I know that this is shocking for you. I'm sorry GUN thought you would be dangerous. But you are special Shadow, and you mean the world to me, ok? I would never think that you were dangerous, and grandfather clearly didn't either.
Besides, regardless of the reason, you have a sister now! She isn't awake, but once those GUN jerks see the good you're doing, they'll surely wake her up in no time! And when that happens, I just hope I'm there to see it, right next to you.
A sister, huh?
Shadow jerked awake, chaos energy crackling off of him. He stood up and quickly looked around, getting his bearings. He was in the clifftop he settled down on after he got the clearing from GUN to leave the base. He went up here for a small rest, which seemed to quickly devolve into outright sleep. Shadow slowly calmed himself down, the chaos energy dissipating from his body.
What was that? He wondered. Was that a dream… or something more? He didn't remember something like that ever happening. But, Shadow could admit to himself, he didn't remember much of when he was on the ARK. He never told anybody, but his amnesia from the first time he ever went super was never truly fixed. He remembered all the important parts of his past, and that's all that mattered to him, but still.
He turned and looked out to the green field far below the cliff face he was standing on. Did I… Actually have a sister? He wondered. He wanted to dismiss the dream as just that, a dream. But it wouldn't be the first time that Dr. Gerald Robotnik made something that surprised him. Besides, he wouldn't put it past Black Doom to make a copy of him in case he ever didn't work out.
Luckily, Black Doom was destroyed, not once but twice, and wasn't ever returning. So even a second vessel wouldn't be useful to him now. Still, it concerned Shadow that there might be a second Ultimate Lifeform out there, and he just wasn't aware of it. If it was anything like him, which based on the dream it should be, it wouldn't age after the countless years and still be around. That is, if it survived the ARK raid.
Shadow shook his thoughts away pertaining to that particular tragedy. Shadow knew that currently, GUN was a different organization from the one that raided the ARK. Still though, he couldn't think back on that raid without getting a little angry at GUN for what they did.
And yet here he was, working for them. Apparently, Irony never changes no matter how many years pass. Still though, the possible memory would change a lot of things if it was true, and if it was? Then he was going to need help tracking them down. Shadow didn't leave loose ends, and a possible second Ultimate Lifeform? That would be too problematic if Shadow didn't get to them first.
He suddenly sighed, realizing that there was no way he was gonna trust GUN with that information, and the only people he could trust were going to mock him for days. He brought up his cufflink's com and requested a few weeks absence from GUN operations for a while.
July 15 2024
Sol Dimension, Blaze's Castle
Blaze had just warped back to her throne room, ecstatic from her recent "vacation" when Gardon rushed in and bowed to her.
"Your Highness, Marine the Racoon has requested an audience. She says it's urgent, and that your, uh, 'Not going to believe it!'" Gardon said, looking pained at saying something even a bit unprofessional.
Blaze just smiled, her good mood showing itself in full force. "Please, let her in. It would be a pleasure to talk to her again, regardless." Blaze said, not having spoken to Marine for at least a week.
Gardon hesitated. "Um. She has also requested assistance in bringing some large objects into your throne room. May she?" He asked slowly.
Blaze felt one of her eyebrows raise, her curiosity piqued. "Yes, she may." She said, starting to straighten up.
Gardon once again bowed, before rushing out of the room. Blaze waited for barely a minute before Marine ran in excitedly, waving to a group of guards lugging two large and apparently heavy things into the room. Marine turned over to Blaze, her expression cheerful.
"Ah Princess! Pleasure to see ya again!" Marine said excitedly, which caused Blaze to chuckle. "Yes, it's been awhile, Marine." She said in good humour. "What have you brought to me?" She asked, looking at the two large objects being set down.
The rest of the guards bowed to Blaze, before exiting. Marine looked at Blaze and the objects, her smile seeming to thin somewhat. "To be honest your highness, I don't rightly know. Ya may wanna come to see this." She said, gesturing to Blaze.
Blaze's brows furrowed in confusion, before she stepped down and walked over to the objects. Until she was right next to them, she probably would have told you they were boulders. Once she was close enough though, she saw that they were actually some kind of glass pods with two people seemingly frozen inside. Blaze's eyes widened when she saw the cat islander who looked almost just like her. If she was colored black, and never put her hair in a bun, it would be near impossible to tell the difference. Although, this copy seemed to have a more blue theme then purple.
She stepped back in surprise, before putting her hand to her chin in thought. Marine looked at her. "So, ya know what it, or rather what they are?" She asked, a bit concerned.
Blaze shook her head no. Although I certainly have a theory. She thought, thinking back to a certain black-quiled hedgehog who hated Sonic's guts.
