The Ultimate Life-Form Awakens

Blood and energy jolted into his body and Shadow jerked awake as life was shot into him. His eyes whipped open and he gasped as air rushed into his lungs.

Shadow breathed heavily with is first breaths and his eyes blinked to focus on his surroundings. The first thing he saw was the glass in front of him of the capsule he was standing in and his reflection in it. He saw his red eyes staring back at him, with the white of his eyes, the black of his faced, and the spikes of his head. His eyes focused to farther objects beyond the glass, where there were two individuals peering at him. One was a bald old man, with a large gray moustache under small glasses, wearing a lab coat. The other was a floating tall dull-purple creature, whose body was a square-shape cloaked in a decorated robe, and a head with three eyes and two long horns coming from each side. Both were standing in a complicated laboratory with many machines.

But Shadow didn't remember any of this. Having just awakened, Shadow's brain hadn't reached its full intelligence yet which had been put into it. Shadow was just confused and blank-minded. The only thought that went through his mind was that he should get out of this capsule.

Shadow lifted his hand slowly, looked at it, curled his fingers into a fist, and then threw the fist at the glass. The glass shattered instantly from the force of the punch, which threw Shadow forward with it. He fell with the glass until he was on the floor, then he got to his feet, and stood tall and strong.

Gerald Robotnik smiled eagerly. "Ah, he is showing his strength already," he said, rubbing his hands together. "I have high hopes for you Shadow."

"Indeed," echoed the deep voice of Black Doom. The alien leader floated closer to Shadow and Shadow gave him a hard stare as he spoke. "I shall remember your face, Shadow the Hedgehog, for when I return fifty years from now. Then, you shall fulfill the promise your creator has made to me and bring me the seven chaos emeralds," he said, before he disappeared by descending through the floor.

Dr. Robotnik looked at Black Doom with a look of slight fear and anxiety as he disappeared, but then he saw Shadow again and he rushed over to him with excitement. Shadow was still confused and he stood motionless as Dr. Robotnik knelt down and put his hands on Shadow's arms with a warm smile for him.

"Hello, Shadow," he said slowly, as if he were speaking to a fragile child. But Shadow didn't respond and Gerald Robotnik tried speaking again. "My name is Gerald Robotnik," and he put a hand to his chest to indicate himself. Shadow just stared blankly again. Dr. Robotnik hesitated in thought, then tried something to make Shadow acknowledge his words.

"Shadow, I want you to shake my hand," Gerald Robotnik told him and he held his hand out for Shadow. Shadow stared at Robotnik's hand, then his own hand, and hesitantly lifted his hand. "Yes, that's it!" Dr. Robotnik encouraged him as Shadow took his hand and shook it.

"Good! Good!" Dr. Robotnik cheered. Shadow was activating his brain and he needed to start it up even further. "Now answer this: what color is your arm?"

Shadow looked at his arm and doubtfully answered, "Black."

"Yes!" Dr. Robotnik praised him. He was excited and believed Shadow could take it even a step further. He wanted to see if Shadow could perform one of his attacks yet. "Shadow, try rolling through that box right there," he told Shadow as he pointed to an empty metal box by the machines.

Shadow turned towards the box, wondering why he was to roll through it, but he did what Gerald Robotnik told him to do. Shadow tucked in towards the ground and started to roll, then as he spun again, he went faster and faster in place until he was a blur of black, and a spherical barrier of orange was formed around him from his spinning. Then he shot forward at a surprisingly fast speed and blasted through the box, sending pieces flying everywhere.

He slowed to a stop near the wall, going back onto his feet, and looked back at the debris with astonishment. Shadow was amazed at what he just did, and that move was so compelling, but he destruction he caused to that box was exhilarating. He had an urge to blast through something again.

Ignoring the compliments from Dr. Robotnik and then the alarmed shouts, Shadow went into his Spin Attack again and rammed into the machine attached to his capsule.

"Shadow! No, stop!" Dr. Robotnik yelled frantically as Shadow made numerous blows to the machine from the air. He smashed every part of it until nothing was left standing and it was in a complete mess, with metal and wires scattered.

Dr. Robotnik gaped in horror at his work being destroyed and he wasn't abel to stop the uncontrollable hedgehog. Shadow rolled through the air across the room after demolishing the machine and blasted through the door. The door flew off his hinges and slammed onto the wall of the hall in front of it.

"Stop Shadow!" Dr. Robotnik yelled again as he ran towards Shadow with his hand outstretched. Shadow felt threatened by the Doctor's action so he lunged for the broken door. He seized the door in his hands, and with tremendous strength, he flung it at the scientist. Dr. Robotnik gasped and flinched at the door towards him, but it hit the door way sideways and broke apart before it was able to reach him. Shadow narrowed his eyes in irritation that he had missed.

Then he dashed away from Dr. Robotnik and started running down the large gradually curving hallway in a sort of crazed trance. Shadow ran fast with a feeling of restlessness and excitement so he ran even faster.

