadow instantly hurled a Chaos Spear, neatly splitting the biggest boulder in half. “Silver!”

“On it!” Silver constructed a hasty, wedge-shaped barrier over Amy’s head. It redirected the rocks to land on either side of her with blunt thuds in the sand.

Amy looked on with wide eyes. She then vanished the hammer she’d planned on using to defend herself and dashed toward them. “Wow! Thank you! You two make a great team.” Silver beamed proudly. Shadow responded with a simple nod. Amy pouted. “I wish we knew the source of the crumbling, but we’ve got nothing to go on.”

Shadow rubbed his chin. “What about those weird hums and vibrations that always happen beforehand?”

Amy cocked her head. “What vibrations?”

“I can feel them, too,” Silver chimed in. “It happens every time.”

The three of them thought for a moment, but then Shadow frowned. Wait a minute... He looked up. “G.U.N. sent us on an underground mission not too long ago--literally underground--to investigate minor recurring earthquakes that were damaging Sunset Heights. We found out Eggman was using this new, updated, more mole-shaped version of his old Burrobots to drill around down there, undermining foundations and generally wreaking havoc.” He growled as he remembered the pests. “Every time we got a lock on one, it just burrowed back into the ground, and more would pop up. It was hell trying to eradicate them without weakening the ground further.”

At this, a fire lit behind Amy’s eyes. “I’ll take care of this!”

“Are you sure you don’t want help?”

She shook her head furiously and conjured her hammer, posing proudly. “No need, Shadow. I've got the perfect weapon!”

Shadow hid his disappointment. “Can’t argue with that,” he admitted fondly. Amy nodded and ran back toward the cliffs. Shadow raced after her and kept a wary eye above her.

Amy ran her hands along the wall. “If they’re drilling around in here, there’s gotta be a way in...” She slid along the wall, lightly tapping her knuckles against the rock as she went. Her ears perked up when the rock emitted a more hollow sound. She excitedly wound up her hammer, then stopped when Silver put a hand on her shoulder.

“Ah...that might be overkill,” he pointed out. “Let me...”

Amy stepped back. He lifted his hands and levitated the boulders that had just fallen and set them aside, revealing a small crack that had appeared in the wall, leaving a tiny crevice behind. “Alright!” Amy exclaimed.

Shadow was more apprehensive than she was. “Are you sure you feel safe doing this alone?” Silver nodded in agreement.

Amy crossed her arms, clearly unimpressed. “Shadow, if there’s anyone who’s equipped for this, it’s me. You guys have been doing all the work so far, so it’s time I do my part! Besides, there’s no way you two can fit through that hole, and we can’t risk widening it with another hit.”

Shadow examined the crevice. As much as he wanted to argue, he couldn’t; with her petite frame and lack of back spines, Amy was clearly the only one small enough to fit. He sighed reluctantly. “Alright. Radio us if there’s anything we can do.”

“Don’t worry, you two. Have no fear, Amy Rose is here!” All three of them couldn’t help but laugh at her cheesy old catchphrase, even Shadow. She turned toward the wall and stooped down as if to crawl into the hole, then paused and peeked over her shoulder at them awkwardly. Shadow looked down at her dress and caught her meaning. His ears reddened. He took Silver’s arm and hastily turned him back around. “Let’s get back to work,” he insisted. The oblivious look remained on Silver’s face, but he shrugged and let Shadow lead him back to the turtles.

Their gazes immediately landed on a raccoon that had hopped over the rock barrier into the path of the turtles. It had picked up one of the hatchlings in its tiny paws. Before Shadow could react, Silver cried out, “No!” He swung his arm forward to shower the raccoon with a array of green sparks, leaving it dazed and disoriented. It dropped the hatchling and looked around in confusion. Silver took hold of the clump of sand under the raccoon with his psychokinesis and rapidly swept it away, sending it down toward the far end of the beach. Silver slumped and sighed in relief.

Shadow looked between Silver and the distant raccoon, impressed. “That was pretty fast.” For you, at least, he thought wryly. He kept that part to himself.

Silver crossed his arms and nodded proudly. “Swift’s my name and my game!”

Shadow stared at him blankly. “Your name is Silver.”

Silver cocked his head, then laughed. “Oh, right! I guess you wouldn’t know, huh? Silver’s just a nickname. My real name is ‘Swift.’”

Shadow froze, then slowly looked back at Silver in trepidation. “What did you just say?”

“Yeah! It’s actually ‘Swift.’ Weird, huh?” he replied, oblivious to Shadow’s turbulent thoughts.

“Why do you go by ‘Silver’...?” Shadow spoke slowly.

“Because ‘Swift’ was my grandpa’s name, and my great-grandpa’s name, and a bunch of my uncles’, too,” he explained, counting off his relatives on his fingers as he spoke. “We just go by our fur colors to clear things up. It’s a little silly, isn’t it? You’d think they’d just use a different name, but it’s tradition at this point.”

Shadow stared off into space as the pieces fell into place. She’s just like his mom. They have the same quill-line. They both have psychic-based powers. They’re both naïve, optimistic, and passionate about justice...dear Chaos, they even have the same smile, now that I think of it! How the hell have I never noticed this before?!

“Uh...Shadow? You okay?”

Silver’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He opened his mouth, deliberated, and then said, “...Don’t ever tell Amy your real name.”

His nose wrinkled in confusion--exactly the way Amy’s always did, his brain pointed out. “Why not?”

Shadow gritted his teeth. “Because you’ll break something.”

Silver kept frowning, but then he lifted his shoulders. “I guess asking why would defeat the purpose, huh?” Shadow nodded. Silver sighed. “Will I at least know in the future?”

“I’ll tell you someday.”

“Are you sure you won’t forget?”

Shadow let out a sudden bark of laughter, startling them both. “Trust me, I will never forget this.”

Silver still seemed curious, but he chuckled and set it aside. “Honestly, I’m fine just being called Silver. ‘Swift’ doesn’t really fit me. It’s kind of embarrassing to be a slow hedgehog.” He rubbed his arm shyly.

“I don’t know about that. Amy’s a hedgehog, too, and you’re about the same speed as her.” Shadow flinched as he felt the similarities continue to pile up. Of course they’re the same speed...

“Yeah, but it’s not like my whole family is like that,” Silver pointed out. “My grandpa Blue was as fast as they come! He could’ve given you and Sonic a run for your money.” He winked cheekily.

Shadow barely noticed. He felt his heart shatter. “Did you say...‘Blue?’”

Silver nodded happily, not picking up on Shadow’s pain. “Yup! I have a few blue relatives. Grandpa Blue, Uncle Cobalt, my cousin Sky...you get the picture!”

Shadow clenched the fur on his chest tightly. Of course she’s going to marry Sonic. Everyone knew that would happen.

Shadow heard sounds of metal clashing from inside the cliffs. When he felt vibrations again, he welcomed the chance to smash more rocks, throwing much more aggression into his Chaos Spears than before.

Everyone knew that...except for me.

Evidently spooked by Shadow’s sudden anger, Silver laughed nervously and tried to diffuse the tension. “You know, my family was actually relieved when I turned out silver. They were starting to run out of synonyms for blue and black.”

Shadow froze again. His head snapped back up. “Wait...you have black relatives, too?!”

Silver tilted his head. “Uh, yeah! There was my Great-Grandpa Black...my Uncle Pitch...heh. I even had an Uncle Jet. I was thrown off when I met present-Jet for the first time and he was covered in green feathers--”

Shadow rushed forward to grab Silver’s upper arms, startling him with his intensity. “Were there others?”

Silver snorted, thrown off by Shadow’s uncharacteristic enthusiasm. “Actually, my mom was black, too. She just didn’t need a nickname.” He chuckled again. “My dad always got the impression that her family was relieved when she married him because he was a white mink so we weren’t adding more blue or black to the family, but they never actually said it out loud because you can’t just say ‘Thank Chaos you married a white guy,’ haha! You know?”

Blue...and black...what does that mean? Do our kids marry each other somewhere down the line? What if she doesn’t marry either of us?! It could be anyone who’s blue or black...but I’ve never heard of any other blue hedgehogs...but what if it’s not a hedgehog at all?! Is there any chance in hell that it’s me? How can I win against him?!

“Uh, Shadow...? This is starting to hurt...”

Silver’s strained voice brought him back to reality. He realized he’d been staring intensely at him and gripping his arms too tightly. He immediately let go of him and stepped away. “...Sorry.”

“Are you okay?”

Shadow held Silver’s nervous gaze with his own for a moment, then sighed and looked away. “I’m fine. I just spaced out.”

If I keep interrogating this kid about his genetics, I’LL probably break something.

Shadow was spared the burden of explaining himself fully when a triumphant cry erupted from the cliffs.

“HAHAAAAAA!!!!!!!”

A boulder was effortlessly hurled aside. Amy stepped out of a hole in the rocky wall and thrust her arm above her head in a dramatic pose. She was holding a metal object in her upraised hand. She whacked it away with her hammer and let out a satisfied cackle of victory.

The object landed at Shadow’s feet. He recognized it as the disembodied head of one of the mole robots. Silver recoiled at the morbid sight. “Eugh!”

Shadow’s heart thumped a little faster as he looked between the head and Amy’s proud stance and smile.

She’s incredible.

Amy strolled over to them. “I hope you guys know you just missed the best game of whack-a-mole in history. I was on fire!”

Silver shuddered, most likely relieved he hadn’t been there. Shadow didn’t feel the same way. “I wish I’d been there. No one fights Badniks like you do.”

Amy held her hammer behind her back bashfully. “Aww, thank you! I do wish I could’ve found that last nest, but at least we solved one mystery!”

“I wish I could’ve been more help in finding the Badniks, but I can only sense organic beings, not robots,” Silver lamented.

Amy paused. “Wait...” She placed a hand on Silver’s shoulder. “What beings are you sensing on this beach?”

Silver pressed his first two fingers to his temple and squinted one eye shut. His tongue poked out of the side of his mouth endearingly as he concentrated, just as Amy’s did whenever she was focusing on something. “Well, there are the baby turtles,” he started, nodding to the few determined stragglers. “I can feel you two, plus the seagulls, hermit crabs, and that one raccoon...and there’s one spot farther down the beach where there are a whole bunch of little ones! I’ve been wondering about that all morning.”

The other two exchanged a look. Shadow facepalmed. Amy partially covered her face and sighed. “Silver? Sweetie?”

“Hm?”

Amy dragged her hands down to address him. “Why don’t you bring us over there?” Her smile held all the patience only a mother could have.

Or a great-great-great-grandmother, Shadow thought wryly.

Silver glanced over his shoulder. The last few turtles seemed to have things under control. “Alright! Why not?”

Silver led the way down the beach, pressing his fingers to his temple for guidance. He stopped at the base of a cliff just in front of some large ferns. He knelt to the ground and squinted. “I can feel it! They’re right in front of me, but they’re...underground...?”

Shadow and Amy looked at each other, dumbfounded. Amy pulled the ferns aside, while Shadow carefully removed a few boulders that had fallen. Thankfully, they’d landed in such a way that they’d propped each other up instead of falling directly at the ground, sparing the dip in the sand and its residents from damage.

