Awake at last. I checked my surroundings, but nothing was recognizable. I stood up from the capsule I was in and looked down. There was a bald, round man, with a very large mustache. He was sitting inside of a machine. He's the one who awakened me. Somehow, he seems familiar, I thought. I then wondered how long I was asleep. My thoughts were soon interrupted.

"Sonic! How'd you get here?" The man asked. "Wait, you can't be Sonic!"

"My name is Shadow," I told him. "Since you released me, I will help you achieve greatness." An alarm went off.

"Oh, now what?" The man asked.

"Wait here," I said. Energy came out of my special shoes and I was lifted off of the ground. "I will show you the true power that I possess!" I flew to a large platform and was confronted by a giant robot. It had legs, but no arms and was green. I could tell that a human was inside of the cockpit. He was my main target. With my hover shoes activated, I 'skated' to my opponent. I focused on the cockpit, jumped in the air and preformed a homing attack. The window stayed undamaged, but I could hear a muffled groan from the inside as the machine stumbled.

The robot jumped into he air and was propelled by a jet on its back. It flew around the room and shot missiles at me. I easily outran them and kicked the mechanism's leg. It stayed still for a few moments, and a strange sound came out of it. It sounded like energy was forming inside of it. Realizing what was happening, I quickly did a somersault to dodge a large blast of energy shot at me. I focused on the cockpit once more, and then flicked my fingers. A blast of my own energy surrounded the entire robot and pummeled. Pathetic human, I thought to myself.

"Shadow, that was incredible!" The man from before said. I turned around and faced him. "So, you're the military's secret weapon, eh?" He said.

Yes, I'm a weapon, but I don't belong to the military! I thought to myself. They can all pay for what they've done to Maria! Anger filled me as I thought about the past events. Revenge flooded through my mind.

"Meet me at the central control room in the space colony A.R.K." I told him. I then started to walk away.

"Ark?" He asked me. "Wait!"

"Bring more Chaos Emeralds." I said, and then left him.

This human seems intelligent enough, but not aware of my intentions. I thought to myself. Good. He will suffer with the rest of them, too. I looked at the gray sky. It seemed to be early in the morning, about five o'clock. And there was a Chaos Emerald nearby too. I sensed it coming from not too far off. I turned on my hover shoes and traveled toward the emerald for a while.

Eventually, I came across a shop with a green emerald on display. I could feel the energy coming from, and instantly recognized it as a Chaos Emerald. I curled into my spindash technique and crashed through the window. I then snatched the emerald and jumped back out side. There was a shriek from a nearby resident and I could here someone running towards me. I quickly turned dashed away at full speed.

By now it was around eight o'clock. There hadn't been anyone trying to catch me yet, but I was still on my guard. I was heading towards the mountains, since that would be the easiest way to jump into space. I was walking in some busy city. There werehuge buildingseverywhereand strange cars were coming and going.

"Hey, that's the guy!" Someone shouted. I glanced behind me and saw two police officers heading towards me. "Hey, can we talk to you, mister?" One asked me. I knew that they wouldn't be difficult to take on, but if I killed them, things could've gotten complicated. So instead, I ran. After a few moments, I noticed this blue hedgehog that looked identical to me. Then I hatched an idea. I picked up two stones and used one to scratch the other one, and eventually ended up with an emerald shaped rock. I then picked up some algae lying in the street and smothered it on the stone. It looked exactly like my Chaos Emerald.

"Here," I said as I tossed the fake emerald to the hedgehog. I then ran away and hid behind a bush to see if the officers would believe that this guy was the real culprit.

"What the?" the hedgehog started before he was confronted by the officers.

"Hey, aren't you Sonic the hedgehog?" One of them asked.

"Yeah," the blue hedgehog said.

"And that's the Chaos Emerald!" The other officer pointed to my rock. "Sir, we're placing you under arrest for the theft of one Chaos Emerald," The officer placed handcuffs on Sonic and took him away while he tried to claim his innocence. I chuckled at the situation, and then hurried onward.

By nightfall, I was at an unfinished street highway. The police had been trying to catch me since midday, so I guessed that the blue hedgehog had either escaped, or was proved innocent. I stood on top of a large red bridge tower and stared at the chaos below me. How pathetic! I thought. I looked up into the night sky, and when I saw the stars, I remembered her. It was a painful memory, of a blonde girl. We were both in the Ark, and she was leaning on a table wounded. I wanted to help her, but I was encapsulated. I was being sent to Earth, and could only watch my single friend suffer. "Maria!" I called out to her. She looked at me and whispered, "Shadow. Please promise me! For all of the people of that planet…" She looked down and my capsule was sent. I just barely heard her last words, "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog."

