Dark Future
Chapter 1: Enter Shadow
The view shows a figure in a prison cell wearing a cloak, a hood over its head so you couldn't see the face.
These are the worst of times that no one would rather think about. Dr. Eggman has finally won and created Robotnik Land over Station Square, the once beautiful and thriving city. Sonic had fallen to the likes of Eggman's robot, Metal Sonic. Creating a copy of his mortal enemy? Couldn't he make anything stronger? How pathetic. Tails isn't dead but he is a personal servant to the fat ass himself, poor fox. I wish someone could put an end to this but a rebellious attitude wasn't accepted. As soon as you get all high and mighty you've dug your grave. No heroes are tolerated here, no one to come to your rescue, just you and hundreds of robots, next you're laying lifeless in the pool of your own blood. Shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, it doesn't matter how it happens; it is their way of keeping everyone in check. It's a damn shame that I've gone through this for 10 years, from about the day it started until now! This all started when I was a young teen; I'm not even sure of my true age. Although I couldn't avoid being captured myself, I do put some blame on everyone's reliance on Sonic and Tails, they're supposed to be heroes after all. It can't be helped on dwelling on this won't solve a damn thing. Right now it's rest time so no guards are checking on anybody but in the morning, everyone will be worked to death again with no paycheck and scarce amounts of food. This is no way to live and I've already come to terms with the possibility that I might die. Tomorrow, I'll tell whoever I can about my plan and then a rebellion will begin...
Thunder crackles over a large, high-tech city. The view zooms in on people working on a machine while robots crack at them with whips, one of them is Shadow, worker #718. The workers are wearing a variety of clothing but the overall their clothing looks similar to that of prison jumpsuit; the small ID number tags do little to break the illusion that this is not a prison.
"Move it!" shouts a robot as it whips near Shadow's head.
"Ow! How is anyone supposed to get some work done around here if you keep cracking those whips? It's hard on the ears." Shadow growls as he places a long metal piece into a slot of a machine. A loud-speaker cuts on and you hear Eggman's theme play.
"Robotnik Radio, playing Eggman music 24/7" announces the loud-speaker as it continues playing his theme. Shadow decided to mock it by singing stupidly in a high voice.
"I am the enemy, I will succeed, my mission, yeah, I must-" WHACK! "OUCH!" Shadow is interrupted by the crack of the whip on his back. "Alright, I'm working, I'm working! Hmph, no sense of humor!" Just then an alarm rings.
"10 minute break time!" shouts the chief supervisor robot. Everyone gets into a crowded food hall with rows of tables. Shadow sits at the edge of the table and a hooded figure comes over and sits in front of him.
"Psst!" the figure hisses, trying to get his attention. Shadow slowly gazes at the figure.
"Who are you?" Shadow asks abstractedly as he eat from his bowl of chow.
"Nevermind that, I have a plan the will get us out of here and I need you to help!"
"We can't get out of here, we'll get shot if we tried!"
"I know but my plan will pull through and we'll be home free! All you have to do is trust me, please!" The black hedgehog sits in thought for a moment, he always wondered how it would be to lead a different life instead of his slave-like style of life. It had always been in him for reasons unknown to him.
"Hmm, sure, what the hell? I'll help but if you screw me over then-" The figure interrupts.
"Then you can kill me!"
"Alright, I'm with you then!"
"We'll start at rest time" The figure gets up and dashes away almost as quickly as it appeared.
"I'm still not sure about this but I'm gonna have to trust her for now..."
Rest Time, 12:00 A.M.
Shadow is sitting in his cell while a guard walks around. A door is heard opening.
"We have an unknown wanderer dashing about. It's been a long time since we've had one. I'm hoping to have a bit of fun!" says a voice to the guard. "That person ran in this general area, did you see them?"
"No foreign presence seen in this area!" announces the guard.
"How boring. Report any suspicious activity then." The door closes and everything is silent. A ring rolls into Shadow's cell and stops in front of him. Shadow looks up to see the figure in the cell across from him.
"When the guard gets near your cell, push him over to me and I'll take care of the rest!" The figure announces fairly loudly. Shadow nods and footstep steps approach their direction. "It's coming here, get ready!" The guard goes over to her cell.
"Shut up and don't speak!" shouts the guard.
"I'm not the one to judge but what he said seemed a little redundant." thought Shadow to himself. The guard backs up and Shadow spots the opening! He skates over to the bars and shoves the guard robot to the figure who grabs it and makes its head combust somehow. She opens her cell and then releases Shadow. "Finally!" The figure opens the door and runs through, Shadow follows while wondering how she opened both cells and how she didn't wake the other prisoners in the process. They reach a large freight elevator. The figure presses some buttons and the elevator begins to move.
