The room was dimly lit, as suited its primary occupant's current desire for setting the mood. All through the domicile the gentle sound of harp strings being plucked in a melodious fashion could be heard, the source of this sweet music coming from a twin sized bed. Upon this bed the harp's mistress laid, her golden tresses fanned out on the pillow upon which her head rested as she held her instrument. Though the human female looked to be only about fourteen, she played with the skill of an old master, her thin, delicate fingers deftly plucking and strumming the strings to produce the gentle music that permeated her room. Sadly, this young woman's body held about it a sick and maligned quality; her thin arms and fallow skin speaking of a weakness that permeated her to her very core physically. An oxygen tank sat next to her bed, a thin plastic tube connecting its nozzle to her nose to deliver its contents for breathing, while an IV stand patiently dripped a steady stream of nutrients into her body.
On a pillow that sat on the floor at the foot of this young virtuoso's bed sat an even younger looking anthropomorphic hedgehog. His upturned quills are jet black; making him almost invisible in the dim light, save for the streaks of red upon his head and the bright tuft of white fur on his chest. A smile of utter and complete bliss rests on his tan muzzle as his small body sways back and forth as he listens to the beautiful music. One can only imagine what happy images dance through the youngling's mind as note after sweet note enters his triangular ears. As the song ends and music stops, the boy's vibrant red eyes open to look at the smiling girl on the bed.
"That was beautiful, Maria," spoke a voice that belonged to neither hedgehog nor musician. Immediately both turned to see this intruder to their privacy.
Like the girl lying in the bed, Maria, this newcomer was also human, though he was also considerably more advanced in years than she. His back was bent, giving him a slightly stooped over appearance that also served to show the rather large paunch at his middle. Though not a single hair sat atop his egg-shaped head, his upper lip held an impressive moustache that stuck almost three inches past his cheeks. Gray hair dominated this facial feature, but an observant fellow could still make out the few strands of red that defiantly held out against time's relentless assault. The white lab coat the man wore marked him as a scientist, one of many in this lonely place. Underneath it was accompanied by a yellow shirt and a red tie, as well as a set of khaki pants to complete the ensemble.
"Grandfather," Maria called in a gentle welcome so characteristic of her soft voice. "You should have knocked; we would have noticed you sooner."
"Oh but that was the point, my dear," the elderly man mused. "Had I knocked, you would have ceased playing and I would not have gotten to hear the end." Maria blushed a little at the compliment.
"Good afternoon, Professor Robotnik," the black hedgehog said, getting to his feet and bowing towards the taller human. Though his voice is young, it holds a grainy quality to it that seems out of place for a child. Professor Robotnik as he is called smiled at the boyish creature, returning his bow of respect.
"And a good afternoon to you as well Shadow. I am sorry to interrupt the private concert my granddaughter was giving you, but I am afraid that it is time for lessons."
"Yes sir," the hedgehog named Shadow said obediently. "What shall we be studying today? Physics? Chemistry?"
"No," the doctor said, holding up his hand. "No, today I think we shall indulge ourselves in a little fun and go over some literature." So saying the aged professor shuffled over to the bookshelf that stood against one of Maria's walls. "But what shall we study?" he asked, seemingly of no one. "Shall we seek our pleasure from prose… or poetry?"
"Poetry's nice," Shadow stated, as if to help relieve the burden of this decision from the Professor. A single bushy eyebrow rose upon Gerald Robotnik's head as he considered the words his apt student had chosen to utter, a smile creasing his face as his finger moved over several volumes as if of its own accord.
"Poetry it is then," he said, pulling forth a book he had, to all outside appearances, not even so much as glanced at. It was a leather bound book of great age, but it was well kept and maintained, showing little to no signs of the ravages time so often visited upon such tomes. It was then that the human cast a concerned look upon his granddaughter. "My dear, do you feel up to sitting in on today's lessons, or would you prefer I take Shadow elsewhere so that you may rest?"
"I'd never prefer you leave," Maria said truthfully, much to Shadow's great relief and enjoyment. The young experiment liked being in the girl's company, even if most of the other residents of this facility were somewhat unnerved by her appearance and mystifyingly sunny disposition.
"Very well," her guardian consented as he flipped the book open in his hands. Slowly, carefully so as not to jostle the tubes connected to her body, Maria began to sit up in bed, Shadow very much at the ready to assist if she needed it. "Ah, 'The Raven' by Edgar Allan Poe, an excellent choice I think."
