Summary
The Hedgehog Saga: It started with the Human's defeat. The final fight of the war, was so brutal, that an almighty explosion completely vapourised Sonic, Shadow and Eggman, killing them all. But did it? Ten years on, and the speedsters awaken, forever changed. Suddenly, the call-to-arms is sounded, as the Resistance are banded together once again. A mighty evil returns to Mobius. Now, Shadow must face his past, and decide, is he still the Ultimate Lifeform?
Chapter Contents
Chapter One – Framed
Chapter Two – Regeneration
Chapter Three – Explorations
Chapter Four – Conventions
Chapter Five – Acquaintances
Chapter Six – Siren
Chapter Seven – Reunion
Chapter Eight – Vengeance
Chapter Nine – Tyrant
Chapter Ten – Reconciliations
Chapter Eleven – Comradery
Chapter Twelve – Eternity
Chapter One – Framed
Elementals. Living beings made of pure Chaos Energy. They exist throughout the universe, and each Elemental forms itself around one of eight specific elements. Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Electricity, Energy, Light, and Dark. Some elements are opposites and others are friends. For thousands of years, tales of Elementals have been told everywhere, and yet, they are, very rarely, ever seen. No one knows how these incredible immortal beings are made or where they come from, and the creatures had been a long time fascination of Tails for years.
He never believed he'd ever see one, until now.
Sonic and Shadow were never meant to survive the final fight against Eggman. It was a setup by G.U.N., or the Guardian Union of Nations, behind everyone's back. They were a military organisation that worked for the world government, the Mobian Authorities. Shadow had been working for them for years, but they had been desperate to get their hands on Sonic, but things were not going their way. They had noticed the two Hedgehogs were both growing more powerful, by the second, G.U.N. feared loosing control of the Ultimate Lifeform. Everything had been kept super secret, but the subtle changes in Shadow suggested something was going on. Scared, G.U.N. devised a plan to permanently destroy Eggman, but also to take Shadow out with him. Also that meant Sonic too. G.U.N. heaved. They had no choice, and besides the hero was never meant to survive anyway.
Collateral damage.
Shadow had no idea of this plan, as he'd been largely kept in the dark, and the subtle changes. Independence. Shadow had been created without free-will or independent thought, a slave to Gerald Robotnik. His creator had played him for a fool, using his own grand daughter as leverage to manipulate Shadow. How free from all of that, Shadow was beginning to develop his own thoughts, feelings, instincts, and will, entirely on his own, from scratch, and was therefore was beginning to challenge everything.
This was desperately worrying G.U.N., who'd been heavily manipulating Shadow themselves, for years, ever since he'd joined them. Had the Ultimate Lifeform cottoned on? Regardless, loosing control of him, wasn't an option. It would make the Black Hedgehog incredibly dangerous. But reading through Gerald Robotnik's research on the Ultimate Lifeform, G.U.N. had no idea how the Human kept such a tight lid on Shadow, and after several failed attempts to do the same, they came to just one conclusion.
Death.
But Shadow the Hedgehog was immortal. But the officials at G.U.N. frowned, especially Commander Luther, a large Rhino in a jet black suit, the Head of G.U.N. Operations. He'd been wary of Shadow since his arrival, and over time, had grown to hate him. The way Shadow worked was brutal, and Luther had lost many a good soldier directly because of him. But the Ultimate Lifeform himself being eternal. Luther wasn't convinced.
Gerald Robotnik had claimed that, but no one had ever seen Shadow physically raise from the dead. Yes, he was extremely difficult to take down, but that was extreme. But truthfully, they hadn't. Shadow, very specifically, kept the regenerations entirely to himself, often fleeing and then hiding, so he could be alone, while the process carried itself out. Then he'd often return to the field as though nothing had happened. Regardless, it took a huge amount of power, to push the Ultimate Lifeform into regeneration in the first place. Shadow was that strong. With no other option, G.U.N. set it's plan in motion, as it heavily monitoring the Resistance.
The all-out fight between Sonic The Hedgehog and Eggman was reaching it's peak, and Shadow was right at the heart of it. He growled. He hadn't intended to be, but with the finishing line of this war so close, he, along with everyone else in the Resistance, was keen to see this through. He wanted Eggman gone.
