Appearance[]
Personality[]
Penumbra is one who leaves many perplexed at face-value. He has a calm and cool atmosphere, but underneath has a boiling cauldron of different emotions, some that he still does not understand himself. One trait he has that is consistent, however, is that he quick to defend his ideals, aggressively if necessary. He often questions even the most trivial things, wanting to make sure he knows all details before doing or believing something, which hardly ever happens if the ideal contradicts his own.
In his childhood years, Penumbra was isolated from the rest of the world that he lived in. His only contact with life was Dr. Shinran, his caretaker. She nurtured him to make sure that he never felt alone. Most of his knowledge of the world came from her and her teachings, as he couldn't experience them for himself. Of all the things she taught him, though, he was never able to understand the value of life. He never could grasp this concept. To him, the lives of those other than himself and Dr. Shinran meant nothing. This was due to his limited contact with other beings and his purpose of being a defensive weapon. She worried deeply for his mental health. Not willing to let him continue thinking the way he did, she began using the teachings of her faith. She taught him that there are other conscious beings out there, even though she was not supposed to. She told him to never harm another living being and to never hold ill feelings towards someone else. In the end, these teachings had no effect, shown when Penumbra ruthlessly killed the test subjects, created by the scientists, that took part in his training. Despite this, Penumbra actually has an aversion to killing and conflict in general. He dislikes having to kill others although never showed or even felt remorse after doing so.
Later in his teenage years, Penumbra grew less dependent on Dr. Shinran's ways and began forming his own. He saw the world in one way and one way only. He discovered that only he could make his own path in life. As a result, he began to drift from under the UF's control, becoming more and more independent. Penumbra told himself that he had been living in others’ shadows for too long. He wanted to form an identity his own way, instead of relying on the words of others to define him. He trained harder, believing that his power would make him distinct in the eyes of those who saw him only as a tool. The UF was pleased to see that their weapon was performing so well, unaware of his rebelliousness. Later, when Penumbra reached peak physical condition, the scientists noted his inability to use Chaos energy. Penumbra's absence of such a skill did not sit right with them or the United Federation. Therefore, they devised a plan to fill Penumbra to the brim with that power.
Penumbra possessed tremendous love for Dr. Shinran, which was greater than any of his physical or Chaos power. After losing what was most dear to him, Penumbra became highly protective of what he became attached to. According to Kiyoko, despite living in such harsh times, Penumbra never lost his affection for those he cared about but did fall to his hatred of mankind further. After Dr. Shinran's death, Penumbra became bitter and vengeful, causing him to embrace his destructive side. Penumbra's corruption damaged his relationship with Kiyoko, leading him to oppose the teachings offered to him because he wanted to protect whatever he had left to prevent himself from feeling the same way he did when Dr. Shinran died. Penumbra has a deep sense of personal honor as, prior to their betrayal of his trust, he wanted to keep Kiyoko safe from her pursuers.
For a brief time as an adult, Penumbra began to believe in the old ideals taught to him from childhood, stopping Kiyoko from killing herself after feeling remorse, which led to Penumbra accepting Kiyoko as a friend and resulted in the two repairing their friendship. He also lamented what he thought was his fault for failing to preserve Dr. Shinran's memory through her teachings and tried to believe in the ideal of everyone's life meant something to someone, regardless of who it was. After using his Chaos power to further revisit the past, Penumbra felt hopeless, because he learned of the way people truly were. After learning this, Penumbra completely abandoned his previous thoughts of continuing to care for the lives of others. Penumbra's feelings of vengeance and hatred towards Kiyoko soon resurfaced, going as far as to leave her for dead after battling her. He also became angrily offended when Kiyoko mentioned the words "your family". Despite the fact that Kiyoko meant she and himself, Penumbra was instead reminded of Dr. Shinran.
As he grew older, Penumbra became very disciplined. Penumbra is shown to be very collected as he hardly shows emotion in battle, making it difficult for his opponents to decipher reactions. Even when outnumbered, he remains composed, adaptable, and calculating, quickly able to adjust to new developments and change his battle tactics. He can also be spiteful, and belittling of others. Despite his pride and confidence in his immense power, Penumbra is highly vigilant, regardless of the situation. Also, when pushed to a certain extent, Penumbra can sometimes lose control of his emotions on rare occasions. At the same time, he admits that since obtaining Kiyoko's healing powers, Penumbra himself has gotten somewhat carefree in his own approach. He is also quick to reprimand others for recklessness or stupidity. Conversely, he lamented that he wished to have saved Dr. Shinran. Despite the pride he has in his own abilities, he openly admits that Dr. Shinran is the only person who is capable of stopping him.
