Silver the Hedgehog (WI03)

## Silver the Hedgehog

**Silver the Hedgehog** is a major character from *What If Sonic Lost His Memory?*. He is a warrior from 200 years in the future and one of the few remaining survivors of a worldwide crisis in which Sonic Androids exterminated all traces of organic life for centuries on end. After being selected as the strongest fighter of his time, he journeyed back to the past using a one-way time machine powered by the future Chaos Emeralds, his mission: Destroy all Sonic Androids.

## Personality

While Silver comes from a harrowing period of time, he is described nevertheless as a 'bastion of idealism' who never gives up hope, driven to complete his mission at any cost even if he must wrestle with his own personal morals. While he remorselessly attacked Sonic aboard the Egg Fleet for his likeness to the Sonic Androids, he still tried to reason with Dr. Eggman, the very creator of the Androids, showing a willingness to try and talk through conflict before resorting to violence after having battled with unresponsive machines for so long.

Despite his willingness to forgive and resolve conflicts peacefully, Silver does not tolerate any impedance of his mission. When Sonic's former friends attacked him aboard the Egg Fleet for his antagonism of Sonic, he turned his ESP powers against them and staunchly insisted that they 'didn't understand what they were doing' upon his later capture. He fled at a moment's notice without any further attempts to talk things through, and it wasn't until a later encounter with Shadow that he understood that the he and the other heroes could be trusted.

## History

### Past

200 years in the future, Silver partook in battles against the Sonic Androids, enough and with such prowess that he was given the title of strongest warrior on the planet. After the remaining survivors of the future were able to gather some of the future Chaos Emeralds, a one-way time machine was constructed that would allow Silver a lone shot at returning to an era where he could prevent the Android crisis from occurring.

### Shadow Heroes Arc

At the end of Part 1, shortly after the defeat of the Metal Overlord and the scattering of the Chaos Emeralds, Silver appeared on the Egg Fleet and apprehended Sonic with his telekinesis before he could flee. Silver briefly engaged Sonic in combat, hurling him across the deck of the ship and proclaiming him to be a monster, insisting that everyone else should keep away. Though Sonic had been been acting callously towards them, several of his former friends lunged at Silver to protect Sonic, but the entire cast of 12 heroes (plus Cheese) were bound in Silver's ESP. Shadow was able to break Silver's hold by using Chaos Blast at the cost of the other heroes being caught in the crossfire, quickly incapacitating Silver by knocking him unconscious and Vector then physically restraining him.

After coming to, Silver proclaimed that the heroes didn't understand what they'd done by stopping him from destroying Sonic, going on to detail the events of his ruined future and be met with scepticism. Rouge shed light on the situation by mentioning Sonic's containment pod and the 'replicas' she'd encountered in the bowels of the Egg Fleet's flagship, the ones that Omega had gone on to hastily destroy. Silver claimed that there were countless more stores of Sonic Androids hidden around the world, but the revelation that Rouge and Omega had hidden their newfound information from Sonic angered him, enough that he fled the scene with nobody able to intercept him. Soon after, the flagship was struck by a nearby vessel at the command of Eggman, who'd been watching affairs from the shadows. The heroes tumbled out of the sky and Vector lost his grip on Silver, allowing him to escape.

### Sonic Memories Arc

In an unspecified Eggman Empire facility, Silver was next seen uncovering a store of Sonic Androids, preparing to destroy them before Shadow appeared. Silver was wary of him at first, but began to understand him better the more they talked, he learned the truth about the real Sonic and ascertained that he need not act alone anymore. Eggman's arrival and suspicious encouragement that the two hedgehogs should destroy the Androids in that facility prompted Silver to attempt reasoning with Eggman, informing him of the ruin that would befall the world if he set the Androids loose. Eggman didn't care, outlining exactly how he intended to use Sonic to kill all those who could possibly resist his rule before telling him the truth, crushing his spirit and finally ending their feud along with Sonic's life. Silver was abhorred by his callousness and attempted to kill Eggman, but was soon forced to put that aside as the Androids in his vicinity awakened, Shadow joining forces with him to dispatch them as Eggman fled. After beating all the Androids, Shadow explained that he intended to set things right by returning Sonic to his original self, implying that he wished to trade his own free life to give Sonic back what he'd lost. Silver expressed sadness at this, but was unable to press further as Shadow stated he'd need the Chaos Emeralds to enact his plan. Silver was directed towards Tails, Knuckles and the others, their experience with fighting Eggman likely able to give Silver better direction in how to help the cause compared to if he stuck together with Shadow.

Silver later appeared at Vanilla's house, where the rest of the heroes were holding a sort of strategy meeting. Vanilla allowed him entry when he knocked on the door, unaware of his prior relations with the people inside that prompted a sudden upheaval, everyone scrambling to attack Silver before he could cause them any harm. Silver quickly halted proceedings by freezing his attackers in the air with telekinesis, also catching the table hurled by Knuckles and all of the porcelain tea set before it could be damaged for Vanilla's sake. In this state of momentary forced calm, Silver explained his recent encounter with Shadow and that he wanted to help the heroes deal with the Androids as a combined force. He released his hold after setting the room back to normal and said that he'd also brought a 'peace offering' - the broken down and battered remains of Metal Sonic after he'd been attacked by the Prototype Egg Breaker. Silver remained a part of the Sonic Rescue Team as Metal Sonic was brought back online by Tails and the plans to attack Frontier Canyon's bunker were formed, setting out alongside everyone else to put a stop to Eggman's plot.

