Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow is a black-furred anthropomorphic hedgehog. He has red eyes, a patch of white fur on his chest, a black nose, a tan muzzle, and small, triangular ears with tan canals. He also has six quills on his head, four of which curve upwards while the other two curve downwards, two spines on his back, and a short, pointy tail. He has red stripes on each of his head quills, around the edges of his eyes, and on his arms and legs.

For attire, Shadow wears white gloves with black cuffs and red tongues, Limiter Rings encircling his cuffs and ankles, and Air Shoes that are mainly white and smooth with black heel regions. Above the topline, each shoe has a red tongue and black collar encircled by a single Limiter Ring. Around the rim of the soles, the Air Shoes have red strips of metal on the rear and front of the bottom, broken below the in-steps. The space between the break has a small groove that allows Shadow to slide on rails. On the bottom of each sole is an orange-yellow line of five small "jets" (three up front and two on the heel).

The Air Shoes (as their name suggests) can expel air from their jets to create a cushion of air, which lets Shadow hover just above the surface of the ground. This allows him to glide just above the surface on seemingly any terrain, much like a hovercraft. For Shadow, the Air Shoes are the primary source of his speed.With them, he can achieve speeds matching, and supposedly even surpassing Sonic the Hedgehog's running speed.

The Air Shoes' jets are controlled by Shadow at will. By increasing their intensity, Shadow can produce fire from his Air Shoes' jets to attack opponents or provide extra power to jump. The Air Shoes can also produce strong enough propulsion to let Shadow hover in midair (though they have no flight capabilities) and boost forward at speeds matching the Boost at a hovering height just above the ground. This allows him to glide just above the surface on seemingly any terrain, much like a hovercraft. For Shadow, the Air Shoes are the primary source of his speed. With them, he can achieve speeds matching, and supposedly even surpassing Sonic the Hedgehog's running speed. The Air Shoes' jets are controlled by Shadow at will. By increasing their intensity, Shadow can produce fire from his Air Shoes' jets to attack opponents or provide extra power to jump. The Air Shoes can also produce strong enough propulsion to let Shadow hover in midair (though they have no flight capabilities) and boost forward at speeds matching the Boost at a hovering height just above the ground, the Air Shoes grooves can balancing on a Grind Rail, moving down such rails at high speeds, Most practitioners grind with their shoes on the Grind Rails, Shadow can Crouch on Grind Rails, a lower position while grinding along a Grind Rail to gain a small boost of speed, which causes a small jet stream to form beneath Shadows shoes.

Being Sonic's polar opposite personality-wise Shadow is, bluntly put, a brooding loner. He usually acts with a cool and businesslike indifference, only occasionally showing his vulnerable side. He is rarely seen with others for an extended period of time and usually distances himself from essentially everyone. He is usually blunt and does not speak much, but he always knows exactly what to say in combat. However, Shadow never bluffs; if he makes a threat, he has every intention of carrying it out. In particular post-traumatic stress disorder. This was demonstrated by his instances of post-traumatic flashbacks to Maria's face prior to and during the events of the Black Arms incident, though it could be argued that the instances of the latter game were simply an effect of his amnesia. On one occasion, at the time of the Space Colony ARK incident, seeing police sirens flashing caused him to intensely flash back to the massacre aboard Space Colony ARK and in particular Maria's death. Shadow was soon able to overcome this in the Black Arms and the Emerl incidents, during which he chose to move on from the past yet keep Maria in his heart. In fact, his personal journey since being awoken by Eggman has had him confront the shackles of his past, such as ties, fate, and memories. Since then, it appears as though he is reaching a point where he can "do as his heart desires" in his own way. He is not interested in peace, nor does he care about what happens to others. In truth, he simply does not like it when foolish people do whatever they please. While this may make it seem like Shadow stands firmly in opposition to villainy, he is actually very indiscriminate about who he faces, as he chooses to stand against anyone who he condemns for being "foolish", be they villains like Dr. Eggman or heroes like Sonic. He similarly does not want thanks for the help he provides when he does something heroic, believing that showing gratitude is a waste of time. However, the grim and uncaring disposition he puts on is not entirely accurate considering the lengths he goes to save others including even sacrificing his own life. In contrast to his words, Shadow acts in a way that ultimately protects others. Deep down he cares about those around him, only hiding his more caring side to keep himself shielded and distant. Despite his apathetic nature, he does feel sympathy for others, and since reforming himself at the end of the Space Colony ARK incident, he has fought for the greater good, most noticeably to prevent letting other people experience past tragedies, specially the ones that he has been through.

