This story was written with Regular Sonic Fan, hope you guys enjoy it :D We worked together for all chapters
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Chapter 1: Beginnings
It was a cold afternoon on Mobius. The sky was blood red and the clouds were gray. Cool wind blew through the deserted city, where most of the buildings were destroyed. A black hedgehog ran through what was left of the streets. His left arm, leg and eye were robotic and he carried a handgun in his right hand.
He was constantly observing his surroundings for enemies while he ran. He came to a stop as he spotted a green hedgehog in the distance. A green hedgehog only wearing a ripped orange best and a pair of pants was pulling himself out from under a fallen building. He had some deep cuts on his legs, but nothing broken. 'Uugh...what happened? Where am I? Who am I?' He wondered. He held his head overwhelmed by the pain and amount of unanswered questions running through his head.
The black hedgehog, who went by the name of Shadow, slowly approached the green hedgehog. It was obvious he was in trouble but whether he was an enemy or not was something he had yet to determine. Once he was close enough for his voice to be heard he spoke to the other hedgehog to see if he was alright. "Hello...are you okay?"
Manic gets a little scared of Shadow's appearance and stumbles back onto some pieces of glass, which sink into his back. "Ah!" He cries out in pain as the shards of class pierce small openings in his flesh. He begins to bleed.
Shadow flinches a little at the pained scream and decides to help him. 'In state he's in he won't last long out here'. He crouches down so that he's eye level with Manic. "Look I have no interest in harming you, I only want to help" Shadow extends his arm to him. Manic looks deeply into the hedgehog's eyes, wondering if he could really trust someone who's appearance was so bizarre. Not to mention he was a stranger to him in this unknown location.
He sighed and tried to ignore the pain on his back. 'Guess I've got no choice' He reached out and grabbed Shadow's hand and pulled himself up. "Th-thanks" Manic whispers. Then the sound of groans and grunts begins to approach. Shadow becomes tense when he hears the noise from up ahead causing him to draw his weapon. He looks to Manic unsure of how much of a burden he will be while fighting. "Can you move on your own?" he asks hoping that he can at least walk with out needing assistance.
Manic hesitates to answer, but nods in response soon after. "Y-yeah" he reassures Shadow. His back starts to bleed more but he ignores it. He looks down at his chest feeling a mysterious force then he sees his medalliom shining. "Wh-what's going on?" He asks out loud, oblivious to the danger approaching.
Shadow stares at his medallion for a moment out of curiosity but his attention quickly returns to the enemies that are coming.
"Whatever it is it, can wait til after we get to a safer area, now either focus and fight or find somewhere to hide" He says trying to look ahead without being seen to see how many enemies there are. "That's...th-that's..are those-...?" Manic stands there dumbfounded, frozen in fear. He lifts up a shaking finger and points to the zombies. He accidentally throws a rock at them with a green force coming from the medallion.
The rock hits the zombies, bringing attention to Shadow and Manic. He glares at manic in anger and disbelief at what he'd just done. "Are you trying to get us killed?!" he shouted as he aimed his gun at the nearing zombies and took a few shots.
The nearest zombie gets shot in the head, making some blood and contents of the skull splatter on the pavement. Another got shot in the knees, making it no longer possible to walk. Unfortunately, it continues to crawl. "I-I'm sorry, man! I didn't mean to!" Manic says holding his hands up in defense. However, this causes more parts from the fallen building to be lifted up by the mysterious green force of the medallion. Then the rocks are shot at Shadow, knocking him over.
"Aaahh!" Shadow yells as he holds his head and gets to his feet. Facing Manic he says. "Just go find somewhere to hide and stay out of my way, obviously you do more harm than good" After that, he runs off to fight the remaking zombies on his own. He takes most of them down with ease, but then realizes he's low on bullets. Manic runs off away from the zombies. Sweat runs down his face as he pants while running. 'Just what the hell is going on? Zombies, cyborgs, destruction everywhere?' He slows down his pace and comes to a complete stop when he gets tired. He leans against the alley wall and puts his hands to his knees, catching his breath. 'Wait a minute, my back doesn't hurt anymore'
He slowly moves a hands to his lower back and rubs the skin and fur around his quills. Amazingly, there is no glass and no traces of cuts caused by them. Shadow begins to pant as he continues to fight of the zombies. He would have defeated them much faster had he not run out of bullets. He punched one in the stomach and kicked another in the skull. It wasn't much but it was all he could do without a chaos emerald. 'I..don't know how much longer I can keep this up' Meanwhile Manic sits against the wall letting questions run through his head. 'What happened to this place? What am I doing here? Why can't I remember anything?'