#### The Battle of Frontier Canyon

Silver was present in the giant underground bunker full of empty Sonic Android pods located in Frontier Canyon, one of the key players once Eggman's trap was sprung and the warehouse-like structure collapsed in on top of the heroes. Using his ESP in conjunction with Knuckles' strength, the rubble was held up enough to save the lives of all those trapped by the blast, giving them time to briefly recuperate and free themselves from any serious bindings before Knuckles began tunnelling upwards through the debris. While he did this, Silver held up the whole pile of rocks and broken metal on his own until he too was safely above-ground, as weary as the others by the time the actual battle against Eggman's army began.

Despite Tails' explicit instructions to stay as a team, Silver quickly broke off from the main force taking shelter in Eggman's mostly-collapsed base, teaming up with Espio to head off the incoming flow of Androids as best they could by combining their mutually tricky fighting styles with Silver's flight and Espio's invisibility. This allowed them to pick off large numbers of enemies without taking on much damage. The two fought together like this for most of the battle while the remaining heroes were forced to reposition, but eventually Espio and Silver were unable to contest with the Android's superior numbers and began to fight their way back towards their allies. Silver's absence from the main battle left him unable to assist against the real Sonic when he joined the fight, still carving through droves of enemies by the time the other heroes were attempting to restrain him. After Sonic achieved Sonic Fever and downed the heroes, Silver and Espio regrouped with their allies around the time that Tails returned to the ground and led them to shelter.

The arrival of Black Shadow to the field is what gave the heroes their opening to retreat and find a spot to rest, all of them unable to fight any longer due to their injuries sustained against Sonic or prolonged battle against the Androids, but Silver was unable to properly settle down on account of the Black Arms. He feared that, with the arrival of the aliens, his future may have been doomed to an even worse fate than it had already been dealt. Silver wondered exactly what Shadow had been doing since their last encounter and watched on, helpless to do anything.

He remained with the rest of the heroes as the war between the Eggman Empire and the Black Arms broke out, witnessing the advent of Super Shadow and Super Sonic, their departure from the battlefield, their later return from space and finally the moment Sonic's memories were restored by Black Shadow's blood transfusion. He cheered with the other heroes as the two hedgehogs massacred the Eggman Empire's forces and destroyed the Egg Dealer, rushing out into the open to meet with them once all was said and done. After Shadow announced his leaving of the planet, Silver told him that the world owed him a great debt for his irreplaceable role in saving the future, and his last known sighting was with the heroes watching the Black Comet leave for space.

Due to his method of time travel being a one-way time machine, it is unknown if or when Silver was able to return to his own time period. He was not present in the official artwork depicting the cast of *WI03* celebrating Christmas together, implying he might have gone back to his home era by then.

## Powers and abilities

Silver's abilities are identical to that of his official video game canon counterpart, primarily relying on his ESP abilities to perform feats of telekinesis and form attacks out of psychokinetic energy, such as his Psychic Knife, which allows him to produce slashing projectiles.

In the Battle of Frontier Canyon, he was shown to be able to hold up an entire Eggman bunker collapsing in on itself along with multiple tons of rock, as well as fight hordes of Sonic Androids alongside Espio. In an art piece, he was depicted stunning multiple Androids at once by sending a shockwave through the ground from his palm.

## Relationships

### Sonic the Hedgehog

> *"Stay away from that **monster!**" ~ Silver, Part 1*
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Silver's perception of Sonic was warped by Eggman successfully tarnishing his legacy with the Sonic Androids. When they first met, Silver believed Sonic to be a 'monster' and was prepared to kill him if it would save his future, but learned the truth when Shadow explained the circumstances behind the situation regarding Sonic's amnesia. Silver spent the rest of his time shown on-screen helping in the effort to save Sonic.

### Shadow the Hedgehog

> *Silver voices the immeasurable debt the world owes him for rewriting the nightmare that could've been tomorrow. ~ The Sega Scourge, Part 5 narration*
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Though they were in conflict at first, Silver developed a deep respect for Shadow upon getting to talk with him in Part 3. He became personally invested in Shadow's mission to save Sonic immediately upon having the situation explained to him, and was saddened to hear Shadow talk about giving up his chance at a happy life in exchange for restoring Sonic to his old self. He also worried when Shadow appeared for the first time as Black Shadow, wondering what he'd done since they parted ways. At the end of the series, he made sure to speak up about Shadow's vital role in saving the world before seeing him off as he left Earth.

### Vanilla the Rabbit

> *"Sorry about that ma'am, I hope nothing's broken." ~ SIlver, Part 3*
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Silver treats Vanilla cordially, showing the heroes for the first time how he would normally behave when not engaged with his mission. He politely requested entry to her home to see Tails and Knuckles, then prevented any of her furnishings or tea set from being damaged when the heroes hastily attacked him. He refers to her politely as 'ma'am'.

### Espio the Chameleon

Though they had never been seen interacting one-on-one prior, Silver and Espio formed a steadfast duo during the Battle of Frontier Canyon, where they immediately broke off from the main fighting force led by Tails to stem the flow of incoming Sonic Androids by themselves. Due to Silver's powers giving him an unorthodox fighting style, he was able to effectively synergize with Espio's ninjitsu to confuse and overwhelm the Androids for a considerable amount of time given their lacking numbers.

## Trivia

* In Silver's original concept bio for *Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)*, the character Future Trunks from *Dragon Ball Z* was mentioned as a source of inspiration. As The Sega Scourge lampshades in Part 2, the *WI03* incarnation of Silver is even closer to Trunks, both characters returning to the past to stop monstrous 'Androids' from destroying all life.
	+ This ties back to the inspiration for Trunks himself, the *Terminator* franchise, which also deals with an apocalyptic future caused by machines.
* Silver's sudden team-up with Espio references their relationship in canon, having become close comrades after working together in *Sonic Rivals 2*.