Malik the Hedgehog

Malik the Hedgehog (マリク・ザ・ヘッジホッグ, Mariku za Hejjihoggu?) is a 16-year-old anthropomorphic hedgehog with exceptional swordplay and umbramancy skills. He uses his physical abilities and dark powers to protect Earth from the forces of evil, especially from Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.

Appearance
Malik is an anthropomorphic hedgehog with black fur that covers most of his body, purple fur that covers the tips of his quills, peach skin that covers his muzzle and torso, and maroon eyes. He has six quills on his head, two of which spike upward. He has two back spikes on his back that point downwards, as well as a short tail.

Malik tends to wear a dark green t-shirt; torn blue jeans; two dark red shoes with cuffs, two vertical grey stripes, and a silver buckle; and two padded grey gloves with cuffs. He also has a sheath on his back to hold his swords when they aren’t in use, as well as a small rectangular pouch on his waist to put his spellbook.

There are slight changes when Malik enters his dark form. His eyes change from maroon to a ruby red (unless he has no control, in which he loses his pupils), and the purple color on his fur turns to the black that is on the rest of his body. He also gains a shadowy aura.

Weapons
Malik has two ancient swords, which have been reinforced with stainless steel after they were found. They have a black hilt with dark text that is used for one of his powers, listed below.

Malik also has a spellbook that holds the knowledge behind his powers. It has a black cover and a purple spine.

Personality
Before befriending Frost, Malik was more of an antisocial than anything. During his time at high school, he wouldn’t talk to very many people, and didn’t make very many friends as a result. Befriending Frost allowed him to open up to others.

After the attack of Perfect Chaos, Malik became a brash and cocky swordfighter; he occasionally taunts his opponents during battle and cracks a joke or two in an attempt to make it more enjoyable for himself and sometimes others. He also has a good love for fighting, as he gets a rush of adrenaline whenever he gets into a fight. This can be good (he can hold off multiple opponents at once) or bad (he can get carried away and hurt an innocent someone). Despite his cockiness, he has some common sense and does know how and when to act serious.

He tends to make a comment on whatever he thinks he should get involved in. These comments usually add no value toward the conversation and are generally ignored as a result.

He also seems to be easygoing, relaxed, and carefree. Whenever there is peace, he tends to enjoy it while it lasts. He deeply cares for his friends and family, especially Hendrik, and will get deeply mad if they get severely hurt. And when he gets mad, he gets insane.

When Malik is forced into his Dark transformation as a result of intense rage, he loses all control over himself and has a lust for blood. He will try to kill anyone nearby, even if that would be a friend, because of this. He calls this behavior a “lack of sanity”. Even then, he does have some vague memory of his friends, which can be exploited to calm him down and revert him back to his regular ol’ self.

Aquaphobia
The events in this section occur at the same time as Sonic Adventure.

Malik was born in Central City, and had lived there all his life with his mother. His father died when he was four, so it was just him and his mother living in a decent house before the events of Sonic Adventure occurred.

Before the crapfest that was Sonic Adventure, Malik would spend a lot of time in the Mystic Ruins exploring. After a few years, he deciphered the Light Texts, but never succeeded in deciphering the Shadow Texts until the attack of Perfect Chaos. He came to know the Mystic Ruins as a sort of getaway place when he got stressed.

When Malik turned fifteen years old, he was enrolled into the local high school. He would bring the Light and Shadow Texts to the school to decipher during his spare time. One student, a grey cryokinetic wolf girl named Skylar, was somewhat interested in his studies, and would sit next to him during lunch to watch what he was doing. The two enjoyed the company and became best friends. Skylar also introduced Malik to Kai the Fox, who was a pyrokinetic fox. The three were good friends up to the Perfect Chaos incident.

On his sixteenth birthday, Perfect Chaos began to flood the city. His mother wanted Malik to escape, but he wanted to stay and protect her. She said that she would be okay, in a rather convincing voice. A part of Malik wanted to stay, but he knew that she was right. He ran toward the one safe place he knew–the Mystic Ruins–as Kai and Skylar ran in the other direction, but not before giving a big hug to his mother.