It's been long theorised that the Sol Dimension was just a mirror of Sonic's Dimension, a theory that Blaze certainly believed. Chaos Emeralds, Sol Emeralds, Sonic, Blaze, it just felt like too many similarities for mere coincidence. Although there were certain differences, it wasn't exactly enough to matter. So Blaze theorized that if Sonic was her counterpart…
Then this is probably Shadow's counterpart.
"Marine, may you stand back please? I'm going to release the occupants." Blaze said, before reaching to the pods. Marine moved back a safe distance, content to watch Blaze work.
While Blaze's world wasn't nearly as technologically advanced as Sonic's world, she has been over long enough to sorta understand technology like this. She quickly looked at the sides for some kind of release mechanism, and after scraping away some dirt, found it. There were electric light words saying "manual override needed". Blaze clicked a button that seemed to be the override, before the pod's entire front popped open and lifted up.
Blaze slowly backed away from the copy of her, waiting in a battle stance. She remembered how Sonic said that his first meeting with Shadow wasn't exactly pleasant, and was prepared for the same thing.
It took a moment, but the copy Blaze slowly raised her hand to pull herself out of the pod, strange blue fire starting to emulate from her hands. The copy raised her head, sitting up, and opened her eyes. Its eyes were a bright, nearly glowing blue. Its eyes also seemed to have red highlights on them, and the very tips of her fur were also colored a heavy blue. It also seemed to be wearing a kind of crown that was suspiciously similar to Blaze's when she was wearing it.
The copy looked over at Marine, registering her, and then moved over to Blaze, where it seemed to freeze. She looked at Blaze for a couple of long seconds, before she shook her head and finished climbing out of the pod. It stepped out of the pod, and Blaze was surprised to see wherever it stepped created some ice, before the ice was lit up with ominous dark blue fire that felt strange to Blaze's senses.
It once again did a once over around itself, before turning to Blaze with a blank expression. "Where is she?" it asked.
Blaze jerked back in surprise. The copy's voice was similar to her own, but different in a couple ways. It was deeper than Blaze's voice, and it sounded like Blaze did when she was trying to act her most imperious. Simply put, if Blaze was maybe a couple years older, she would most likely sound like the copy did.
Blaze got over her surprise before shaking her head. "Where is who?" She asked. The copy seemed to stare straight at her creepily, before turning its head to its pod. "My charge. I should have been dropped with her." Blaze felt the dots click.
"Your charge is in the other pod, right next to yours." She said, curious. This copy had a charge? It was looking after somebody? The copy Blaze once again just stared, before slowly walking over to the other side of her pod, shoes clicking against the floor.
Blaze did a double take when she saw the shoes, they looked strangely like ice skates without the blade used for ice skating. Even more strange, everywhere it stepped created another bit of ice, which once again lit up with that strange blue fire.
Blaze tried to sense the fire, to maybe control it like she did most fire. When she tried though, it seemed to cause a sort of backlash. Blaze suddenly felt pain, like she just touched dry ice. Something so cold it burned. She gasped in pain, causing Marine to give her a concerned look.
The copy Blaze stopped moving for a minute. "Don't." It said, some emotion in its voice for the first time. It sounded angry. It then suddenly started moving again, over to the second pod. It got down on its knees, trying to find that pods override.
After Blaze had gotten over the momentary pain, Marine quietly moved behind Blaze, her eyes wide and worried. "You know princess, this copy o' yours really gives me the creeps, ya know what I mean?" She whispered, and Blaze had to agree.
Shadow was never friendly exactly, and Blaze knew that talking to him was sometimes just a straight lost cause. But this copy was different. While Shadow was just unapproachable, this thing didn't feel entirely alive. Like it was some kind of dark blank slate. Quiet and cold. If Shadow was unapproachable, this copy made you feel cold inside just standing near her.
After it fiddled with the controls for a moment, the second pod opened. The copy just stood there, its hands subconsciously moving themselves to cross its arms. It just stood there, for the whole 3 minutes it took for the second pod's occupant to awake. When she did, she seemed to get out of the pod far quicker than the copy did.
It was a blond furred hedgehog, who looked around blearily. She was wearing some kind of bright blue jumper with red shoes. She shook her head, and looked closer at the copy Blaze.
"Project Blizzard?" She asked, very clearly confused. The copy nodded its head. To Blaze's surprise, the hedgehog smiled. "I knew I would get to see you wake up… Wait, where are we?" She asked, just now noticing where she was.
Marine decided that would be the perfect time to pipe in, a bit overzealous. "You're in the throne room of Princess Blaze, heir to the Sol Empire!" She said enthusiastically.
