The Future, exact location unknown:

The world is destroyed. Ever since I was born, the people have been living in fear. We have been crushed, shattered, almost obliterated completely, by an army so vast we cannot hope to defeat it. An army of steel, blades, fire and death. At their head is the most powerful being in the known universe. He eradicated my planet with ease. He built himself an empire. He has expanded throughout the galaxy, taking worlds, destroying them, consuming them. He cannot be stopped, not any longer. He is too powerful.

I resist him. Me and two others. We are the sole members of a pathetic excuse for a resistance on this planet, his home. An outdated robot designated Omega, a black hedgehog named Shadow, and myself. Silver the Hedgehog.

We can never hope to do anything more than annoy the powerful force that dominates Earth. We attack him sometimes. We fight. Mostly, we lose.

Sometimes we even win.

But the cold truth of the matter is that we are nothing but a miniscule thorn in his metallic side. He can destroy us utterly any time he wants to, but he is amused by us. He never lifts a finger to kill us himself, but somehow we are still mercilessly beaten back by his army. Even with that biomechanical monster not engaged against us, we can never get close enough to touch him.

We are the only ones who resist him. For a time, some people rebelled, rose against him and his empire. He annihilated them. No one resists anymore. No one except us.

One rusted, blackened robot that will soon crumble into spare parts, one wounded, beaten hedgehog, and me.

There is no hope in my world. Not anymore. But I – we – still fight. Because I still retain a sliver of my original hope: someday we will find a way to defeat him. Despite all the odds, we can still triumph.

Shadow says I am delusional. He fights merely out of personal grievance with that metal monster, since it destroyed almost every one of his friends. I call them friends. He calls them accomplices, but he felt for them, we all know it. He fights to avenge them, not because he thinks we can save the world.

Omega? Omega is a cold, detached robot. He hardly cares about the fate of humanity – in fact, some two hundred years ago, he despised most humans for their barbarity and foolishness. He fights out of an allegiance to Shadow, and because he too has been personally wounded by our enemy.

Me? I fight for this planet and every other one that he has assimilated into his dark empire. I still think I can free them. Despite the scepticism and sometimes outright disdain of my companions, I still believe it.

I can still save everyone from him. From that monstrous, terrible being that a brilliant but unwitting scientist created two hundred years ago. He had no idea what he was unleashing upon the universe, and he paid with his life for his mistakes. Two hundred years since his creation rose to power. Two hundred years he has ruled us. Him.

Spore.

x x x x

Silver crouched quietly behind the crumbled remains of what used to be a building, and was now nothing more than a pile of rusted concrete. Not ten feet away, two Hunter robots were clanking around with their thunderous, metallic steps, searching for him. He peeked his head out from behind his meager blockade, and immediately withdrew it as a red search laser crossed over the scorched asphalt less than a meter from his face.

The two Hunters' robotic heads revolved slowly on their necks, their cold red eyes surveying the ruined street. Silver shut his eyes, sweat pouring down his brow. If they found him, he was finished. There was no way he could defeat two Hunters in his present state. He was hurt, bleeding, and exhausted. He barely had enough strength to levitate, forget fighting. Even at his peak strength, he still might not be able to defeat them. The Hunters were the most powerful unit in Spore's main infantry, apart from the Seven Destroyers he had created. Five of the Destroyers were off-world, but two were still present on Earth.

Less than fifty feet away, Shadow was crouched in the flaming wreckage of the remains of another building. The heat must have been unbearable, but the charred hedgehog barely flinched. His red eyes were trained on the two Hunters as they continued to scan the streets. Another hundred feet away, Silver could see the blackened, rusted bulk of Omega, stationary in the darkness of a ruined alley. He could tell at a glance that the robot had entered his sleep mode in order to prevent his systems from being detected by the Hunters.

Speaking of which, why haven't they detected our vitals? Silver wondered, staring at the two fifteen-foot tall robots as they aimed their machine gun cannon arms around the street. They should have found us by now...

He glanced over at Shadow again, and then realized why they were still undiscovered. Shadow's remaining arm was glowing ever so slightly with a dark purple energy. He was using a minimal dose of Chaos energy to mask their presence, but not enough to be detected by the Hunter's sensitive scanners. Silver felt a rush of gratitude.