"One of my favorites," Maria intoned. Having never heard of this particular piece of work himself, Shadow could only look to his blonde companion for some sort of explanation. "It's a scary poem about a man who killed his lady love."
"Oh," he responded, understanding dawning on him. "And a raven is the one who comes and arrests him, hence the title. Or is the killer himself a Mobian raven?" At this innocent answer, both Maria and Gerald could not help but release an amused giggle each, though Shadow failed to understand what he had said that was so funny. Comedy was not something he knew much about.
"No Shadow," Gerald corrected his creation, "the raven in this poem is not a Mobian. This is a gripping story of fear and insanity, of which the titular animal plays no small part. Just listen and you shall begin to understand." And so, for the next twenty minutes, Shadow sat in absolute silence as Professor Robotnik read from the book. The old man's craggily old voice proved a perfect narrative tool for the old poem, and the lighting of the room only helped to increase the mood more so. Maria in particular seemed to be enjoying this, as she shivered in a delighted fear as her grandfather spoke.
"'And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted – nevermore!'" Gerald finally said, closing the book as he looked at his audience with a mock-sinister smile upon his wrinkled face.
"I don't get it," Shadow finally said. Immediately Robotnik's face shifted from playfully sinister to genuinely curious.
"What did you not understand?" he asked.
"The story, I don't get it. Why'd that guy, the narrator or whatever he was supposed to be, start flipping out like that over some dumb bird?"
"It wasn't the raven that caused him to start acting irrationally, it was the fact that he killed his girlfriend, the beauteous Lenore," Gerald responded, adding a somewhat goofy looking romantic flourish. Still Shadow looked unconvinced.
"But why?" he again asked. "From what the poem was saying, he'd gotten away with it, no one knew he'd killed her. So why was the bird able to make him start going nuts?"
"The raven represented his guilty conscience Shadow," Maria explained. "He knows what he's done is wrong, even if nobody else does, and his conscience is punishing him for it. It kept reminding him that Lenore would be 'nevermore' because of what he'd done." Shadow took a moment to mull this new information over in his mind.
"That seems… overly complicated if you ask me."
"How so?"
"If Poe wanted this guy to suffer for what he'd done, why not just let him get caught and go to jail? And if he wanted to scare the guy into confessing, why not use a monster, or even a lion or something like that? That'd be much more frightening than a bird he had to be about fifty times bigger than."
"The raven was a portent, a symbol of death and the supernatural in Poe's time," Gerald explained. "I imagine there were few things more terrifying to a killer than having a messenger of the afterlife come to visit them."
"And he did suffer," Maria pointed out, her voice stressing. Immediately Shadow worried that he'd offended the girl by asking so many stupid questions about one of her favorite poems. "Shadow, when you do something wrong, you hurt yourself just as much as the people you wrong. The guilt can be unbearable; particularly if you know what you did was wrong from the start. The narrator committed a horrible act, he killed someone he loved and who loved him back. The police may not have known, but his own heart will never allow him to forget what he's done." Shadow shook his head.
"I still don't get it."
"Maybe that's for the best for now," Gerald said. "You're still young yet, and understanding what guilt is like is only truly possible if you've felt it before." Suddenly, Gerald's wrinkled lips curved downward in a frown. "And if that be the case, my dear boy, I pray you never need to understand it." As though his thoughts were simply too depressing to continue contemplating, Professor Robotnik replaced the book and chose another, quickly selecting the new compendium from which to read, much to the puzzlement of his two companions…
End Prologue…
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(I'd been trying to decide on an appropriate theme song for this story to start out with, and have finally decided. For the opening theme, here is "Sanctuary" by Hikaru Utada.)
Asher Tye presents…
An Asher Tye Production
Sonic, Manic, Sonia, and Tails all stand before the ruins of the city of Shadakor, watching as the sun sets behind the ruined buildings.
A young looking Shadow stands inside the human bunker, gazing out one of the windows as the sun sets outside. Behind him Maria walks up, gently placing a hand on his shoulder and attracting his attention. He looks up and smiles at her, receiving a gentle smile in return. Both human and hedgehog turn their attention back to the serenity of the sunset.
