Shade the Echidna

Shade the Echidna (シェイド・ザ・エキドゥナ) is a character from Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. As the lead member of the Marauder forces, she takes her job very seriously and serves to please her lord. She has lived with others of her lost clan within the Twilight Cage for over 4,000 years (from the perspective of Sonic's world).

Appearance
Shade has orange fur, a peach muzzle, and lilac eyes rimmed by a patch of much lighter (almost white) fur, each with a single, short eyelash which curves off to the side.

She has seven dreadlocks with a lighter zigzag pattern near the ends hanging from around her head, noticeably shorter than Knuckles', which may be caused by her headband, and a small, black nose and zigzag tail, akin to that sported by Knuckles and Tikal.

History
Before the events of the game, Shade assisted in the capture of the final Chaos Emerald and took Knuckles the Echidna prisoner while doing so, nearly able to overwhelm him on her own. She makes her first appearance in the Blue Ridge Zone, revealing herself and the Marauders as echidnas of the Nocturnus Clan. Upon being defeated in combat, she tried to stop Sonic and friends from entering Metropolis by causing an avalanche. After she believes to have fulfilled her duty of stopping Sonic, she goes to Angel Island and meets up with Imperator Ix, unaware that they the team made use of an alternate route constructed by Dr. Eggman. While on the island, Sonic and Knuckles confront her and Ix, and Ix reveals his plan and true intentions to the heroes. After she discovers Ix's plan to conquer Sonic's world, Ix attempts to kill Shade, who is saved by Knuckles. She says that she's impressed by the courage and strength of Sonic and Knuckles, and that she's hard to impress.

Shade then becomes Sonic's ally for the rest of the game. She joins with Sonic and friends only because she wanted to bring the Nocturnus Clan back to Sonic's world - not to take over it as well (Ix's goal).

Personality
Shade is a tough, disciplined, and somewhat noble figure, the polar opposite of Rouge the Bat. She is very loyal and is not afraid to stand up for what she believes is right. Trained in the arts of stealth and the use of powerful, high-tech weaponry, Shade is a deadly force in combat.

As a former denizen of the Twilight Cage and high-ranking officer of the Nocturnus Clan, she is very knowledgeable about the races and places of that alternate dimension, and she is willing to help the team by telling them what she knows of Ix's secrets.

She is quite impressed with both Sonic and Knuckles, and she fights alongside them to redeem herself for unknowingly contributing to Ix's plans for world domination.

Powers and abilities
Having been trained under the Nocturnus Military, Shade is a disciplined and powerful fighter. Even her clan's leader, Imperator Ix, holds her skills in high regards and acknowledges her as his finest warrior. Another testament to Shade's abilities is that she has proven herself capable of completing even the toughest missions she was given and without flinching.

As both the agent and spy of the Nocturnus Clan's military, Shade is trained in the arts of stealth and infiltration, and is shown to especially excel on the subject, capable of sneaking through or behind even the toughest of enemies without bringing any attention to herself. Through her military training, Shade also possesses agility and speed to keep up with Sonic and the cast, and has high physical strength to match it.

Shade is also very intelligent, though she is far from being a genius. As a high-ranking military commander, Shade is a very calculating strategist and can quickly determine the best course of action during missions. As an example, when she and her group confronted Sonic and his team in the Blue Ridge Zone and failed their original goal to kill them there, she triggered a rock slide as she withdrew that blocked the path to Metropolis, thus keeping Sonic and his team from advancing. Shade also has vast knowledge and understanding of the Nocturne Clan's operations and machinery, as well as the races and colonies within the Twilight Cage.

Like Knuckles, Shade is a capable climber and can climb any kind of walls, no matter what material they are made of.

Combat Skills
When forced into direct combat, Shade relies on trickery and the technology in her arsenal to win her battles. With her equipment, Shade is can hold her own in a fight and is a deadly force in combat. To best put her fighting skills into perspective, she was able to defeat Knuckles in combat almost one her own, though her victory could be downplayed, given that Knuckles was worn down from fighting other Nocturnus Clan soldiers beforehand.

Weapons and Equipment
Shade is highly trained in the use of the Nocturnus Clan's powerful high-tech weaponry. As with the other soldiers in the Nocturnus Clan, Shade's equipment focuses on improving her chances on her missions, be it either for stealth or for combat. When carry out her missions, Shade has proven to use her various equipment with great efficiency and utilize their effects to the fullest.