Permanently.
The battles were coming thick and fast, one after another, days apart, with barely any time for recovery. The landscape around Eggman's territory, was nothing more then wasteland, and Tails' House, which was relatively close by, now long been destroyed. The Fox had a backup, but still, it was a loss, they really couldn't have afforded. But Eggman was finally running out of both resources and finances, and soon, it was here, the final battle.
The Human's last stand.
This was it, for definite this time. The Resistance was sure, after multiple false alarms. But not anymore. Every robot, base, and underhanded scheme had been outright destroyed outside of Eggman's territory, and now the Human was making his last stand, with everything he literally had left.
That didn't mean it was going to be easy.
Far from it.
On the very edge of the territory, the entire Resistance had gathered. Shadow himself was there, like always, somewhat surprised at some of the people who decided to show, out of the woodwork. The Babylon Rogues, The Chaotix, Rough and Tumble, Kit and Surge, and nearly all of the Restoration's staff were there. It was pure desperation, to get this blasted Human gone. They had a chance, and literally everyone was going to take it.
Shadow looked over to the Blue Blur. His long, beautifully manicured royal blue quills flowing down his back, shimmering in the sunlight through the window, his blue fur clean. His long legs stood still, his cherry red shoes with the famous red stripes, shone in the morning light. His white gloved hands in where folded at his arms. His teeth clenched, as he gulped hard, desperately wondering what to do next. Nothing indicated on his person, that the famous Hero of Mobius was actually on his knees.
Sonic was in a very bad way, on the verge of burnout, and that this fight was a literal do or die moment for the Blue Blur. He may have been good at hiding it from his friends, but not his number one rival. Shadow had seen straight through him, his Chaos Aura, which the Ultimate Lifeform, could physically see, giving Sonic away. Shadow had growled.
Fight Eggman without the Blue Blur was something Shadow was not willing to do. Sonic had that much leverage, and to be honest, Shadow just didn't care for the Human. But he cared about Sonic. Entirely because the irritating Blue Blur started it.
Nobody cared about Shadow. His horrendous origins, along with his Dark Chaos alignment, left the Ultimate Lifeform very untrustworthy indeed. But when Shadow decided, to swap sides, having had enough with the House of Robotnik, he had a lot of resistance. No one had wanted him, except the Blue Blur. He stood by him, gave him loyalty that he just didn't deserve, and in the calm before the storm of this battle, in the Restoration, Shadow collared Sonic, in private, the simply ask him why. He giggled.
"Haven't you worked that out yet." He grinned, but Shadow just scowled, as if to say, no. Then Sonic heaved, looking incredibly tired. "It was simply because I didn't think what had been done to you was fair. Did you ask to be created? Did you ask to be bad guy?" He wondered. Shadow blinked, somewhat gasping, having never thought about it like that. His large sleek black body sighed, as he clenched his white gloved fingers, and twisting his wrists, his gold Inhibitors Rings upon them, shining. His long red stripes down both his arms and legs, glistened in the artificial lights of the Restoration. His black upturned quills with their magnificent red stripes, on his head and flowing down his back behind him. His white chest fur looking immaculate. He gained a lot of weight over the recent years, in pure muscle, and even though Sonic was taller then him now, the Ultimate Lifeform was still boarder. He signed and opened his eyes, his deep crimson iris', glowing red occasionally as the Chaos Energy within him took hold. He let it. Finally, he looked up.
"No." He replied. That was true. What had happened to him, had been none of his choosing. But Sonic nodded.
"Well, there you go then. You innocent in all this, and I worked that out quite early on." He nodded, but Shadow smirked.
"But I'm not innocent." He hissed, indicating his love for brothels, but Sonic, catching on, grinned, and rolled his eyes.
"You know what I mean." He giggled, winking. Shadow blinked. Yes, he did, and it was true, and to have someone see it from his point of view, yes, he was extremely grateful. But as the Blue Blur was about to walk away, suddenly, his knees completely gave way, from under him, and he collapsed to the floor. Shadow instinctively caught him, just before he landed, gasping in complete shock.
What was going on?
