The sun beats onto a sunlit beach, gigantic palms swaying in the wind. A coconut falls from one, and lands in the sand.

Suddenly a flash of green light appears in thin air, and a strange figure is flung from it. An anthropomorphic hedgehog the color of soot slides on his feet across the sand. Crimson streak adorn his slightly upturned quills, and he glares at his surroundings with irises of the same color.

He straightens, and takes in his surroundings, "Damn… Where am I?"

Underwater, not far from him a small girl sits crisscross on the sandy ocean floor. Her hair looks like a head full of plain blue squid tentacles, she is wearing a white dress and a hat that looks like the head of a squid. She looks out across the ocean floor, which is covered in trash, bottles and old appliances and containers leaking old, dirty fluids into the pure ocean saltwater. "Pathetic human…" she whispers, bubbles spewing from her mouth. "They pollute the ocean and kill nature, and then take our resources without any kind of compensation. They are a parasitic, viral species and I will be the vaccine! Prepare for invasion, human world-gesu!"

She clenches her fists with determination and blasts out of the water. Two fish swimming by cheer her on. "Go, Ikka Musume! Conquer all that you see in the name of the oceannn!"

She blasts through the surface and flips, landing on a sandy beach, not far at all from the hedgehog wearing shoes and white gloves. She looks at him curiously. "You aren't human. What are you, some kind of walking sea urchin-gesu?"

Before the strange hedgehog can reply, Ikka sneezes suddenly and spews a large amount of ink from her mouth and nose, completely coating the hedgehog head to toe.

The hedgehog opens his eyes from under the ink. He balls his fists, knuckles cracking as he slowly advances on her, "I am Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform. And you are three seconds away from being Chaos Blasted off the face of the earth, so I suggest you start running."

Ikkas head cocks to the side. "Ultimwho lifeform?"

Shadow pauses, wiping the ink from his body, "… Hmph, stupid girl." He turns away from her, and looks at the beach, "Maybe you can tell me where the hell I am."

"Huhh? Oh, that's a good question. I just woke up on the bottom of the ocean, like I always do-gesu!"

Shadow looks over his shoulder at her, "Stupid, and delusional I see. Whatever…" He turns away, and crosses his arms.

"A better question is how did I get here? It looks like a small island with no other landforms for miles. Chaos Control can only take me so far when I'm not using a Chaos Emerald, which I-"

He breaks off, and his ear twitches. He looks up into a palm tree, and a green gem shines in the sunlight. "Hmph!" He rolls into a Spin-Dash, and barrels into the tree, easily breaking it into a stump. Shadow walks to the tree, and picks up the emerald.

From the trees a monkey hits him in the head with a coconut. Shadow whirls with a growl, "Chaos Spear!" His free hand glows with golden Chaos Energy, and he backhands a bolt of it at the offending primate. It squeals as it barely jumps out of the way, and the Chaos Spear sets the tree on fire.

"HEY!"

Ikka pounces on the tree and puts out the flames quickly, smothering them with her tentacles. "It may not be sea-life, but I still detest the violation of nature, Shadow. Please don't kill wildlife in front me-gesu…" She opens her mouth suddenly in an expression of pure, idiotic joy.

"You are strong, like me! I get it, you were sent here to be my soldier, weren't you? You are here to help me conquer the filthy humanity-gesu!"

Shadow raises an eye-ridge, "… Obviously you've been here too long. You're wearing a squid on your head, and you won't stop babbling nonsense."

He walks over to her, and takes a handful of her tentacles, "I'll take you to civilization, but after that you're on your own." He raises the Chaos Emerald over his head, "Chaos Control!"

One flash of green light later they stand on the beach outside Station Square. Shadow releases the girl, and starts walking away, "Now beat it."

Ikka looks out at the towering buildings and long streets full of rushing cars, people moving down the sidewalk in massive hordes like schools of fish. She stares dumbstruck at the teeming masses. "Wha-wha?! Just how many of these humans are there?!"