Infiltration Equipment
Through usage of her suit's stealth features to improve her already impressive stealth abilities, Shade can literally pass by enemy eyes unnoticed and slip through major obstacles.

Leech Blades
Shade's weapon of choice is the Nocturnus Clan's trademark weapons, the Leech Blades. They are a pair of blades made of pink energy that is created from Shade's wristbands and can leech off the opponent's life energy  to replenish her own vitality. Shade is noted to wield the Leech Blades with great proficiency and machine-like precision.

Explosives
Though not displayed very much, Shade is shown carrying and use explosives. She is shown using a black-yellow grenade as part of her and Knuckles' Echidna Rush that not only creates a diversion, but also damages her opponent.

Warp Belt
Like all the others in the Nocturnus Clan, Shade wears a warp belt. This advanced piece of technology allows Shade to briefly escape from the Twilight Cage and to teleport short distances.

Knuckles the Echidna
Shade gets along well with Knuckles, as he seems to care for her. For example, he saved Shade from falling from a height due to Imperator Ix. When she revealed herself as an echidna, she left Knuckles shocked, because he thought that he was the last of his kind. She is also concerned for his own safety. When Team Sonic landed on Voxai Colony Beta, Shade warned of the Voxai's mind powers. Shade and Knuckles also have many POW moves together in the game.

Imperator Ix
Shade originally held much respect for Lord Ix, but once she found out his true motives, she abandoned him for using her people for his own benefits. Even after denouncing Ix's evil motives, she still holds some respect for his power as a leader.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Shade has a certain respect for Sonic after he stood up against Ix and was interested in cooperating with him because she thought him a loyal hero. Interestingly, when the team had to split up into multiple squads during the assault against the Nocturnes, Shade said that she wanted to be with Sonic.

Amy Rose
Amy is initially hostile towards Shade because she thought Shade was getting too close to Sonic.

Friends/Allies

 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Amy Rose
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Rouge the Bat
 * Big the Cat
 * Cream the Rabbit (Optional)
 * E-123 Omega (Optional)
 * Dr. Eggman (Against Ix)

Enemies/Rivals

 * Nocturnus Clan (Former Allies)
 * Imperator Ix
 * Charyb
 * Scylla
 * Pachacamac (4,000 years ago)
 * Dr. Eggman

Trivia

 * Until the Sonic the Hedgehog comic adaption of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Nintendo Power magazine and Sonic fan sites addressed her as Shade the Goat, however this was probably to keep the secret that she was an echidna until the game came out. The success of the subterfuge could be in part due to her helmet in some of the illustrations, which resembles two horns much like a goat would have.
 * Shade has many similarities to the Archie character, Julie-Su: they're both female echidnas, both use technology to fight, both defectors of a villainous legion of the last echidnas (Dark Legion and Nocturnus Clan), etc.
 * Perhaps as a nod to this, an enslaved version of Julie-Su from an alternate future in the comics known as Prelate-JS heavily resembled Shade in her full body armor, being black in color with glowing pink/purple highlights and eyes.
 * Shade is the first (and so far only) hero character (with the exception of Excalibur Sonic) to have officially have had a full set of clothing (in both cases, they wear metallic armor).
 * In the game, Shade is the only playable character who has POW moves with Life-Draining effects, which restore her Hit points when they deal damage to the enemy.
 * Shade is very similar to Shadow in a few ways: Both can teleport, they are both physically young whereas they are much older chronologically (Shadow is fifty, Shade is 4,000, although time flows differently in the Twilight Cage so she is technically still young) and the first four letters of their names are the same (in fact, both names are largely synonymous nouns).
 * Even though she currently hates Ix, she still refers to him as "Lord Ix". The same is true for the Kron, N'rrgal, Zoah and Nestor.
 * When the Voxai Overmind managed to take control of most of Sonic's group, Shade's statement while brainwashed was "I betrayed Lord Ix." This may imply that, while she does realize that Ix was pure evil and needed to be stopped, she does feel some guilt for having to betray him. Fortunately, these thoughts were greatly amplified by the psychic powers of the Overmind and do not interfere with Shade anywhere else in the story.
 * The symbol on Shade's helmet/headband appears to change from left to right and vice versa when comparing her artwork.
 * In the dialogue in Sonic Chronicles, Shade's mouth is almost never seen, due to the angle of her head in her artwork.
 * The horn-like parts of her helmet are similar to the jesters on NiGHTS's head.
 * Shade, along with the other Nocturnus echidnas, appears to always have her head facing downward while looking up, giving her face a shrunken appearance.