He made his right hand into a fist and a piece of broken pavement lifted up as his medallion started to glow once again. 'And what is it with this medallion?'
After a while of fighting, Shadow finally killed the last of the zombies. He slowly made his way to a nearby building and slid down the wall til he was sitting down. 'That was too close, I can't keep fighting those things on my own like this' at that thought he remembered the hedgehog that he had met not too long ago. 'I should probably go find him..probably got himself killed by now'
He got up and ran in the direction he had sent the injured hedgehog in. Manic gets up and throws random kicks and punches, throwing rocks and pieces of pavement. "Woah, this is fucking awesome!" Manic yells excitedly, quickly forgetting his surroundings and the situation he is in. Shadow slowed down his speed and walk up to Manic.
"Unless you want to get the attention of the other zombies in the are, I suggest you keep your voice down!" He then noticed that his wounds have healed and was able to move with ease. "What happened to your injuries?"
Manic jumps in surprise and falls backwards. "Uh...sorry" he said. "My injuries healed, and I don't know why" he adds looking at Shadow's robotic parts more carefully. 'There's something odd about him...' Shadow thinks as he tried to figure put what could have caused Manics wounds to heal so quickly. After a few moments he notices him staring at his metallic limbs. "What?!" he asks annoyed and uncomfortable. Manic looks away intimated by Shadow's attitude "I-I'm sorry" he apologized. Not knowing what else to do or say, he waits for Shadow to speak first. 'Wonder what happened to him. Come to think of it, what year is it?' Shadow rolls his eyes and looks in the other direction. "Whatever" he said quickly ending the conversation. After a few moments he turned back to Manic. "We should get moving, its not safe here"
"R-right" Manic responds. He gets up to his feet and follows Shadow. 'He's the only one I can trust, I mean he did save my ass'
"I'm really confused, can...can you please tell me what the hell is going on here? Why were there zombies? Why is everything destroyed? Last time I checked zombies weren't real" Shadow turns back to face Manic, wondering how he possibly couldn't have know about everything that's been going on.
"You don't know..? A few years ago a virus spread throughout the area, Many were infected and those who weren't quickly fled" Manic scratches his head still slightly confused. He takes a minute or two to let it all sink in. "It sounds like out of a sci fi movie" Manic exclaims a little shocked.
He looks up at the sky and sees the sky becoming darker as night as approaches. He quickens up his pace to catch up to Shadow and walk by his side. "What's your name? What year is it?"
"My name is Shadow the hedgehog... and the year is 2045." Shadow informed him not sure how anyone could be so poorly infomed of the current situation. He decided to ask him about it. "Why is it you know so little about what's going on?" Manic stopped his footsteps and froze in terror and disbelief.
"Wh...wh-what?!" Manic questioned. "This can't be! No no no, this...has gotta be a nightmare or something. M-maybe I'm high. Last time I checked the calendar it was 1999!" Shadow turned around to face Manic, a look of confusion and disbelief on his face. "What? Time travel technology no longer exists. So even if what you say is true how did you end up this far into the future?" He asked as he crossed his arms waiting for an answer. Manic hesitates to answer, but eventually shrugs in response. "I...I don't know, man. I-I told ya I don't remember very much. And what are you talking about? Time travel was impossible in my time!"
Shadow decided to give up on trying to get answers out of him for the time being. "Technology had come a long way since your time, but after the virus came and destroyed everything. No traces of it were left."
"Man That's terrible..." Manic sighed. He tried avoiding that certain thought, but it was no longer possible. There was no point in avoiding it. He had to face the truth. "So if it has been so long, does that mean that everything I knew how to do is no longer useful? And that.." He paused and swallowed before adding "And that everyone I knew is...is dead either because of the virus o-or age?"