“Wait a minute...” Silver pressed his ear to the ground, and his eyes widened. “I can hear it again! The–” He gasped and looked up at the other two. “No way!”

Amy giggled, and Shadow fixed him with a blank stare. This kid...

Soon enough, another set of turtle heads started poking up from the ground. Amy squealed, happy that she’d get to see some turtles hatch after all. Her enthusiasm was contagious.

--

With the late start, it took until the afternoon to get the rest of the turtles to their destination. The later time brought more predators, but with the cliffs standing strong and all three of them working together, they didn’t have much trouble. The conservationist showed up just as they were finishing escorting the last of the turtles to the sea.

“Oh, you three have done wonderfully! I knew I could count on you, Amy!”

Amy hopped forward and shook the human’s hand. “All in a day’s work, Myrtle!”

Silver poked his head around Amy to lock eyes with Myrtle. “How do you know it went well? Was Amy keeping you updated or something?”

Myrtle looked confused. “Oh, no! I was keeping up with the livestream on my way back here. The way you used your powers to save the cliffs and escort the turtles safely was a sight to behold!”

Shadow and Silver gaped and exchanged a nervous look. “’Livestream?!’” they chorused.

Amy giggled. “Sorry, guys! I never told you because I was afraid you’d get camera shy if you knew.”

Silver cringed. “You’re probably right. I don’t operate well under that kind of pressure.” Shadow had to agree. His eyes flicked around the beach, wondering where the cameras were hidden.

“We’ve been trying to raise as much awareness as possible about the Sunshells lately, and this year, I think we’ve finally done it!” Myrtle took out her phone and opened an app showing the tail end of a livestream. The last few turtles were dragging themselves to the sea. There was no sound from their location, only ambient music, and Shadow breathed a sigh of relief that their conversations hadn’t been broadcast.

Myrtle scrolled down to show them some of the comments.

“OMG, this is so. Cool!” “Aww, they’re so cute!” “Those hedgehogs make such a good team!” “The pink one’s cute--oh, God, did she decapitate that robot?!” “Awesome!” “Adorable!” “Amazing!” “I can’t believe Sunshells are endangered. They’re incredible.”

Myrtle beamed and closed the app. “Between the cuteness of the turtles and your dedication, you’ve inspired people to support us more than ever. Donations and volunteers have been pouring in! We’ll finally have the support and funding to give the turtles the resources they need!”

“You can thank Silver for that,” Amy said, taking one of his hands in her own. “He’s the one who found the third nest!”

“And he protected the turtles better than anyone else could have,” Shadow added, placing a hand on Silver’s shoulder. “No one else could have done this the way he did.”

“Aww, you guys are making me blush!”

Myrtle bent down to shake Silver’s free hand. “If that’s true, Silver, then thank you. I can tell today is the turning point for the Sunshells. We’ve got all we need to bring them back from the brink now!”

Silver, Amy, and Myrtle all smiled brilliantly. Even Shadow wore a small grin.

I guess you were right, Silver. One kid really can make all the difference.

--

Silver waved goodbye and teleported away with Chaos Control. Shadow took Amy’s hand to do the same, warping them both to her front doorstep.

Amy squeezed his hand instead of letting go. “Thanks for all your help today, Shadow! And it was really sweet of you to invite Silver to join us on Sunday. I can’t wait!”

“It was my pleasure. I’m looking forward to it as well. I...”

When he trailed off and didn’t let go of her hand, Amy frowned in confusion.

Shadow deliberated for quite some time. Silver’s sentiments from earlier echoed in his mind, enriched by the possibilities he now knew existed. He took a deep breath.

Time to shape my own future.

“Amy...I’ve...developed some feelings for you. Romantic ones.” He knew she could feel his hands shaking in hers, but he persevered, keeping his eyes shut solemnly. “I’d like to take you out sometime on a date, if you’d be interested.”

He slowly opened his eyes again. Her soft green eyes shone up at him in genuine surprise. It was several seconds--the longest several seconds of Shadow’s life, he’d later decide--before a casual smile spread across her face.

“You know what? Yeah! Why not?”

A wide grin spread unbidden across Shadow’s face. He pushed down the light, elated feeling in his heart long enough to say, “Yeah! Great! Um...can we figure out the details later?”

Truth be told, the confession was spur-of-the-moment and he hadn’t expected her to say yes, so he had nothing prepared. Luckily, she didn’t mind. She nodded, and he contained his excitement long enough to make sure she got into her house. He teleported back home and celebrated properly, mirroring Silver’s own jubilation from earlier in the day.

--

For those who need more proof:

Semi-edgy bois *almost* swearing to keep it E-rated. Like father, like son...kind of.

The song Shadow sings is “You Will Be Okay” from Helluva Boss. @w0lp3rtinger introduced it to me ages ago, and it still makes me cry.

[bettabythesea]

Some Thoughts About A Possible Connection Between Sonic, Shadow, and the Robotnik Family 

First, let me start by saying I don't think this little theory is by any means the intention of Sonic Team, but it's something I noticed and I wanted to share it! 

So, something that's always interested me is the in-universe explanation as to why Shadow and Sonic are so similar in their abilities. Because unlike IRL… Shadow came first, created as the Ultimate Life form 50 or so years before the plot of SA2. 

Created. Like he was specifically engineered to have the abilities he does, after a ton of trial and error. (See: Biolizard)

Sonic, as far as I know, is a natural occurrence. He just happens to be a really fast hedgehog that is capable of using the power of the chaos emeralds to do things like...perform chaos control and access a super form. Which I would think was just a hedgehog thing, given Silver's abilities, but neither he nor Amy have that innate superspeed that Sonic and Shadow do. 

Given this, one can assume that Sonic and Shadow just happen to look a lot alike and have many of the same abilities. But it being just a coincidence seems...really convenient, right?

Putting a pin in that for a moment… another thing that stuck out to me is a certain line of dialogue.

"Sayonara… Shadow the Hedgehog"

It's said twice...once by Maria as she lay dying, and then again by Sonic at the end of the final story, as he leaves the space colony ark. And while it's pretty bittersweet… it's also kind of strange that Sonic says it.

Like… that is a very specific phrase… and in Japanese the line is "Adios...Shadow the Hedgehog" so it follows the pattern or "[Farewell in another language], Shadow the Hedgehog".

This sticks out because, and my memory is a bit fuzzy… but i don't think Sonic ever even got a chance to know Maria said that...and it's sort of atypical to his usual manner of speaking, which makes it all the more curious.

Putting a pin in that as well… to talk about Maria for a moment. The poor kid wanted nothing more but to go to Earth and see it for herself...but she had an illness that prevented her from doing so. NIDS, or 

Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome, likely meant that if she ever were to fall sick, it would be fatal. So she was confined to the Ark where research was being done in way of a cure and where her environment could be controlled to keep her safe in the meantime. 

What this boils down to is: without a cure, fulfilling her dream to go to Earth would likely kill her. 

So imagine what Shadow meant to her. Shadow, who was not only her friend and companion, but was created as part of the efforts to find a cure for NIDS. It's likely part of why she was so adamant that he was a hero… he was hope for the future manifested. 

But with the project canceled...this meant Maria hadn't been cured by the time of the G.U.N raid. So when she and Shadow were running to the escape pods...even before she was mortally wounded at the scene, I don't think she was planning on leaving. I think her goal at that point was to save Shadow, even if it meant being alone again. (Adding to this point, in the SA2 cutscene he is already by himself in the pod when it's all playing out, and it gave me the impression that Maria pushed him in there and shut the door.) 

So with all of that out of the way… here's what I think about how these points come together.

•Maria, despite how unfair her circumstances were, had a hero's heart and was ultimately able to save a life before hers was cruelly taken.

•However that isn't the end of her story, because her bravery was rewarded and her wish to freely explore the earth was granted.

•But for that to happen, she had to be reincarnated, so although her love of the earth and drive to help others remains much intact...the memories of that life are gone.

•...And yet, some of that story remains in this new form, as there is now an uncanny resemblance to Maria's hero, Shadow the Hedgehog.

•After all… the strength to fight and protect, the endurance and speed to run for miles...across the world, even!

•Maria was reincarnated into Sonic the Hedgehog himself.

[classicdaisycalico]

Fictober Prompt #1: "I Need You."

Fanfic type: Fanfiction Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog Pairing(s): Sonamy, some Silvaze mentions Triggers/Warnings: Implied nudity references, brief choking mention, slight murder threat (Don't worry, it's pretty SFW but I'm not taking any chances w/ warnings here)

***

She just grabbed a necklace to wear with her dress, when she suddenly heard a knock on the door, followed by an uncertain, “Hey, Ames?”

Amy froze. The voice was a bit muffled from the other side, but the pink hedgehog recognized it instantly. What was Sonic doing here? Shouldn’t he have been with the other boys in the other room down the hall getting ready with Silver? And didn’t they know the girls would have been even busier still with Blaze?

Getting those two ready for their wedding, with 15 minutes to go, was serious business, and as Blaze’s maid of honor, Amy needed to make sure everything went off without a hitch. This was a ROYAL wedding, after all; every little last detail had to be perfect.

“I need you…”

That voice again. That nervous tone of voice was rather uncharacteristic of her blue hero. He hadn’t said he NEEDED her before. Not like that. What was going on that shook him up like this?

“Can you help me out, please?”

Her curiosity clearly getting the better of her, she was left with no choice but to open the door and meet him there. “Hey…”

“Hey, Amy, I--whoa.”

What she noticed first was Sonic himself, a total mess in his unbuttoned, untucked white shirt and black jacket, complete with a matching set of pants. Even his signature red shoes were nowhere to be found, replaced by a pair of black ones. Clearly, he was not used to wearing these sorts of clothes at all, and despite how uncomfortable he seemed, she still found him undeniably handsome, as always.

Still, she had to stifle back a laugh at his wide eyes and slacked jaw upon watching her walk through the door. Clearly, he liked what he saw, and who could blame him? Amy and the rest of the bridesmaids agreed that the lavender dresses with the lace-up backs that Blaze picked out for them were gorgeous. “Uh...Sonic?”

It took waving her hand in front of his face for him to finally realize what he was doing. Laughing nervously as he calmed down, he held up one of his hands in front of her, which contained a silver necktie. “Sorry,” he answered, a slight tinge of pink spreading across his face as he looked away sheepishly. “Silver wanted us to wear these, and I have no idea how to put this thing on…”

She looked at the necktie, and back at the blue hedgehog before her. So THAT’s why his suit is so messy. “Have you asked anyone else?”

“I would’ve asked Tails, but he didn’t know, either.”

“Okay...um...” She shrugged. “What about Silver? He could help you with his psychokinesis, right?”

“He’s busy helping Gardon get ready.”

“Knuckles?”

“He’d have even less of a clue than I do. And Shadow? Forget it.”

She raised an eyebrow, smirking. “You mean to tell me the Ultimate Life Form doesn’t know how to tie a tie?”

“Oh, he knows. I just don’t trust him to tie mine. He’d probably try to choke me or something.”

“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” she chuckled, as she held out one of her hands. “Okay, I’ll help you.”

The blue hedgehog handed her the tie. As she straightened it out, she noticed the wrinkles in it, coming from the way he was gripping it before. “How many times have you tried to do this?”