Based on the characters created and owned completely by SEGA and DIC
Written by Asher Tye for absolutely no profit
The Sonic Underground races into battle against a horde of SWATbots, each one breaking off to engage their enemies. Sonic uses his super-speed to plow through several lines of robots. Sonia twirls around in a tornado to break their advancing line. Manic contributes by hotwiring a SWATbot vehicle to turn against the robots, blasting away at them with their own guns. Tails, flying high above the battle, uses magic to dampen the ground, causing the heavier robots to have to fight the muck while leaving his friends free to move around easily.
Shadow is inside a large open room made of metal. Suddenly, the panels in the walls open up to reveal guns that begin to fire upon him. Quickly the black hedgehog moves about the room, using energy blasts from his hands to destroy the guns easily. From behind a glass observation post Professor Gerald watches, a disconcerted look on his face as nearby another human with short cropped gray hair and a patch over one eye smiles in approval.
Hosted by as a source of fun
Performed absolutely free so as to avoid lawsuits…
Night time has fallen and Tails now lies in bed at the Freedom Fighter safe house, his eyes half closed as Sonia reads him a bed time story. Clockwerk lazily putters around the room. Outside the door Sonic and Manic can bee seen playing air hockey and being somewhat loud, much to their sister's displeasure.
Shadow poses on a pedestal for Maria who is busy painting his picture. After a few seconds, the black hedgehog suddenly loses his balance tumbling off the pedestal and tumbling head over heels into a wall. Maria starts, worried that he's hurt, only to suddenly grin and begin laughing lightly. Shadow has ended up crashing into Maria's paints, covering his normally ebony fur with reds, greens, blues, yellows, and every other color in the spectrum. The now multi-colored hedgehog gives Maria a perturbed look as, while still upside down, he crosses his arms over his chest while she breaks down into laughter.
Sonic Hedgehog
Sonic bounces through hordes of SWATbots, stopping only long enough to grab himself a chilidog from a street vendor before continuing onward. His path circles back around as he returns to the stand for yet another chilidog, the large number of SWATbot parts on the ground indicate this has been going on for a while.
Sonic is on stage, playing his guitar to the roar of the crowd and causing several of the female fans to throw him small articles of clothing. Taking hold of a glove tossed at him, Sonic waves it in the air, much to the enthusiasm of his fans.
Sonic faces off against Knuckles on the Floating Island, matching his super-speed against Knuckles's powerful fists. The battle ends as Sonic prevents Knuckles from falling off the edge of his island.
Sonic and Manic are arguing as the latter drives the tour bus, their argument almost causing the vehicle to go off road. Quickly forgetting their squabble, both hedgehogs grab hold of the wheel and keep the van from crashing, looking sheepishly at each other.
Manic Hedgehog
Manic and Sonic are busy playing a virtual reality game wherein they command a fighter ship. As their last opponent goes down in flames, the two brothers share a high-five in celebration of their victory.
Manic is seen falling in love with the hedgehog baby Hip, tickling the infant's tummy and getting a giggle from him. Looking about him suspiciously, Manic covers up the baby and runs off, intent on delivering the fake creature to Sanctuary.
Manic is confronted by Merlin Prower after breaking into the elder wizard's room to search for clues as to his and his siblings' mother. As Manic begins to back away from the fox, Merlin attacks, sending a blinding power towards the green hedgehog.
Manic uses his magic drum set to send a shaft of rock high into the sky at an Air Elemental that as taken the form of a dragon. As the rock strikes the creature, it explodes, showering the area with sparkles.
Manic is busy explaining his unique form of logic to an exasperated Sonia. As Manic looks triumphantly at his sister, she in turn looks up into the heavens and wonders why her.
Sonia Hedgehog
Sonia, entering Manic's room, notes what a pigsty it is and begins chiding Manic who simply ignores her as he listens to his headphones. This only happens for a while before Sonia simply grabs hold of one of Manic's discarded and filthy vests and pegs him with it.
Sonia sits with one of her friends in the beauty salon, getting her hair done by the Doo-Bot. As she is relaxing, she unknowingly blabs a few Freedom Fighter secrets as the Doo-Bot secretly records her conversation.
In an underground mine, Sonia takes hold of one of the large rubies jutting out of the walls and affixes it to her keyboard. Her instrument's power output now magnified, she proceeds to blast a whole in the mine wall, allowing herself and her siblings to escape.