Sonic was panting hard, in his arms, as he swore in frustration, but then he looked at Shadow, and giggled.
"Thank you. Nice catch, by the way." He nodded, but then he squirmed in pain. "Oh, hell, I hate this." He added, as he got to his feet again, as Shadow helped him up. But the Black Hedgehog growled.
"You need a doctor." He spat, but Sonic rounded on him, shaking his head hard.
"No, I'm fine." He defended and hard. But Shadow growled hard, his anger flaring.
"Liar." He hissed, extremely coldly, but then Sonic heaved, looking at his rival. So much had changed between them, since their first meeting, and even though they weren't best friends, the strong mutual respect was definitely there, certainly enough for Sonic to trust. He nodded.
"Ok, I'll tell you, but I want your word, that won't breathe this to anyone. Not even Tails knows." He stammered. Shadow frowned, not even sure of what he was hearing.
"Your dying?" He wondered, but truthfully, he wouldn't have been surprised at this point. But Sonic shook his head.
"No. no." He admitted, to Shadow's mild relief, but that the Blue Blur gulped. "But truthfully, I don't know. I am on my last legs, exhausted and chances of me surviving the final fight against Egg-Head was incredibly narrow, but how is that unusual." He shrugged. Shadow nodded, this was not unexpected. This was the end of the war, everyone was exhausted. But then Sonic just grabbed the Ultimate Lifeform. He when white. "No, Shadow, the reason why I'm like this is because my Super-Speed is exploding." He stuttered. Shadow gasped.
What?
Immediately, he frowned back.
"What do mean by exploding?" He hissed, but Sonic rounded on him.
"I think me being the King of Speed, was significantly more then just straight line speed. My superpowers are expanding out sideways. It just began, out of nowhere, several weeks ago. Brand new abilities, such as walking through walls, and even generating electricity, and I'm desperately struggling to control any of it. I'm trying, but that, on top of the war against Eggman, and my body is giving out, as you've just seen." He explained, and then he looked directly at Shadow, gulping hard. "Shadow, please. If the the Resistance knew that their hero was loosing his edge, they'd outright panic, and against Eggman, that would cost lives." He stammered, now shaking hard. But Shadow held him strong, and nodded. He could feel the fear on Sonic, and knew what was needed to be done, and agreed with Blue Blur.
"Easy." He hissed. "You powers are indeed growing, which is unsurprising, considering you are still a juvenile, but unfortunately, we don't have the time for you to master your new skills, with the final battle against Eggman tomorrow." He growled. Sonic sniffed, shaking his head. But Shadow sighed. "But you have my word." He comforted. "I agree that your predicament would indeed cause panic, but you must keep a lid on this as must as possible." He growled, but Sonic gulped.
"Then what?" He wondered. But Shadow heaved, as he moved away.
"I have no idea." He admitted. "But we pray, I guess." He added, as he moved off. But as Shadow left, he heaved. He too had been feeling bizarre of late. Tired, worn down. He frowned. He was the Ultimate Lifeform, a true immortal, he should never ware down. Regardless, he just shook it off, they had a Human to defeat.
Now stood opposite the Eggman for said final showdown, and Shadow could clearly seen, that yes, Sonic was indeed struggling, but he was desperately trying to dub down as much of his new superpowers as possible. But the Ultimate Lifeform knew that wasn't going to last. Was the Blue Blur going to survive this? But truthfully, he did agree with him, he didn't know either. He had heard of a plot to potentially kill the Blue Blur during this fight, but from what he saw yesterday, Shadow was unsure of that either. Sonic had been telling the truth. He could feel the new abilities on him. The Black Hedgehog growled. To have such new territory on such a pivotal battle was not ideal, but right now, Shadow had no choice, but to deal with it, as the sirens blasted and Eggman's robots came raining down on them.
There was significantly more Badniks then anyone could have predicted and many people were becoming overwhelmed. But not Shadow The Hedgehog. He had a Chaos Emerald on him, and was throwing Chaos Spears, Chaos Controls and Chaos Blasts everywhere. He had one of only three Chaos Emeralds that were known currently. He had one, Tails, the second, and Eggman, the last. The other four were still out in the wild, and despite extensive searches, none of them had been found. Everyone have been desperately looking, but now they had ran out of time. This was going to be a fight without all seven Chaos Emeralds, and consequently Super-Forms. There was very little you could do with just one of the mighty gemstones. In the end, Eggman had given up on them, and finally charged against the Resistance without them.