His eyes narrowed. “You don’t want to know. The point is, it was annoying. See why I never wanted to do these kinds of things back when we were kids?”

“Yet here you are, a groomsman for Silver and Blaze’s wedding.”

“Listen, it was the right thing to do to say yes when he asked me,” he answered. “Didn’t think he’d make us wear neckties, though. Why not bowties? At least bowties are sorta cool…”

“Hey.”

She put a finger to his lips. “Don’t overthink it. It’s just ‘over, under, pull’. Let me show you.”

All that was left for Sonic to do was watch Amy start wrapping the tie around his neck and let her fingers fiddle around with it. “Over…”

As he watched her fold one end over the other, he had to wonder: where did she learn to do this? Did Vanilla teach her how? Or had she taught herself? “Under…”

She’d sure grown a lot since that day they met at Never Lake all those years ago. She was only 8 years old then, and he was...what, 11? Back in those days, she would chase him around non-stop and hug him so tightly he felt like he would explode. Now, they were 20 and 23, respectively, and HE was the one running to HER so she could (gently) fix his tie.

Standing so close, there were a few things about her that Sonic noticed. Her fingers still remained as small and slender compared to his throughout the years, that ear-to-ear smile on her face still just as charming, those jade eyes still so bright and full of wonder. He wouldn’t have minded her staying here for the next hour, watching her do something so simple, so intimate as helping him put on something fancy to wear, like a silver necktie. Or, perhaps, her off-the-shoulder lavender dress with the lace-up back that perfectly accentuated every curve that Sonic didn’t even know she had until today. Still, it looked like the back wasn’t laced up the right way, and from the front, the dress seemed a bit too plain. Perhaps a necklace could spruce it up a bit...

“I hope I didn’t pull it too tight.”

He looked down only to find that her hands were gone, but a perfectly tied necktie lay in their place. “It’s perfect! But...” He looked back up at Amy. “I think there’s something else that needs to be done…”

“Like what?”

He blushed once more as he asked, “Can you turn around? Oh, and...you might want to hold still for a minute.”

Slowly, she did as she was told. “...Okay?”

The pink hedgehog stood there for a few seconds, turned toward the closed door, waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, she felt the back of her dress loosen as a pair of hands adjusted the ribbon. To her shock, she gasped as she put two and two together:

Sonic the Hedgehog, her only crush since she was just 8 years old, had bent down to his knees and was loosening the back of her dress. “What are you doing?!” she whispered harshly, her own face turning a very deep shade of red.

She could practically hear the smug little grin on his face as he answered, “Returning the favor. Who laced this thing up, anyway? Was it you?”

How much more embarrassing could this get? “Yes,” she replied, begrudgingly. “But don’t even think about loosening it all the way. You let this dress slip off me, and you’re a dead hog.”

He simply laughed. “Ames, relax. It only got wonky about halfway down. That’s as far as I’ll go.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, the blue hedgehog started tightening the purple ribbon as he finally re-looped it through the right places, until he suddenly let them loosen again. “Hm.”

He suddenly stood back up right behind her, still holding the ribbon in one hand. Looking back up at Amy, he smiled, and pressed his free hand against her lower back, where the ribbon hadn’t crossed. “It works better if you stand up straight,” he said, his voice a little quieter this time.

If her face could get any redder, then it certainly did. “...Okay,” she whispered, less harshly.

He laughed softly. “Good.”

They stood there, wordlessly, as she felt his fingers brush lightly against her back every so often, weaving the purple ribbon back and forth. After some seconds, she heard him mumble the word, “Over…”

She should have seen this coming. He had cleverly used her own words against her back from when she tied his tie. Sonic from 12 years ago would have never done this. He was too shy to even talk much back then. “Under…”

Before long, she felt the ribbon tighten as he tied the last of it into a neat bow. “That tight enough?”

Amy turned back around, swishing the skirt of her dress back and forth, spinning around a few times to see how it held up. The blue hedgehog in front of her couldn’t help smiling as he watched her do a few twirls. “Much better,” she said, her hand reaching for the door handle. “Thanks for--”

“What’s that in your hand, Ames?”

She froze as she remembered the little silver accessory in her hand. “Oh. Right. My necklace. I almost forgot--”

He held out a hand. “May I?”

As quickly as it left, that warm, flushing sensation that effortlessly spread across her cheeks had returned for the third time today as she handed over the necklace. “Sure, why not?”

She turned back around, holding up some of her quills for his hand to place said piece of jewelry around her neck. As soon as she felt the clasp fasten, she heard him say, “Okay, turn around one more time? I wanna make sure it doesn’t look bad.”

Slowly, the pink hedgehog turned around to face him. The distance between them was miniscule, a few inches, at best, but neither of them seemed to mind. All she could look at was Sonic, grinning from ear to ear. “Why are you smiling like that?”

“I know it’s bad to say something like this, but if you ask me…’

That smile only grew bigger as he leaned his head forward for a closer look. “...I think Blaze might not be the only girl at the wedding with all eyes on her today.”

Amy was stunned by this last remark, looking up at him with wide eyes. Was Sonic the Hedgehog saying that she was pretty? In a stunned whisper, she asked incredulously, “You do?”

He nodded, his own green eyes never leaving hers. “I do.”

The distance between them slowly grew smaller, their eyes closing as they inched forward to meet each other halfway, eagerly anticipating what was to come next, when suddenly:

“Sonic!”

Their heads immediately snapped toward the source of the voice shouting out for the blue hedgehog in question. It was Espio, Silver’s best man. “We’re headed down to the courtyard. Let Blaze and the other girls know so we can meet them there for the ceremony.”

He sighed, clearly annoyed by the interruption. “We’ll be right down,” he yelled back, his eyes briefly glancing across the hall before returning back to Amy’s. “Back to business now, huh?”

“Yeah. You go down there,” Amy said, shooing Sonic away. “I’ll rally the girls and we’ll see you all there.”

“Hey.”

She felt his hand grab hers one last time. “Save some slow dances for me at the reception?” he asked. “Pick up where we left off?”

He winked. For once, Amy didn’t blush. Instead, a knowing smile crept across her muzzle as she replied, “Wouldn’t miss it.”

[donnieluvsthings]

hyperactive instrumental

(ao3 link)

characters: silver, blaze, sonic, shadow, mephiles

words: 1,619

content & warnings: silver-centric, sonic 06 spoilers just in case but like its a 15yr old game lmao, canon divergence from the 06 final story, canonical character death (mephiles), canon-typical violence, fix-it fic i guess?, lmk if i should add anything else!

summary: Silver has done so much to protect this future and yet nothing within it has ever been his.

note: hi hello. two things u should know, blaze has her sonic rush origin story and also doesn’t die! its not that important but like i just need to say it. okay enjoy!

Silver is no stranger to power. Between his psychokinesis, Blaze’s fire and stories of the Sol Emeralds, and Iblis itself, he’d encountered his fair share of abilities even before he started time traveling and teaming up with hedgehogs who run at the speed of sound and hedgehogs who are immortal, what?

So, yeah, he’s seen a lot. But nothing could’ve prepared him for the energy of the Chaos Emeralds. It is completely overwhelming and foreign, sliding over him like a forcefield, and yet it feels like some missing piece of himself has clicked into place, finally. He didn’t even know he wasn’t whole until the Chaos filled something within him.

It’s familiar, and that kind of terrifies Silver, because this new form is so different and new—he’s glowing, by the way, turned from silver to gold, and that’s the coolest thing literally ever—but he doesn’t have time to truly dwell on any of that because as soon as he’s stable, he and Sonic and Shadow are launching up towards the god that’s trying to consume all of time.

They decimate Solaris. Silver has spent most of his life unable to find a permanent way to defeat Iblis, but here he is, with two other chaos-powered hedgehogs from a completely different time, shrinking the fire-time-god-thing down until there’s nothing left but a minuscule flame and an agonized scream as something lurches out of the fire.

The formless thing (it can only be Mephiles, really) plummets, and the three hedgehogs soon follow, trailing just behind it as it heads straight for what looks like a piece of the city Sonic and his friends come from. It lands with a loud splat, and Silver wrinkles his nose as he touches down in front if it.

Sure enough, the goo soon begins to shape itself, and Mephiles gasps raggedly as he tries to reclaim his original form, but he’s kneeling, and his hands and legs still melt into the puddle.

Sonic and Shadow stand on each side of Silver as he stares down at Mephiles, the complimentary half of the being that’s been terrorizing Silver’s world for most of his life.

“You’ve lost, Mephiles,” he says, holding out a hand. A teal shimmer surrounds Mephiles as Silver immobilizes him. “It’s over.”

“You won’t destroy me,” Mephiles says, and he releases a gurgling laugh.

“Oh, really? Why’s that?” Silver says, and curls his hand into a fist. Mephiles’ form wavers as the psychokinesis squeezes him, but he only laughs again.

“If you kill me, you’ll never be able to save your world,” Mephiles says. “Or the people in it.”

Silver falters. “The people?”

“You didn’t really think you and the cat were the only survivors, did you?” Mephiles taunts. “They’re suffering because of your failures.”

“We could use the Chaos Emeralds to help them,” Sonic says. There’s a comforting energy radiating from him, and Silver can almost calm down a little.

“It’s far too late for that. When I brought you back in time, you were never going to be able to save your future,” Mephiles says. “You created a new timeline just by existing here! Your gems will never bring you back to your world. Only I have the power to do that.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Shadow growls. “He’s lying.”

“Am I?”

Silver’s hand falls, but Mephiles still does not rise. If he’s telling the truth…if there are still people in his world…

“If I let you go…” Silver starts. If he lets Mephiles go, he could send Silver back to his time, where he could use the Emeralds to defeat Iblis once and for all. Blaze would be safe. His world and anyone still left in it would be safe.

But Mephiles would be free, and with all the Emeralds in one place he would just merge into Solaris again, restarting an endless cycle.

“No,” Silver says. “If I let you go, there won’t be any worlds to save. I will not be the reason that anyone else suffers by your hand.”

He thrusts both his hands forward, his super-powered psychokinesis swirling around Mephiles in flashes of teal and gold. Mephiles cries out, the sound somehow echoing in the open space around them, and he is slowly pulled into the goopy puddle he emerged from.

“You are not strong enough,” Mephiles cackles, deadened eyes seeming to stare right through Silver.

“Good thing I’ve made some friends, then,” Silver says.

“Thanks for introducing us, by the way,” Sonic says, sauntering forward. He flicks one of Mephiles’ quills as Shadow, too, moves closer. “Gotta say, you don’t make ‘dark and edgy’ work nearly as well as Shadow.”

Shadow doesn’t reply, but he does look back at Silver with a nod before both he and Sonic close their eyes. Silver shoves forward all of the energy he has left, ignoring Mephiles’ gargling as he’s compressed into a glob of darkness at their feet. In perfect sync, Shadow and Sonic cry, “Chaos Control!” and a blinding white portal opens above them, pulling Mephiles inside and then zipping closed within a matter of seconds.

Silver blinks, and everything around him disappears.

~•~

His world is not saved.

He sees it, now, still covered in ash and smoke and flames. Iblis, impossibly, roams what’s left of the streets. Silver hovers aimlessly around, and finds the last hideout he and Blaze had been using before this whole time travel mess began. It is not destroyed, but his heart shatters all the same.