Bartleby is surprised as Sonia bursts out of his closet in his room aboard Robotnik's carrier, an angry look on his face. He backs away, his hands held up in a defensive position as she advances on him, growling unflattering words to him for his involvement in Robotnik's latest scheme.
Sonia quietly tucks Tails into bed, turning to leave the cub's bedroom. As she does so, Clockwerk nudges her leg, prompting her to pick the little machine up and place it gently in Tails's arms.
Miles "Tails" Prower
Tails comes on stage as the Sonic Underground introduces him to the crowd for the first time. Acting his part, Tails moves to the very front of the stage and summons up his magic to send out an explosive display lights above the crowd's head.
Tails dodges fire balls, rocks, gusts of wind, and even grabbing water as he races to the end of a finish line, only to get nailed at the end of the run by a suction cup tipped arrow. A visually displeased Merlin begins to dress down his young student.
Tails stands on top of a building, his body surrounded by twelve small fireballs as he concentrates. With a gesture, three of the fireballs fly off, descending down into the battalion of SWATbots below.
Tails stands with his Uncle and the Sonic Underground, watching as his grandfather's funeral pyre blazes. As the flickering light dances of his face, a trail of tears can be seen rolling down his furry cheeks as he hugs Clockwerk close. Merlin's hand pulls the cub close by his shoulder.
Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik
Dr. Robotnik stands at the outskirts of Mobotropolis, all around him his robotic army primed and ready for the city's conquest. With a single movement of his hand, he signals his troops to begin their final advance upon the helpless capital.
Robotnik smiles maliciously at a group of Mobians captured by his SWATbots. The one at the head of the line is forced into the roboticizer, which Robotnik gleefully activates, transforming the luckless individual into a worker-bot.
Robotnik sits in his Egg-Walker, marching down a narrow hallway with Sleet and Dingo at his side. Suddenly a group of robots appears firing their lasers at the trio, and Robotnik uses his own weapons system to easily take them out.
Robotnik walks casually through a crowd of Mobian noblemen, a crystal goblet filled with wine in his hand as each noble supplicates him or herself to him. When he arrives at Bartleby, the doctor extends his free hand to shake the young Lord's own, with SWATbots standing nearby to ensure there is no choice in the matter.
Dingo
Sleet
Sleet and Dingo, dressed up in the clothes of desert refugees, sneak into a line of Mobians fleeing Robontik's rule for the safety of Shadakor. As they pass the gates of the city, the duo sneaks off into a nearby alley to meet Naugus.
Sleet points his remote at Dingo, transforming the larger Mobian into a single person helicopter. Getting in, Sleet then causes the helicopter to rise into the air.
Sleet and Dingo are both tied to a spit over a fire, being roasted alive by an angry Knuckles to feed his pet dinosaur Chomper. Sleet thinks quickly and tricks Knuckles into letting him go and setting him on the trail of the Sonic Underground.
Dingo crashes though a locked door, Sleet right behind him as they raid a Freedom Fighter safe house. On the other side the newly formed Sonic Underground is caught by surprise.
Shadow… in
Shadow stands inside the hydroponics farm of the human bunker, helping Maria to care for the plants. The blonde girl calls his attention to one of the plants which is actually flower, causing Shadow to reach out and delicately touch its petals.
Hundreds of Mobians scream in terror as Shadow stands nearby, a red aura crackling around him as he throws spears of power at the fleeing creatures. Some Mobians armed with energy weapons take aim at him, only to be destroyed in Shadow's fury.
Shadow stands before the assembled Mobian noblemen, a hateful scowl on his face as they look at him fearfully. Robotnik comes up behind the dark hedgehog and puts a comradely arm around his shoulder.
Shadow sits with his back to the wall, his head turned upwards and his eyes closed. All around him the sound a harp playing its haunting song can be heard as in a nearby chair Maria plays for him a quiet tune.
The door to the now overgrown bunker opens, revealing Shadow's ebony frame to the sunlight as he stares out at the open world. Rather than smile, Shadow frowns, his eyes focusing on the far horizon, where Robotropolis lies.
Sonic Underground
Shadow stands in an open plain, an angry scowl on his face as he glowers at the Sonic Underground that stands across from him. As the scene begins to spin, we get a view of Shadow, then the Sonic Underground, and then Shadow again, spinning faster and faster until the scene blacks out.
Operation:
SHADOWFALL