But the Human had significantly fire power, even without all of the gemstones, and he immediately went for the heavy hitters of the Resistance first. Tails, with his powerful Chaos Emerald based gun, Silver, Blaze, Sonic and then the Ultimate Lifeform himself. Eggman had a serious bone to pick with Shadow. The Black Hedgehog had betrayed him recently. He made the Human believe he'd ditched the Resistance, when he hadn't, and then stole vital intelligence from him. That stung, considering whom the Ultimate Lifeform was, and who created him, but significantly more recently Eggman had been noticing Shadow showing more independent thought.
He didn't steel from Eggman for the Resistance, because they'd ordered, or even asked him to. He did it because he'd chosen too. Eggman shuddered. Shadow, having a mind of his own? That sounded terrifying, and the sooner he downed that pesky Ultimate Lifeform, the better.
Finally, he roared into to scene, in his last remaining boss robot. He huffed. It was not his finest, but everything else, rather annoyingly, had been destroyed. He'd souped up this boss robot, with every weapon he had left and even though the odds of him winning this fight, was heavily stacked against him. Eggman figured, if he was going to go, then to go out with a bang, and maybe see of he could drag a Hedgehog or two, down with him.
In the cockpit of the Egg Breaker, he slammed the boss robot into the air, it perfectly landing on the ground. The entire earth shook. The Egg Breaker is a mech with an open cockpit that Eggman normally in. Except this time, the Human had closed it off, with re-enforced, highly-tempered glass. It somewhat resembles the Egg Emperor except it bore a red and blue paint scheme instead of gold, and it's right hand is a giant spiked ball that it can throw, which is used to try to crush the ground and create shock-waves. The Egg Breaker could jump to create a shock-waves, spin around with its spike ball and throw it, with fire balls circling around it, and generate new spike balls easily. The Egg Breaker had also fire lasers, especially with its eyes, and the ability to leap considerable distances. It also had fire a horizontal array of bombs as well.
It was an formidable opponent, and immediately Sonic and Shadow were all over it. Kit and Surge also tried to get in the action, also wanting a piece of the Big Guy, but they, along with the Babylon Rogues, quickly fell by the way side, as they were forced to flee for their lives. Fighting Eggman wasn't just about speed, as Surge quickly learned. She had been desperately trying to match the Blue Blur, but his incredible skill in both sheer speed, and competence as a fighter and warrior, just left her far behind. She fought Sonic before, but this was on a completely different scale. Only Shadow could match him. She immediately got the feeling, Sonic was just being nice to her, which was an huge ego blow.
Seeing Surge fall, made the Ultimate Lifeform's day. He utterly despised that girl. She had no place challenging the Blue Blur, especially with her fake implant-based superpowers, and the reason why he hadn't killed her, was because Sonic had asked him not to. As for Kit, that Fox was nothing. The Hedgehogs were way out of their league, and now finally, they knew it. With the cannon fodder gone, Shadow then hammered down on the Egg Breaker, while perfectly avoiding it's counter attacks. Sonic was copying him. Shadow knew why, with his mind and body all over the place, the Blue Blur needed a line to follow. Shadow smirked, that was fine by him, as he signalled Sonic to go high, and he went low. With Sonic being significantly lighter in weight then himself, he could get the height with the jumps, and attack Eggman's Egg Breaker from above.
Then the Hedgehogs put their foot down on the accelerators and the bombardment happened. They jumped, homing attacked the Egg Breaker, landed, retreated slightly, and repeated the process. A simple move, but it was the sheer speed of which both Sonic and Shadow did this at, that made it devastating. Eggman was literally alternatively getting hit every half-second. Several people ran, as Surge retreated, swearing hard, as her and Kit, ran to relative safety of Tails, and his massive gun, which was still blasting everything. She gasped.
"Chaos Hell." She swore, as she just stared at the enormous boss robot attacks. Frowning, Tails whirled round.
