"He was what he was: a brave and heroic hedgehog, who gave his life to save this planet. Shadow the Hedgehog." - Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Adventure 2).
Strings Within the Shadows - The Continuation of the Sonic Adventure Series.
By Sonic47
Chapter One: Angel Island
Knuckles had been fast asleep a few feet from the Master Emerald. A booming noise awoke him. He got up and tensely looked around himself. The Master Emerald was still safely behind him, atop the ancient staircase. There was a light but bone-chilling wind in the dark night. Knuckles saw nothing, and could see only what the bright emerald shined a foot around it. He then heard it - footsteps walking up the stairway behind him.
"I'm sorry, did my hovercraft landing system awaken you?" a soft and friendly, yet dark voice chirped from the darkness.
"Who are you? And what are you doing here?! Trespassers are not allowed here!" Knuckles growled as he ran over to the voice.
"You have a lot more to worry about than me," the voice said. Knuckles continued to search for the holder of the voice in the darkness.
"Show yourself! Enough hiding in the shadows!" Knuckles yelled.
"Look!" the voice said. Knuckles looked behind himself, shocked at what he saw. Thousands of lights were inching their way towards the floating island. They were far away in distance, but appeared to be coming at a mighty speed.
"Must only be one of Eggman's flying fortresses!" Knuckles exclaimed angrily.
"Not just one though, echidna. Or two. There are three," the voice laughed. "But I'm afraid you won't get to witness the destruction and capture of your island."
"WHAT?!?" Knuckles let out. "No way this island will fall with me here!!"
"How ironic... that the last of the echidnas, guarding the Master Emerald his whole life, gets sealed within it. Farewell," the voice snickered as flashing red balls of light flew at Knuckles from the shadows, and enveloped him in darkness as he yelled from the pain. The Master Emerald glowed for a brief moment, and Knuckles was gone.
"Tails, you haven't been sleeping... or eating. I only came by to visit, but this doesn't look good, old buddy," Sonic said, watching from below as Tails worked earnestly at yet another new plane of his, this one dubbed the Typhoon. Tails, blue eyes wide open, continued to work in his Mystic Ruins workshop.
"Look... I'll go buy some breakfast for ya. You like flapjacks don't you?" Sonic questioned.
"I'm working on the Typhoon. I'll be done with it soon," Tails replied numbly. Sonic walked out of the workshop, worried for his friend.
"Maybe he's worried about Knuckles. I know I am too, but to me it seems what Tails has been doing is crazy..." Sonic thought. "Still no news of that echidna though. It's gotta be Eggman who did this... It can't be anyone else. The whole flying fortress thing just fits the bill. But to actually succeed? To actually take the time to make not one, but three of those things? He must've gotten help... Gotta find him. Gotta get to Angel Island. But Tails is so intent on finishing that new plane first. Why?" Sonic continued in his head. He arrived at Station Square, bought some breakfast, and took a train back to the Mystic Ruins. To his unfortunate surprise, Amy was on that very train.
"Sonic? That is you! Hey Sonic!" Amy said, walking down the aisle over to Sonic.
"Oh no..." Sonic mumbled, holding the bag of food.
"Hey, when did you get here to Station Square?" Amy asked, sitting down next to Sonic.
"Uh, yesterday I got to the Mystic Ruins," Sonic explained briefly.
"Oh good, I haven't missed much yet then! So what brings you here? You've been to Tails' already then? Is Eggman up to no good? You've missed me?" Amy talked cheerfully.
"Yeah - I mean," Sonic began, confused by all the questions.
"I knew it! You do care!" Amy smiled.
"No... ugh. I met with Tails, and I think Eggman's up to no good of course, with the whole thing on Angel Island," Sonic said.
"That was sad to see the island all destroyed like that on the news... Think Knuckles is okay?" Amy asked.
"Pfft... Knuckles? He can outlive a rock," Sonic force a laugh.
"Are we all going on another adventure then?" Amy asked.
"I don't know. Tails has been acting weird since I arrived. That's why I got breakfast for him," Sonic explained, holding the bag of food up. The train stopped at the Mystic Ruins.
"I'll come with you to see him," Amy said as Sonic got up to exit. Without getting a reply, Amy followed Sonic out and the two walked down the wooden stairway, across the grassy hill and up the stone stairways up to Tails' workshop.
"Hey Tails! Got you... breakfast?" Sonic asked, surprised to not see Tails there. The plane he was working on still was though. Suddenly Tails flew in, grabbed the bag of food and went back to working on the plane, eating as he went. Sonic shook his head sadly, as Amy watched Tails in complete confusion.
"Hurry up! Everyone's going to wake up soon!" a human yelled down to his co-conspirator chameleon as the chameleon dropped down a couple bags of money to him. "All right, that's enough! Let's blow this taco stand!" The chameleon climbed out of the hole in the brick and metal walls of the bank and jumped into the truck the human started up. It was then someone else arrived at the scene.
