01. A New Legend Begins
50 years later…
Anthropomorphs of various species fled through the grassy plains of Seaside Island, some screams heard as a group of bandits attempted to take over the local mall for the third time in the last week, in the middle of the day.
"That's right, get out, peeps, we own this joint now, there's no way that hedgehog will stop us now," the brown badger leader of the bandits shouted out, wearing a red leather coat embroidered with a golden lightning bolt symbol, "Remember peeps, we are the Lightning Bolt Society! Thunder is our cry, lightning is our reign!" In the distance, Shadow the Hedgehog watched from atop a cliff, smiling slyly at the false confidence held by his enemies, the ones he'd been foiling for as long as he'd been on the remote island after leaving Acorn just weeks after his arrival.
"Time to kick some Lighting Bolt ass!" He whispered, before leaping into the air, and immediately upon landing on the group, he took off faster than fathomable, utilising his rocket boots to propel himself forward. As he got closer to the inner parts of the island village, the citizens began to cheer as they witnessed his charge, his speedy manoeuvres followed by a red blur behind him. From atop the mall's roof, the badger leader focused on Shadow's direction with a pair of binoculars.
"He's coming, boys, let's show him what we're made of!" he ordered, as the other red hooded Lightning Bolt members pulled out pistols, preparing for a fight.
As a group of three of the bandits navigated near the main front entrance of the mall, scouring the premises for Shadow, they heard a scurrying noise coming from somewhere around their position.
"Hey, both of you, diverge and find the hedgehog, I can handle myself," a red female fox bandit, the captain of the group, ordered the other two men with her, as they took their guns and crept around the mall. As one of the two male bandits crept near the elevators of the mall, Shadow looked down at him from a balcony above outside one of the restaurants.
"Where are you, hedgehog? Come out wherever you are!" the bandit called out, as Shadow smiled and chuckled silently from the balcony.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here…a little Lightning Bolt waiting to get his face kicked in?!" Shadow replied from the balcony, before jumping down in front of the bandit, leaving the guy standing and shaking in fear, "Are you gonna shoot me, mister bandit?" The bandit suddenly struggled to pull out his gun, giving Shadow the clear opportunity. He grabbed the bandit's arm, and pulled him around, swinging him across the hall and into an open elevator. Shadow then pressed the button to move the elevator, before punching the controls to break the movement with the elevator between floors. He immediately heard the bandit cry out from inside the elevator, as Shadow giggled.
"You'll be let out of there once the sheriff gets here to take you in," Shadow yelled out to the bandit as he walked around again, silently searching for the other bandit.
At the entrance, the leader moved her own weapon, a machine gun, around after hearing Shadow's voice from elsewhere. Suddenly, she then heard her other bandit scream before hearing the sound of shattering glass.
"Wh-wh-where are you, hedgehog?! I'll kill you on sight, don't try me!" she shouted out, firing a few bullets out of her weapon as a warning.
"Hm? You…shoot me? I bet you a million credits you won't even land one shot on me!" Shadow's voice called out from an unknown location, "How about we play a little wager here? If you can hit me, I'll leave and the mall is yours. If you can't, then you go to the watchhouse, how about that?"
"We play on my terms, hedgehog, not yours!" the fox bandit snapped back.
"Very well then," Shadow's voice finished, before suddenly moving to right behind her, "We'll do it your way then." Before she could do anything, he knocked the weapon out of her hands, and grappled the female fox. He then took off her mask, revealing her face, covered in red fur with some purple makeup on her eyes and lips.
"Well, you got me, but I will say, up close you're pretty hot," the fox said in a seductive tone, "I'm Fiona, surely we can go back to your place and…I don't know, have a bit of fun?"
"Nice try, Fiona, I don't do roots and boots, but I am gonna give you the opportunity to go home now, and rethink your life choices," Shadow responded, before grabbing her weapon and letting her go, "Go home, now, before the sheriff gets here." Fiona quickly ran out of the mall, disappearing from Shadow's sight.
On the roof of the mall, Shadow emerged from an elevator in the rooftop carpark, and began slowly approaching the leader of the group.
"When are you people gonna give up already, Tyrone?" Shadow called out, prompting Tyrone, the leader of the group, to turn around to face Shadow, his shotgun already pointed at the hedgehog, "I wouldn't shoot if I were you." As Tyrone fired a shot at Shadow, Shadow quickly disappeared in a red blur, suddenly appearing in front of Tyrone, immediately grabbing the shotgun with both hands, and bending it in half.
"Leave us alone for once, Shadow, please?!" Tyrone pleaded as he began crawling backwards away from Shadow, "We know what's best for the people of this village, I tell you, they would be nowhere without us!" Shadow simply smiled at this, grabbing Tyrone by the neck and pinning him against the nearest pole, with enough strength not to choke but mainly to restrain him.