"What?" He asked, and then he saw, and giggled. "Oh, yeah, Sonic and Shadow do that. It's an effective move, though they seemed to have perfected it." He nodded, but then he rounded on Kit and Surge. "Look, leave Eggman to them, we need help here. These smaller Badniks just keep on coming." He asked.
He was right.
As far as the eyes could see, the area was littered with Buzz Bombers, Crab Meats, Moto Bugs, by the hundreds, as well as Choppers, Newtrons, Bat Brains, Caterkillers, Rollers, Spikes, Burrobots, Orbinauts, Ball Hogs, Bombs and Jaws. It was utter chaos, and the Resistance was struggling, with the sheer numbers. Thousands of them were everywhere, and right now, they needed everyone they could get. Finally, Kit and Surge agreed and dived into the fight.
While the intense battle was raging, no one noticed that G.U.N. had entered the field. That was by design, they were here to back up the Resistance against Eggman, as planned, but as Commander Luther, in his full military field gear, saw the Boss Robot fight, between Sonic, Shadow and Eggman, G.U.N also had another reason to be there.
They had brought a bomb.
The most powerful explosive they could get their hands on, and they had disguised it as a re-enforced Badnik, so it wouldn't get trashed along it's route to it's goal. With everyone so heavily distracted from the fighting, nobody in the Resistance saw G.U.N. unleash their monster robot, on the unsuspecting Hedgehogs. Luther evilly smirked hard to himself.
"Survive this, you fiend." He hissed, to himself, straight at the unsuspecting Ultimate Lifeform. The Rhino turned away, as G.U.N., let all hell loose.
No one saw it coming.
Shadow and Sonic were making headway on Egg Breaker. It was cracking under the bombardment, finally, they'd be rid of the Human, but neither Shadow, Sonic nor Eggman had a chance to find out who would have genuinely won between them, in the end. G.U.N.'s fake Badnik just went charging across the battlefield, and having been successfully missed by everyone, he landed on target, stopping between the legs of the Egg Breaker, right beneath it, and out of nowhere, exploded it cargo.
The bomb's resulting explosion was vast. The bright white cloud of light, just rose up from the ground, in a giant mushroom and it ricocheted deep pale blue shock-waves everywhere. There were screams everywhere, as people literally ran for their lives, as pieces of Badnik and smashed metal were thrown everywhere. The ground shook with it's incredible intensity as Sonic, Shadow and Eggman all disappeared from sight.
Shadow, to this day, still had no idea why he did it. A split second decision that changed his life forever. Loyalty, maybe? Truthfully, he had no idea. He didn't think, as he just charged right in, grabbing Sonic's hand, to try and get him out, just as the explosion happened. The enormous bright white shockwaves of pure Energy engulfed both Hedgehogs. Shadow screamed in the intense blast combined with the Chaos Emerald in his hand, and the Chaos Energy just exploded, painfully passing through both Shadow and Sonic. The Ultimate Lifeform felt incredibly intense pain right across his head, as suddenly, his eyes were on pure fire, and the horrendous burning, flowed from there, through his mind, and then down his veins. Suddenly, he glowed a deep intense orange, almost red, as as the pain just worsened, as as he looked over to the Sonic, the Blue Blur wasn't doing much better.
Sonic saw, with utter astonishment, his body changed before his eyes. As they flew backwards, Sonic completely lost control of his Super-Speed. His body exploded with pale blue sparks, then the full blown lightning, which began to vibrate in incredible speeds. But it didn't stop there as his body then literally exploded into a translucent state. A ghost-like appearance pale blue and almost see-through. All this happening in a matter of seconds, in which Sonic and Shadow still hanging on to each other, they literally, vanished, the Chaos Emerald separating from them, to be thrown to who knows where.
The bomb disintegrated everything, and when the dust finally settled, everything was gone. Eggman, Sonic, Shadow, had all been vapourised to nothing. The final fight goes down, and the enormous explosion ends the war, the Human and Hedgehogs all dead. But are they? Eggman's remains were found, D.N.A. verified, but neither Hedgehog were in sight. Desperately hoping they'd succeeded, Commander Luther was finally satisfied, G.U.N. said nothing and moved on.