Immovable Will[]
History[]
Early life[]
Penumbra's childhood life never really belonged to him. No, he lived to keep another at bay. Penumbra was born, or rather cultivated in a laboratory 100 meters below Prison Island. Beginning as a simple collection of skin cells taken from Shadow the Hedgehog, Penumbra was created as a Hedgehog but seen as nothing more than a weapon that was to be used at humanity's whim. But that would be inhumane, right?
Soon after his "birth", Penumbra was put under the care of Dr. Shinran, a scientist that worked to indoctrinate him with G.U.N propaganda and objectives. For the first 10 years of Penumbra's life, she fed him, taught him, and trained him to follow orders without question. All of these, of course, were necessary for Penumbra to be up to the G.U.N's standards. She saw all of these teachings as pointless, however; she was aware of the fate that awaited Penumbra. How could she not? She had been through the process multiple times.
When Penumbra had reached age 10, he had finally learned all he needed. His intelligence was enough to satisfy the scientists' expectations. Despite his knowledge, Penumbra was still as inquisitive as a 10 year old hedgehog could be. He began to wondered what lay beyond the walls of the his little laboratory. Like a wish come true, Penumbra was given his answer when he caught a glimpse of the outside of the fortified island. He ran to the small window to peek and spotted the crashing waves and bright sky. He stared in awe until the two scientists noticed him, his look of awe turned to one of stupor. He froze, not knowing what to say or do. After an awkward period of staring, the two restrained him, making sure that Penumbra was not to ever see the outside until further notice.
Later that evening, Dr. Shinran returned from her routine day at the research lab but was greeted with a worrying question. "Can I go outside?" She could have never heard a more terrible phrase escape his lips. Penumbra received a quick and terrified glare, followed by a warm hug. Dr. Shinran told him that he could never go outside. Naturally, Penumbra asked why to which Dr. Shinran answered with a lie. She had told him that there were even lurked in the beyond the walls, searching for creatures who shouldn't be wandering out there. Penumbra had then felt something he never felt before. His body shook, he was sweating, and his heart was beating so fast that he could feel it in his throat. He felt true fear.
The next day, those same scientists were back again to observe Penumbra react to certain stimuli. Once again, they merely stared at each other. That is, until Penumbra remembered what Dr. Shinran had told him. He began panicking, and scrambled to open his biocage to warn the scientists. Unfortunately, he had no idea how a lock worked. Determined to "save" the scientists, he gathered Chaos energy from the environment into his body. Throwing a punch at the entrance, he broke it clean through. Being the inexperienced child that he was, Penumbra had never experienced pain and was entirely unaware of the danger of performing such a feat. Almost immediately, G.U.N security rushed in to subdue Penumbra.
It was only minutes later that Dr. Shinran had discovered Penumbra, bound by a high-energy plasma cable. She requested that he be released and hoped that none of what happened reached the ears of the higher-ups. It turned out exactly as she hoped it wouldn't. Penumbra's "attempted escape" had reached the headquarters' ears before she knew it and it was already arranged to have Penumbra live within a much more reinforced facility. Of course, heavy surveillance was placed on them. This put Dr. Shinran slightly at ease since she didn't have to worry about Penumbra's outright termination.
For the next three years, Penumbra endured tough training. He spent hours being tested on intelligence, obedience, strength, speed, durability, and overall stability all for the sake of becoming a tool. But of course, Penumbra went along with blissful ignorance. He continued on this oblivious path until the scientists noticed something. Penumbra's control of his Chaos abilities, or his lack thereof, had set off a flag in the G.U.N’s head. A clone of Shadow without Chaos powers was something they would not stand for. Using Penumbra's ignorance against him, the scientists devised a plan. Since she seemed to be close to Penumbra, Dr. Shinran was the center of attention in this plan. She was used against her will; the scientists allowed measly failed experiments to act as aggressors to attack her while Penumbra was forced to watch. The sight of those experiments and Dr. Shinran's screams made Penumbra finally snap and awaken his Chaos abilities. The scientists set him loose on the test dummies and Penumbra ripped every last one of them to shreds, even mutilating a few beyond recognition. In the scientists' eyes, Penumbra had finally become a tool worthy of use, but in Dr. Shinran's eyes, there could be no worse a damnation than awakening his inner wrath.