Shadow sighed, he was expecting him to ask that. He just nodded his head and gave a simple "Yes" as an answer. He didn't want to overcomplicate things or bring back memories of those he's lost. They continued to walk silently through what was left of the city. They became closer and closer to the woods and Manic's curiosity as well as suspicion began to rise.
"Where are we going?" He questioned cautiously. Shadow kept his gaze fixed straight ahead, occasionally looking around. "Into the woods, we'll hide out there for now and continue moving in the morning" he informed Manic.
"Are we going to an specific location or are we just walking farther from the city?" asked Manic. He steps on something sticky and looks down. There is a stain of red, sticky substance. 'Blood? Well with all the zombies and whatnot that's not very amusing' He shrugs it off and continues to walk and wait for Shadow to answer. "There's a place in the woods where I keep my ammo. We'll spend the night there, then continue in the morning" Shadow answered.
"Cool" he said with a smile. 'This guy's really nice'
"Man, I feel like an idiot. What's your name?" Manic asked trying to remember his own name at the same time. 'I am saying "man" a lot. It gives me that deja vu, maybe my name starts with those the letters?' Shadow raised a brow , not sure how his memory could have become so poor.
" ...Its Shadow, Shadow the hedgehog. And you are?" He asked realizing that up til now he had forgot to ask him his name. "Uh...um...I'm..." Manic struggled to remember his own name. He thought that maybe verbalizing would help, so he verbalized what he thought were the three first letters of his name and an extra syllable until something felt natural. "Man...man...man...mana.. Manu..maneh...mani...maniac... Manic...? Yeah, Manic"
Shadow looked at him in disbelief. He knew his memory was damaged, that much was obvious, but he didn't expect it to be that bad. "You're not sure what your name is?" Manic simply shakes his head and looks around. His heart begins to beat faster feeling frustrated at himself and sad that he cannot remember the simplest of things such as his own name and age.
Shadow shrugs not seeing it as a big problem. "I'm sure you'll remember sooner or later" After a short while, he notices that they're close to their destination. "The area I told you about isn't much farther, we should be their soon. He said as he sped up to get there quicker. Manic speeds up his pace to keep up with him, but feels his bladder full.
"Uh...Shadow I gotta pee" he said holding the part below his stomach with both hands. By now the sky was almost black and the only light illuminating their way was the moon. The reason Manic told Shadow was because, even though he hated to admit it, he wasa little afraid of what ever that could be hiding in the darkness of the forest. Shadow became slightly annoyed that they had to stop so suddenly when they were almost there. He crossed his arms and sighed. "Fine, just make it quick. Its already dark out." He goes over to a tree, unzips his pants and does his business. He sighs in relief, feeling a heavy load of liquid exiting his body. Shadow waits for Manic to finish while impatiently tapping his foot and looking around.
He finishes and continues to walk with Shadow until they reach the shack. It was just a small shack made of old wood, nothing special. It was filled with dusty boxes, and all kinds of weapons such add knifes and guns. "Thanks, Shadow" Manic said with a smile and a light blush on his face. "No problem" Shadow replied as he made his way to one of the boxes inside the shack.
He grabbed a pack of bullets and loaded them into his gun. Manic watches him do so for a while and can't restrain his gaze from wondering around Shadow's body. He wondered what had happened to him, and if there were more parts inside him that were mechanical, but not viewable to the naked eye. "By the way, I don't mean to be rude or anything but...why are you helping me?" Manic questioned.
Shadow shrugged his shoulders as he answered. "No reason. I just figured that I stood more of a chance with another person than fighting those things alone."
"Oh" Manic sat on the ground and made himself comfortable. 'At first glance he seems very dangerous and aggressive, but he's not very aggressive, only towards his enemies I guess. Better stay on his good side' Manic thought.
He continued to stare at Shadow while his mind began to drift into deep thought absently. Shadow sat down after making sure the ammo was properly in his gun. He had a bored expression on his face til he noticed Manic staring at him. A light blush made its way on his cheeks, but was hidden by his annoyed outburst. "What are you staring at me for?" Manic opened his mouth, but said nothing for a couple of seconds.
