The moment the stasis pod cracked open, the world seemed to catch fire.

Glass crunched beneath Shadow’s skates as he stepped out, vapor hissing from the cryogenic seals. Cold air clung to him, but he was already in motion—silent, precise, lethal. The first soldier didn’t scream. He didn’t get the chance. A burst of red light, a flash of movement—gone. The rest followed just as easily.

Chaos Control blurred his form, warping the air around him with raw, unfiltered energy. Alarms blared. Too late. No one in this place was fast enough. No one here could stop what had just been set loose.

He navigated the corridors with ease. The sterile walls, the increasingly locked-down security protocols, the desperate clustering of guards—they all led him to one place. To you.

Shadow stopped in front of your containment chamber. Behind the thick, frost-glazed glass, your body was still. Peaceful, almost. Your eyes were closed. Breathing steady. As if asleep.

For a split second, the fury in him dulled.

You were alive.

His fist punched through the containment glass without hesitation. The sound echoed like a gunshot in the empty corridor. Shards exploded across the floor, glittering around your feet as the chamber depressurized. He reached in carefully, ignoring the shallow cuts lining his knuckles, and cradled you in his arms.

“Wake up,” he murmured, voice low, almost… reverent.

Your eyes fluttered open.

Recognition passed between you like electricity.

And then you were gone—vanished with him in a blink of crimson light, Chaos Control bending space itself to his will. Shadow tore through the sky with you in his arms, the facility shrinking behind them, irrelevant now. Phase one had begun.

Justice. Retribution. Exposure.

And if the world had to burn to make things right?

So be it. ————————— Chaos was a constant in Sonic’s life, and by now, he and his friends had learned to roll with it. That’s why they were chasing a rumored government alien without a plan—and why he and Tails exhaled in relief when Knuckles casually stopped a speeding truck with brute force, smirking as he tossed it aside.

“Woah… are you guys seeing this?” Sonic asked, his voice tight with awe.

The trio turned. Atop the crumpled car stood a black hedgehog, silhouetted in curling red smoke, his crimson eyes locked on them like twin blades. Beside him stood another Mobian, half-hidden in his shadow.

“He looks just like you!” Tails said.

“Impossible,” Knuckles growled.

The stranger’s voice cut through the tension, cold and sharp. “You’re a colorful bunch.”

He stepped forward, deliberately placing himself between you and the trio, shielding you with quiet resolve. Whatever this was—whoever he was—protecting you came first.

No matter what.