"Don't worry Maria... these two won't escape without punishment for the evil acts they have done," a black and red hedgehog stated aloud as he stood in front of the truck.
"Nice try bozo," the human said as he stepped down on the accelerator, sending the truck soaring towards the Shadow the Hedgehog, who easily jumped over the truck. As the man continued to drive along, Shadow quickly ran up along the side of the truck. The chameleon got out a crossbow and began firing upon Shadow, who easily dodged the arrows while running the same speed. Shadow jumped into the truck, and knocked out the chameleon and the human out cold with a single punch.
"To the next town to help then," Shadow thought to himself. "For it is my responsibility, obligation, and destiny now to do so - to help all that live on this planet. I only regret that I can't help more, and for the acts I did when I was first released... up until I... died." Shadow stopped thinking at that point and returned the money to the jail, and delivered the culprits to the local prison. After receiving thanks from the human leader of the town, he began his walk to another town, to help the occupants there as he had with the previous towns he passed through.
"Rouge, we have a new assignment for you," human Mayor Julian Vincent told government agent Rouge the Bat.
"All right then - number of jewels first, then the assignment," Rouge casually stated.
"Twelve. You surely know of the mysterious attack on Angel Island. You're going there to find out what happened exactly, and who the culprit is. Angel Island is relatively close to here, minus its height of course. Station Square could be next, once again. We've really only barely recovered from the flooding and destruction from the monster Chaos - it'd be a disaster to have it happen again, and so soon," the mayor explained.
"Twelve? Okay," Rouge said, exiting the office. "See ya," she added before shutting the door.
"Well..." the mayor thought to himself, "That was simple."
Eggman looked at one of his many computer monitors. All the screens showed statistics and pictures of large robots he had created, each screen displaying a different robot. Each machine was very different from all the others, minus their massive sizes. Eggman looked upon each creation with glee.
"Yes... you are all part of my new team to carry out my work," Eggman whispered to himself, or perhaps to the screens themselves. "Though you didn't get a chance to shine at Angel Island, you certainly will soon, my Destruction-series robots," Eggman turned away from the two-dozen screens and opened a book laying down on a control panel. He opened to where he had a bookmark, and began reading where he left off. It was the diary of Gerald Robotnik, Eggman's grandfather.
"Tails... you've been up there all day!" Amy yelled. Tails didn't note it, and continued to work on the plane. "Sonic already decided to leave and use the Tornado 2 to go himself!!" Tails suddenly stopped. A tear slowly drifted down his left cheek. Tails violently shook his head and tried to get back to work.
"He's probably fine without me!" Tails said before starting to flatten out a strip of metal with a hammer.
"Tails..." Amy said sadly, under the noise of Tails' work. Amy knew Sonic would need Tails' help if he was to stop whoever had attacked Angel Island. "I'll stay here until I can get Tails to be himself again... I've got to keep our hope alive," Amy thought and decided.
Sonic landed the plane at the base of Angel Island's Red Mountain, and hopped out, looking for any signs of Eggman. Sonic heard a slight rustling in a bush up ahead, so he cautiously walked up to it. To his surprise, he saw an orange armadillo that was apparently dying from very serious wounds. Sonic quickly walked over to him and asked if he was okay. The armadillo couldn't answer - he was too weak to do so.
"Is it really the great Sonic the Hedgehog? Actually taking the time to care for one simple being?" the same voice that spoke to Knuckles, now spoke to Sonic.
"Who said that?" Sonic asked. "Where are you? Did you do this?" he added, looking around and finding nothing.
"What if I did? Would you really care? Why don't you try to save him?" the voice casually questioned. Sonic carefully carried the armadillo to the Tornado 2, and tried to set him carefully in the back seat. The armadillo screamed in agonizing pain.
"It's too bad you couldn't save him. Poor Sonic, actually failing for once in his life," the voice mocked. "Can he bear actually failing? He always saves the day! Sonic never fails! Never!" he went on.
"SHUT UP!" Sonic yelled, starting the plane. "I'm going to save him!"
The voice began laughing hysterically, as if hearing those words was a hilarious joke. "SAVE him?! He'll be dead before you get anywhere NEAR medical care! And even then nobody would be able to cure him in time. You lost Sonic! This armadillo died and there was nothing you could do." Sonic looked back at the armadillo - he wasn't moving. Sonic took off in the plane, hoping that the voice was wrong.
It wasn't. Sonic had taken him to Station Square's hospital, and though it didn't take long to get there the armadillo had already died. Sonic returned to Angel Island, saddened by the event, and angry at the one who set it up. Sonic landed the plane and began calling for the one who killed the armadillo.