"OK, this is where we really gotta be careful, Fatman programmed these tin cans to be aggressive!" say the figure. "I have a safe place that we can hide and think of a plan"
"Whatever!" shouts Shadow. "Listen, if we get caught, I'm blaming it all on you!"
"Stop being so hot-headed and think! It's midnight so no one will notice that we're gone until morning when we have to work, that'll give us enough time to find a way out of this dump!"
"If we can find a way!" The elevator stops. "IF we can find a way..." Shadow and the figure walk on an empty sidewalk and suddenly a number of search helicopters are seen in the distance. Shadow feared the worst. "See! Now they are gonna catch us and whip us!" The figure is now angry.
"ARE YOU GONNA GIVE UP THAT EASILY? They haven't even spotted us yet!" The figure grabs Shadow's hand. "Just concentrate on keeping up with me!" The figure ran faster than Shadow expected leaving fire marks where she ran. Shadow tries hard to keep up.
"Heeeeey! Slow down, you're going too faaast!" They are running from a passing helicopter's searchlight and then the figure leaps into an alley and the helicopter passes by. Shadow tries hard to catch his breath. "I'm fast but...that didn't seem ordinary!"
"Are you gonna follow me or not!" Metallic footsteps are heard. "Shut up or they'll hear us!" Shadow is getting angry and anxious.
"I'm going on my own! You seem a little unhinged." Shadow turns and walks off to the other side of the alley.
"Fine, you'll be sorry!" Shadow arrives at a street lined up with parked police cars.
"Maybe I'll find my own way out if I hijack one of these!" Shadow walks into their direction but to his surprise, they are actually robots!
"Prisoner out of cell! Violation code: #2361, suspect must be exterminated!" announces one of the cars.
"Oh crap!" cries Shadow as the robots front bumpers opened up to reveal machine guns, the other cars followed. Shadow hastily skated down the street as the cars fire continuously at him, every shot missing him more closer than the last. "Oh man! Why didn't I just stay in my cell?" Shadow crosses a bridge then hears some explosions and the firing stopped. Shadow turns around to see the figure surprisingly shooting fireballs out of its hands, she dodges the machine guns with ninja-like agility while blasting them and causing them to explode. Shadow watches in awe. The figure takes out the last robot with ease and looks at Shadow.
"Hey, I can barely see you Mr. Black, it's night time! Hahaha!" says the figure, rolling with laughter.
"Thanks for saving me but I did have a plan ya know." Shadow coyly replies.
"To get killed isn't exactly the best plan I've heard of. You don't even know this place well!"
"Yeah, well, I'll get used to it!"
"Damn, why do you need to be so stuck-up and stubborn? You're gonna need me if you want to survive around here, Mr. Black." Shadow is already on his way. "HEY! Grrr...hmph!" The girl goes into another direction.
"Who do she think she is?" Shadow feels a heavy shock wave and looks around. "Now what?" A large mechanical over-sized turtle comes from around the corner and looks down at Shadow. Shadow looks up at it; it's about 10 times the size of him. "Not-good-at-all!"
"What are you doing out of cell at this time?" asks the robot.
"Um... er... I... got lost?" The robot searches within its database and matches a picture of Shadow.
"Information not found! Rebel extermination in progress!"
"Not again..." Two large missiles came out of it's shell and aims directly at the black hedgehog. "!" A ball of fire comes and blows up the missiles causing a huge explosion that illuminates the area. Shadow slowly turns around to spot the figure once again.
"Saving your life has become a part-time job, Mr. Black!" she says with a smirk. Shadow slowly backs away from her as she approaches.
"What... who are you?"
"I believe that I never introduce myself I am..." The figure slowly pulls her hood off to reveal an light red female hedgehog with eyes brown as bronze which seemed to gleam in the street light. "Flare. Flare the Hedgehog. Nice to meet you." Shadow looks astounded at her.
"S-so you were using those fire attacks?"
"You got it. That's my specialty!"
"Now I've seen everything..."
"Thanks to you, we attracted some of Eggman's robots so we'll have to esc-" Before Flare can finish her sentence. multitudes of robots swarm the area and surround them.
"It's her fault!" shouts Shadow, pointing at Flare.
"I can get us out of this!" Flare grabs onto Shadow.
"Hey! What are you-"
"CHAOS TELEPORT!" Flare and Shadow vanished in a flash right before all the robots fire at them.