He knows, somehow, that Mephiles was lying. There is no one left here. He and Blaze were the only ones, and probably have been for a very long time. There were others, once, Silver is sure of it; otherwise, how would he be here? But he doesn’t remember them. And Blaze isn’t even from this dimension to begin with. This world is his alone.

He glances around the hideout again. There is no indication that it belongs to him. If a stranger stumbled upon this room, they’d have no way to determine anything about who Silver is. He is the only one left in this world and yet nothing within it has ever been his.

That hurts a lot more than it should, he thinks. A lot more than the realization that he’s the lone survivor, because other than Blaze, he never had anyone to lose, anyway. But this world, his present…it’s empty. It was doomed from the moment Iblis awoke.

When everything disappears around him this time, he embraces it.

“I’m sorry,” he says aloud to no one. “I wish I was able to save you.” I wish there was something I could save.

He’s needed somewhere else, now. Silver feels the chaos energy leak out of him, and the fire fades into nothingness.

~•~

“Silver?”

He bolts upright—oh, wait, he’s already standing?—and gasps, flailing an arm around to find something to grab onto before he falls flat on his face. When he manages to pry his eyes open, he is gripping Blaze’s arm tightly, and Sonic is smiling knowingly behind her.

“Rough landing?” he asks, and he’s blue again, Silver realizes.

Silver coughs, holding out his own arm, which has also returned to its usual color.

“Rough landing,” Silver repeats, blinking. “So I’m supposed to feel like my soul just crashed back into my body?”

“The first transformation is always the harshest,” Shadow says as he emerges from just beyond Silver’s field of vision, and Silver squawks in surprise.

Blaze snickers, gently removing his grip on her and readjusting him so he can just lean on her entirely.

He smiles at her gratefully, before turning back to his fellow hedgehogs. “You guys have done that before?”

“Probably too many times,” Sonic says, shrugging.

“That’s so cool,” Silver gasps. “Wait. Where’s everyone else? Where are we?”

He feels Blaze’s chuckle more than he hears it. “They’re all fine, just around the corner. We didn’t want to overwhelm you. After you three defeated Mephiles, we were all brought back to this city.”

“Station Square,” Shadow supplies. “In our time.”

“I’m sorry, Silver,” Sonic says. “I think this means Mephiles was telling the truth, for once. You won’t be able to go back to your future. Er, your present, I guess.”

“I saw it,” Silver said. “After we left that void. Nothing changed. And…there’s no one else.”

“Oh,” Blaze says softly.

“We’ve definitely created a new timeline,” he continues. “Iblis wouldn’t have still been there otherwise; we removed all traces of Solaris from this world. Where did you guys send Mephiles, anyway?”

Sonic grins sheepishly. “That’s a good question! A great question, even. Wish I had an answer for ya.”

“We think,” Shadow cuts in, before Silver can panic, “that Mephiles was consumed by chaos energy and removed from existence.”

“You think,” Silver repeats.

“He’s gone, Silver,” Blaze says. “I cannot feel the flames of Solaris at all. I would be able to tell if there were any risk of him returning, but there is not. You did it.”

Silver takes a deep breath. They did it. Solaris is gone, time has been saved, and everyone he cares about is okay.

“So,” he says, tentatively letting go of Blaze to stand on his own, “I guess we should get to know our new world.”

She smiles at him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Your new world.”

Silver grins. Sonic is already babbling about all the things he has to show Silver, and as the four of them leave to reunite with the rest of the group, Silver realizes he’s gained what he’s been seeking for so, so long: a home, and a purpose.

There’s a new future to save, after all.

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic Heroes: Sweet or Shite? - Part 1: SILVER

There are some heroes I like. And there are some heroes I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.

This is a series in which I go into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the heroes in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves over the course of time. Two things to keep in mind:

1. These reviews will be focusing mainly on game portrayals. Though alternate media will occasionally be mentioned, it'll be for the sake of adding onto a point if a portrayal is similar enough, or to compare and contrast if a portrayal is different enough.

2. These are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>

Anyhow, for today’s installment, I decided to challenge myself by starting off with a complicated one. Born from the future, and never content to stay put in said future, it's the saviour whose debut came from the most unfortunate game... Silver the Hedgehog.

The Gist: Once upon a time, in the distant future, there was an idealistic young hedgehog named Silver, gifted with the power of telekinesis for reasons unknown. With his amazing potential, he was truly destined for a wonderful, prosperous li-just kidding, it was shit.

“All two of us.”

For as long as he knew, the world was forever plagued by Iblis, the terrible Flames of Disaster. Cities stood in ruin, flames stood high, the floor was lava... it was a bitter life to be certain, all thanks to Iblis. Not even defeating the titular creature did much good, since it would simply come back to be a shitty boss fight another day. What was he - and his friend, Blaze, a character we definitely never saw before and definitely didn't have a completely different backstory before - to do?

Trust the first person he sees, of course. Even if they look like they might be related to the same Flames of Disaster that he fights so constantly.

If he had eyelids, he'd be winking at the camera.

This mysterious fellow, Mephiles the Dark, informed Silver that if he were to wipe out Iblis for real, he would need to take a trip into the past, and eliminate the root of the problem... Sonic the Hedgehog? That was what Mephiles claimed, yes. What was his proof? There was no proof.

That was good enough for Silver.

Oh look, it's Fleetway Sonic.

After an elaborate series of events, which should sound exciting but really isn't because it was just Silver going “Iblis Trigger grrr” in varying tones of voice, he was finally able to corner the blue hedgehog... twice! And despite having less fighting know-how than the hero who saved the world plenty of times, he effortlessly came close to killing the blue hedgehog... twice!

This looks like a jobbing for...

Why twice? The first time was halted by Sonic's friend Amy Rose, who Silver had met beforehand after she mistook him for Sonic, an understandable mistake that even the keenest of eyes would be forgiven for making.

The second time was also interrupted, this time by Shadow the Hedgehog. There's only room for one controversial non-blue male hedgehog in this franchise, sonny boy. Actually, his reasons were more benevolent than that: he wanted to show Silver the truth about what was going on, by time travelling to the incident that gave birth to Iblis. Why was one able to to this, so long as more than one Chaos Emerald was present? No one knew.

That was good enough for Silver.

“I challenge you to a dumb-off.”

As it turned out, Iblis was one half of a sun god called Solaris, the other half being the aforementioned Mephiles. The Duke of Soleanna wanted to reunite with his late wife by harnessing Solaris' power, which succeeded from a certain point of view since he's dead now too. The resulting blunder split Solaris into two halves. One half was all brawn, with little capacity for intelligence. The other half was Iblis.

Understanding the error of his ways, and after making peace with Sonic, Silver went back to the future to try something different, which consisted of doing the same thing he always did. Luckily for him, the script decided it would work this time, albeit at the cost of Blaze sacrificing herself... Maybe? Sort of? It’s not entirely clear what happened to her, and it’s not like this was the last we ever saw of her.

~La laaaaaa, la laaaaaa, la laaaaaa, heading to a better game, la laaaaaa~

But ohhhhh nooooo, turns out THAT didn't solve anything either! In the present, Sonic was killed by Mephiles, after the latter realised he should probably do that already if he wanted to make any progress at all with his plan. This incident led to Iblis being brought into the present, and they fused to become the omnipotent Solaris once more. Such power... such divinity... such devastation...

Actually, he was really easy. The antlion from Underground Zone was harder.

Manchild robots - 1, god of time - 0.

With their super forms in tow, Silver, Shadow, and the revived Sonic joined forces to defeat Solaris, with Sonic in particular going the extra step in retconning Solaris out of existence entirely. Since time itself reset, meaning Iblis was no longer a memory, Silver's timeline was given a second chance. What was he to look forward to in this new, promising future?

Shit.

The Design: Let's take a closer look at Silver's appearance, shall we?

Or rather, a certain thing that's wrong with it.

He's holding up fifteen fingers.

Yes, you all know what I'm pointing to: the hairstyle. Let it be known that I'm very aware of the intention behind this design choice. It's supposed to be based on the Japanese Red Maple Leaf, which holds a lot of relevant symbolism for Silver's character. This is a fine idea in theory, and I can respect the intent and the creativity.

But here's the thing: If it looks like a ganja leaf, people are going to say it looks like a ganja leaf. I know some fans will gnash their teeth at me saying this, but the fact of the matter is that intentions and ideas, no matter how good they may be on paper, don't always translate well into the final product. Unleashed Secret Rings Black Knight Sonic '06 in general is certainly no stranger to showcasing examples of that, and Silver's hairstyle is no exception. There are ways to incorporate symbolism in a character’s design without making them look like meme bait in the process, and no amount of “umm ackshually” will change that, I'm afraid.

That said, there's another reason why I'm staying clean of Silver marijuana: it doesn't work for a hedgehog character. With the other hedgehogs, their hairstyles are simple and get the point across: Sonic's goes without saying, Shadow's is more angular to befit a slightly rougher hero, and Amy's is a cute bob cut of sorts. But Silver? Even without the ganja, you've still got the two tentacles making up the back of his head.

I'd rather not be reminded of hentai quills, thanks.

“I thought Crusher-san would like it :’(”

I do find it hilarious that they went through numerous designs for Silver, and this was what they chose to go with. Some of his prototype designs may have fared better had any of them been used instead... but we didn't end up with any of those ones. We ended up with this one, therefore I'm judging this one.

But don’t worry, it’s not all bad with Silver...

The Personality: As far as actual character goes, Silver's personality is as straightfoward as most characters in the series, yet it's no less interesting, because it took a while for it to fully evolve to what it currently is. The seeds of his character - a good-natured yet awkward and rather insecure kind of guy, who doesn't fully understand how the present time works - have always been there, but it was often downplayed in earlier titles due to him being hungry for Iblis Trigger blood... or being an arsehole for no reason.

Although to be fair, everyone in Rivals is an arsehole for no reason.

Eventually though, after the writers gave him a Snickers, these traits got more opportunity to shine. Mostly in side media admittedly, but it's been noted in the games as well. With no Iblis to angst over, he's proven to be a surprisingly bubbly chap, who just wants to know how you're all doing, fellow anthro kids. And whereas his naivety was previously used for intended tragedy to benefit the evil plan of a guy who thought taking the -istoph- out of Mephistopheles would make him inconspicuous, now it's been used for a bunch of low-key contexts that do a much better job at endearing him to the player.

Finally, something I can relate to.

Hell, he even seems to have learned from the Mephiles incident, as he was quick to make it clear to the next shadowy deep-voiced anthro with demonic eyes he met that he wasn't gonna fall for any of them fibs no more, ya hear?

“YouTube and Twitter don’t count.”

All in all, it works well enough, in my opinion. His personality does pave the way for some funny and wholesome moments, and since they’re no longer trying to build him up like he’s Shadow 2.0, he's nowhere near as much of a tool as he was before. So I guess you could say... I like it?

Does this mean I can say that I like the character as a whole then, design and '06-induced idiocy aside?

Well, not quite...

The Execution: This is where the complication part comes into play. We know now that I like his personality, not so much his design, but that's only the half of it. It would be more accurate to say that I like his personality... and dislike everything else.