After falling off a random cliff that was put there solely for the purpose of writing, he found a temple with some Shadow Text on the doorway. After failing to read it for about the billionth time, he entered the temple in hopes of finding something or someone to protect him. He ended up finding a book and two swords. Malik touched the book to inspect it, and suddenly passed out.

He woke up about an hour later, and decided to try to examine the book again. This time, he did not pass out, and he proceeded to read the Shadow Texts. Surprisingly, he could make out what they said. It seemed to be a spellbook, and the names of the spells suggested that it was a spellbook designed to be used by umbramancers.

He then had a vague thought that he should take the items and use them later. He kept brushing the thought away, but it kept coming back, bigger each time. He eventually gave in, picking up the book and swords and running back toward the city. Was everyone okay? The lighter sky was a good sign, but he was still very worried.

By the time he got back, he was relieved; Perfect Chaos was already taken care of by Super Sonic. He had an urge to fight the thing, but at the same time, he was glad the madness was all over and that everyone was safe. All of the survivors were busy rebuilding, and Tikal was busy with Chaos and all that. But then, Malik remembered. His mother! He went back to his house, only to find it a wreck. Upon further inspection, he found his mother buried under the wreckage. He hurriedly checked her pulse, and breathed a sigh of relief as he found it was still there; however, she still needed medical attention if she were to survive. He called for a doctor, and she was taken away to an infirmary.

At said infirmary, Malik was in the room with his mother. She would be fine in a few weeks; there was a bit of material lodged in her abdomen. She wondered where he got the equipment, and got a bit sad that his boy had grown. She then experienced great pain, and Malik was forced to leave.

Emerald Coast
Malik helped a bit with rebuilding Station Square, now named Central City. When he wasn't needed, he read from the tome and vigorously trained with his swords and spells. After three to four months, the city was about three fourths of the way rebuilt, and Malik had learned the basics of using his gear. He decided to take a stroll on Emerald Coast to clear his mind of all the stuff that was going on.

During this stroll, he found a lone cottage. After pondering how it was still standing, he knocked on the door, and a fox named Madi answered. She was about the same age as Malik, and was living alone.

Malik was generous enough to spend a few hours with the fox. She seemed like she needed company. He learned her backstory, and retold his, as well. He got to know Madi as a good friend and as a good cook. Malik then decided to leave at some point; he couldn’t stay here forever. They exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch, and Malik left.

The next day, he was helping with reconstruction when Madi called. A cyan echidna had washed up on Emerald Coast. Malik hurried over and helped the echidna into the house. After a couple hours, the echidna came to, and asked where he was. Malik and Madi introduced themselves and told him where they had found him, as well as where they were. The echidna introduced himself as Hendrik, son of the captain of the Cross Bone Raiders. Malik had never heard of such a group, but decided not to question it. Hendrik then realized that he needed to set sail and look for his crew and, much to the boys’ surprise, Madi wanted to join Hendrik. They looked at Malik for a solution, and he said he didn’t want to get in the way, saying that it “ain’t his decision.” The two eventually came to a resolution; Madi would come with. Malik grinned as they sailed into the horizon; he eventually went back to Central City.

The next morning, he was woken up by his mother. She was released after a surgery and she was very much alive. Plus, most of the town was rebuilt at that point. While most people saw this as a happily ever after, Malik wanted to explore the world now. He knew there was certainly more than Central City and the Mystic Ruins. He said his goodbyes, promised to return someday, and left.

Carnivals Are Fun
A couple months later, he happened to arrive in Carnival Town, a coastal town that was seemingly built with mostly entertainment in mind. As he approached the coast, flashbacks of Perfect Chaos began to return, causing him to grimace and worry about his family a little bit. As he reassured himself, he noticed a raft in the water. Closer inspection revealed that someone was aboard…

Malik flipped through his spellbook to find a spell that would bring the raft toward him. He found one and, one cast later, he was interrogating the person who was aboard. His name was Eanbald the Parrot, one who could read minds, much to Malik's surprise. The parrot was also an acquaintance of Hendrik, evident by the fact that he was looking for the echidna. Malik decided to help Eanbald; if Hendrik really was in trouble, then he had better protect him.