For the next two months, Dr. Shinran had intentionally kept Penumbra away from the scientists. She taught him differently, trained him differently, and even went as far as to slightly poison Penumbra with arsenic in order to set back plans to employ him in any operations. This just so happened to be around the time the Shadow the Hedgehog escaped. The G.U.N Commander had demanded that Penumbra begin immediately. When scientists began to test Penumbra for his healthiness, they had discovered he had been poisoned and left to inform their leader. While the scientists and his subordinates were in a state of frenzy, Dr. Shinran took the opportunity to escape with Penumbra through one of the numerous tunnels that the facility had in case of disaster.
Life on The Run[]
Following the destruction of the prison he called home, Penumbra and Dr. Shinran made their way away from Prison Island and hid from authorities as much as possible. Both Penumbra and Dr. Shinran faced harsh challenges with not all being due to the voyage. Hungry and exhausted from constantly running, Penumbra and Dr. Shinran took refuge in Central City to rest and eat. While there, Dr. Shinran had decided tour the town in order to keep Penumbra rested and running at full capacity. In her search, she discovered a circus troupe performing a spectacular show. She hadn't been so amazed in her life. After the show, Dr. Shinran had spotted a flyer posted near their performance. It stated that the circus had been searching for new members, especially those with the ability to perform special effects effectively. The start of Penumbra's new life began at that moment.
Applying for entrance into the circus proved trivial with Penumbra's prowess. He displayed excellent skill with manipulating Chaos energy and was subsequently assigned to the pyrotechnics group. As one who couldn't use Chaos energy at all, Dr. Shinran was only assigned to management but was still allowed to oversee Penumbra and ensure his safety. Dr. Shinran found it wonderful that Penumbra finally experienced the joy of other people's company. The joy of not having to conceal his existence because of who, or rather what, he was. Penumbra had found this experience quite enlightening as well as he made connections with the other members of the circus. For the next few months, all went well in the trio's lives. That is until that fateful encounter.
After one considerably tiring show in the city, Penumbra had taken a break along with Dr. Shinran while the trouble packed up and headed out. Later in the evening after the show, Dr. Shinran and Penumbra had stopped their car and let the rest of the circus continue on without them because of Penumbra's injury he received after performing a rather dangerous fireworks display. Dr. Shinran tasked Penumbra with getting a first aid kit from the back of their vehicle. Penumbra left Dr. Shinran to herself as she got out to get some air. Unbeknownst to them, a pair of eerie eyes observed them closely from the shadows. They watched each move both Dr. Shinran and Penumbra made. Once Penumbra had been out of sight, the observer leapt from hiding and attacked Dr. Shinran. The unsuspecting woman was caught off guard and was unable to react as she was knocked over into the dirt, slightly winded. The supposed assassin unveiled a pistol aimed at the doctor's head. She revealed herself to be the assassin Kiyoko, sent from G.U.N to eliminate both her and Penumbra. Before Shinran could reply, a bullet silenced her would-be response.
Standing just out of view, Penumbra saw everything too late. He felt his rage surge, manifesting in the form of Chaos energy enveloping his body. Kiyoko noticed his presence and prepared to attack. She did not realize that in his silent fury, Penumbra activated his Chaos Charge. She fired her pistol twice at him, aiming for the head, and both deflected off him. In response, he lifted up his hand and fired a beam towards her. Luckily, her reflexes allowed her to avoid the blast, that happened to take an entire building off of the map. After a rather short skirmish, Penumbra overexerted himself and collapsed unconscious. Kiyoko, although willing to fulfill her objective to either bring Penumbra back alive or dead, sustained too many injuries to proceed with her task and leaned herself against a wall to rest. Shortly, Penumbra woke up to see Kiyoko standing before him breathing heavily and clutching her side. He gave her an inquisitive look.
‘’“Who are you?”’’
To her surprise, she noticed that Penumbra had lost his memory. He had not even remembered that she had killed Shinran. However, instead of letting him regain his memories and try to destroy her, she fooled him into thinking that she was a friend of his. He believed her and she found the time to heal herself.
The New Bond[]
Powers[]
Umbrakinesis[]
- Shadow Minefield: Penumbra releases multiple orbs of darkness around his opponent. He can arrange them in a specific formation or scatter them. Also, he can detonate specific orbs on demand or leave them to detonate at random. Each explosion can cause massive shockwaves and level small buildings.
- Pillars of Darkness: Penumbra creates dark pillars that can trap an opponent. He uses this for both offense and defense.
- Black Hole Burst: As Penumbra's strongest darkness attack, he uses this very sparingly due to the destruction it causes. He holds out his palm and darkness begins to swirl inwards before coalescing into a sphere of darkness. He then can use it to suck in anything within a specific radius or invert it and blast the dark energy in a beam, obliterating all in its path.