"Signal lost. Biotics and non-biotic in Sector 7 assumed to have relocated. Conduct sweep of the area from altitude level .7 miles." A garbled, mechanical voice emitted from one of the Hunter's speech devices, and in the next second there was a powerful whoosh as bright blue jets of flame burst from the jets embedded in their back. A cloud of dust, grit and exhaust fumes swarmed around the two Hunters in a cyclone as they slowly rose into the air, before turning and blasting upward at an alarming rate, disappearing over the high-rise of a leaning building.

Silver didn't move for five more minutes, as was protocol. Then, after counting down the extra 30 second waiting time, he looked over at Shadow, who made an imperceptible jerk of his head, towards the alley where Omega was. Silver nodded, and then darted out from his hiding place, flying as fast as he could toward the relative cover of the alley, a green psychokinetic aura around his white fur. He expected a hailstorm of bullets and missiles to come raining down upon him from above, but they didn't. The Hunters must be sweeping another area.

Shadow blurred past him in a flurry of speed and was inside the alley in seconds. He was much faster than Silver could ever hope to be, but Silver made up for it with his telekinetic strength.

As he reached the alley, Omega was emerging from sleep mode. His dark red eyes immediately scanned the streets for any sign of movement, and then his rusted joints squeaked as he straightened up. "Sector clear," Omega stated in a quiet monotone. Shadow nodded. "Then it's time for us to leave."

"But we haven't got what we came for," Silver protested. Shadow looked at him sharply. "You're so naive. We cannot hope to accomplish our mission in our present condition. The raid failed, that's all there is to it. We leave now."

Silver knew a dismissal when he heard one. He nodded silently, and the three darted further down the alley, taking a maze of turns and pathways as they attempted to get out of what used to be Westopolis, once upon a time.

Their mission had been to break into Spore's Nexus, which was what they called his main base of operations. It was the size of three cities put together, a vast factory where he produced his army of androids. He also kept the seven Chaos Emeralds somewhere inside. Silver wanted to steal the Emeralds, as they could possibly be the key to destroying Spore once and for all. Shadow and Omega had refused point-blank to mount an assault on the Nexus, stating it was suicide. Omega had been quite matter-of-fact. "The percentage of success of breaking into Spore's Nexus is approximately 12.37. Likelihood of even reaching the Nexus itself is 22.4 per cent. Likelihood of being shot down more than three miles away from the Nexus is 89.42 per cent." Shadow has been much less eloquent. "You want to break into that death trap as a three person army? Don't make me laugh." And that was that.

They had compromised by deciding to cause ruckus in the ruins of Westopolis, which was the closest Spore-controlled area to the Nexus. Silver had argued that by creating destruction, Spore would send his forces in after them to kill them once and for all, which he had. Silver had also however thought that this would leave the Nexus somewhat less protected. Which it wasn't.

As they neared the outskirts of Westopolis, Silver shook his head. Things were looking more hopeless by the minute. Spore had sent literally hundreds of robots to destroy them, and the defences of the Nexus hadn't been compromised in the slightest. How can we possibly win? Silver thought desperately. He has us by the throats.

The trio crossed a wrecked city road and began to turn and proceed east out of the area. Preoccupied with his thoughts, Silver didn't see a shadow flit at the edge of his vision. Suddenly, the asphalt in front of his feet exploded.

"Snipers!" Shadow yelled. "Take cover!"

x x x x

Shadow cursed under his breath as he swerved and ducked at the same time, his air shoes flaring as he went into a controlled circular spin. Bullets rained down from above, peppering the ground around him. He scanned the blown apart rooftops rapidly as he dodged left and right, avoiding the bullet storm. There! Several muzzle flashes from four... no five, rooftops. They were strategically placed so that they could cover the entire street.

No, not the entire street. There was a large crater from some sort of bomb in the middle of the road, and bits of ruined concrete might provide a good shelter...

At that second, Silver glowed green and the ruined pieces of concrete went sailing into the air, colliding with a loud bang with one of the rooftops. There was a bright explosion as one of the robotic snipers incinerated.

So much for that.

Shadow put on a burst of speed and ran straight at the wall of one building that was being used by a sniper. A bullet clipped his side and it felt like a red hot poker had been driven into his fur. Snarling in rage, Shadow leaped and ran straight up the building, before somersaulting into the air at the top and slamming feet first into the lanky, metallic sniper robot, which did not bring up its handheld gun in time.

