Space Colony ARK (11 AM, Western Time)
The sound of a siren blaring woke everyone aboard the ARK. The edge of the half-sphere began to glow brightly in seven colors, accompanied by a rippling energy that spread across the entire space station.
Shadow watched all of this unfold with a growing sense of unease. He recognized the energy flowing through the ARK. It was Chaos Energy. He suddenly remembered that Professor Gerald was doing some experiments on the Chaos Emerald he had in his lab. Skating across the metal floor with his Air Shoes, the Ultimate Lifeform quickly made his way to Gerald's laboratory.
"Doctor, what's happening?" Shadow asked as he ran into the lab. His eyes widened when he finally caught sight of the professor.
Gerald Robotnik was leaning against a pillar, facing a large mechanism that was sparking with electricity, scorching anything the bolts touched. But what Shadow's attention was focused on were the seven gemstones embedded into the machine.
"Shadow, I want you to listen very carefully." Gerald said, turning to the black hedgehog. "Find Maria, and whatever you do, do not let anything happen to her." The doctor was bleeding from his left knee, staining his pants in red.
"Doctor, your leg-" Shadow said, worried for his creator.
"SHADOW!" Gerald shouted, silencing the hedgehog. "This is nonnegotiable. Find Maria and do not let anything happen to her. Do you understand me?"
"I...Of course." Shadow said after a moment of hesitation. He dashed away, skating towards Maria's room in a blur of black and red. But in the back of his mind, he wondered what the doctor's machine was supposed to do. If it utilized all the Chaos Emeralds, it wasn't anything that he could afford to have malfunction.
But why didn't the doctor look worried about the machine at all, even when he was wounded? Why was his only concern Maria?
After 3 seconds of moving through the ARK, Shadow reached the door to Maria's room. "Maria! Please open the door!" he said, an unshakable sense of dread coursing through him.
After a minute of waiting, Maria opened the door, panicked from the siren. "Shadow? What's going on?" she asked.
"Professor Gerald told me to come find you." Shadow explained. "He made it sound like you were in danger."
"Attention, Space Colony ARK!" a loud voice said over the ARK's PA system. Looking out the window behind them, Shadow and Maria could see a fleet of gigantic ships approaching them. "This is the Guardian Units of Nations! Prepare to be boarded!"
"Why is G.U.N. coming here?" Maria asked, feeling scared. She held nothing against G.U.N, they were responsible for funding Shadow's creation after all, but they had a habit of barging in unannounced. How that was possible in space still amazed her.
"This must be what the doctor was worried about." Shadow said. "We have to get to an escape pod."
Meanwhile, Gerald was working on maintaining his latest machine. As something that required all seven Chaos Emeralds to function, it also needed constant attention and maintenance. And now that G.U.N. was practically on his front porch, he couldn't allow himself to make any mistakes. Everything rested on his success.
White Space was a strange experience. Knowing Black Doom would be defeated gave him some much-needed relief, but so much more of that day proved to be nothing but pure dread. Shadow's expression every time he looked at him, and especially Maria, told him everything. He had spent enough time with his creation to know what he was thinking. At some point, likely soon after they were to return to their own point in time, something terrible would happen to Maria. While he didn't know what exactly was going to occur in the future, he had some ideas concerning G.U.N..
He knew he was a hypocrite for doing this after telling the future version of Shadow that the timeline must not be altered, but he refused to let Maria meet such an awful fate. He would protect his granddaughter even if it meant breaking time itself.
With the push of a button, the machine began to surge with even more electricity. The Chaos Emeralds glowed incredibly brightly, and the lights on the exterior of the ARK flowed to the same spot on the space station, the tip of the Eclipse Cannon. By making some minor alterations to the cannon, he was able to create something that would accomplish his current goal. It cost a fortune to find the other six Emeralds, but it would soon be worth it.
Back with Shadow and Maria, the two of them had made their way to the escape pod room. Just as Maria was about to enter the passcode for the pod to open, the Eclipse Cannon started glowing in a blinding white light.
"Hands in the air!" a G.U.N. soldier said as he barged in the room. He aimed his weapon at the duo, prompting Shadow to stand in front of Maria protectively. The soldier pulled the trigger, causing a bullet to fly out of his gun.