He blinked multiple times and shook his head to break out of his daze. "Sorry, it's just that your parts are fucking awesome. Are you like robocop...or something?" Manic asked wagging his tail. Shadow looked taken aback by his compliment and took a short while to answer. "Ummm...I-I suppose you could say that."
"That's awesome" Manic says with a smile. Then he yawns. "I'm gonna crash, that chill?" Shadow raises a brow in confusion as to what he just said. He just decided to dismiss it with a simple "...okay"
"Okay, G'night" manic said with one last yawn. He lays on the ground and makes himself comfortable by putting his arms behind his head and closing his eyes. Shadow slightly smiles at the other hedgehog, before laying his head against the wall behind him and falling asleep himself. Manic dreams of multiple things involving his childhood.
He reassures himself that his name is Manic and that, before whatever happened, he was around sixteen or seventeen. Some hours later, he starts to make noises in his sleep. "Aaahh" Shadow gets woken from his sleep by manic and looks around quickly to see if they're being attacked. He notices that Manics still asleep. "He must be having a nightmare.. though with way things are its expected." Manic turns and turns, moaning one more time. His face has a light blush and his tail continues to wag uncontrollably.
Shadow tilts his head to the side and raises a brow. "I wonder what he's dreaming about, he doesn't appear to be scared, so it can't be a nightmare..." Manic begins to breath heavily. He slowly opens his eyes and sits up. He stays sitting up for about half asleep before he gets up and walks outside. 'Even in a zombie apocalypse I still get those stupid dreams, I guess before this happened I was a mega pervert'
Shadow goes out to see if he's ok. "Hey you shouldn't be out here by yourself without a weapon at least" Manic doesn't part attention to Shadow's words, he just hears his voice. "Sure, be there in a minute" he grunted and carried on with his inappropriate and lustful activity. Shadow raises a brow in confusion not sure as to what Manic was doing. He took a step closer to him to try to see better.
Shadow sees what Manic is doing. Manic's cheeks become red and his breathing increases while he sweats and continues with his eyes shut. "Oooohhh" Shadows cheeks grow red as he sees what manic is doing. He decides to go back inside and wait for him to come in. Manic continues to do so for about 30 minutes for going back inside. he finds shadow awake and hopes that he had just woken up.
"Uh...hey"
Shadow feels awkward and avoids looking at him. "H-hey.." Manic senses the awkwardness and opens his mouth to ask, but realizes that maybe he wasn't that discreet about what he had done before. He gives Shadow a nervous smile and says "Um..so...do ya...uh..have any clean water in any of the boxes or something?"
"Uh yes" Shadow says as he goes to one of the boxes in the shack and rumages through it til he pulls out a water bottle and tosses it to Manic. He catches it, opens it and takes a sip. 'This bootle looks kinda old, do they reuse the bottles too much?' They get ready and head out.
They take about all day getting there, do in a meantime, Manic tries to make conversation. "So, what happened to ya?" Shadow sighs as he remembers what happened. "I lost my limbs in an explosion, not too long after the virus spread and the city was in ruins." He didn't want to go into detail.. he felt it was too personal. "Oh man...I'm sorry to hear that" he said not really knowing what else to say. They eventually get to their location at night. It was an old wooden cabin in the forest.
Some parts of the cabin were made of sheet metal and it was surrounded by a fence. Shadow carefully led Manic inside. Inside it was just empty aside from the people inside and some candles top light up the room. Apparently there was no electricity. A purple cat, a yellow fox, a a blue hedgehog, a red echidna and a white bat are were eating on the ground. They all glanced up at their dark comrade and turned their gaze to the newcomer. Manic received a couple of suspicious looks from them.
"Who's this?" Questioned the red echidna standing to his feet. The rest did the same. "I found him when I was going through the city, he was wounded so I helped him" Shadow explained to his comrades. He walked passed the echidna and took a seat next to the white bat and motioned for Manic to do so as well. Manic hesitates and feels awkward, but follows Shadow and sits next Shadow.