He kicked the Scout's head clean off, and the headless body fell from the rooftop and landed with a metallic crunch below. Wasting no time, Shadow snatched up the Scout's sniper rifle and propped it against the roof, placing his eye at the scope and using his remaining arm to grab the trigger. Another bullet seared past his head, grazing his left ear, and he cursed. He swivelled the gun to the rooftop the shot had originated from, and took the Scout's head off with one shot.

He aimed at the next rooftop and fired. Another Scout down. From the street level, he saw Silver go flying past, hurling bits of broken rock and concrete at a group of grey, five-foot tall robots that had appeared from nowhere. Shadow groaned inwardly.

Great. Shock Troops.

The Shock Troops were Spore's main unit of infantry. But they were still quite powerful. Shadow aimed quickly, destroying the remaining two Scout snipers, before turning to direct his fire at the Shock Troops.

However, it was at that moment that he heard a whoosh of air and a loud thump as something huge and heavy landed behind him.

x x x x

Silver flew left, aiming his gloved hand at one of the Shock Troopers, before wrenching it left and causing it to collide with its partner in a large explosion of parts. Another grey mech shouldered the broken pair aside, aiming its arm cannon directly at Silver and firing three blue pulse blasts.

Silver dodged to the side, avoiding two of the shots, but the third one hit him right in the chest. Pain ripped through him as blue electric energy crackled all over his body. Silver screamed in pain as the force of the shot sent him flying right into a building wall, where he smashed right through it and landed in a pile of broken rock.

Through his pain, Silver summoned a inner reserve of energy and uses his psychokinesis to blast the rubble in every direction. Some of it smashed into the Shock Troops, obliterating them. He took a step forward, eager to resume the fight, when his foot shook and he fell to his hands and knees. Pain was making him dizzy, and weak. He couldn't keep fighting much longer.

Dimly, he saw Omega retract his silver hands from the innards of an Shock Troop, before replacing them with two huge cannons. He then exploded with a gigantic purple laser beam that ripped from his hands and scorched the remaining Shock Troops into oblivion.

"Nice shot," Silver called weakly.

"Affirmative," Omega replied.

Maybe we really can get out of this one, Silver thought, seconds before a loud cry of pain originated from the rooftops, and a seared, burning Shadow was blasted from a rooftop, landing on the pavement before him in an unmoving heap.

x x x x

Shadow screamed as the Hunter shot a ball of flame from its arm cannon, hitting him directly in the chest. Flames blossomed all over his body as the force of impact of the fireball sent him flying off the roof and into the cold, unforgiving stone of the street.

Shadow groaned in pain as he staggered to his feet, while the Hunter leaped from the roof and landed with a powerful smash before him. Patches of his fur were burned away, revealing shiny, burnt skin underneath. His left ear was missing. His arm felt as though he had dipped it into molten lava.

They couldn't win this fight.

"Omega!" he roared, looking around for the rusted red robot. "Distraction!"

"Affirmative," came the flat reply, and a split second later a barrage of missiles went flying erratically from across the street. The Hunter staggered backward as the missiles exploded across its gleaming silver chest.

"Silver!" he called. "We're leaving, now!"

"Okay," the white hedgehog replied in a weak tone, staggering to his feet. Shadow could see at a glance that he no longer had the energy to even fly. He had to get them out of here, now.

The Hunter had leaped full force at Omega, who had now converted his hands to machine guns and was sending a cascade of bullets rippling across the Hunter's chest. It barely flinched, but instead struck him heavily with its gigantic fist. Omega went flying, smashing right through a building and landing close to Shadow. He heard a groan as the robot shut down.

"Silver, grab my hand!" Shadow roared. The tired, aching hedgehog did so without argument. Shadow then leaped as high as he could, bouncing off the Hunter's shoulder and using it to propel himself over to Omega's side. The Hunter swivelled its huge arm cannon toward them just as Shadow placed his foot on Omega's sparking chest.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

A brilliant beam of flame erupted from the Hunter's arm, and white light surrounded them. Then, literally a foot from his face, the flames froze in place. There was a pop, and then they were gone.