"You know nothing about me, do you? I don't condone oppression as a form of governance," Shadow growled at the badger, his voice rising into a menacing yell, "My secret to you, Tyrone, to tell the rest of the Lightning Bolts; the purpose of my creation was to end an oppression far greater than yours. I do everything I can to end oppression as it was not only the reason I was born, but also the reason I lost everything! So how about you get lost back to your little hideout before I follow you there, and end your little society…at the source!" Tyrone suddenly screamed, running away frantically, as Shadow sighed, trying to calm himself down as he looked at his wrists, his inhibitor rings appearing damaged. Ever since he'd lost the life he knew on the Space Colony ARK 50 years prior, within the first year on Seaside Island, the immense stress placed on him by the oppressive actions of the Lightning Bolt Society had led his original inhibitor rings to break, leaving him unhinged under stress. Luckily, he'd found a way to forge new inhibitor rings using gold ingots given to him by a friend he'd made on his way here from Acorn; King Damien of the Dolphin Tribe.
"Time to forge more, I guess, I should have one more ingot, enough to make another set, then I'll need to see Damien," Shadow murmured to himself as he began walking to his home in the outskirts of the village, so as to not cause any further damage to his rings, I haven't actually seen Damien in a while, it'll be a convenient excuse to go give him a visit. Well…walking it is, all the way back home…
A couple of hours later, Shadow finally returned to his cottage atop a hill outside the village bounds. Exhausted from the walk in the heat of day, he opened the door, quickly moving to his lounge chair to relax, even if just for half an hour.
"Hey, Shadow, are you okay?" a female rabbit asked as he stumbled towards his couch, sitting down as quick as he could.
"Ah…I need to relax…yeah I'm okay, Vanilla, just another day with the Lightning Bolts causing trouble, that's all," Shadow answered, as he felt his worries melt away in the comfort of the couch, combined with the fan on his fur. Vanilla sat next to him in her lounge chair carefully. Shadow had known Vanilla since she was young. At 20 years old, Vanilla's relationship with Shadow had always been purely platonic, more often than not her looking up to Shadow as a father figure rather than as an intimate lover, despite looking physically more mature than Shadow, due to her age combined with Shadow never really aging physically past his teens due to his immortality from the serum in his bloodstream. Vanilla was also 2 months pregnant, with a one night stand after she'd had after a night at the local club. When Vanilla had found out, Shadow had asked her to move in with him, as her own parents had died in a fire years ago, she'd been living in a local women's homeless shelter since before Shadow took her in.
"Shadow…your inhibitor rings are damaged…are you gonna fix them?" Vanilla asked, a worrying look crossing her face, getting Shadow's attention.
"I know, that's why it took me two hours to walk back here, I'll fix them after a nap," Shadow replied, as he tried to get some sleep after the long walk, "Vanilla, can you turn on the news, I wanna hear what's going on tonight on the mainland, see what else I can sulk about." Vanilla obediently took the remote from the small table in front of them and turned on their television to the Mobotropolis News Channel, which currently was in the middle of a commercial break.
"I hate ads, I hate my shows being interrupted all the time by crap I don't care about," Shadow commented under his breath as he struggled to keep himself awake. As he began to close his eyes, the commercial break ended, returning to the news.
"We have breaking news this evening on Mobotropolis News at 5pm; a live conspiracy, back on the tabloids across the nation," Delina Rose, world famous news reporter from Mobotropolis, announced, as Shadow just sighed in disappointment.
"Another conspiracy theory…seriously?" He mumbled frustratingly, as the report continued.
"50 years have gone by since the tragic G.U.N. orchestrated mass shooting aboard the Space Colony ARK sent the nation of Mobotropolis into mourning over the death of prolific geneticist Gerald Robotnik," Delina continued, as Shadow's eyes jerked open at the mention of the ARK and Gerald, capturing his immediate attention.
"What's wrong, Shadow?" Vanilla asked, being hushed by Shadow in response.
"Several tabloid reports have revitalised the conspiracy theory that was previously quelled by President David King and Dr Julian Robotnik, Gerald's grandson, just six months following the shooting, regarding the possible survival of, and experiments on, Gerald's, at the time, 16 year old granddaughter Maria Robotnik, who was pronounced dead after the shooting, her cause of death never disclosed to the public," Delina's live report continued with a photo of a human Maria with fair skin and blonde hair with a light blue dress, as Shadow's eyes suddenly widened, "Insiders at MeteorTech claim to have allegedly spotted signs within a MeteorTech prison laboratory pointing towards Ms Robotnik, who today would be 66 years old, still alive and in this facility. We'll be revealing further developments on this case in the coming days. This has been Delina Rose from Mobotropolis News, signing out." After the report ended, Shadow sat in his chair, hunched forward, his eyes wide and mouth open in shock at what he'd just seen, while Vanilla sat in the other chair, looking at him awkwardly.
