I take this time to apologize both for the briefness and content of this prologue. Despite trying to work with it for the past few days, this is all that I have been able to come up with. The story itself shall be much better. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

Sonic and Co. are copyrighted and registered trademarks of SEGA and Sonic Team. Sonic Heroes is licensed by Nintendo c.2003.

Sonic Heroes Forever

Prologue

It is Mobian Calendar Year 2059. 28 years have passed since the events that led up to the big confrontation against Metallix, otherwise know as Metal Sonic, where all the Freedom Fighters of the past gathered and fought together, soundly defeating the threat with the appearance of Super Tails, Super Knuckles and Super Sonic. After putting Metal Sonic out of commission once again, they all went their separate ways.

Ever the wanderer, Sonic started his world journey anew with the more than a bit determined Amy Rose hot on his heels; Knuckles, the eternal guardian of the Master Emerald, returned to Angel Island while the infamous jewel thief Rouge the Bat followed carefully in his shadow, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike; Cream and Cheese returned with their recovered comrade Chocola to their home with Cream's mother Vanilla escorted by the seemingly simple Big and his wanderous friend Froggy, while Charmy, Espio and Vector of the Chaotix returned to their base of operations to wait for their next big job that would actually pay.

There were only two who didn't leave the remains of the demolished Final Fortress immediately.

One of the pair was E-123 Omega, an E-100 series robot that had been created by Dr. Eggman for the sole purpose of helping him conquer the world. However, due to the fact that he was frightened of the potential that Omega could reach, he was deactivated, which began Omega's hunt for Eggman and his eventual joining of Team Dark. Despite the fact that he now knew that he had only been chasing after a false Eggman for so long with his allies, he felt a sort of accomplishment. Although he hadn't managed to destroy the man that dealt a major blow to his "pride," he had managed to defeat someone that shadowed Eggman in pure cunning and ability. There had been none before that could possibly have done all that Metal Sonic had pulled off, so he looked down at the mangled shell of his body with more than a bit of respect for the fallen robot, despite that he had been trying to kill him for the past three days.

The other entity amidst the pile of scrap metal didn't look down on the metal clone with quite as much honor.

The ultimate life form, Shadow the Hedgehog, stared coldly down at Metal Sonic, eyes like ice. All he could think about was the fact that he had been used in attempt to control the world, which made his blood boil. Almost everything that had happened prior to three days ago had finally come back to him; meeting Professor Gerald's grandson, Space Colony ARK, Maria… All the events up to his falling from the colony had finally come back to his memory. It took all the self-control he had not to smash what was left of Metal Sonic's body into the tiniest bits imaginable.

Narrowing his eyes, he turned his back to the pitiful robot, finally making his way out of the decimated area, finally coming to the conclusion that he wasn't worth completely destroying.

Omega looked after Shadow, wondering whether or not the hedgehog would actually leave things merely as they were. After hearing Omega's gears whir to turn and look at him, a single hand wave from Shadow dismissed any thoughts Omega had of him coming back to destroy the shell.

Taking one last look at the metal corpse, Omega went off on his own, trailing after the energy signal left by the robots Eggman had used to escape after being rescued by the Chaotix. He didn't know what would happen to the inactive shell, but he knew that it most definitely would not be the last time they would encounter one another…

Now, all the brave fighters that fought so hard have settled down and had families, retired from the good fight to let the younger generation take over. But while the heroes have taken to the quiet life, old threats have decided to make themselves known...