Prologue
It was early in the morning in Central City, where the weather was still freezing cold and the sun had only just begun to peek over the mountain tops, and all of its residents were sound asleep in their beds, dreaming about their own personal fantasies and lost in a comfortable world isolated from the harsh realities of everyday life – a life where they lived in never-ending fear and paranoia of the destructive Black Arms who razed villages and terrorized Northern Mobius, as well as fear of Dr. Robotnik, although this specific fear was likely irrational, because there had been no reported sightings of him since two years ago, when Sonic crushed the Time Eater and sent the mad genius hurtling into another dimension. In reality, the only possible threat that remained were Robotnik's "badniks", which scattered across the region after his defeat. Regardless, with no Robotnik (or Metal Sonic, for that matter) to control them, they had been automatically "powered off" by the Death Egg Mark III's computer systems, which had been set years beforehand to send offline any of the doctor's creations that had not been used in the past seven days. The terror of these two threats, along with the frigid weather and GUN-controlled "street sweepers" made it highly undesirable for anyone to awaken until it was broad daylight and the soldiers could be easily spotted.
However, there was one hedgehog who was awake at this hour. He liked to rise in the early morning; it gave him a chance to observe the world without the clamor and disturbance of the stupid civilians who inhabited the area. He sat perched atop the roof of his house, gazing out over the hazy, gray realm and carelessly flicking small Chaos Spears into the air.
His name was Shadow the Hedgehog.
It was two years after the fall of the doctor, and many things had changed. The greatest and most profound of these changes was the rise of GUN. While they had been all but eradicated after the invasion of the Black Arms (and Shadow's subsequent alliance with the aliens and murder of their troops), they had spent many years recuperating in secret hideouts along Northern Mobius's coast, and taking advantage of the fall of Robotnik, they quickly swept in and took control of the city. But it was not a police state, they said – they only remained here to "keep the peace" and "prevent the rise of a despotic ruler" such as Robotnik or Black Doom. That's what they said, at least, but Shadow saw right through it, and he hated the general public for not realizing it as well. There was no threat of the doctor's return. The Time Eater, which was his very last resort, his final, desperate attempt to defeat the Freedom Fighters and conquer Mobius, was completely destroyed by the two Sonics, and the annihilation of it almost certainly ensured his death. As for the Black Arms, Shadow knew without a doubt that GUN had no chance at all of defeating such a formidable opponent. He had seen how during the invasion, their machine guns had no effect at all on the aliens, and the huge juggernauts rampaged through the streets, slaughtering their troops and destroying anything that stood in their way. It was only the power of he himself, the Ultimate Life Form, that had taken down Black Doom, and that was only because Sonic and his friends had convinced him at the last second to save them and exile the aliens from the land. Shadow smirked. He knew that the only logical reason GUN was here was so that they could hold power for once and recover from the embarrassment of their defeat by making it appear that they had control of the city.
To put it lightly, Shadow hated GUN. In their mission to free Central City from despots, they had become despots themselves, using terror to keep the civilians in line, which could be plainly seen by their use of massive, heavy "street sweepers", which had the capability to launch rockets and fire streams of bullets at any targeted individual who was known to oppose GUN.
Mainly, that meant Shadow and his allies. He was Public Enemy #1. They had not forgotten his treachery during the alien invasion, and he had certainly done nothing to atone for his actions, nor had he shown any remorse at all. Shadow had blown up multiple street sweepers, and he had even opened fire on a group of soldiers who cornered him – though in his defense, they had already fired shots at him first before he retaliated.
The morning was beginning to dawn. The sun was slowly rising, and he caught a glimpse of the first civilians walking outdoors, including Sonic, whom he saw walking over to Rouge's house. Her house was the headquarters of the Neo Freedom Fighters – the second incarnation of the famous Knothole vigilantes who overthrew Robotnik so many years ago. Now, however, they did not fight Robotnik, and they sought instead to overthrow GUN and regain control of the city.
Shadow dared not use a chaos control to reach her house. GUN had top-of-the-line computer systems that had the capability to monitor every single instance of chaos power use in the city, and they could track where the warp began and ended. And since Shadow was a high-value target, the troops would undoubtedly rush to the warp's endpoint and kill him immediately. The only way to her house, he realized, would be to run.
As is commonly known, Shadow was fast. In fact, he was very nearly the Fastest Thing Alive, though that title was held by Sonic by a razor-thin margin. However, speed was not the problem. The city was … well, a city.That meant that there were cars that filled the streets, people walking on the sidewalk, and hundreds of buildings obstructing a forward path. And of course, there were the street sweepers, which would notice him instantaneously, were he to make the journey at street level.
There were the rooftops, of course, but those were watched by helicopters 24/7. If one caught sight of Shadow, they would open fire and he would be dead instantly.
In the end, when he came to realize the utter fruitlessness of attempting to reach the headquarters, Shadow decided to flee the city and head somewhere else. A plan had struck him. The GUN computer systems, as he knew, could detect the utility of chaos emeralds, due to their easily recognizable wavelength. But they could not detect the use of more powerful emeralds. This was because, quite simply, GUN had no knowledge of any power source greater than a chaos emerald. They were, supposedly, the most powerful objects on Mobius – after all, they had enough energy to power the Eclipse Cannon. But Shadow knew of something more powerful. It had not been used since the days of the very first Death Egg, and he was one of only five people on Mobius aware of its existence. Those people were him, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and the late Dr. Robotnik.
He was going to use a Super Emerald.
Gemerl777: This is my first story! Feedback is highly appreciated, whether positive or not so positive.
ありがとう!