Ruin Shenanigans
It took a month, but the duo eventually found Hendrik’s ship. While Hendrik left to grab some firewood for the night, Madi briefed Malik and Eanbald on what they had been doing. An almost-lucky stone called Akanonite had told Hendrik to meet up with everyone else in a specific timeframe. With everything cleared up, they resolved to explore the Ocean Ruins the next day and see what they would find.

The next day, the group entered the ruins of Seaside Hill. Hendrik spotted a glowing green stone, which Malik guessed was the Akanonite. It “told” Hendrik the layout of the ruins; there was an entry hall along with four halls, each containing elemental areas. Each group member activated their respective hall, opening a secret chamber leading to a basement of sorts. Hendrik led the group into the basement to find a pedestal weigh an open book, which was titled Water Spellbook Vol. 3: Water and Ice Edition. Hendrik took the book, causing a secret exit to open.

Upon exiting through the exit, the group encountered competition in the form of four people, namely the Golden Corsairs; the group consisted of Serafin the Swordfish, Gelrox the Starfish, Krallig the Crocodile, and Zeques the Crab. The Corsairs challenged our heroes to a battle, with the loser having to serve the winner. Hendrik quickly accepted the challenge, and Malik wanted to fight Krallig, who he thought was the toughest and the most fun. After being able to weaken the croc enough, Malik used Chaos Prison to immobilize him so that Hendrik could take him and the rest of the Corsairs out using Blade Vortex.

The group resolved to find the rest of the spellbooks, which, according to the one they found, totaled to nine. They headed back to Central City with the Golden Corsairs, who were now their allies for the time being, to heal back up.

Looking Into the Future
Malik and his friends stayed at an apartment that they had bought with the large amount of Rings they had on hand. During the stay, people gave the crew a warm welcome, mostly because they knew Malik. They still gave stern looks to the Golden Corsairs, though, which was somewhat intriguing.

While Malik was figuring out how to cast a certain spell, Eanbald ran up to him and told him to come to the hospital. On the way there, he said that Hendrik had had a sudden spasm somewhere in the city. The two hurried to the hospital, where they met with Serafin and entered the emergency room, where Madi was by Hendrik's side.

Hendrik muttered “Bag… water… book… heal spell… need” before passing out. Malik deduced that he needed his spellbook because it had a healing spell, and Eanbald grabbed Hendrik’s spellbook and found the healing spell. Once Hendrik woke up, he recited the spell and passed out again.

Eventually, Hendrik woke up again, and after some more time, healed completely. Madi told Malik and Serafin to escort the echidna back to the apartment, and the two gladly did so.

Once everybody was back in the apartment, they all had questions about what had happened. Two questions, both from Eanbald, stuck out from the rest: “Why can’t I read your mind?” and “What did you see in your visions?” Hendrik responded that he didn’t know why Eanbald couldn’t read his mind, and that he would describe his visions once he was fed and hydrated.

After Hendrik replenished himself, he explained his visions. The first vision was of a godlike figure and many other unrecognizable people. The second vision was of Eanbald’s bag, which had many rare items inside, with the words “the Vile Swashbuckler” and “Aqua Lake Zone” being spoken in the background. The third vision was Hendrik finding himself with Benjamin and Ringolds discussing how to get out of the Labyrinth Zone. The fourth vision was Hendrik casually talking with Echo-M0 the Hawk. The fifth and final vision was the Silver Buccaneers, whose captain was Wuyi the Warthog from the Cross Bone Raiders, taking on someone called Xuldir the Deadly.

Malik tried to piece all of this together. There were so many new, unfamiliar names of people and locations. He didn’t know who the “godlike figure”, Wuyi, or Xuldir were. Why were there so many models of the Echo robot? Why would Wuyi leave the Cross Bone Raiders? Could these visions be what would happen later, in the future?