Aside from that, obviously.

For starters, the creation process for his character and story was summed up with, in their own words, “Think Trunks from Dragon Ball Z”. So he comes off as rather lazy and uninspired. Now I'm not expecting my Sonic characters to be 100% unique, there's always going to be similarities to other franchises no matter what you do, even if subconsciously or by complete coincidence. Taking inspiration in itself is no big deal at all.

But... was that it? Copying a DBZ character to such a blatant extent? Was there no other thought put into it?

Naturally, this ties into an overarching problem: the franchise's mid-00's habit of trying way too hard to be the anthro Dragon Ball Z. Sonic has had DBZ influences since the early days, with the Chaos Emeralds and Super Sonic, but it didn't assimilate itself into every waking aspect of his universe. It was merely an additional flavor that added to the complete package, in the same way that a Death Star with a moustache didn't mean the franchise was suddenly Star Wars the Hedgehog.

But come the turn of the millenium, nearly every main title in the series ended with Super Sonic and/or Super Shadow saving the day, while everyone else either stood around being useless, or only helping in ways that no one actually cares about. Including the in-universe President apparently, since only Sonic and Shadow were featured in the photo on his desk.

Amy smiled. “I guess the rest of us can go fuck ourselves, huh?”

This reached its peak with - of course - Sonic '06, with Silver in particular being an obvious result of this then-ongoing trend. And yes, it would be unfair to use him as a scapegoat, considering it was already a problem long before he turned up. But moreso than even Shadow, it's an era that Silver is forever a relic of, for better or for worse.

But it doesn't stop there. Since Silver is considered a mainstay character, his gimmick of being from the future also creates problems of its own, because in order for him to make further appearances, he keeps turning up for little explained reason, and thus he suffers the Deadly Six problem of being shoved into places where he doesn't belong, for fanservice's own sake. Take Sonic Colours DS for example, where he went back in time JUST to check out Eggman's theme park... Okay...?

On one hand, I’d visit it too, since it's made by Eggman. On the other hand, I’d stay clear of it, since it's made by Eggman.

And when there IS a justification with more weight to it? It's just recycling the '06 routine of trying to avert his ruined future, which isn't much better. The cause may differ depending on the story, but if his future is a permanent shitehole for one reason or another, he might as well cut out the middle man and stay in the present altogether, since that's where his friends are anyway. But they seem intent on not doing that, despite the future schtick being a noose around his neck at this point.

In hindsight, maybe this was a hint to how the rest of the arc would turn out.

And then there's his dynamic with a certain purple cat... No, not Big. The other one.

“I’m here, by the way.”

Simply put: I don't like this dynamic. At all. Or rather, I don't like how they keep milking it. Blaze's backstory was radically changed to justify her presence in Silver's future, and it really shows, since she barely even shows up half the time, as if the developers themselves forgot she was in the game. But her backstory has since been restored to her original alternate dimension interpretation, so hanging around with the grey hedgehog is all good now, right?

To be brutally honest, I probably wouldn't care for this dynamic regardless. But I would be more willing to tolerate it, and I'd refrain from groaning every time they're seen together... if they weren't intent on playing it up so much in spite of '06 being wiped out, sometimes with a bit of commentary involving their thoughts and memories, which only succeeds at making things more confusing. If Blaze is around, Silver will be nearby, and if he's not at first, he will be soon enough. This franchise does have a problem in general with restricting who's allowed to interact with who (I personally believe Sonic Heroes may have led to this, or at least it accelerated it), but I'd argue it's at its most insufferable here, with Blaze's potential and her entire world taking a backseat to being the sidekick of Ganja Man.

And you might say “Well, it's part of the franchise now, so you'll just have to accept it”. To which I ask: Have you accepted Two Worlds? Have you accepted Solo Sonica? Have you accepted Sonic's friends not doing much as of late?

Yeah. That's what I thought. “It’s just how it is” doesn’t mean you can’t criticise it.

Meanwhile, Marine is lucky enough to get so much as a shout out.

So yeah, I have quite an extensive list of grievances involving poor Silver. But... very little of it has to do with him, right? They're all indirect problems that he just so happens to be linked to, as opposed to someone like Chris Thorndyke, who is genuinely a shit character through and through. This is more comparable to Tails being bitchy in Lost World, or Amy being manipulative in Chronicles, or Sonic being a smug dumbass in IDW, or Shadow not wearing a Hawaiian shirt in Boom. Frustrating, regrettable, but not really the character's own fault.

Yet even after all that, there's one last kick in the teeth... How do you fix all this? And how do you fix it when he's since gained a sizable fandom, many of whom like him for these very attributes? If you leave it as it is, you're stuck with this big, awkward mess that everyone pretends to ignore. If you try to do something about it, you'll get complaints about disrespecting the True Silver Spirit, and you’ll get questions about why you didn't create a new character instead... And if you did use a new character for the sake of a clean slate, THEN you'd get complaints about not using Silver.

It's a tough call to be sure, and it's such a shame because like I said, I do appreciate his personality, so I can't say he's bad outright. But with all this... clutter, I can only put him in the average category. So, in he goes.

Crusher Gives Silver a: Thumbs Sideways!

Well, I'm glad this one's out of the way. Putting my thoughts into words with Silver was harder than it should have been. I do slightly regret starting this series off on a rather downer note, but rest assured, it's a lot more positive from this point onwards, since while I have higher praise for some heroes more than others, the hero characters as a whole fare a lot better than the majority of villains not named Eggman.

I guess you could say that I hope to show why Sonic's friends aren't as shitty as the haters would suggest. ;)

[beevean]

How was Infinite better than Mephiles in your opinion? I think Infinite had a bit of potential but Pontiff ruined what little there was.

Is Forces a Pontaff game? It doesn’t look like one, and I think they just translated/collaborated? No seriously, I remember reading the credits and being confused. Anyway.

Let’s get out of the way the most shallow reason I prefer Infinite: design. Infinite’s design is damn cool, he’s so edgy that it’s obvious he’s meant to be a caricature, with his clawed gloves and boots with his own friggin’ symbol on it, but he’s still appealing to the eyes. Before you finish the game, the mask also adds intrigue: why is he wearing it, and why is he blind in one eye? It motivates you to get to know more about him. It also helps that he’s a canid, a family that is quite rare in the series - I can only think of Tails and Chip - and it makes him unique but not in a special OC way. (this also means he even has some cute features like big ears and a fluffy tail, which add delicious contrast to his “I'm the toughest of terrors I am the darkest of days” design)

On the contrary, Mephiles has two designs: Multiplayer-Mode Shadow...

And Nightmare Shadow.

And sure, the crystallized form is pretty cool to look at, but he still Shadow. I get that he was reborn from Shadow’s shadow (some writer felt very clever that day), but I kinda would have preferred to see him take other forms. Well, it’s not like the devs had the time to add a third model...

(also, both of them have awesome voices so I can’t put one above the other)

As for the rest, here’s a rundown:

- Mephiles, along with Iblis to a lesser extent, overshadows Eggman. He’s yet another villain that takes the stage and reduces the good ol’ doc to a miniboss, more preoccupied with stealing the McGuffin... I mean, Princess Elise, than to do some interesting villaining - this has the ripple effect of making Sonic the Hedgehog, in a game called Sonic the Hedgehog, nearly useless to the main plot until he’s killed. I have little tolerance for villains who want to be more “dangerous” than Eggman at this point, and Mephiles was only one of the last ones that played this overused trope seriously (wish he was the last one, but Dark Gaia is a smear on an otherwise beautiful game... but that’s another story). By contrast, Infinite is always Eggman’s weapon, and the game never implies you’re supposed to think less of the scientist - Infinite may be an arrogant buffoon, but he never leaves Eggman’s side. The two work on a tandem, and basically Infinite is terrifying raw strength combined with Eggman’s superior intellect. Took him long enough, but Eggman has essentially tamed a powerful beast like he’s been planning to do since Chaos.

- Mephiles is meant to be this master manipulator, a 4D chessmaster moving pieces across time and space to get to his goal. I love the idea, really: he’s the raw intellect of a god without any of the strength of a god, so he has to play dirty and play on mortals’ emotions. The problem is that the game isn’t competent enough to pull such a feat, so everyone basically has the IQ of a brick - everyone who has even watched some videos points out at least two things:

1) how can Silver, even if he grew up in a destroyed city, trust some random guy without a mouth and reptilian eyes who suddenly tells him “here’s the cause of your problems, now go back in time and kill him” and Silver is just like “okie dokie” without even asking “excuse me, and whomst the fuck are you”

2) Mephiles can travel in time anywhere he wishes AND he can apparently conjure the Emeralds at his side. There is literally nothing stopping him to go to Silver’s future and rejoin Iblis there, or even prevent the incident that split them. The game set no limitations to his powers, and so we’re free to think about the most obvious solutions, and so his overly complicated plan that hinges on a boy killing another boy 200 years in the past after he bonded with the Iblis seal to make her cry in grief, plus triggering Shadow’s trauma on the side... even more hard to follow, because it’s all useless.

Infinite, to be fair, has a similar problem with his powers: the Phantom Ruby’s potential has never been specificed, but it seems to be a strong reality warper that can even teleport people (Mania) - and yet we only see Infinite conjure clones and spikes with it, which is boring. However, one thing he has over Mephiles is that the guy’s blatantly an idiot. Like, the story doesn’t shy away from showing how his arrogant, sadistic mistakes like “lol i’ll leave you alive because you’re not worth my time” have serious repercussions to Eggman’s plans, to the point that the guy at the end is like “you know what, I’m sick of your shit” and kills him. And you may be like “how does that make him better than Mephiles” - well he’s more believable, and more human (relatively speaking), and Forces’ story was written with feet but no one got their IQ divided by itself so there’s that.

I get the feeling Infinite is meant to be both intimidating and a parody of overly edgy and cool villains like Mephiles himself, and for me it works. Mephiles... he’s kinda like ShTH: he takes himself way too seriously. Except ShTH is funny, at least.

To be kind to Mephiles, his backstory is at least more precise, and definitely more interesting: as I mentioned, I love the idea of a god that was split into powerless intellect and mindless strength. In a better game, Mephiles would have been an interesting villain, completely ineffectual in a physical battle and maybe in constant pain, but omniscent and with a streak of sadism.

Infinite, on the other hand, clearly went through a shift in backstory: the main game hints at the fact that he was made in a lab, but then Episode Shadow comes in and he’s just some guy who was bullied too hard. I... okay.

Anyway, Infinite is more appealing to me and he doesn’t break Forces’ already fragile plot like Mephiles does. also he cute. there :V

[looniecartooni]

Okay- I’m distracting myself from all my work to analyze these lines from Sonic 06...

Mephiles: “Its futile. The world will betray you. Why fight at all? Why risk your life for those who will persecute you later?”

Shadow: “If the world chooses to become my enemy... then I’ll fight like I always have.”

(Warning: Very lengthy analysis. Skip to the next time you see these lines for the main point.)