Said to be Sonic's equal in almost every ability, Shadow can easily rival the blue hedgehog's various physical skills. His abilities and skills in combat are an extremely powerful force to be reckoned with, and he is a match for even the most powerful foes. He similarly never willingly holds back his immense strength, making him a brutal fighter. On his own, Shadow has been able to take down G.U.N.'s various combat mechs, Dr. Eggman's battle robots, Black Doom and his empowered state, and even deities. To best put his skills into perspective, Shadow was capable of defeating even Sonic while he had Diablon for support, as seen in some of the scenarios during the Black Arms incident. He even managed to best Emerl in combat after the latter had acquired all seven Chaos Emeralds as a power source. Shadow is naturally able to tap into the arcane powers of nearby Chaos Emeralds, either through physical contact or from a distance, to empower himself and access different chaos powers. According to Shadow himself, he is the only one who knows how to use the Chaos Emeralds' true power. His trademark ability in the field of chaos powers is Chaos Control, a technique achieved with the Chaos Emeralds that lets him warp time and space for various effects. With this technique giving him control over time and space, Shadow is able to warp himself and those close by across space instantaneously over a range further than an island-annihilating explosion or between dimensions, slow down or freeze time entirely, and create areas of distorted space. Shadow is noticeably adept in using Chaos Control for anything between large-scale usages to small-scaled and delicate chaos powers inside and outside of combat. He can for example use it to either freeze or slow down opponents in time to give himself the speed advantage, launch surprise attacks by suddenly warping up in front or behind opponents, distort space around his fists for strikes that can blow opponents away, hide himself away in distorted space, attack foes with spots of distorted space, and even power his own healing abilities and guarding skills. However, Shadow cannot perform Chaos Control if he does not have any Chaos Emeralds to draw power from. Beside Chaos Control, Shadow is able to use a number of additional chaos powers. One of these chaos powers include his Chaos Spear technique, in which he throws up to several bolts of Chaos Emerald energy at his opponent that can either paralyze or injure an opponent, depending on its power level. Shadow's most powerful technique, however, is the Chaos Blast, a chaos power where he releases a discharge of Chaos Emerald energy in a massive explosion that eliminates everything within a range of 10-20 yards. One of Shadow's main offensive maneuvers is the Spin Attack, a technique where he curls into a concussive ball or cutting disk and directs himself at his targets. With it, Shadow can shred or burrow through just about any substance given enough speed. Highly adept in its usage, Shadow can utilize several variants of the Spin Attack for both grounded and aerial maneuvers, including the Spin Dash, Spin Jump, Double Jump, Homing Attack, Air Dash, Somersault, Dark Spin Dash and the Light Speed Attack, which attacks at the speed of light. Even without his Spin Attack, Shadow is a powerful hand-to-hand combatant. In line with his nature and potent abilities, Shadow uses a fighting style where he utilizes strong blows, such as powerful chops, flying kicks, sideways kicks, high spin kicks, reverse spin kicks, downward dive kicks, or just barrages of punches and kicks. In addition, many of Shadow's stronger hand-to-hand combat moves revolves heavily around his usage of Chaos Control for space distortion effects to knock opponents away and his Air Shoes' exhaust for burning opponents.

Shadow is an effective combat strategist, able to make split second calculations or adjustments to succeed in battle. His strategies can range from creative uses of his environment, manipulating his opponent's shortcomings, and outmaneuvering enemies. His speed also allows him to perform several impressive feats, like spinning in circles or rotating his extremities at super speed to create winds strong enough to attack or blow away/suck in opponents, similar to aerokinesis. An experienced athlete that shares Sonic's agility, Shadow has outstanding acrobatic skills and nimbleness, along with incredible reflexes that let him avoid any incoming obstacles with precise and delicate movements within split-seconds, grind expertly on Grind Rails, dodge bullets, and perform various strafe movements. When launched into the air, he can also pull off several tricks before landing. As powerful as he is, Shadow is able to make himself stronger up tapping into an even greater power within himself. This power is so potent that should he remove his Limiter Rings, he becomes a walking dynamo of raw power. Eggman compares the overall output of the resulting energy from the rings' removal to that of a raging furnace in his log. When unleashing this power, he releases such tremendous amounts of energy that it forms an impenetrable barrier around himself. While in this state, Shadow gains increased strength and speed, enough to overpower hundreds of clones of Mephiles the Dark at once. However, using his full power tires him out more quickly.