Chapter 7: Exposition and Foreshadowing

Knuckles the Echidna and Rouge the Bat had one daughter; Silk the Echidna. The couple were satisfied with raising one child. Unfortunately, that presented a huge problem. The echidna species as a whole had since ancient times been entrusted with the responsibility and the power to safeguard the Master Emerald. Due to the potential dillusion of the echidna genes, Silk would present the only member of the last generation of guardians able to wield the full power of the Master Emerald. That meant that after Silk was gone, it would be impossible to use the Master Emerald to stop a villain empowered with the seven Chaos Emeralds.

Knuckles had been the sole survivor of the echidna species. The birth of his daughter delayed the threat of the line of guardians being ended, but it did nothing to stop it. With that being the case, the chairman of the newly-founded Prower Global Enterprises, Miles "Tails" Prower, made an offer to the world. He would employ his company's semi-illegal cloning technology to produce exactly one hundred echidnas based on the DNA of Silk the Echidna. What followed were months of extensive debates with politicans and outspoken social groups, during which the forty-year-old Miles Prower systematically shot down each of the nay-sayers arguments, and proved his capability for rewriting the genetic code to prevent the new echidnas from suffering the ill effects of inbreeding over the successive generations.

Five years after the current president of the United Federation gave Prower Global Enterprises legal power to proceed with its plan, one hundred and seventeen albino echidnas were born. A few flukes had resulted in twins, and even one case of triplets being born. Nevertheless, apart from the twins, each child was genetically different enough from the next that it would be as if they came from completely different family trees. A few traits of the original parents, Knuckles and Rouge, did remain in every one of the white-furred echidnas, though. Absolutely all of the females inherited the curves and sex-drive of the albino bat, and absolutely all of the males inherited the exceptional strength and aggressiveness of the red echidna. Needless to say, within just a few generations, the populace of echidnas exploded.

Not all of the echidnas whose ancestors had been originally cloned for the purpose of becoming Master Emerald guardians stayed true to their predetermined path. Today, there were about five hundred of what might be called pure-blood echidnas living on Angel Island. Thousands more were pursuing different walks of life elsewhere in the world.

Today, it'd been over 150 years since the last time the Master Emerald was stolen from its altar on Angel Island. Miles "Tails" Prower's plan had worked perfectly, and the echidna species was growing exponentially for the first time in a thousand years. Only the pure-bloods retained the supernatural strength and control over the Master Emerald of their predecessors, however. The two echidnas that Metal Sonic killed inside the Memorial Chao Garden were only slightly more of a challenge than their human allies...

-

"Message incoming," said the computerised voice of the Ark's system.

Shadow the Hedgehog, who'd been brooding in his chair while he stared out at the obstructed view of Earth, sighed. "Deny it," he commanded.

"Affirmative. New message incoming. Override codes accepted. Opening channel now."

That could mean only one person. Shadow stood up and walked over to the nearest computer terminal, where a familiar face was displayed onscreen.

Ironically, Silk the Echidna, the origin of every echidna alive on Earth today, had married into a bat family. Her great-great-great-granddaughter only resembled Rouge the Bat due to her figure. If she were ever inclined to put on heavy make-up, then the resemblance would be a lot stronger - but that kind of look wouldn't be fitting for the current commander of GUE.

"Hello Connie," said Shadow coldly.

"I thought you'd be happier to see me," said Conquest the Bat.

"I'm extatic," Shadow responded in the same frigid tone of voice. "What do you want?"

"Always straight to be the point with you, isn't it? No time to chat with an old friend you haven't seen in over ten years?"

"I'm not the social type."

"That's an understatement, sweetheart. Fine, you're right. This isn't a social call. Have you been watching the news lately?"

"I only watch the weekly summaries. I don't need to be reminded of how petty and reckless the people are down there every day."

"Then you don't know. The Sonic imitation robot that was discovered a few weeks ago. It's been repaired and activated, and it's gone berserk."

Shadow responded with a humourless laugh. Mankind never learned. They only repeated their mistakes with greater inventiveness each time.

"Tough luck. What's that got to do with me?"

"First, let me make it clear that this isn't an official call. Everything we say now is completely off the record." Conquest looked tense.

"Fine..."

"I think the robot, damn, why bother pretending? I'm sure Metal Sonic is repeating his attempt to take over the world, just like he did when you and Sonic stopped him two hundred years ago! Sonic defeated the Metal Overlord with the Chaos Emeralds, and if we don't capture Metal Sonic soon, then I'm certain that's what it's going to take this time as well, I don't care what that blowhard general says. Now, off the record, Shadow, do you have any idea where the Chaos Emeralds might be? I know I don't have to tell you what might happen if Metal Sonic finds the Emeralds first."

"The Emeralds are in a safe location," Shadow said simply.

"Then you know...?"

"I sent them into a black hole. They'll never be a threat to anyone again."

"Right, and I'm the queen of Soleanna. You know you could never fool me, Shadow."

-

"Metal Sonic's master plan," Silver read aloud from the webpage he'd pulled up on the old-fashioned computer he'd borrowed, "was to collect data from all the individuals that posed a danger to him, and then to combine that data with the synthetically reproduced power of the water-elmental god Chaos. As a means to that end, Metal Sonic imitated the guise of Dr Eggman and assumed command of the Eggman army, then issued an invitation challenging Sonic and his friends to defeat his latest world-conquest weapon. At the same time...blah-blah-blah...Ah! In the end, the Metal Overlord was defeated by Super Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. It is speculated that if the evil robot had not been defeated at that specific point in his transformation, it would've continued to copy data, assimilate technology, and grow more powerful. Historians speculating as to why Metal Sonic did not attempt to retrieve the seven Chaos Emeralds himself as part of his transformation, have theorized that the robot sought to defeat and subsequently copy the data of an active Super transformation, thus boosting its own power beyond..."

Silver rubbed his eyes. None of this helped at all. The seven Chaos Emeralds had stopped appearing around the world several years before he was born, and no one had any idea where the precious gems were now. Besides, judging by what he could read here, trying to fight Metal Sonic in a super form and then losing would be catastrophic, and probably ruin any hope of ever stopping the fiend.

There was no hope. Only one power in existence could provide sure-fire way to defeat Metal Sonic, and it was gone for good. Silver would have to challenge the robot on his own terms. He'd probably lose, but that didn't matter. The promise he'd made to himself to make Metal Sonic pay for what he did to Blaze, that was all that mattered now.

Silver ran. Again.

In the next chapter:
- 24 hours pass without incident.
- Then...
- All Hell breaks loose.