So first off- let’s start with the Sonic world implications. This is the last exchange between Mephiles and Shadow in Sonic 06. I don’t know the original Japanese script, but these lines are telling for both characters. As I’ve analyzed before, Mephiles himself was betrayed by humanity by being separated from Iblis perhaps more than once (given how the King of Soliana knows how to seal off both him and Iblis and was pretty adiment on trying to get his wife back). And being a time traveler guy/ god of time’s conscience, he’s probably seen Shadow’s past and future. That and/or “The ‘I’ I now absorbed from your shadow in the past” connects him deeper to Shadow.

Anyway, Shadow up to this point has lost his best friend to the organization he now works for, lost his memory and told he may not be himself, got tricked by a bunch of aliens he’s related to in letting them invade the earth all while being blamed for the death of his best friend and an enemy of humanity by his now boss- he’s been through a lot! And he’s been used a lot too! Eggman, Black Doom, Gerald Robotnik, the GUN, now Mephiles. Mephiles tells him he’s going to get locked away again for being too powerful (which I think is what happened to Shadow originally- but then you’ve got the 326 endings of Shadow the hedgehog where he might not even be Shadow the hedgehog- but we aren’t going to touch that). Mephiles even tells one of Shadow’s friends (Omega) that he’s gonna be the one to seal off Shadow and betray him. Rouge is the first one to swoop in to say “That’s not fair!” and that even if Shadow feels isolated, she’s gonna stick with him. The funny thing is... until Mephiles told Omega he’d be the one to seal off Shadow, Shadow was quick always to say “That’s absurd. Whatever it is you want to do, you can do it alone.” Shadow is done being used. He knows better now. He has people he can trust. When one of his friends is told he’s going to be the one to betray him, they tell him (and being Omega/ a really awesome protective bestie just machine guns him- man, I wish the graphics and editing were better for that scene). Suddenly, Mephiles has penetrated into Shadow’s world. Humanity won’t just betray him, one of his closest friends will. Omega and Rouge are Shadow’s like only actual “I’ll acknowledge you as friends but never say it” group. Shadow doesn’t truly trust anyone else. Sure he’s rotten to them like “My assignment was to rescue you. Nothing more.” but they’re the kind of friends with clever rebuttals to his claims knowing he truly does care and won’t admit it (not because he’s edgy but probably because when he usually displays trust in someone, they end up using him *cough cough* Black Doom *cough cough* Eggman). Having a friend say “I’m going to betray you in the future” probably hits Shadow a lot harder given how many times he’s been used and betrayed and unlike Mephiles, he let Omega into his trust bubble. Shadow doesn’t speak a word, but Rouge is quick to defend Shadow which you may or may not have not really expected from her. But considering all she’s done with Shadow and through every pit fall, she’s managed to support him and in the scene where Omega says he’ll be betraying Shadow, she admits she’ll stick with him even through the worst pitfall he may have to fall in. And that’s exactly in that moment what he needed to hear.

Ok- now that I’ve dedicated a... lengthy paragraph I don’t know how to shorten to Shadow, let’s get back to Mephiles. Mephiles has no one he truly trusts. Those who he did “trust” he manipulated an have now come to the understanding they shouldn’t have trusted him. He sees Shadow as an opportunity. Maybe not just an opportunity, but an ally. Someone just like him the world betrayed or took advantage of his power. He quite literally reflects Shadow/ Shadow reflects him. At first, Mephiles hated Shadow for sealing him away and then seemingly not recognizing him. But he sees how they’ve lived similar lives (admired for their power, sealed away for decade(s), betrayed and used by the world) and thinks that Shadow still wants what he wants- to persecute humanity. And Shadow’s been told many times reasons he should betray the world, but not as personal as Mephiles makes it. Mephiles even seemingly over does it by saying things like “Let’s end this foolish world of humanity. Its only fair to give back what was intended for you. You have every right to want justice.” And when Shadow says “no” for things that haven’t even happened, Mephiles goes over the top mad, transforming and fighting Shadow. Later on, when Silver confronted him about being a liar, he was a lot more calm and collected and just walked away like nothing happened. Why would Shadow make him more upset about saying he’s absurd than Silver? Mephiles either thought Shadow would be an easier pawn to control like Silver or Shadow has been known to nearly kill or be on parr with Sonic multiple times so having him as an ally would be essential- but for the sake of this lenghthy analysis, I’m gonna over look all that.

(You still there? Cool!) Let’s get to the final confrontation! Mephiles tries a third and final time to get Shadow as an ally which at this point is kind of silly but may also indicate just how personal wanting Shadow as an ally is to Mephiles. Shadow accuses Mephiles of having no desire for revenge and just wanting to eat all of time until there’s noting left of it to which Mephiles replies, “Its a pity, Shadow the Hedgehog... Truly ashame you wish to go against me.” Mephiles probably thought that of everyone in this world, Shadow would understand how he felt. I always found it off putting that Shadow just accuses Mephiles of being just a common bad guy, but going back to Shadow’s trust issues, making others just seem like bad guys probably helps him not feel bad for when he becomes an enemy with someone (he does it all the time- but this analysis is too long. I’ll do that one another time). Mephiles doesn’t reject Shadow’s claim, but even through bad graphics and lack of a mouth and eyelids, you can see he’s genuinely disappointed Shadow didn’t want to join him. Now I feel like someone’s going to say something like, “maybe he wanted Shadow to join him because Shadow was going to be the one to seal him again.” I won’t deny that that could have been a possibility, but given how confident he was when he broke free of the scepter when Shadow tried to seal him in again, he basically said “ I copied your shadow- you can’t seal me because I’m like this now lol.” and right after that... we get to the lines I was analyzing. He says after making a bunch of clones, “You must realize now you can not hope to stop me with your limited power.” (man-I love these lines!!!!) To which Shadow refutes with, “So you say.”

Mephiles: “Its futile. The world with betray you. Why fight at all? Why risk your life for those who will persecute you later?” 

This is coming from someone who was honored like a god before being split into two entities that were sealed away from each other for 10 years after being labeled as threats. He has an understanding of Shadow and his future and quite possibly his past. He knows Shadow will be betrayed by one of his closest friends and sealed away again. Why would he continue fighting? Why doesn’t he want to end it all like him?

Then Shadow responds while freeing himself to full power: “If the world chooses to become my enemy... then I’ll fight like I’ve always have.”

After losing someone he loved, sealed away for 50 years, manipulated countless times, almost closing off his closest friends after Mephiles told one that they’d betray him... Shadow simply tells him he’ll just keep fighting. Fighting for what he believes is right. 

Now- if you’re still reading after this whole essay of thought (or just skipped to the end) let’s take into account how these lines fit into our world. How many times have we felt betrayed by the world and tempted by our demons to just end everything after injustice? To just want to get rid of our enemies or the enemies within ourselves? Why bother fighting for what’s right? Why stand up for what you believe? Shadow and Mephiles went through similar experiences and yet both want to do something different. Mephiles just wants to end humanity, just get rid of his problems, just end everything. Shadow wants to keep fighting through it. If it gets worse, he’ll just keep fighting. They’ve both lost people they loved(Maria and Iblis) and want to be with again, they’ve both been betrayed and fear/know they’ll probably get betrayed again. But where Shadow prevails is that he’snot going to let those feelings of anger and betrayal weigh him down anymore. He now has people he can truly trust (Rouge and Omega- Omega even told him what Mephiles said as a warning) while Mephiles just manipulated people to believe what he said and do his bidding.

The point I’m trying to make here is when times are tough, be careful not to fall into being like Mephiles. Mephiles didn’t really have anyone to fall back to or stand up for him or any reason to want to keep fighting after the world hurt him. Shadow allowed himself to be vulnerable and trust his friends. When you feel the world is against you, don’t turn against it. Don’t try to get rid of the pain because you don’t want to feel it anymore. You have to fight through it like Shadow does. And how Shadow fought through his pain was choosing to trust people. Even though in the past that hurt him, he still managed to let Rouge and Omega be close enough to him to where they wanted to protect him even when his demons were telling him to isolate the world because it was only going to hurt him more. A true friend stays by your side, even when the monsters tell you otherwise.

I don’t think Shadow truly considers Sonic a friend. They have a frienemy relationship where they always have to one up each other and Sonic’s usually pretty cocky when it comes to helping Shadow like, “Oh- you’re in trouble again? Alright. You’ve better play it nice then.” and Shadow’s usually like, “Fine- whatever. Do what you’ve got to do and leave me alone.” But I’ve always wondered what would happen if Sonic and Mephiles truly crossed paths if the events of 06 would have been different. Ah- but that’s another theory for another time. Beware of your demons, kids and sorry for all the rambling. Share thoughts or find a way to summarize this if you’d like and I hope you have a good day.

[tenebraevesper]

Sonic Cyber Revolution, Entry 6: Chaos Surge

''Must keep on movin' ahead! No time for guessin', follow my plan instead! Trusting in what you can't see! Take my lead, I'll set you free!''

– Escape From The City by Sonic Adventure 2 (NateWantsToBattle Cover)

xXxXxXx

''Huh, looks like Cosmo Bridge isn't under attack… for once,'' Amy said in a sarcastic tone. It was afternoon and the group had split off in groups, deciding to cover Neos City in their search for Shadow. Amy and Minami took upon themselves to comb through all the areas Cosmo River passed through.

''I guess we're in luck… or not,'' Minami chuckled at Amy's remark at first, only to add the latter part in a more serious tone. ''It's kind of obvious Shadow has long left this area and I don't really think Cosmo Bridge has anything of significance to him.''

''You're right,'' Amy agreed, her eyes narrowing in thought. ''Maybe I should consult my tarot cards about Shadow's whereabouts. I mean, they were almost always correct, so far.''

''Maybe…'' Minami trailed off as she remembered something. ''Hey, Amy, do you remember the last time we consulted them?''

''You mean, the one about a looming shadow over a place of with a lot of green- ooooh…'' Amy trailed off as she realized the same thing as Minami. The two exchanged glances, a moment of silence between them. ''So, you think it may not have been about Metal Sonic or the lizard Irregular attacking Eden?''

''Honestly, it is still possible that it referred to both of them, but I want to also think that the 'looming shadow' part wasn't supposed to be only interpreted as a threat, but literally as a person,'' Minami replied. ''As Shadow the Hedgehog.''

''Now that I think about it, we didn't really think through the part with 'something of great importance','' Amy added. ''We kind of just let it fly over our heads.''

''Yeah, we were too focused on the 'place with a lot of greenery' bit, thinking it had to be Eden. As for why it had 'something of great importance'; that could be easily a reference to Makoto and Silver, since they're our friends and important to us,'' Minami added, crossing her arms. ''We didn't even bother to check Infinity Forest afterwards.''

''If we approach this from a different angle and consider Shadow being the one the tarot cards were talking about, as well as assume that he isn't in Neos City at all…'' Amy tapped her AR Visor, a holographic screen appearing in front of her and Minami. ''Hey, guys, is anyone close to Infinity Forest?''

''Yeah; Warren, Makoto, Silver and I are close to it,'' Tails answered. ''Why?''

''Minami and I think that Shadow might be there,'' Amy replied.

''How can you be so sure?'' Silver asked in a curious tone.

''Well, remember that fortune-telling we told you about?'' Minami asked, with Silver nodding. ''We think it may not only refer to what happened at Eden.''

''If that's so, we could scout the area,'' Silver suggested, only to notice the troubled look on Amy's expression. Minami noticed it too.