"Shadow!" Maria shouted.
Then, everything went white.
Station Square (Night)
The first thing Shadow knew when he woke up was that he wasn't on the ARK. The ground was too rugged, and the gravity felt heavier.
He stood up and opened his eyes just in time to avoid a truck that was driving towards him. Immediately after, he had to dodge a small car coming from the opposite direction. After that, everything around him stopped for a few moments. Looking around, the hedgehog found himself in the center of an intersection, surrounded by vehicles and pedestrians. Everyone had stopped to stare at the Ultimate Lifeform.
'I'm on Earth?' Shadow asked himself, surprised to be seeing the night sky from below for once. His fascination with the green planet was quickly replaced with fear when he realized Maria was nowhere to be found. 'I have to find her.' he told himself as he prepared to skate away.
He was stopped, however, when two police officers stood in his way. "What is that thing?" the first officer said, puzzled by Shadow's appearance.
"Looks like a hedgehog." the other officer said, noticing Shadow's quills.
"A black hedgehog?" the first officer said, shaking their head. "Never mind. We just need to get it out of here."
'I don't have time for this.' Shadow said to himself, scoffing. The rockets on his Air Shoes sparked to life, and he dashed away with a trail of orange light following him.
"Uh, did you just see that?" one of the officers asked aloud, unsure if what they saw was real. Nothing could move like that, right?
Hearing a beeping noise, the other officer went to their patrol vehicle. The speedometer had picked up the hedgehog's speed. When the officer looked at the screen, they nearly fainted from shock.
"What's going on?" their partner asked, still in shock after Shadow's departure.
"That thing just ran away at 400 miles an hour." the officer said shakily. They grabbed their radio and quickly gave an urgent message. "E-13 to HQ! We have a wild hedgehog running down the freeway!"
"We already know. We have a roadblock set up to catch the blue critter." HQ responded.
"Blue? This one was black." the officer said, confused.
Station Square (Night)
After a few minutes of searching for any sign of Maria, Shadow found himself on a highway road. Other than the sound coming from his Air Shoes and some wild crickets, it was completely silent. This gave him the chance to actually think about what happened on the ARK.
'That light looked like Chaos Control. That's the only explanation that makes sense.' Shadow thought to himself as he continued to skate along the highway. 'But how did the doctor find all seven Emeralds, and how did he know G.U.N. was going to storm the ARK?'
As he dashed across the road, he passed by something odd. He stopped in his tracks and turned around to see if what he saw was still there. To his shock, there was a blue hedgehog that was as tall as he was, with matching proportions, sitting on the top of a streetlamp.
"Who are you?" he asked the blue hedgehog.
Smirking, the hedgehog jumped down to the ground. "Name's Sonic! Sonic The Hedgehog! Were you caught in Egghead's blast too?"
"Egghead?" Shadow asked, reconsidering his decision to talk to this guy. "Never mind. I was hoping you'd have something useful to tell me, but clearly, I was mistaken. Maria's counting on me, and I can't waste time with you."
"Hang on, you're looking for your friend, right?" Sonic asked. "Well, I'm looking for my friends too. Maybe we could help each other out?"
Shadow considered this. Two sets of eyes were better than one, after all. Before he could give a response, though, a group of racecars approached them.
The hatch of the one in front opened, allowing a man in a red suit to step out. "There you two are." he said. "You're hard hogs to keep up with, you know that? We're the S-Team, Station Square's high-speed law enforcement unit."
'Not again.' Shadow mentally griped. He instantly took off, leaving both Sonic and the S-Team behind.
Shocked by this, Sonic ran after the Ultimate Lifeform, giving off a blue glow as he did so. In no time at all, he caught up with Shadow. "Hey! You kinda left me alone back there!"
"Hmm, so you can keep up with me." Shadow said, inwardly impressed with the other hedgehog's speed. "We can talk once we lose them. Are you fast enough to throw them off our trail?"
"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" Sonic asked, smirking. Then, a flash of realization hit him. "You know, I don't think I ever got your name."
"Shadow. Shadow The Hedgehog." Shadow introduced, skating past Sonic with little effort.