The World is my Enemy

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"If the world chooses to become my enemy, I will fight like I always have."

-Shadow the Hedgehog

He missed racing his rival...someone who was a match for him. Someone who could run for at least twenty minutes without tiring.

"Shadow...! Wait...!" Silver gasped, trying to catch up with the more agile hedgehog. "I can't...ow...my side hurts..."

Shadow grit his teeth, biting back a harsh remark. He slowed and waited for the younger one to catch up, taking a seat on a small rock as he waited.

"Why are you so fast?" Silver wheezed as he finally caught up.

"I was created to be the Ultimate Life Form." Shadow bluntly stated.

"And yet why can't you use psychokinesis like me?"

"Why don't you perform normal homing attacks like the rest of us?"

Silver didn't say anything else. He glanced at the ground, running one hand over his unnaturally soft quills. Hedgehogs used them for protection, and yet he never in his life had to resort to brute force...Completely dependent on his power.

"I could learn," he said softly.

"I learned when I was very young. If you wanted to perfect the move, you should have started practicing years ago." Silver's gaze flicked from the dusty ground to Shadow's face.

The stronger hedgehog gave a small smirk, which didn't go unnoticed.

"It's not funny!" Silver growled. "I barely managed to survive my childhood years! Do you know what it's like? Living in constant fear for your life?! Trying to stop something that could not have been stopped until this moment?!"

Shadow held the smirk, not fazed with Silver's small outburst.

"It's not funny!" Silver cried, his body glowing with the aqua aura that signaled his power.

The boulder that Shadow was sitting on flew into the air, taking him with it. He tumbled backwards and began freefalling, flipping just as the ground came up to greet him and landing perfectly on his feet. Effortlessly, he avoided Silver's predictable attack with the rock as he threw it at his head. As the small boulder whipped around to catch him in the back, Shadow simply conjured a Chaos Sphere and shattered it into gravel.

Without missing a beat, he hurled tiny bolts of electricity at the smaller hedgehog as he jumped into the air and curled into a ball, preparing to Homing Attack him. The most effective way to avoid damage from an attack as common as the one Shadow was executing was to curl up and return the force of the attack from the ground.

It was a simple defense strategy, yet it was also one Silver had never done. And as stunned as he was from the electricity striking his face and the ground around him, he wouldn't be able to retaliate with his power in time.

Shadow collided with Silver's chest, his sharp quills digging into the other's soft fur and ripping it away. Skin followed next, tearing a small cry from the white hedgehog. Shadow slammed his feet against Silver's stomach and springboarded backwards, shoving the other to the ground.

"What better time than to learn how to protect yourself? There is no constant threat anymore! You can learn something as simple as this in a matter of weeks." Shadow growled.

Silver struggled up, gasping for breath. His chest fur was stained red, tufts of white torn from his skin. He stumbled, landing on his backside heavily. Only with the aqua glow was he able to stand upright.

"Take those powers away and what are you? Nothing."

The glow faded, sending Silver falling back to the ground. The patches of blood staining his chest had grown, spreading from him to the ground and leaving the grass red.

"Pathetic," Shadow hissed. "Pathetic and weak."

XxXxXxXx

Shadow sat bolt upright, gasping for breath. The past few moments of the dream were still with him, haunting and cruel...like the many times before.

He would never purposely harm Silver...even in fake matches of power against each other. The kid was strong in his own way, yet everything under the sun would catch his attention and throw off his concentration.

It had been at first a challenge for the Ultimate to train Silver a bit further in his power, giving him a wider range of offense and defense. Teaching him a Homing Attack had been one of their routines, but it was slightly ineffective due to Silver's soft quills and the fact he got dizzy easily from spinning around.

Check that. It was very ineffective. And teaching it to him had been a nightmare.

He glanced down towards the foot of his bed, where another mattress had been set up. Silver was still deeply asleep, buried under five thick quilts and every few minutes or so clenching his fists and muttering bits of sentences. The two hedgehogs lived in an old, abandoned building, in the back where heat was still available in the winters.

Silver had never seen nor felt the biting cold, and his thin pelt was more suited to the flaming heat of Iblis...that is, if it were still alive. He did not like winter. Not at all.

Shadow sighed and turned onto his side, trying to fall back asleep. It didn't come easily, as it was haunted with other memories of his past.

Mephiles the Dark...what had he said, again?

Something about Omega being the one to bring the Ultimate to the ground and turn him over to GUN?

Something about being locked in stasis for the rest of his immortal life?

Something like that.

Shadow shuddered, recalling the meeting with the demon. Well...what he spoke of didn't come true. Shadow had begun to assume it never would. Besides, Silver relied on him like a child to a father. Shadow couldn't blame him...the ivory hedgehog had never known his parents.

With another sigh, the ebony one tried once again to sleep for another few hours.

...

But...Why would Omega and GUN try to hunt him down? It didn't make sense.

Shadow pushed that thought away.

...

What if he accidentally killed someone? Someone important? Or an entire group of people...? Like on the ARK...

Shadow pushed that thought away.

...

What if he really did get captured? What would happen to Silver then?

Shadow bit his tongue so hard he drew blood as he pushed that thought away.

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Yup.

There's the first chapter. I made stuff up as I went along. See if you can pick it out.

Anyway, how is this so far? Lots of stuff will happen in the later chapters, but this was mostly to draw people in!

And yes, this takes place in the future, after Sonic and co. have died.

Sorry. But it has Shadow! And Silver! And since Shadow is immortal, Yippie-Kai-Yey!

Hasta la Vista, Readers!

Lordoftheghostking28