Approximately 1.5 years before Shadow's contact with black blood.
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles had finished eating breakfast on campus and were lounging about their table. Eating outdoors with a great view of Death City made it easy to relax.
"Why don't you just partner up with me already? Plenty of students around for sparring this week," Knuckles started.
"The goon gauntlet himself? I'll stick with practice weapons," Sonic gave a playfully smug smile.
"Come on, Sonic. We've won plenty of fights together. What more do you need?"
"I told you I'm just feeling things out for now."
"The whole slow and patient thing doesn't suit you,"
Sonic shrugged dismissively.
"I'll train to surpass Sonic. Then you can be my weapon instead," Tails proposed with a smirk.
Knuckles picked up Tails and held him overhead. "A little kid like you?" He walked over to one of the nearby ledges that overlooked Death City. This area of the academy was raised about five stories above the buildings off in the distance. The drop was precarious and steep. Knuckles hurled Tails over the ledge, into the open air. The young fox yelled as he flew through the air. He managed to right himself in the air and the propeller motion of his two tails caused him to hover.
"Knuckles!"
The echidna laughed braggadociously, admiring his throwing distance.
"Go easy on him Knux, he's not even a meister yet," Sonic only sounded mildly concerned.
"Roughhousing won't kill him. A little tough love is good for everyone, eh?
That's it, was it? Brute force. Tough love. There must be more to being a meister than that. Sonic felt the thought was true, but he had yet to experience it for himself. There was something about the other students here that bothered him. He'd fought with Knuckles against plenty of other weapon-meister pairs at this school, but nothing ever seemed to shine through. From Knuckles or his opponents. Thinking about what he knew of DWMA's origins gave him some hope.
He thought of those that came before the Robotnik family of reapers. Those who discovered the first magical demon weapons. The original meisters. Scythe wielders. The elite. The other forms of demon weaponry didn't come until later. Sonic knew there were so many weapons to choose from, so he tried not to fixate on a particular outcome. It just had to feel right. Becoming a scythe meister was a wild notion. Such a rare type of weapon was always in high demand. The thought did have a certain charm to it, though.
Tails had floated back over to Sonic and Knuckles. Hearing his brother's voice brought Sonic back to reality.
"If you weren't such a pain-in-the-butt, you could partner with one of the other students instead of pestering Sonic all the time,"
"That is…." Knuckles turned to Sonic for a look of support. No such luck. "...not true!"
"Who's the kid here again?" Tails grinned.
"You!"
The echidna jumped and swiped overhead to try and pluck his critic out of the air, but Tails knew taunting Knuckles while in close proximity was a poor choice. He continued floating out of reach, chuckling at Knuckles's futile efforts. The three of them soon decided it was time for some training.
The DWMA training facility was a massive warehouse embedded into the tiered mound beneath the academy. Students and staff could use the many different facilities and train to their heart's content. Many areas included automated machines to assist a meister or weapon in their endeavors. Robots designed by Eggman helped simulate combat situations in a safer environment.
Sonic had been stuck in a certain routine for some time now. Classes were on break for now, so meisters and weapons were on campus training or out working on missions. He didn't have an official weapon partner so he couldn't go on missions yet. He'd be dedicating more time to training until then.
Classes here were a joke even when they were in session, so his routine hadn't changed too much during break. When he first started using this facility as a new student, he spent the majority of his time at the agility course. It was an area of the facility that came with many different configurations. A different series of obstacles would have to be overcome with speed and wit depending on which course was selected.
He had been impressed by the mechanical marvel that was this facility back then, but it was all very much mundane to him now. He'd broken all the records for the individual courses, and he didn't have a weapon partner to attempt the co-op course. For now, he was content to stick with cardio workouts and basic combat sessions with practice weapons. It was boring, but there was no reason for an up and coming meister to be left out of shape. Sonic told himself he'd find motivation if he could find the right weapon partner, but he wasn't entirely convinced.
Two girls that Sonic recognized from the weapon meister class approached him. They saw he was in basic workout clothes, a plain white shirt and red shorts along with his usual running shoes. He was drinking from a bottle of water while resting after his morning run. He didn't know the names of the two girls, and wasn't particularly interested in learning them. They began the conversation with an attitude of familiarity that he found amusing.