"Shadow? You good?" Vanilla asked, as Shadow remained in his stance.
"I knew it…I could feel it in my gut…in my heart…" Shadow whispered, inaudible to Vanilla.
"Huh? Who's Gerald or Maria, what's the Space Colony ARK?" Vanilla asked again, seeking clarification.
"Maria was my everything…50 years ago," Shadow whispered, this time louder for Vanilla to hear, "Gerald created me aboard the Space Colony ARK…to tear down the King Dynasty and restore peace and freedom to the anthropomorphs of Mobius…I was love with Maria, and she was in equally in love with me, we were meant to do it together…but I watched them shoot her that night…it was the last time I ever saw her…" Vanilla's eyes continued to show her confused expression.
"Wait…you're him? The Messiah of the New World…the anthropomorph destined by the gods to bring our world to eternal prosperity?" Vanilla responded, as her confusion turned to shock as well, "No way, you're messing with me, surely? Are you telling me I've known you for as long as I've been alive, and I didn't realise you were the Chosen One to end the oppression of the anthropomorphs?!"
"What are you blabbering about, Vanilla, I'm no Chosen One, no Messiah of the New World, just a hermit on an isolated island who's lost everything, at least I thought I did," Shadow shut her down, realising what he must do, "I need to save her…I failed to save everyone else, but I can still save her. I'm going to Mobotropolis, to free Maria…to bring her back here, to live here with us!"
"Shadow, she said it was a conspiracy theory, how do you know she's still alive?" Vanilla asked, as Shadow began pacing back and forth across their living room.
"Because I never felt her presence leave, Vanilla, I knew she was alive, deep down I knew, I just needed something like this to get me off my ass to go and save her…I can't believe I left her alone for 50 years…half a century," Shadow explained, as he walked into his forgery, grabbing his last golden ingot to melt it into new inhibitor rings. To imbue them with the power needed to work them, he went into a small safe in the corner of the room, unlocking it to find a blue diamond-cut gemstone, emanating a sort of blue energy field. After the plain rings had been melted and cooled into their circular shape, wide enough to go around his wrists, he took the two rings, placing them into a clamping machine connected to an energy absorber with a spot for his gemstone, in which he placed the blue gem. He then stood back, applying his sunglasses to not let the concentrated light melt his eyeballs out.
"The servers are the seven Chaos," Shadow began to chant, the gemstone beginning to glow brighter, "Chaos is power…power enriched by the heart…the controller is the one who unifies the Chaos!" When the chant was finished, a blast of energy and light was emitted from the gemstone, shattering Shadow's damaged inhibitor rings and shutting off power to his cottage. However, when the light faded, the gold rings he'd forged were now glowing faintly, imbued with Chaos energy, courtesy of the blue Chaos Emerald. Shadow took the rings, and locked them around his wrists, and the glow from the rings faded as he felt their energy dispersing through his body. When he walked out, he saw Vanilla already packing a backpack with a couple spare sets of clothes and toiletries.
"I'm coming with you, Shadow, I don't care what you say, you're not doing this alone," Vanilla immediately said as she zipped up the bag, "You're a fugitive, that entire nation will likely be your enemy, you'll need someone to be by your side until you find her, if you find her."
"I know I'm a fugitive, Vanilla, that's why there's no way you're coming with me," Shadow replied, a clear tone of great stress in his voice, as Vanilla put her backpack on, "I shouldn't be there any more than a week."
"There's no way I'm letting you go alone, it's too dangerous, and I doubt you could take on a thousand men and ten thousand robots all at the same time, even if you take off your rings," Vanilla pleaded with Shadow, getting increasingly upset and frustrated, "I'm coming whether you like it or not, as I said."
"I'm not gonna have you or your unborn baby get hurt under my watch, Vanilla, do you not get that?" Shadow retaliated, as tears started to leak from Vanilla's eyes, as her head tilted to face the ground, "Why are you so insistent on coming anyway?" Suddenly Vanilla snapped back up at him, crying with a mad look.