"A few million, million across the world," Shadow doesn't turn, he just keeps walking.

"WHAT! Yikes, they've really been multiplying! I'd have estimated there would be around a thousand…" She looks incredibly dismayed for a moment, but then perks right back up.

"But that's why I have you, Shadow! You and I together will rule humanity!" She raises her arms in the air and looks at him expectantly.

Shadow stops, and stare at her from over his shoulder for a minute, "… Go away." He continues walking.

Solemnly Ikka looks at her feet. She begins to turn red and stomps, balling her hands into fists. "Fine! Then just tell me where the leaders of humanity are, and I'll conquer this stupid planet by myself!"

Shadow whirls, and storms over to glare in her face, "Listen you, I've had it up to my quills with your nonsense! Greater people than you, or I have died to defend this planet!" He voice takes a dangerous tone as he steps so close that their noses almost touch, "In case you can't tell, your little game of invasion doesn't amuse me."

She forces a confident smile through a terrified face. "W-w-well that doesn't matter to me! I don't need you, Urchin-boy, just point me to the leaders of humanity, and I will make my Invasion known to this world-gesu!"

Shadow grabs her throat, and resists the urge to squeeze. His breathing is heavy, and he's fighting to hold back a Chaos Blast.

Sweating profusely, Ikka Musume speaks in a horrified, choked voice. "What's so great about humanity? A strong life form like you should be helping me…"

Shadow narrows his eyes, his control a little better. "Chaos Control."

In a flash of green light they appear on a cliff overlooking the sea. Shadow releases Ikka, and turns to a huge boulder beside them. Words are carved into the side:

Maria Robotnik (1940 -1954 )

Alive in loving memory, forever.

Ikka Musume cocks her head. "A big rock?"

Shadow presses his hand to the boulder, "It's a gravestone."

"A grave… what is this supposed to tell me-geso?"

Shadow blinks, and closes his eyes with a sigh, "A grave is where you put the body of someone who has died in the ground. I made this in memory of a friend I lost long ago… I never learned where she was really buried."

Shadow looks at the girl then, "She was my closest friend, the sweetest girl the world had ever known, and she was human."

Ikka musume grabs her cheeks, "A human! Sweet and your friend? I'll tell you something about friends…" The camera pans out and a very dramatic light crosses her face. "Humans… are evil." Suddenly in front of here the camera starts to move to the beautiful ocean, glittering in the sunset. "The ocean life just tries to thrive, and they pollute our environment and kill us. That's my job, to invade this stupid surface world so that I can stop them from killing more of my friends." She salutes to Shadow. "I thought you would understand, for Cod's sake!"

Shadow ignores her little rant as childish nonsense, and says, "She was killed in front of me, and as she died she wanted me to promise her that I would give the people of this planet a chance to be happy." He turns blood colored eyes on her, "Can something so evil really wish for peace as a dying wish?"

She shrugs. "I don't understand a whole lot about your world, but it sounds like she wished for peace on the surface. But I bet she never thought about me and my friends." Her expression becomes sour, and she starts to whine loudly. "YOU SURFACE PEOPLE ONLY CARE ABOUT YOUR OWN FRIENDS, WHILE ALL MINE DIE!" She bawls and falls to Shadows feet.

Shadow blinks in surprise, her sorrow seems so sincere…

"Get up," he helps her to her feet. "You don't have to invade the surface to change things. The humans who killed Maria are part of an organization called the G.U.N." He sighs, "As unbelievable as it may sound, I joined with them for a time to change them from the inside so I could keep my promise to Maria. You can do the same with the surface people. Live among them for a time, make them aware of the harm they're doing. Then things will begin to change."

He figures he'll just drop her off at a peace corps someplace, and get her out of his quills.

She bolts up and stares angrily into his eyes, only a few inches away from him, and then salutes. "You're in charge, captain urchin-head!"

Shadow blinks, "What?"