Suddenly, rockets exploded form the bottom of his shoes that propelled Shadow forward even faster. Shadow slid uncontrollably at first form the slippery rockets, but then he moved his feet like he was skating. It came to him naturally. Shadow's feet smoothly went to the skating motion with the rockets as if he had always known how to skate.

Then roaring emergency sirens sounded throughout the hall. They wailed loudly while the hall abruptly converted to red as spinning emergency lights on the ceiling turned on.

Seeing the spinning light turn on, Shadow chose them as his next victim to release his dazed anger. Shadow hurled himself at the lights with his Spin Attack, rolling and bouncing everywhere as he shattered the emergency lights and submerged the hallway behind him in darkness.

He had destroyed about fifteen lights when the hallway suddenly became blocked off. Surprised, Shadow landed on the floor, with one knee and one land on the floor, as huge doors slammed shut across the hallway both in front of him and behind him, which trapped him in between four looming walls of glowing red metal.

Shadow clenched his fist with rage and determination. He wasn't going to let these mere walls trap him.

Shadow rolled into his sphere, rolled backwards away from the wall in front of him, and fired himself forward at the wall. He pierced through the metal of the blockade, and with the speed he built up, he shot through more walls along the hall that had shut.

Then Shadow stopped as he arrived at a large passageway that branched off from this hall which hadn't been blocked. It had large pipes hanging from the ceiling going in every direction and many mechanical boxes jutting from the walls. He was about to dash down that way until he saw something that made him freeze.

In the red light, a large group of men in uniform stood before Shadow with guns in their hands. They were in thick gear, with large helmets and boots, and the words "ARK SECURITY" across their chests.

The security guard in the front shouted over the wailing sirens, "Stay down and come with us peacefully!" Shadow could see the hard glare of the guard's eyes in the opening of his helmet as he pointed his gun at Shadow.

Shadow knew that guns were dangerous, but he felt confident against these humans. He wasn't going to just surrender to them.

Shadow jumped up to the ceiling and flipped onto one of the pipes while the security guards began to fire at him. He hopped along the pipes on the ceiling close to the spinning red lights, avoiding the static missiles that the men below shot up from the ground.

The men shouted as the pipes they shot collapsed from the ceiling and tumbled down on top of them. Shadow looked back with mischief at the security guards diving out of the way of the falling pipes.

Smoke and water flowed out of the broken pipes, which were red in the light. Red smoke sprayed out and drifted everywhere while water splashed on the floor where the men were.

Shadow yanked a vertical pipe out of place to use as a weapon and leaped down to the floor. Some of the security guards were coming out of the smoke so Shadow ran down the passage. He skated away as the guards started in pursuit and Shadow skated side to side with the pole in his hands when they shot at him again. Shadow dodged the firing electric missiles until the passageway opened up into a massive room.

The room was a grand laboratory with towering columns containing different experiments, a large cylindrical machine in the center with rotating sections and lights, many people and scientist gathered nervously around counters, and the light there wasn't as red as in the halls.

The people gasped and the women shouted as Shadow ran into the room. The many objects in the room gave Shadow the urge to destroy and he charged in. People tried to run away as Shadow swung his pipe at a glass column, sending glass and little robot-experiments flying at them. He swung the pipe at more columns until the pipe broke in half and was useless.

Some people were able to run away from side doors, but others were trapped in between fallen glass and pillars. They ducked behind counters when Shadow went into his rolling sphere and crashed through counters and the machine at the center of the lab. He knocked over anything he could and broke off any extending parts of the machine by flying through them.

Then the security guards who had escaped the fallen pipes arrived at the room. Shadow came down from his Spin Attack on a countertop when he saw them and the guards spotted him too. They pointed their guns at him, but then saw the people there, and lowered their guns.

Shadow took advantage of them lowering their weapons so he grabbed a heavy container on the counter and hurled it at the guards. They ducked and ran as the container flew and smashed down on the ground behind them.

Shadow jumped down from the counter and was about to run toward the guards when a small hand grasped his arm from behind.

"Stop!" a girl's voice shouted. Shadow turned in surprise and saw the girl holding his arm. She was a girl of about ten years old, with pleasant innocent blue eyes, soft blonde hair that went to her shoulders and was held back by a blue head-bad, with a baby-blue dress and a small flue sweater on top of it.

"You're hurting all these people," she told him with pleading eyes, pointing to the injured people stuck underneath counters and pillars. "You can't do this to the lab. You might kill someone." Shadow was mesmerized into calmness by her soft eyes and gentle touch. He stared into her pleading face and his brain suddenly snapped alive.

"Will you please stop?" the girl begged again.

Shadow nodded. "Yes."

Then the girl smiled at that, and that smile sent a wave of delight through Shadow's body. She said, "Oh, thank you!"

Shadow asked her, "Who are you?"

"I'm Maria," she replied. "What's your name?"

"I'm Shadow," he said. "Shadow the Hedgehog."