"Quit yelling please," the voice calmly ordered. Sonic searched the area at a rapid speed, trying to find the owner of the voice. "Calm down, Sonic the Hedgehog. I would like you to answer a few questions for me."
"All right... only if you show yourself to me," Sonic said.
"Very well... a deal," the voice said. "I will show myself after you answer my questions. First, why is it you keep pestering the Doctor Robotnik?"
"Eggman? Well I have to keep him in check. If I didn't stop him whenever he was attempting to take over the world, he would have," Sonic plainly explained.
"Did you ever think that perhaps someone else would've handled it? Did you ever think... that it would be better if the doctor set up a unified government for the world? Wouldn't you think that would make everything run much more smoothly?" the voice questioned.
"What a bunch of garbage!" Sonic yelled.
"I figured you wouldn't be open-minded. After all, you're just a pair of running shoes, really - that's the only reason you actually succeed against the genius Robotnik, is with your freakish speed," the voice said. Sonic fumed.
"Now show yourself!!" Sonic exclaimed.
"Just a few more questions. Patience, little hedgehog. Now your life has just been perfect, hasn't it? You've got good friends, you get help from everyone you meet, everyone loves you, you're world-famous, you always win, and you never have to worry about anything bad happening... you live a care-free, problem-free, and pain-free life," the voice stated.
"That's not true!!" Sonic boomed. "You think that things are easy stopping Eggman all the time?!"
"Of course it's easy for you! You say so yourself all the time. 'That was just too easy!' you mock after defeating Robotnik time after time again. You ruin his plans constantly, mocking the poor doctor, calling him 'Eggman' all the time. You never worry about him killing you or your friends. Do you ever wake up and say to yourself 'I'm going against a powerful mad scientist - I hope my friends don't die today'? No, you don't find Robotnik a threat in any way," the voice went on.
"You're wrong again... a friend did die," Sonic sadly stated.
"Just who may that be?" the voice questioned. Sonic was about to say Shadow, but the voice continued, "Do you mean Shadow the Hedgehog? Even in that case, you get off easy - he's alive."
"Alive?" Sonic asked, surprised.
"All these months, yes. He was given a second chance on life on this miserable planet. For some unexplainable reason he now goes from town to town, aiding the citizens in them," the voice explained. Sonic was silent for a minute, shocked at the thought of Shadow being alive.
"So... now do you agree that your life has been easy, with minimal hardships?" the voice asked.
"You're forgetting my childhood. You don't know what happened to me then... and with my parents," Sonic began.
"Oh Sonic, I do know. But childhood is such a minor and small part of life - it simply does not count, nor does it make a difference in how easy and painless it's been for you since then," the voice stated.
"All right... enough! Just show yourself to me now, so I can give you a beating," Sonic fumed.
"You are dumber than I thought. Did you ever get any schooling?" the voice asked.
"I went to a Vinidelsci School..." Sonic said.
"Bwa! Bwa-ha! This just keeps getting better," the voice laughed. "How can a hedgehog, with little skill, little knowledge, and having such a little amount of hardships, become world-famous? This is too amazingly funny! I could kill you so easily, it is comical! This is going to be a great amount of fun..." the voice bellowed.
"What are you talking about?!?" Sonic screamed.
"I and the one I work for will destroy this world and create a new and better global empire. But before that we will kill every one of your friends. Every being you know - they'll all be dead soon. And you will get to watch every single one of them die, and you'll get to see cities fall, civilizations die, and species become extinct. And then, you will die as well, knowing that you were a complete and total failure. Farewell! I will see you at the town Rendion, but you won't see me..." the voice ended.
"Come back here you no-good double-crossing loser!" Sonic yelled before stomping the ground with his fist.
"Okay, I'm back actually - I have a little lesson to teach you. You felt what it was like to fail today. You couldn't save that armadillo. He died, and unlike Shadow, isn't coming back. Now... you get to feel hopelessness," the voice said as it shot an orange ball of energy towards Sonic's right leg, knocking him to the ground. "I've rendered that leg unusable for the time being. Good luck getting to Rendion in time," the voice finished as Sonic yelled in pain, grasping his right leg tightly. Tears fell from Sonic's face from the terrible pain. Pain that came not just from his leg, but from the death of the nameless armadillo, the thought of losing his friends, and the treacherous threat of this unseen enemy.
Tails slowly flew down from the plane, eyes gaping open, bloodshot. Tails began to walk over to Amy, his eyes slowly closing. He began to hunch, and then was losing his balance. Amy got up and ran over to Tails, keeping him from falling to the ground.
"Tails? What's wrong? I think you need to get some sleep - you look terrible..." Amy said as Tails tried to keep his eyes open.