Maria, I still remember what I promised you that day. I thought, as anger started flooding through my body. For all of the people of this planet, I promise you revenge! I jumped of the tower and landed on the suspension cord. I was able to grind all of the way down and land on the street. Without wasting any time, my shoes turned on and I skated past the guard robots and police. Two small robots that were hovering in the air were ahead of me and they tried shooting laser beams, but I easily jumped over the shots. I landed on one of them and then jumped to the next one. Before landing, I kicked the second robot, was sent into a side flip, curled into a ball and destroyed the last robot with my quills. I swiftly land on the ground and darted away. There was a group of three large robots shaped like humans that had gun. I simply ran past them as fast as I could and they were destroyed by the sound wave created from my speed. Soon, I was surrounded by hundreds of robots. I needed a way to destroy them all at once. Thinking fast, I took out my emerald, and jumped. With the power of the emerald, I was able to create a shield of energy that set off like a bomb. This destroyed every robot in my way and I was able to move on.

Eventually, I made it past the highway and was in another city. Traveling from rooftop to rooftop, I spotted a giant machine that resembled the one I fought back at the military site. At first I thought it was after me, but then it just blew up! I traveled closer and saw the blue hedgehog from this afternoon. I jumped onto the massive machine and looked at the hedgehog.

"You were able to destroy this machine?" I asked with coolly, without showing my disbelief. What kind of normal being had the strength to take out that type of government machinery?

"Huh, hey! Who're you?" The guy asked me. "Wait a minute! You're the one who tossed me the rock! You got me into all of this trouble!" He looked angry. "What're you holding?" he asked. He looked at the emerald in my hand and grew even angrier. "You really did steal the Chaos Emerald! You'd better hand it over!"

I stared at him as he approached me with great speed. I stared for a moment, and then shouted the words, "Chaos Control!" I was swallowed by a green light and everything slowed down to almost a stop. I ran past the hedgehog while he was still staring at the area I was in before. I then kicked him in the back and jumped up to another roof.

"Ugh!" The hedgehog groaned. "He's fast! Wait, he must be using the emerald to warp!"

"My name is Shadow and I am the ultimate life form," I told him. "I have no time for games. Farewell!" I held up the emerald and warped away.

After another hour, I had reached the top of Mount Everest. I held up my emerald again and summoned all of its power. I shouted, "Chaos Control!" And warped to the tip of the space colony Ark. I then traveled to the central control room expecting the man I met earlier to be there, but he wasn't. With the extra time I had, I decided to rest.

After about an hour or so, the man had arrived. "So, Shadow," The man started. "You are the creation of my Grandfather, eh?"

"Now I get it," I said. "You are Professor Gerald's Grandson, Ivo, aren't you? The resemblance is very clear."

"How do you know my name?" Ivo asked.

"Professor Gerald mentioned to me about his soon to be grandson, Ivo."

"Mentioned to you? Well I'm called Dr. Eggman now, and I'm the greatest Scientific Genius in the world to live."

"Dr. Eggman? How befitting…" I mumbled to myself.

"What was that?" Eggman asked angrily.

"Nothing."

"Very well. Now, why have you called me here?"

I faced the machine behind me. It had four cylinder tubes and a small panel with seven holes. Each hole was a perfect fit for a Chaos Emerald. "The first space colony created by man, known as Ark. It was one of the most advanced research facility in its prime, but not many people knew that weapons of mass destruction were also being created. This is the Eclipse Canon, capable of destroying an entire planet."

"An entire planet?" Eggman exclaimed. "My grandfather was working on this?"

"Yes," I answered calmly. "But it has been shut down for quite a while. To turn it back on at full force, you'd need a large amount of energy." With that statement, I tossed my Chaos Emerald into one of the holes in the panel. A green light came out of the machine as it made a loud humming sound, which almost instantly softened.

"So that's why we needed the Chaos Emeralds!" The Eggman said. "So, I'll find the seven Chaos Emeralds, use the machine to scare the world, and finally create my own empire!"

"Do you really think it will be that easy?" Said a voice from above. A batgirl flew down from one of the many metal beams near the roof.

"Who're you?" Eggman asked as the girl landed.

"Rouge the bat, at your service. I just want to help you, I am, after all the greatest treasure hunter in the world." The bat flashed a blue Chaos emerald, and then hid it again.

"Hmm, well what are you getting out of the deal?" Eggman asked disapprovingly.

"When you took that giant emerald earlier, you mentioned a reaction with your transmitter frequency, one connected to the Master Emerald. Now, if you'd let me borrow that transmitter, I'll help you."

Eggman looked over to me, expecting an answer. I glanced at the bat. Something didn't feel right about her, I couldn't place it though. I didn't care about the doctor's transmitter, but we would need the bat's emerald. It would be a lot easier to have her give it to us instead of taking it, and if she knew where the other emeralds were, it'd be easier to collect all seven. I gave the Eggman a small nod.

"Alright then" Eggman said. "You can borrow my transmitter." He searched inside of the walker he came in and pulled out some device with a radar system.

"Thanks, doc!" Rouge said. "Now then, do you know about the government facility, GUN?"

Eggman looked disapprovingly. "I... may have been there before."

"Well, you'll have to go back if you want three Chaos Emeralds."