Smolderstone Village, a few days ago

Shadow shielded his eyes as he stepped out, the bright sun reflecting off the snow. He had just finished a G.U.N. mission which sadly saw the loss of his motorcycle, so he had to travel back to base on foot. This village was very hospitable, which was enough for him to consider staying a few days longer than needed.

The black hedgehog spotted something on the horizon, a low rumbling sound resonating through the village. "What's that?" a young thylacine asked from nearby.

"Stay back," warned Shadow. "That thing means trouble, you'd better take your friends and hide."

The thylacine did so, as Shadow stared at the approaching shape. Almost immediately, he could tell it was huge, and it was probably armed as well. The black hedgehog knew he could easily take on whoever was manning that thing, but the vessel itself would be trickier to handle, especially without Rouge, Omega, or any of the other G.U.N. grunts to back him up. Eventually, the airship came to a stop at the edge of the village, a massive figure standing on the edge.

"SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG!" he bellowed, pointing a massive weapon at him. "Our paths have crossed once more!"

Shadow blinked, trying to remember who this was. "Who are you?"

"You don't recognize me? No matter, soon, the name of Urvos will be engraved in your very heart!"

Something about this scenario felt very familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "Listen, Urvos, you're a fool if you think you're going to lay a hand on me."

"You're right, but I don't have to get anywhere near you. I know your weakness, it's the same as all of you pathetic animals."

A crate dropped down from the ship, shattering open as it hit the ground. Shadow's eyes went wide as he saw what crawled out of the wrecked crate: Shadow Androids, a dozen of them. He readied himself to summon a Chaos Spear, expecting the metallic facsimiles to attack him. But to his confusion, they all walked past him. The confusion morphed to horror when the sounds of weapons being primed met his ears.

"It's me or them, Shadow! The choice is yours!"

The black hedgehog gritted his teeth from this ultimatum, his gaze laser focused on the airship. "Chaos…" he began, raising a hand up at the vessel.

"You've made your choice. Androids, fire at will!"

With that, the weapons began firing, Shadow's focus now drawn to the sounds of gunfire and screams. He turned his hand to the nearest android. "...Spear!" A blast of chaos energy tore through the robot, tearing it to pieces, but the rest of its brethren were still active. "Dammit… This isn't over, Urvos!"

But right now, the stranger was the least of his worries, and right now he needed to focus on saving the rest of the villagers. Looking at the android he had taken out, he wrenched its weapon free of the mangled machine and started firing it on the rest of his mechanical fakes. Unfortunately, Eggman was smart in creating them, as it took multiple hits of their own weapon to eliminate them. The one positive was that they seemed to be focused exclusively on the villagers, so they did nothing to try and stop him until a quarter of them were destroyed; but by then, most of the villagers had been taken out.

"Get inside, quick!" he shouted to the remaining villagers, waiting until they all shut the doors before taking a deep breath. The androids seemed to realize he had something planned, as they all turned their weapons on him. "Chaos BLAST!"

Present Day

"...after that, I stayed here to help find survivors and honor the deceased," finished Shadow, having started a fire while explaining his situation to Sonic. "The people at the nearest rest stop think I was part of this attack, so I've been unable to radio G.U.N. for help."

"So, that's it? You've just been staying on your own for the past week?"

"Why not? You've been on your own for three years." That brought a moment of silence from the blue hedgehog. "Why did you do it, by the way? I don't think I've ever heard why."

Sonic looked at the ground, trying to string his thoughts in order. "It's… complicated. Everyone else knows where they come from. Cream has her mom, Tails and Amy both ran from home at a young age, you were a labrat, Sally's a flipping princess, and I… I'm not sure. My earliest memory is stopping Eggman on South Island, taking what I could to survive. Whatever, you wouldn't understand."

"Sonic, I lost my memory once. I understand better than anyone else."

Sonic nodded, acknowledging what the other hedgehog told him, then walked off to try and clear his mind. As he walked by what was left of a shed, he could hear the sounds of movement. At first he thought it was a trapped android, until he heard a voice.

"Hello, is anyone out there?" It sounded like a very young, very scared girl.

Sonic managed to clear some rubble from the door, clearing it enough for whoever was stuck inside to come out. She was a squirrel with yellow fur, stained slightly by dust. The blue hedgehog knelt down to be eye-level with her, just as Shadow stepped over to see what the noise was about.

He stopped when he saw the squirrel, instantly being reminded of Maria.

"Hey, you're okay now, little one," said Sonic comfortingly, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I'm Sonic, what's your name?"

"I'm Grid," she replied slowly, looking up at them both. "Where is my father? He took me here to be safe, where is he?" Shadow pursed his lips together, trying to come up with a gentle way of saying it. "He's dead, isn't he?"

Shadow let out a sigh, nodding his head silently. "He is, but I'll make sure his death is avenged. Sonic, stay here with Grid. I need to figure out where that Urvos figure's gone off to."

"Hey, I have my own ax to grind with that schmuck, I'm coming with you," retorted Sonic. "Besides, two hedgehogs are better than one, Shads." The black hedgehog nodded his head, Sonic grinning and turning to leave. "Alright! Wait right here, you two, and I'll get us a ride!"

And with that, Sonic took off into the distance. "Wow, he's really cool," said Grid, sporting a slack-jawed look of awe.

"Almost nothing fazes him," replied Shadow, shaking his head. "It would be impressive if it weren't annoying."

Somewhere between Robotropolis and Mystic Ruins

Amy piloted the stolen craft back to Tails' workshop, while Maisie practiced using her halberd on a robot that just happened to be inside. The more she handled the weapon, the better she got at using it. Now she'd just have to use her skills on a moving target.

Meanwhile, her mentor had managed to radio the workshop. "Sonic, this is Amy," she said. "We've taken the raider's ship, so tell Tails not to shoot us down." There was a period of silence. "Uh, Sonic?"

Eventually, Amy got her answer, just not from who she was expecting. "Sorry, Amy, we've been dealing with a… scenario here," said Tails, sounding quite confused.

"Tails? Where's Sonic at?"

"I'm not sure, he left a while ago, and I could really use him here-"

"He did what? Hold on, Tails, we'll be back later."

Amy switched off the communication, nearly flinging Maisie away as she turned the ship to port. "Pardon me for asking, but how are we supposed to find Sonic?"

"Social media," replied Amy, pulling out her phone. "Sonic is a pretty big celebrity, I'm sure if someone saw him somewhere, they'd post pictures online. Check the Chronicle search page, and don't look at anything else.""

Maisie opened the phone up, gasping at the first thing she saw. "Oh, wow…"

The pink hedgehog heard this gasp, quickly snatching the phone back. "I-I told you not to look at anything else! Never mind, I'll do it…"

Amy searched for recent posts about Sonic, quickly discovering one where he was riding on some motorcycle with Shadow and some squirrel. Quickly doing some further research, she discovered they were in the mountains, flying in that direction.

The Mountains

As the motorcycle tore down the narrow paths, the driver focused on finding Urvos and making him pay, while one passenger was entertaining the other. There were only so many places a giant flying vessel could go, and it would only be a matter of time before they found it.

And with that, another arc begins, this one properly bringing Shadow into the story. I'm aware that he's a tough character to get right (with even SEGA getting his character wrong lately) so I hope I did him justice here. Just like Cosmo, Sonic's past will also be brought up later in the story.

Take care, everyone, and just for fun, what do you think Maisie saw when she opened up Amy's phone?