"Shadow, you do realize that he could be a spy, right?" The people cat, Blaze, asks. She eyes his damaged clothes and adds "And not a good one" Shadow sighed annoyed that the others were always so quick to jump to conclusions. "He's not a spy. And with his poor memory I doubt he'd retain any information"
Shadow said as he crossed his arms. "He has amnesia?" Asked Tails. "I'll still keep my eyes open" murmured Blaze. While they began to gain in discussion, the white bat's eyes meet Manic's, only to be greeted by a wink. Absently, his tail started to wag.
Shadow looks down as he feels something hitting him and sees that its Manics tail, he elbows him to and points to his tail to get him to stop. Manic apologizes and moves to an angle where his tail no longer bothers Shadow.
Rouge begins to flirt with Manic as the rest talk. "If we can really trust him, then you wouldn't mind if we choose him to guard for the night, right?" Blaze asked Shadow. Shadow shrugged not seeming to care or understand why his comrades where so quick to distrust Manic. "Whatever, do whatever you need to do "
Tails didn't seem so sure about the idea, but decided to keep his mouth shut and stay out of the argument. While that was going on, the bat began to flirt with their new 'friend' simply out of boredom and seeing no harm in doing so.
The others were distracted, so she might as well have fun with the new hedgehog. She did seductive gestures as age spoke to the green one, such as licking her lips, looking at him in a lustful way and bitting her lip. Manic began to blush while talking to the white bat . He was both flattered and surprised that someone as good looking as her would have interest in him. Rouge smirks and asks "So, hold are you , Manic?"
"S..seventeen" Manic replies. Rouge continues to smirk and she scotches a little closer to Manic. She eyes him from head to toe. 'He's quite attractive for his age' she thinks lustfully and maliciously.
"Heheheh, Manic you're quite cute. Are you a virgin?" Rouge asks, going somewhat straight to the point. In her own mind she finds herself sexually bored of her male comrades and therefore hits on Manic. She looks at Shadow to make sure that he's not paying close attention to them and continues to talk.
"Blaze are you sure that you're not just frustrated and preoccupied with Amy's absence?" Sonic asks Blaze. She looks away and excuses herself. Amy had gone to explore the forest earlier that day and she had not returned.
Manic noticed her leave and wonder why she left so suddenly, but decided to pay no mind to it and continued talking to Rouge. His muzzle turned red and he begab to rub the back of his neck as he answered her question. "I...uhm...Y-yeah" he admitted.
"Would you like me to change that?" Rouge asks, unfortunately, Shadow hears. Manic struggles to give a straight answer to due his shock at what she had asked him. Meanwhile Shadow shot her an annoyed and dissaproving glare. Before going in the direction Blaze went. Rouge ignores him and tells Manic that his decisions can wait.
Shadow went to the bedroom and found Blaze on her knees praying by the bed. The cabin was somewhat small, so they had to share a bedroom with bunk beds. "Do you not know there is no such thing as God?" Shadow asked crossing his arms and interrupting Blaze's prayer in the process. "I have my beliefs, and you have yours. So leave me alone!" Blaze snapped.
"Praying for Amy, I presume. Asking for help to an invisible, non existent being" continued Shadow, ignoring her earlier comment. "You might not have faith in someone or something, Shadow, but I do"
"...Then why did your so called 'God' allowed this to happen?" Shadow growled. Blaze looked him straight in the eye and said "Because things happen for a reason" Shadow sighed.
It wasn't his intention, but he has probably upset his friend even more than she already was. He turned his back on her and began to walk away, but stopped at the door. "Amy will me fine, you taught her how to defend herself after all. She'll survive, with or without God" he said before leaving the room, and leaving Blaze alone with her thoughts.
Later that night Manic was told that all he has to do is keep the the hideout safe. If something other than zombies comes near, he has to alert them. He is given a shotgun and some ammo before the rest head inside. At around three in the morning, Rouge comes out to talk to Manic. Manic smiles a bit when he sees her. He wonders why she came out to see him. "Uh...hey Rouge"
"Hey Manic" she says with a smirk. "Have you thought about it?" She adds. Manic blushes as he remembers they're earlier conversation. "I..uh..y-yeah" he stutters nervously. Rouge moves closer to him and lays a hand on his chest.
"Maybe you could lose it tonight" she whispers seductively. Manic turns red and his tail starts to wag. He tries to remain calm while he answers her. "Y-yeah "
'This is going to be fun' she thinks.
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