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Fifty years ago.
The terrified pair ran down the metal corridor, the girl’s shoes slapping against the cold flooring, his leaving barely any sign of impact. They had to be quick.
They ran into the observation deck. An escape pod!
“Get in!” he shouted.
“No! I’ll be fine! If they capture me, I might get arrested- but if they capture you, they’ll tear you apart! Please, get in the escape pod! I’ll find you again some day! Please, it’s the only way!”
He paused. He knew she was right. But he didn’t have to like it.
He clambered into the escape pod and the glass door slid shut.
As she typed in the activation code on the side of the pod, a group of soldiers burst into the observation deck, guns drawn.
“Hold it right there!” the commanding officer barked at the young girl.
She looked at her friend, “Please, Shadow… protect them”
She slapped the Launch button on the side of the escape pod.
One of the soldiers, Schmitz, was young. He was nervous. And he had no idea what he was looking at. He acted not out of malice, but out of fear. His finger squeezed.
The girl gasped her last.
Shadow called out, “Maria!”
The escape pod rocketed out of the underside of Space Colony ARK towards Mobius below.
“Schmitz!” the CO roared, “What do you think you’re doing?!”
Schmitz dropped his weapon in shock. He’d never taken a life before. He could see now the girl had meant him no harm. She was trying to save her friend. He fell to his knees, catatonic. He gasped for air.
In the escape pod, Shadow pounded on the glass, but it was no use. It was designed to survive re-entry into the planet’s atmosphere, it could certainly withstand a few punches which weakened with every blow as the cryogenic system kicked in.
He gave an anguished cry. Then he slipped into the blackness of slumber.
In Shadow’s dreams, he saw his friend’s death over and over and over again. He would dream those dreams for half a century. But dreams have a way of altering details. Over time, the soldier who had been so afraid was transmogrified in Shadow’s dreams into a callous murderer who had taken Maria’s life without hesitation.
As he relived Maria’s final message to him, as his memories were infected and changed by anger and hatred, what Shadow recalled Maria said changed too. Eventually, the dreams warped Maria’s message cruelly.
“Please, Shadow… kill them”
He’d been unable to kill the soldiers in the observation deck.
But when he awoke, he would make those who had hurt his friend pay.
He was Shadow the Hedgehog. And humanity was going to suffer at his hands.
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