"Because what if you don't come back, Shadow?!" she snapped at him, taking her bag off and sitting at the table, sobbing with her head down, "After my parents died, we didn't speak again after the funeral until I came to you saying I was pregnant and hoping to get out of that hellhole. You immediately took me in, and look at now! I've never been happier here with you. You've always treated me as nothing less than family, like the daughter you never had, and ever since I was young I looked up to you like you were the coolest uncle in the world. Why does it seem now like you're throwing everything out the window to go save your old girlfriend who probably isn't even alive anymore, just for the slim chance that she is? And how do you think I'll feel if I find out in a week that you got killed trying to save her?" Shadow calmed down immediately, warmed by her words. He sat down next to her at the table, using his index finger to lift her chin up to face him.
"Vanilla, I'm not gonna abandon you, I would never do that to you. The fact you came to me and no one else for a place to stay, prepared to make sacrifices for your baby, it warmed my heart then and it still does now," he explained to her, using his other index finger to wipe tears away from Vanilla's eyes, "You're right, I've always seen you as a niece, ever since you were little. Me and your father were best friends, after all. When you came to my door two months ago, I couldn't have been happier that night, and now, I see you more like a daughter than ever before. Honestly, I wish I'd reached out to you after the funeral, and taken you in then instead of leaving you in that shelter while I grieved by myself, but I'm glad you came back, Vanilla. If you really want to come with me, I'll try and get you into a room at a hotel or something so we can keep in touch, but you're not coming to fight with me, that's definitely not happening." Vanilla smiled, and wrapped her arms around Shadow, hugging him lovingly.
"I love you, Shadow, and I'm sorry," she whispered in his ear, "Let's get ready, so we can get to the beach before sunset." Shadow nodded as he placed his hand on the back of Vanilla's head, before they separated and Shadow got up, walking back into his forgery to retrieve his Chaos Emerald, as Vanilla finished packing her last things.
An hour later, Shadow and Vanilla arrived at the distant beach of Seaside Island via teleportation with Shadow's Chaos Control ability using the Chaos Emerald. Shadow walked up to the shore, and made a loud dolphin call.
"Shadow, what's the point of that?" Vanilla asked as suddenly, the ocean before them began to ripple, before a whirlpool opened, a teenage anthropomorphic dolphin girl with blonde hair and light bluish-grey skin emerged, wearing a silver-coloured dress and a silver crown, settling in top of the water as it stilled around her.
"Greetings, sea travellers! Where is your desired destination for this evening?" the girl asked, as she looked at Shadow and Vanilla.
"Delphi, is that you?" Shadow asked in shock and curiosity, as the girl looked at him in confusion, "You've grown up, it's been so long!"
"Um…do I know you, sir?" Delphi, princess and heir of the underwater Dolphin Tribe, asked in confusion.
"It's been ten years, so I'm not surprised if you don't remember, but is your dad down there? I need help getting to Mobotropolis," Shadow explained, as Delphi's face suddenly changed from a look of confusion to one of sadness, "Did I say something wrong?"
"Mom, there's someone here asking for dad, it's a black hedgehog from Seaside Island," Delphi spoke through an earpiece, before looking at Shadow, "The queen is coming to see you in a second." Suddenly, the water rippled into another whirlpool, as an older dolphin woman with darker blonde hair in a gold dress with a matching gold crown emerged.
"Shadow…I thought so," Queen Gina of the Dolphin Tribe started, a bittersweet look on her face, "I sent a messenger to deliver the news five years ago, but they came back saying a group of bandits had been making trouble."
"What do you mean, Gina? Did something happen to Damien?" Shadow asked with a distressed look on his face, as Gina's head looked down.
"Damien was killed five years ago, during a routine fishing trip from Mobotropolis," Gina explained, as tears began to form from Shadow's eyes, "He was attending to a distress signal from a knight near the coast of Mobotropolis, and got caught by the fishermen nearby. He was able to get away with help from the knight, but his injuries were too great. He passed away just hours later. The messenger was sent with an invitation for you to his funeral at my husband's request."
"I'm so sorry, I should've reached out sooner, but those Lightning Bolts among other things just kept me busy for so long," Shadow responded in grief and guilt, "I need help getting to Mobotropolis to save Maria, I found out she might still be alive."
"Finally following your destiny, huh? Kill the President while you're there, would you, he's been causing trouble for both us and the Pufferfish Clan for too long," Gina requested, "Delphi, get them there on express, please, it's free of charge for Shadow. And go and help him with his mission, help him avenge your father and bring the King Dynasty to justice." Delphi nodded, before Gina opened another whirlpool, re-entering the ocean, leaving Delphi with Shadow and Vanilla.
"Alright, express supersub service to Mobotropolis, coming right up," she announced, as a large submarine emerged from the water, "Climb in, we should be there by tomorrow afternoon in Mobotropolis time." Shadow helped Vanilla into the submarine, before climbing in himself. The submarine then entered the water, taking off towards Mobotropolis.