"I'm... fine. I'm fine. But Eggman - he's... the stakes... stakes higher... they're higher... I must. I must help - the plane... needed to be ready... I wasn't fast... fast enough. Sonic... I... I'm... sorry Sonic..." Tails said before falling asleep. Amy got Tails to his bed and tucked him in.
"Don't worry Tails - everything will be okay..." Amy whispered before closing the door behind her.
"I want to use some of my robots though..." Eggman whined across his message-sending system.
"Very well. Send one to the town of Trience," the voice that had spoken to Sonic said.
"Why Trience? That's just a small town - my robots can take on cities!" Eggman complained.
"We need to see how one of your robots can handle against Shadow the Hedgehog," the voice explained.
"Shadow? You mean the hedgehog from ARK, back when my grandfather was alive? He died a few months ago, when ARK was going to crash to the planet," Eggman stated.
"Well Shadow is back. And he's become dillusional. He was going to be a part of my master's plans, but he's now a traitor to our cause. Send one of your robots to kill him, okay?" the voice told.
"Very well... ooh... it's so hard to choose which one... they're all so great..." Eggman whispered to himself.
"Don't be too long - Shadow should be there right now," the voice ended before turning off the communicating device.
"Ooh, how about I just pick one randomly," Eggman said, pressing a series of buttons on his console. On the main screen pictures of all of Eggman's new Destruction-series robots rotated until Eggman pressed a button and a large picture of the robot he'd use appeared. It was a large humanoid green and dark gray robot with flame-throwers for hands, and feet designed to create shockwaves across the ground. Eggman sent the machine on its way to meet up with the hedgehog at Trience.
Shadow walked up to a small restaurant, hoping to get some food for not too high a price. It was a small, quiet town Shadow had arrived at. There were members of several different species living there - but like most towns, there were mostly humans. Shadow waited patiently in the small line leading to the ordering station. Shadow got a good look at the menu - the food was reasonably affordable. Shadow gave a smirk as he pressed a camouflaged button on his left glove, opening a small slot with money inside. He got out the right amount for the food he planned to buy. It was his time to order, so he walked up and kindly asked for a salad. Out of the blue, a wave of energy burst across the floor, destroying the building and sending everyone flying. The walls cracked apart and the ceiling caved in, leaving several customers unconscious. Shadow pushed aside some of the rubble and looked around himself - a massive 30-foot robot was standing a few feet in front of him.
"I can't even get a salad safely these days..." Shadow muttered as he faced the machine sternly. Shadow ran away from the building to prevent everyone still there from getting injured. The Destruction-series machine turned to face Shadow - it was after him, as he hoped. The robot then began to fire large bursts of flames across the area, burning the roadway and only missing Shadow by a few inches. Shadow ran up the building and jumped from the top to land on the robot's head, and spin-dashed down through the machine's head. The robot began to short-circuit. As Shadow landed on the ground below, the machine let out another wave of energy across the ground. Shadow ran from it but was not able to escape from it in time. He was knocked into a building head-on. Shadow was able to get back up just as the robot burnt the building down. Humans and other beings all across town were running from the threat. Shadow knew he'd have to take down the robot now if there were to be no casualties. Shadow ran straight for the robot's legs, spin-dashing through them as he got slightly burnt by the robot's flames. Minor burns covered Shadow as he ran up the robot's back, and spin-dashed through the center of the machine. The robot was still attempting to grab Shadow, as he flew threw the air and landed back on the ground. Shadow knew what the robot would do now - use its feet to create another wave of energy across the ground. As soon as Shadow landed, the robot did so, but Shadow was already back in the air, heading straight for the robot. He knocked the robot down on the ground, which was at the moment circulating with massive amounts of energy that the robot had just unleashed from its feet. The robot was destroyed by its own weapon as it was blown into hundreds of minute pieces that rolled across the ground from the shockwave it had just created. Shadow had stopped the menace with only minor injuries and a few buildings being destroyed. At the same time, Eggman's camera system on the robot went out, shocking him at the thought of Shadow defeating his precious robot.
"I simply picked the wrong one," Eggman turned an angry dark red. "My other robots are better. They can handle a hedgehog, and the world."
It was the next morning. Tails woke up, screaming when he realized he had been sleeping.
"Now Sonic may be dead just because of my incompetence!" Tails yelled, running to his plane. Amy, who had spent the night in Tails' guest room, woke up from the clatter upstairs. Amy reached Tails as he was getting into the plane.
"Tails, where are you going?!" Amy asked.
"You can come if you want - I have to get to Sonic! He could be in serious danger," Tails said, starting the plane. Amy felt she had no choice and jumped into the back seat of the new plane. "I wish I could've tested all the functions of the plane out, but it's in working condition, and I'm out of time. I'm out of time... anything could have happened by now," Tails finished as the plane took off at a swift and quick speed.