''Amy, what's wrong?'' she asked.

''I've just been wondering whether we should really rely on it. What if we were wrong?'' Amy asked. ''It is just going to be a waste of time.''

''But, you did say that they are usually correct,'' Makoto reminded her, with Amy looking unsure about how to answer.

''Not to mention, it makes sense for him to be there,'' Minami added, giving Amy an encouraging look. ''Infinity Forest is large enough to have places for him to hide and a good chunk of it is unexplored.''

''Minami is right,'' Warren said. ''Tails and Silver could do an aerial overview of Infinity Forest, while Makoto and I check on things from the ground. If we find anything, we'll call you.''

''Thanks, guys,'' Amy said, relieved to see that her friends got her back, with the holographic screen closing. She then turned to Minami. ''We'll continue our search here.''

''Sure thing!'' Minami gave her a thumbs up.

xXx

''Silver, do you see anything?''

''No, nothing so far. Although, this part of Infinity Forest is quite dense. It's hard to see anything,'' Silver told Makoto, floating above the forest via his psychokinetic powers. ''What about you Makoto?''

''No dice,'' Makoto replied. Silver looked over to Tails, who was hovering mid-air and talking to Warren. The holographic screen then disappeared, with Tails waving Silver over.

''Did you and Warren find anything?'' Silver asked as he flew over to Tails.

''Warren did, but I don't think it has anything to do with Shadow,'' Tails replied. ''Still, he said that we should come over and take a look.''

Silver nodded and followed the fox Irregular towards where Warren and Makoto were. They landed on the grass, noticing the two teenagers observing something beneath a tree. What Warren and Makoto had found appeared to be a purplish octahedral-shaped crystal with a faint blue light emitting from them. It appeared as if the crystal were growing out of the ground.

''What's that?'' Silver asked curiously, while Tails just grabbed the Miles Electric from his backpack and pointed it towards the crystal.

''It appears to be some kind of artificial crystal,'' Warren replied, crouching next to it, while Tails scanned it.

''You're right,'' Tails said as he stared at the screen of the Miles Electric, raising an eyebrow, his tails flicking. ''Although, it seems more like we're dealing with crystalized data.''

''What does that mean?'' Silver asked, his gaze turning from Tails towards the crystal, a little mesmerized by it. There was something hypnotic about the tiny blue light gleaming inside it.

''It means that- Don't touch it!'' Tails yelled suddenly when Silver reached out for the crystal in an attempt to pick it up.

''Agh!'' Silver hissed in pain, waving his hand as the crystal had burned him. The crystal itself suddenly shattered, the pieces vanishing.

''Silver, are you okay?'' Makoto asked his partner, with Silver holding up his hand. Curiously, there were no scorch marks.

''I'll be fine, but it feels like I had put my hand into open fire,'' Silver responded.

''That's strange,'' Tails said, rising an eyebrow and looking down at the Miles Electric. ''The scanner didn't indicate that it was hot at all, only that it was made of data; similarly to how items appear in AR Fields.''

''I'm sorry for breaking it,'' Silver glanced at Tails, a look of guilt on his expression. Tails shook his head, smiling.

''It's fine. After all, you had no idea this would happen and probably one of us would've picked it up to further examine it,'' Tails replied.

''I wonder how its possible for something like this to be here,'' Warren said. ''After all, this part of Infinity Forest has no AR Fields.''

''Maybe it was created by an Irregular,'' Makoto suggested. ''They are able to exist outside AR Fields for far longer than regular ARNavs.''

''Do you think it has something to do with Shadow?'' Silver asked. Makoto shook his head.

''No, but I sure hope that we won't have to deal with another Irregular alongside Shadow,'' he said.

xXx

Lucas, Sonic, Lily and Knuckles were meanwhile in Erekiteru, an area in Neos City well-known for being a major shopping district for video games, anime, manga, electronics and computer-related goods, and even featured cafés and arcades. They were currently walking around, Sonic having taken off earlier to check the district at his own pace. However, it was clear to them that they wouldn't find Shadow here.

''I sincerely doubt that is going to be anywhere in Erekiteru,'' Lily said. ''We should leave and try to check another place.''

''This may be the best course of action, but we still have to wait for the blue Hedgehog to arrive,'' Knuckles pointed out. Lily nodded, turning towards Lucas, who was looking around.

''Any ideas where we should go next?'' she asked.

''Honestly, I'm not sure,'' Lucas replied. ''We have absolutely no idea whether Shadow is even here in the city, and even if he is, it would be still hard to find him, unless he causes trouble.''

Suddenly, the three turned their heads to Sonic, who ran up to them, skidding to a halt. ''Any news about Shadow? Because I couldn't find him here.''

''No,'' Lucas replied, with Sonic's ears folding in disappointment. However, he had already figured that they wouldn't find them. ''We will have to change our approach.''

''What do you suggest?'' Knuckles asked.

''I…'' Lucas trailed off as he saw everyone giving him an anticipatory look. Admittedly, he may have been the one who called them to take action, but it wasn't really easy to come up with a new plan while only having access to limited information. He looked around, trying to figure out what they were supposed to do next. ''I'm not sure… Huh?''

Lucas, Sonic, Lily and Knuckles looked up when a huge holographic screen popped up, with an advertisement playing, announced by a squirrel ARNav.

''Tamago Corporation proudly presents our newest product – the Buddy Bot!'' the squirrel said proudly, stepping over to a robotic version of itself. ''Any ARNav knows that they cannot survive for too long outside an AR Field, but with the Buddy Bot, an ARNav can easily be transferred into their new, robotic body in order to stay alongside their human companions for much longer periods of time.''

Sonic and Knuckles exchanged glances, both being a bit bemused regarding the advertisement, especially since it was directed specifically towards ARNavs. They were aware that the issue regular ARNavs often faced was finding themselves outside an AR Field and having their energy rapidly deplete until they were near deletion. Fortunately for Sonic and Knuckles, as Irregulars, they didn't have to deal with problem, but that didn't mean that they didn't understand the struggles regular ARNavs would face.

''The Buddy Bot…'' Lily hummed as she observed the holographic screen vanishing, then turned towards her friends. ''The Tamago Corporation really comes up with all kinds of weird stuff.''

''I don't think it is that weird,'' Lucas responded. ''Someone would eventually try to come up with a way to allow ARNavs to stay outside AR Fields, and Tamago Corporation is well-known for its innovations in the robotics field.''

''I'm more curious about who thought calling their company Egg Corporation was a good idea,'' Sonic said, chuckling. Lucas and Lily exchanged amused looks, while Knuckles cracked a smile.

''In any case, I agree that we won't be able to find Shadow this way,'' Lucas said, drawing everyone's attention. ''I hate to say it though, but we should instead keep an eye out for the Irregular Hunters. They are the ones who get alerted whenever an Irregular appears, so they're our best chance for finding him.''

''Or, they might find another hedgehog that they'll mistake for Shadow,'' Sonic added in a snarky tone.

xXx

''So, you really cannot remember anything?'' Ferra asked. She and Touka were on their hoverboards, flying towards the Codex Research Facility, with Metal Sonic flying behind them. They had been silent for most of their trip, but Ferra couldn't shake off the morbid sense of curiosity concerning Touka's amnesia.

''My memories only come back to me in pieces and I need to make sense of them,'' Touka replied, her eyes narrowing. ''From what I do remember, I used to live at the Codex Research Facility, and Shadow too.''

''What were you doing there?'' Ferra asked curiously.

''That is something I would like to know as well,'' Touka replied.

Ferra hummed, only to add, ''Maybe you could also figure out how long it had been abandoned. To me, it looked like no one visited it in years.''

Touka didn't respond, reacting only when Metal Sonic flew ahead of her, alerting the two to the building claimed by nature. Touka and Ferra stopped in front of it, getting off of their hoverboards, with Touka staring at the facility, stunned.

''Do you remember anything?''

Touka was startled by Ferra's question, turning around and noticing the eager look on her expression. Her eyes narrowed. ''No, I don't. Only because I'm standing in front of the building doesn't mean I'll remember anything.''

''Maybe, but I'm sure you were hoping that would happen,'' Ferra replied, a smug smirk forming on her lips. Touka frowned, but didn't say anything, well aware that Ferra was right. ''Anyways, Metal and I had brought you here, now it's your turn to repay us.''

''Fine,'' Touka replied, sighing. ''The reason why Metal Sonic had lost was because Sonic used Lucas' BioEnergy to empower himself and spin-dashed into the former.''

''BioEnergy, seriously?'' Ferra gave her a stunned look. ''How is he not dead?''

''I have no idea.'' Touka shrugged. ''That is all I know, so I'll leave it to you two to figure out how it happened.''

Ferra and Metal Sonic observed Touka as she walked up to the entrance and vanished into the building, then turned towards each other. ''You know, we may have run into a dead end while trying to find the person who sent us that message, but we still learned something important. If Sonic and his partner have now figured out how to use BioEnergy as a power-up without suffering from any consequences, we should also find a way to control it.''

'Calculating probabilities…' Metal Sonic turned to Ferra. 'There is a 99% chance of you succumbing to BioEnergy loss.'

''Yeah, I know…'' Ferra trailed off, looking back at the building. She rose an eyebrow. ''I wonder if we should alert Sonic and his friends to this place as well.'' She turned back to Metal Sonic, who gave her a questioning look. ''If we let them know that Shadow is here, they might get into a battle and once Sonic's friends are distracted, you would get the opportunity to defeat him.'' Ferra then shrugged. ''Admittedly, one shouldn't recycle old plans, but Shadow is no ordinary Irregular. Besides, we could also observe how Sonic is able to utilize BioEnergy. Overall, it would be a win for us.''

'Your proposal is acceptable,' Metal Sonic responded. 'Chances of us winning would increase.'

Ferra grinned, hopping on her hoverboard. ''Then, let's get everyone else here.''

She and Metal Sonic flew up, hovering just above the clearing that surrounded the Codex Research Facility, when the front entrance had suddenly opened and they spotted Shadow leaving. He looked quite focused, not noticing either of them as he skated below them towards Neos City. Ferra and Metal Sonic exchanged glances, both having the same question on their mind. If Shadow was going towards Neos City, where was Touka? Did they somehow miss each other?

Ferra noticed Metal Sonic flexing his claw-like fingers, aware that her partner saw Shadow as a threat. He turned his head towards her, with Ferra shaking her head.

''He is not our problem, Metal.''

xXx

Shadow crouched down, observing the hallway below the rooftop window he had opened. Having climbed up the Cyber Exploration Labs building, he tried to find a proper entrance to infiltrate the place. From what he knew, despite being a government facility, CyExLabs was also open to the public in hopes to draw more people with an interest in scientific research. He had noticed that the security was very lax, and while there were guards, it appeared that they were more focused on a group o college students following their guide, a bee ARNav, as he explained some of the projects CyExLabs was working on.

If they are so inattentive, then nobody should notice my presence. Shadow waited for the hallway to empty, then jumped down, using his air shoes to cushion his fall and quickly speed down while also keeping an eye on the cameras. Despite the fact that he doubted he would ever return to this place, he still didn't want to be detected. The last thing he needed was to have security send the Irregular Hunters after him.

