| abstract
| - Shadow the Hedgehog is holding up Dr. Eggman in the air, demanding the location of Professor Gerald's diary from him, but the doctor refuses. Shadow then grabs Snively by the hair and threatens him. Snively eventually tells him what he wants to know, but Shadow pulls his hair out regardless for wasting his time. He grabs Gerald's diary, encoded onto a disc, from the hidden pocket of a book and heads off to Freedom HQ as it is the only friendly place he can access with the technology needed to read the diary. At Freedom HQ, Sonic is wondering where Fiona is, with this being the latest of her disappearances. He asks Tails where she is, but Tails suddenly flies out of the room, looking upset. He then speaks to Knuckles (who had just entered the HQ on Extreme Gear) about Tails' abrupt departure and Fiona's disappearance until Tails comes flying back in and tells Sonic that Shadow is heading towards the HQ while under attack from flying Egg Pawns. The Egg Pawns' special electrical weapons manage to damage Gerald's diary while Shadow is trying to run from them, much to his dismay. Sonic and Tails destroy the Egg Pawns and Shadow, angry at the damage done to the diary, yells at them for not arriving sooner. Sonic is annoyed by the lack of gratitude and Shadow relents, and apologizes to the pair, looking ashamed. He tells them about the diary and how it has all the answers he's been searching for, and asks them to help him decode it. They then head back to Freedom HQ and Tails informs Shadow that the data is so old and damaged that if they try to access it, they could end up corrupting the whole thing, but Shadow refuses to back down. NICOLE then suggests that they could physically interface with the data, and they decide to do it. Inside the diary data, Sonic, Shadow and NICOLE (in her lynx form), find themselves standing in what appears to be the inside of the Space Colony ARK. They head off in search of Shadow's answers, and the hedgehog soon meets up with a holographic representation of an old friend. Back at Freedom HQ, the alarms go off, alerting Tails to Snively's arrival in a giant mech. Finding a foriegn signal in the base, Tails realizes with shock and some disgust that Snively had individual tracers planted in his hair. Knuckles goes outside to confront Snively, angrily telling him (while dodging his attacks) that as he once experienced being lost without a past, he won't let anyone interfere with Shadow finding out about his own. Back in Gerald's diary, Shadow is overjoyed to see Maria Robotnik, who he thought he had lost forever. Explaining that he's been asleep for fifty years and has forgotten his purpose, she leads them to her grandfather and he reveals the truth to his "son." He tells Shadow that, initially, his body was to be the source for a cure to the disease Maria had developed, Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome. However, his research only carried him so far. Desperate, he sought the aid of Black Doom, a monstrous alien who wanted Shadow to be his greatest weapon. Black Doom helped in the creation of Shadow and gave him his rare skills in Chaos Control. He planned to return in fifty years' time to have Shadow help him invade Mobius. Instead, Gerald planned for Shadow to protect the planet against Black Doom and his Black Arms when they returned (Sonic and NICOLE discuss this, thinking that the Black Arms are overdue in their attack - they were held up by the Xorda). Slightly overwhelmed by these revelations, Shadow wonders what his purpose is - a cure, or a weapon? Gerald tells Shadow that he is to be the planet's greatest protector, and while he apologizes for leaving so much on Shadow's shoulders, he tells his "son" that he is well prepared for it. However, the digital matrix begins to further deteriorate, and NICOLE informs the others that they must quickly leave. Shadow is upset at losing Maria again, but she tells him that she will always be with him if he holds her memory in his heart. They then exit the fragmenting reality. Upon their return, Tails informs the two hedgehogs that Knuckles is fighting Snively outside. Shadow races outside with Snively's hair and outside where Knuckles is being crushed in the one remaining pincer of the badly dented Egg Lobster. Shadow spindashes through the lobster, freeing Knuckles, and tells Snively to tell Eggman that he is the protector of Mobius and will no longer serve him as he throws Snively's hair in his face. With Shadow's questions answered, Sonic goes to get his own answers from Fiona as to why she keeps disappearing...
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)