How Shadow Met Maria

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Author's Note:
Have you ever wondered how Shadow and Maria first met? Well, here's my take on it. Professor Gerald allows Maria to witness Shadow's awakening. Oh, by the way, I'm using Sonic's birthday as the day Shadow was awakened since both Sonic and Shadow have the same birthday anyway. (LOL) And Shadow's narrating this whole ordeal, so, his narration will be in italic. So, now that we've covered the basics, let's witness the very first meeting of Shadow and Maria.

June 23, Over Fifty Years Ago…

The Space Colony ARK orbits over the planet, Earth.

I can still remember the moment I first awoke on the Space Colony ARK.

There is a fogged up life support chamber under a spotlight in a room with one door and one window with a view of a control room. The chamber is attached to a huge fogged up tube connected to a control panel inside the nearby control room. At the control panel is Professor Gerald Robotnik, typing a bit on the keyboard on the control panel.

That was the moment I first met…

Soon, Maria Robotnik, Professor Gerald's granddaughter, happily approaches him.

…her.

"What're you doing, grampa?" she asks.

Professor Gerald happily notices Maria, "Ah, Maria!" He hugs her and praises, "My darling granddaughter!" He stops hugging and tells her, "You're just in time." He turns to the control panel, exclaiming, "Behold!"

He presses a button on the control panel as Maria curiously watches the chamber through the window. Suddenly, a darkened liquid goes through the tube and the chamber starts to light up the fog. Soon, the liquid stops flowing and the chamber's lid opens, letting out the fog inside. Then, a black leg wearing an air shoe comes out of the fog and steps on the floor.

"Yes. Yes!" Professor Gerald hysterically encourages.

Then, another leg, wearing a matching air shoe, comes out of the fog and steps on the floor beside the first leg.

"Awaken, my ultimate life form!" Professor Gerald calls out.

Soon, a silhouette of a hedgehog, attached to the legs, stands up and comes out of the chamber. Suddenly, the fog dies down, revealing the silhouette to be… Shadow the Hedgehog! He look to be fifteen-years-old although he had just been created. Maria gasps in shock upon seeing Shadow. Shadow looks around the room he's in, full of doubt.

"It's alive. It's alive!" Professor Gerald laughs hysterically. He calms down and looks at "us" to say, "You know, I've always wanted to say that."

He resumes laughing hysterically. Maria watches Shadow as the black hedgehog curiously looks at himself.

She stutters, "He's…" Suddenly, she admires Shadow with a smile, "beautiful."

Professor Gerald happily looks at Shadow and replies, "He certainly is." He looks at his granddaughter and asks, "Would you like to meet him?"

She excitedly looks at her grandfather, pleading, "Oh, can I?"

Professor Gerald nods his head in response and she jumps for joy, giggling. Then, he leads her away from the control panel and through the door leading to the room where Shadow is. Shadow notices them walking toward him.

"Greetings!" Professor Gerald announces to Shadow. "Welcome to the world! I am your creator, Professor Gerald Robotnik, and you are my creation, the ultimate life form! You shall be hereby known as Shadow the Hegehog!"

"Shadow?" The hedgehog wonders. He then looks away, pondering, "The ultimate life form?"

Professor Gerald brings Maria in front of him and introduces her to Shadow, "And this…" The proud professor continues as Shadow looks at Maria, "…is my granddaughter, Maria!"

Maria extends her hand to Shadow, telling him, "Nice to meet you, Shadow!"

Shadow looks at her hand in hesitation. Then, he curiously looks at her kind smiling face. He smiles back at her.

He tells her, "Nice to meet you…" He shakes her hand as he finishes, "…Maria."

Professor Gerald looks on as Shadow and Maria still hold hands, happily gazing at each other.

From that moment on, Maria and I became the best of friends.

Zoom out to a full view of the Space Colony ARK.

Nothing would ever separate us. …until that fateful day the military invaded the space colony and took Maria's life away. …but that's another story.

A/N:
I feel this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Of course, we all know what's gonna happen next. There's something I should point out: The liquid that flows through the tube and gives him life is blood, of course. I just fogged up the tube to make the story family-friendly. The blood, of course, would be from Black Doom, but there's no need to mention that as Maria doesn't know where the blood really came from. Her grandfather has never told her in fear that she might be afraid of him. …and of Shadow. Not only was Shadow created to be the ultimate life form, but also a companion to Maria since Professor Gerald would often be too busy with his research. Anyway, this is just a one-shot, but it's definitely worth the read, don't you think? So, let me know what you think of it. Okay?