Gerald Robotnik's Diary

Shadow the hedgehog…a mistake, or a miracle? An enemy, or a friend? The beginning, or the end?

He is the Ultimate Life Form, an all-powerful living being capable of anything; anything, that is, that he is willing to do and that is his purpose. But what is his purpose? He was primarily created for the benefit of humankind, and of course my dear grandchild, but is that an expectation that he will carry out, and is that what he wishes to do, having also the capability of complex thought and having his own free will? As I write now, I cannot say what fate awaits for Shadow, but I can say that even though his life may bring times of suffering to others and himself, he does have my complete trust.

This all began when the United Federations requested that I take up new research for something they wanted. It was me they went to because of my skill and location. I do believe that I am the top scientist currently, and my work is done in the Space Colony ARK, a large space station for my colleagues and I to conduct scientific research and projects, which orbits the Earth in space, far from the curious eyes of the public.

Now the project that I was to do was to create a being that is immortal. They said they wanted a way to immortalize a creature, preferably a human, and that this would solve many problems. They also said that this immortal creature could be used militarily, as a weapon, or a protector.

At first I saw this proposition as silly. Immortality? Impossible. Besides, the project would be extremely difficult and extensive. I had other projects that I was working on that I was content with, and I denied the United Federation's request.

For a while I just continued with my other work on the Space Colony Ark. They kept urging me to make them this mighty creature, yet still, I resisted. I was about to finally tell them to stop pestering with me, until…

Maria became sick. Maria, my sweet little grand-daughter, got the NIDS: Neuro Immuno-Difficiency Syndrome. She had suddenly fallen ill one day looking so frail with all the color drained from her face as she was taken to the hospital room. After the doctor examined her, she was diagnosed with the NIDS, a disease in which the body slowly becomes dysfunctional, with periodic seizure-like failures, and results in death.

It was my worst nightmare. She was my only family on the Space Colony ARK and I loved her deeply. I couldn't imagine losing her. The NIDS was incurable so I knew she would eventually die. If only there was something, anything, to stop from losing her, but the only thing that could do that was…immortality.

There was a spark of hope. Of course! Immortality! There was a chance for her!

As soon as I could, I contacted the United Federation and told them I would do the projects, to save Maria. They were glad to see that I agreed to it and gave me the funding to begin.

All of the scientists aboard the ARK began the project to create the perfect creature. Our first prototype was the BioLizard, a giant heavily-built lizard that could regenerate, self-produce, and restore itself. Even with these characteristics, we had to add more to him to prefect him and after we were through with trying to make him invincible, it had to live off a life support system.

I realized that if we were to make this being immortal, it couldn't be an Earthly creature, for it is our nature to be mortal. So our second attempt was a robot named Emerl. We made him almighty by giving him the ability to copy anything exactly. We were enthusiastic about Emerl as he showed us how he could copy any action, move, voice, or look and this allowed him to do any task. The problem was that he was a robot, and all technology becomes dysfunctional and breaks down.

We had no success with BioLizard and Emerl, and my confidence lowered after our failures, but then I'd see Maria. I'd see her every so often when she'd collapse during her bodily failures and her sad eyes during her times of weakness, and I'd remember why I was doing this. I had to keep trying. I had to save her.

So then I realized that the creature couldn't be at all from this planet, living or machine. It had to be from an alien planet whose inhabitants have much more powerful bodies. I know much about other planets and have done many studies on various planets.

There were two races of aliens that interested me for the project. The first was of the creatures of the planet Mobius. They are anthropomorphic, having characteristics similar to our race like limbs and hands and being able to stand on two feet, and very agile and strong, with special powerful characteristics I sent a crew of scientists there in one of our lightning-speed pods to fetch me data, or if they could, a body. They returned about half a year latyer with a preserved corpse that the Mobians were willing to give. The crew explained to me that it was a male hedgehog who was capable of super speed. I was intrigued by it, and the interesting spikes of its head and its color pattern, which was green with yellow. I officially decided to model our creature after him.

So Project:Shadow officially began. We examined the Mobian hedgehog and began creating the body of our creature in its image, but of course with adjustments to make it perfect. He was coming out magnificently, and we gave him a black and red color, so as to give him an intimidating look. Everything was going greatly and we had given the hedgehog many extraordinary powers!

Shadow was sure to be the most powerful being alive! He had shoes with blasting rockets that would propel him across the ground at crazy speeds! He'd be able to cause destruction with the Spin Attack, where he'd roll into an impenetrable ball and blast, ricochet, fly, and zoom through anything in his path! Shadow would have the power of flight, giving him spectacular advantages in combat! Overall, his body would be strong, durable, and agile, so he would be physically superior to humans.

But the most supreme ability he will have is that he can control the power of the chaos emeralds! That alone would make him all-mighty! Imagine the power he'd have being able to control the emerald's energy purely with his body and nothing else! The emeralds react when together so I infused energy from one of the chaos emeralds into Shadow; now whenever he has possession of a chaos emerald, he can use its power! With the chaos emerald, Shadow can control space and time! This Chaos Control will allow Shadow to freeze time and teleport!

Shadow will also to be able to unleash the emerald's power for destruction! Without an emerald and with only the chaos energy inside him, he can fire a Chaos Spear, an arrow of chaos that can easily destroy objects. With a chaos emerald, he can release the emerald's power in a deadly Chaos Blast! And with all seven chaos emeralds, Shadow will undergo a super transformation of radiant energy, in which he will use the chaos emeralds to their full potential! His control of chaos energy will give him unimaginable power and this is how he will be unstoppable and ultimate!

Now, the second race of aliens involved as I created Shadow was the Black Aliens. They live on the Black Comet, which flies by the Earth every fifty years, and I knew during Project:Shadow that the comet was approaching. The leader of the Black Arms is Black Doom, a large dangerous ghostly creature who's always causing destruction, but what I was interested in was that he is immortal. By then I was desperate to find a way to make Shadow immortal. I couldn't find any possible way to make Shadow immortal with my machinery and I had no other choice. The only way was to take from what already exists, and the Comet only came once every fifty years.

So I brought Black Doom to the Space Colony ARK. I knew it was risky to bring the evil alien here, but I had to. The way that I had to transfer Black Doom's immortality to Shadow was to put his blood into Shadow. Being fiendish, Black Doom of course wouldn't do something that doesn't benefit himself so we had to make a deal. In return for giving me some of his blood, Black Doom wanted me to give him the seven chaos emeralds. He wanted them the next time he passed Earth in fifty years and since Shadow was the Ultimate Life Form, he knew that Shadow was capable of doing the task. I couldn't refuse or else the whole project would have been a failure. Giving the chaos emeralds to a demented alien was insane, but I knew I could find a way out of it. He wouldn't get the seven chaos emeralds.

Then the moment began to finally complete the creation. The only thing needed now was the blood to bring him to life and give him eternal life. The motionless body of Shadow was lying in the capsule and my heart was beating fast as I connected his veins to Doom's blood. Then when all of it was pumped into his body, his eyes jerked open. Shadow was alive!