"Hey, Sonic. Did you break all those records on the agility course?" The first girl began.
"Yeah, a while ago," Sonic replied, bored.
"You didn't set any new times recently?" The second girl asked.
"Why are you asking me? The rankings speak for themselves,"
"We heard a hedgehog has been hanging around the agility course breaking records,"
"A new student?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.
"Didn't you just use a fake name to break your own records?" The first girl asked.
Sonic turned his head, frowning at the accusation. "Why would I do that?"
"To show off," The two girls replied in unison. They looked at each other and giggled, much to his annoyance.
"There's more than one hedgehog in the world, you know?" Sonic left and marched off to the agility course.
The girls seemed surprised by his sudden exit, which annoyed him further. Were they expecting him to hang around and chat after an accusation like that? Most of the girls at this school acted this way, whether in the weapon-meister class or general studies. They'd smile at him and ask mundane questions about what he was up to. What kind of weapon he was looking for. He had a reputation as a talented fighter and as a troublemaker with the latter coming mostly from Eggman's opinion. Some wanted his attention; some wanted to one-up him. They all had some expectation that he wasn't interested in hearing about or accommodating. He just wanted to do his own thing. None of the girls were as bad as Amy, but she was usually walled off in the general studies wing, luckily for him.
Sonic arrived at the agility course and looked at the touch screen console that sat in the starting area. He brought up the records for each of the course configurations and saw that his records had indeed been broken. Every single one. Each of the new times had the same name accompanying them.
Shadow.
He definitely didn't know any students by that name. It did sound mysterious; almost like a fake name. That explained a bit of the confusion, although Sonic still thought it was unreasonable to assume it was him. Sonic tapped the screen a few times to pick his course. The entire course began to move right in front of him. Structures shifted and aligned to match his selection.
"I'll just have to get back on the board then,"
He spent a fair amount of time running three courses, and just barely set new records on each of them after a few attempts. He didn't have the energy or patience to beat all of them in one day, so this would suffice. For now, all he had to do was wait.
Sonic hung around the DWMA training facility into the afternoon. He left to get food and came back for another peek at the agility course. Still nothing. He worked out a bit more before calling it a day. His records were still there when he left. The rest of the day seemed to drag on even more than the first few days of this week had. Going to bed that night was a relief for once.
The next day came, and Sonic went back to check his records once more. He let out a mix between a scoff and a laugh when he saw the screen. Each of the three records he'd placed yesterday had been beaten once again. The name Shadow sat proudly beside each time. No one else was around now, and he didn't see any hedgehogs here yesterday. Sonic had hung around during the day, which meant his new rival most likely came to train in the evening or night.
"Guess I'll come back later then,"
Sonic returned in the evening feeling impatient. He sat at a table in the rest area that had a clear view of the agility course. Every half hour or so he'd get up and walk around in search of any agile-looking hedgehogs. He spent some time stretching and warming while outside the rest area as well, but he wouldn't exert himself. As bored as he was sitting around, he didn't want to tire out.
Nightfall came and the number of students was dwindling. Sonic was feeling a bit silly camping out over some rival he hadn't even met. This place was open twenty four hours a day, but he didn't have any intention of staying through the night. He'd give up in a bit.
Sonic had been staring at the closest mounted TV for some time. He didn't keep up with many shows, but all this sitting around had him invested in whatever was playing now. It was some show about a genius doctor who spent most of the time berating his coworkers and patients. There were so few students left around that Sonic reacted immediately when he sensed movement out of the corner of his eye.
It was a hedgehog. A guy around the same age as him. His quills were black, and Sonic was surprised to see that he had red streaks in his fur. He wore a gray shirt and shorts that exposed red lines in the fur on the sides of his legs and the tops of his forearms. It had to be him. Sonic didn't have enough information to be 100% certain, yet there wasn't a doubt in his mind. He left the training area walking briskly, trying not to run like a weirdo. It didn't take long for him to catch up.
"I found you, faker!"