He leaned against the wall, waiting for two researchers, who were too immersed in their conversation to notice him, and quickly sped off. He spent most of the day researching where he could find the necessary data, and while he wasn't completely familiar with the place, he had a general idea where it might be, thanks to the data he got from Codex. There was an archive room in the lower part of the building, which would hold the information he needed.

After avoiding another ARNav, Shadow looked up at the plaques, relieved that he found the archive room and quickly slipped inside. His eyes narrowed as he saw the rows of books and machines, hardware servers that kept all of the previous research in-tact. Fortunately, no one was inside, so he walked up to a computer, taking out an USB stick he kept inside his glove. Shadow had to admit that he didn't expect that he would have easy access to all the archives, having expected some kind of barrier, but it was possible that the people here were too trusting, to naive. This was what would lead to their downfall.

Shadow eventually took the USB stick out, having transferred the data and deleting his search history. His ears twitched when he heard the door opening and someone walking into the room, that being another ARNav.

''Uh, hello? Is anyone here?'' the rabbit ARNav called out, her ears twitching as she scanned the room. Unknown to her, Shadow hid behind some machinery, holding his breath as the rabbit ARNav explored the room. ''I saw someone entering this room on the cameras, so it would be better for you to reveal yourself and come with me. I promise, you won't get into trouble, just… agh!''

The rabbit ARNav jumped back when Shadow suddenly skated past her, getting out of the room faster than she could register. He then charged through the corridors, abandoning any sense of stealth in favour of speed. Unfortunately, due to the ARNav's interference, he had left the computer on, meaning someone would obviously check on it and figure out what he might've been searching for. However, by that point, he would be back at Codex.

Shadow stopped at a corridor, leaning against the wall and taking deep breaths. He heard humans and ARNavs yelling in confusion over having an intruder in the building, but he tried to ignore it, focusing instead on the area outside CyExLabs. Then, he teleported outside the building, only to find himself being surrounded by Irregular Hunters. It appeared that someone from CyExLabs had called them to deal with him.

''Commander Loki, we have found the Irregular,'' one of the Hunters said after his scanner confirmed his suspicions. ''Unit Gamma requests immediate back-up.''

''Hmph.'' Shadow clenched his fist, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the Hunters. Did they really believe that they could stop the Ultimate Life Form?

xXx

''Guys! Shadow is at CyExLabs!'' Lily practically screamed the moment the holographic screen opened, her and Knuckles having reached out to the team.

''We just saw Irregular Hunters heading towards the building. We are close; should we engage?'' Knuckles asked.

''No,'' Lucas replied, hearing noises of confusion coming from the rest of the team. ''Listen, we need to first separate Shadow from the Hunters. If we are going to end up fighting him, I don't want us to have to deal with the Hunters as well.''

''That's why I'll lure him out of the public to somewhere more private,'' Sonic added, having already talked to Lucas about their plan. He was already hopping on spot, preparing for a sprint. ''I'll be back in a flash.''

With that said, he ran off towards CyExLabs, having reached the place in a few seconds. However, even those seconds didn't matter, as Shadow had already defeated the Irregular Hunters, skating down the street, away from the CyExLabs. Sonic knew that, if Shadow teleported now, they would lose him for good. As for how he'd get Shadow to follow him, he wasn't completely sure.

Okay, this is what I'll do. Step one: Light taunting. Step two: I have no idea. Sonic hoped that this would work, preparing for the worst as he called out, ''Hey!''

Shadow turned around, visibly surprised to see Sonic here. ''You again…''

''I've found you, Faker!'' Sonic walked up to Shadow, pleased that he got the latter's attention.

''Faker? I think you're the fake hedgehog around here,'' Shadow replied. Admittedly, he was both annoyed and intrigued by Sonic's sudden appearance. ''You're comparing yourself to me? Ha! You're not even good enough to be my fake!''

''I'll make you eat those words!''

Sonic achieved exactly what he wanted, grinning when he saw Shadow charging at him. Instead of attacking back, he ran off towards the meeting spot he and Lucas had agreed on.

''Coward!'' Sonic heard Shadow yell behind him, but ignored it. It would take him just a few seconds until they arrived at a secure spot. He then entered a narrow street, dashing from wall to wall and jumping over a fence. Fortunately, Shadow was still following him without question.

''I thought you'd be able to keep up with me, Faker!'' Sonic taunted him. ''Looks like you're not as fast as I thought.''

''I'll show you…'' Shadow frowned, not even registering that Sonic had slowed down when they reached an underpass at an area devoid of people. He passed Sonic, then stopped, turning towards the blue hedgehog. His eyes narrowed. ''What is the meaning of this?''

''I want to talk to you,'' Sonic said in a calm tone. Shadow stepped back, glaring at the latter. ''You've been causing trouble among the Hunters, but I figured that you were just defending yourself, since you're an Irregular and all that. So, why are you here?''

''That is none of your business,'' Shadow responded curtly.

''It is if you are going to continue causing trouble for me, my friends and everyone else in Neos City,'' Sonic replied.

''Hmph, Neos City will soon be no more,'' Shadow responded. Sonic's smile vanished and he frowned as he observed Shadow.

''What are you talking about?'' he asked. ''I don't understand. Is Neos City in danger?''

''Neos City… All of the humans…'' Shadow started, slowly opening and closing his fist. His tone was calm, almost devoid of any emotion. ''I'll be the judge of their sins.''

Sonic felt a chill flowing down his spine as he saw Shadow's demeanor changing. ''What… are you…?''

''So, don't get in my way!'' Shadow yelled, summoning an orange and crimson bolt of energy, throwing it at Sonic.

''Wha-?!'' Sonic dodged Shadow's attack, with Shadow suddenly charging at him. Sonic crouched, managing to throw Shadow backwards, but the black-furred hedgehog landed on his feet, his air shoes keeping him in balance.

''Sonic!'' Both Sonic and Shadow looked up to the top of the underpass, with Lucas flying down on his hoverboard, stopping next to his partner. He and Sonic exchanged a nod, both turning towards Shadow, with Lucas adding, ''I had hoped that Sonic would be able to talk to you, but if you refuse to explain anything to us, then we'll have to fight you.''

''I will welcome any challenge,'' Shadow responded. Lucas turned to Sonic.

''Ready?''

''Yeah! Let's do it!''

Both extended their hands, with Sonic sensing Lucas' BioEnergy. They didn't even make any physical contact this time, yet a blue orb of energy appeared between them, with both exclaiming, ''Chaos Surge!''

To Shadow's shock, both absorbed the energy orb, both gaining an aura, with electric sparks surrounding their bodies. His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth as he realized what was going on, his voice only a whisper, ''How… dare you…?''

''Time for Round 2, Shadow!'' Sonic said, clenching his fists and taking a battle stance. Lucas stepped away, despite the overflowing energy he felt. He still couldn't control his super speed properly and he felt that it would be better to leave this one to Sonic. Not to mention, if he exhausted himself, then Sonic would lose power as well.

''Why… are you… using that…?'' Shadow continued, suddenly overwhelmed by a memory of the past. He could hear Touka screaming in fear; he could remember absorbing her BioEnergy; he could see her lying on the ground, motionless. Shadow felt a tranquil fury surging through his body, the sense of rage overwhelming him. He clenched his fist, summoning another bolt of energy. ''Unforgivable!''

Sonic dodged the bolt of energy Shadow had fired, stunning the latter with his increased speed. He suddenly appeared right in front of Shadow, kicking the latter into the gut. Shadow fell on one knee, blue sparks of electricity enveloping his body and paralyzing his limbs. Sonic stepped in front of him.

''Why are you so upset?'' Sonic asked. ''If we could just talk– agh!''

Sonic managed to dodge another bolt of energy, but Shadow suddenly teleported behind him, kicking him in the back of the head, his attack boosted by his air shoes. Sonic flew, hitting the pavement hard, but then got up again, just in time to dodge another bolt of energy.

''How dare you to utilize BioEnergy this way? Do you have a death wish?!'' Shadow yelled at both Sonic and Lucas.

''Wait, so you know about this?'' Lucas asked. Shadow gritted his teeth, feeling that he revealed a bit too much. After all, no one was supposed to know what BioEnergy could really do, especially in the hands of an Irregular.

''It doesn't matter,'' Shadow told the two. ''None of it will matter once I'm done with Neos City and everyone inhabiting it.''

''Wait!'' Lucas yelled, but it was too late. Shadow had already teleported away.

''What should we do now? He's gone!'' Sonic said, feeling the Chaos Surge power-up fading away. ''It sounded like he wants to take revenge on Neos City or something like that.''

''I-I don't know,'' Lucas replied, thinking about his next move as he felt a sudden sense of panic. They still had no idea what Shadow was up to, or even where he went to, but he was angry. ''This is bad news.'' Lucas tapped on the AR Visor, but just as he attempted to contact the rest of the team, he and Sonic were surprised by a blue blur ramming into the latter. ''Sonic!''

He ran over, helping his partner up, with Sonic placing his hand against his head. ''Ugh, that hurt… Huh?'' Both looked up to see who had attacked them, surprised to see a familiar face. ''Not again!''

It was Metal Sonic.

xXx

Touka was walking through Codex, having read the plate at the entrance and confirming that she was in the right place. She had no idea whether Shadow was still inside the facility and whether she would come across it, but she was confident that they would meet each other eventually. For now, she hoped that simply walking through the facility would help her regain more memories. Her gut feeling was telling her that she had actually walked through these corridors once, but it felt like she was in a trance.

Don't push yourself, Touka. Your memories will come back to you eventually… well, most of them should.

Admittedly, she could navigate through the building based on the pieces of memories she had and her own assumption of where everything was. Fortunately for her, she found herself walking through a familiar corridor, even though she wasn't completely sure to where it led. However, she was sure she was going the right way. As she continued exploring, some of the memories had resurfaced and she remembered being in a room, sitting on a bed and reading a book. There was also another memory of her being brought to the medbay because she had scraped her knee and was bleeding. Another thing she had recalled was sneaking into a storage-like area, trying to avoid being found by the people who had worked there.

''You are going to get yourself into trouble.''

''I know, but I want to learn what they're working on. They're never telling us anything about what's going on and its so frustrating to be constantly left in the dark.''

Touka smiled at the memory of her talking to Shadow while they were hiding inside the storage. She remembered there being an incident with another worker and them mentioning the storage, but when she asked about what had happened, she got dismissed and told that she shouldn't ask questions about stuff that didn't concern her directly.

''I don't think you are going to uncover anything here,'' Shadow had told her. ''Not to mention, the Professor is going to be angry if he finds out that we were here.''

Touka sighed, well aware that Shadow was right, but she was stubborn enough to continue, ''Maybe you should go back, so I'll be the only one to get into trouble, if found. We both know that he isn't that fond of me, so it doesn't matter what I do. He will just find another reason to scold me.''

''I'm not leaving you alone,'' Shadow responded in a firm tone. Touka just smiled back in response, nodding and knowing that her partner would stand by her side, not matter what.

Now, it's up to me to find him and put an end to this nightmare.

Touka walked into another corridor, realizing that this one led to the research part of the building and she felt her heart racing, only to feel suddenly someone grab her from behind, dragging her into a dark room. She tried to fight back, only feel a sharp sense of pain in the back of her body, then everything went black.

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