Hendrik asked Eanbald to have him look in his bag, and he obliged. The bag contained the cutlass Wind-Steel, the staff Heloderma II, and the bow Elianne IV. It also had the book that Hendrik asked for in the hospital, as well as Eanbald’s personal belongings. Eanbald gave Hendrik the book and Wind-Steel. He also gave Madi and Serafin the weapons Heloderma II and Elianne IV, respectfully.

Hendrik and the others planned to leave Central City to get information from a doctor and map-maker in Carnival Town, while Malik stayed in Central City. He wanted to find out what was up with the Echo robots, why they were attacking him.

An Unexpected Rescue
Malik set off for the one place he knew of the most; the Final Egg base near the Mystic Ruins. He had seen the facility numerous times during his explorations in the jungle, and knew that he was ready to find out what was behind those doors. Reaching the base, he stayed in the shadows, preventing him from being seen in any shape or form; there was no way the patrol Badniks or E-Series robots would be able to see him. He searched the base for anything of value, and eventually found a room that had many, many Echo robots. Stepping out of the shadows allowed him to have a better look; to his astonishment, he found that, alongside the finished robots, there were many stasis pods that had people in them! Taking his time to count how many there were, he determined that there were over a hundred finished models and stasis pods. As he was about to leave, he noticed a large computer in an adjacent room. He got on the computer (easily, since there was no password) and searched the term "echo". The computer returned Project ECHO, as well as a few other projects that have been going on for a much longer time: Project ROCK, Project LIQUID, and, most notably, Project CRYO.

Opening the files of Project ECHO revealed that Doctor Eggman was planning to create over a hundred models of Echo robots, and use them to threaten the planet.

Skipping ROCK and LIQUID as he deemed them unimportant, he opened Project CRYO. The name had reminded him of Skylar, whom he hadn't seen since the Perfect Chaos incident over eight months ago, since she was a cryokinetic. CRYO involved roboticizing a cryokinetic and using its powers to freeze entire cities and ultimately threaten the world. If that weren’t enough, a camera feed of the prison cells was also part of the files; one of these cells contained an asleep Skylar. Resolving to rescue her and get out with the information, Malik faded into the shadows once again, and headed toward the prison cell block.

When he arrived, he noticed that Skylar was still sound asleep. Worrying a bit for her well-being, he closed the door behind him and knocked on the prison cell bars. As she slowly came to, he said "knock knock!", causing her to yelp and back up towards the wall. She eventually realized who she was looking at, and when she asked what he was doing here, he said he was breaking her out, and that she should move to the side of the cell. As she complied, he coated his swords in darkness and, muttering that this would probably sound the alarms, sliced the prison cell bars into shreds to leave an opening in the cell.

As the alarms sounded, Malik and Skylar rushed toward the exit, but were impeded by an Echo robot, which was labeled "Model 1". Malik told Skylar to stand back before engaging the robot in battle. They seemed to be evenly matched, but Malik ultimately came out victorious. As he spat a humorous insult at the pile of scrap metal, the two ran out of the exit and continued to run, as numerous Badniks were likely in hot pursuit. Once he was sure that the Badniks were lost in the jungle, the two stopped to rest near the large pyramid in the center.

Malik knew his friend had many questions. After gathering his thoughts, he retold his adventures, how he had found his powers and weapons, traveled with Hendrik and his friends for a time, and decided to find out more about Project ECHO.

Relationships

 * Sonic the Hedgehog: Malik has looked upon Sonic with great respect ever since he saved Central City from Perfect Chaos. He doesn't know him personally, of course, but he knows that Sonic has to be a good guy, and owes the blue blur a large debt.
 * Hendrik the Echidna: Malik found him on the shoreline of Emerald Coast, alongside Madi the Fox. They became good allies from the start, eventually going on many adventures. Malik ultimately allied with the New Cross Bone Raiders.
 * Madi the Fox: Malik had come across Madi, who was living alone after the death of her grandmother. During his stay at her house, Malik had grown a great bond with her, especially when they found Hendrik washed up on the shore.
 * Eanbald the Parrot: Following the "friend of my friend is my friend" philosophy, Eanbald and Malik became good allies.
 * The Golden Corsairs: Malik has a mostly neutral relationship with the Corsairs.