The hedgehog merely looked confused. "Sol Empire? Princess?" She asked. Blaze was happy to answer this hedgehog, as it seemed she was far more approachable than the copy, which she now knew as Project Blizzard.
"Hello. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance." Blaze said, doing a small bow. "I am Princess Blaze." She said, in a formal voice. The hedgehog looked at her in a form of awe.
Blaze was used to the awe of someone being in the presence of royalty, so she didn't think much of it, until the hedgehog blurted out, "It's you! The cat from the mural!" she said, shocked. Blaze looked at her in confusion.
Mural? Blaze wondered. The hedgehog seemed to get over her awe quickly enough, and it was soon replaced by confusion. "Wait, what am I doing here? The last thing I remember was…" She said, before horror dawned on her face.
She looked down at her body, shocked. The shock only seemed to widen when she took in her own form, which Blaze found weird. "When did I…?" She asked, stunned. "The last thing I remember was getting scanned by grandfather before the alarms went off…" She muttered to herself, overheard by Blaze. Blaze's eyebrow raised in quiet shock. Grandfather?
The hedgehog quickly looked around her, seeing the entire room. "Where's Shadow?" She asked, panicked. Blaze's face fully morphed with shock. She knows who Shadow is!?
Blaze tried to get over her shock, but it was hard. "Shadow the hedgehog?" She asked, trying to confirm. The blond Hedgehog nodded quickly.
"Yeah, he's my best friend!" She said, a cheerful grin breaking through her face before it was once again replaced with fear. Project Blizzard seemed to start to become agitated by the hedgehog's fear.
Blaze suddenly got a horrible feeling in her gut. "What is your name?" She asked, hoping it was literally anything else then what she was thinking. "Oh! Right. My name is Maria Robotnik!" She said, a small smile once again breaking through her fear.
Blaze froze. Maria Robotnik.
Maria. Robotnik.
Shadow was gonna kill Blaze if she didn't do something.
Blaze quickly forced on a smile. "Wow, Maria Robotnik? I've heard so many things about you from Shadow." She said, trying to calm herself. "He misses you, by the way." She said.
Biggest understatement of my life. Blaze thought. Maria looked at her confused. "Misses me?" She asked, before looking back at the pods. A lightbulb seemed to go off in her head. "How long have I been asleep for?" she asked hesitantly. Blaze once again froze, not wanting to answer the question.
Unfortunately, Blizzard was more than happy to answer. "Based on stasis pod readings, 53 years, 2 months, and 5 days." She said, once again with an entirely blank face.
Maria looked at her with shock. "F-fifty-?" She stuttered. "Wha-?" She then collapsed, seemingly falling unconscious with shock.
Blaze moved in to help her, but Blizzard got to her first, carefully holding her up. Blizzard glared Blaze's way, and Blaze slowly backed away, getting the message. She then quickly turned away, calling the Sol Emeralds to her.
The Sol Emeralds appeared, all surrounding Blaze in a cyclone of fire. Blizzard just looked on with mild curiosity. Blaze turned to Marine, who was starting to just look really confused. "Marine, get guards to help Maria to the medical wing. Blizzard is unlikely to let them take her, so just get her to follow with Maria, alright?" She said hurriedly.
Marine nodded. "Whatever you say princess, but where are you going?" She asked.
"I need to get someone, and I need to do it fast." Blaze said, a shade of panic entering her voice. Suddenly, the fire completely covered her, before she disappeared. Marine turned to look over at Blizzard, who was giving her that creepy blank stare.
Marine just sighed. "Wait here, would ya?" She said, before leaving the throne room.
Blizzard seemed to register the command, taking it seriously for all of ten seconds before she created a large ice spike and threw it into the throne room's walls. The wall shattered, leading to outside. Blizzard slowly grabbed onto Maria, before she, with Maria in her arms, jumped out of the room. It was several stories above the ground, but before Blizzard could impact the ground, a long road of ice suddenly appeared under her feet in the air.
When Blizzard tested the road, moving forward a couple steps, it seemed to follow her. That meant that Blizzard could move as fast as she wanted, and the road would follow. For the first time since waking up, Blizzard smiled. Suddenly, Ice skating blades popped out of the bottom of Blizzard's shoes, before she started skating on the floating ice road. The behind of her shoes seemed to propel her faster with blue fire, so that she was only a black and blue streak blazing through the sky with Maria in tow.
Marine walked back in the throne room alone, looking behind her with an annoyed expression. "So I couldn't find any guards who would be bothered to help a mate out, so I think I'll just take you to-" she rambled, before stopping in shock at the scene of carnage.
Ice seemed to coat the entire floor, while there was a whole wall missing, with ice blue fire licking the edges.
"Blimey…" Marine breathed out, "Blaze is gonna be so mad."