Introducing Netalia.
Mother to Nexus and Nefina in her prime in the years before the Great Coup by Robotnik.

Thousands of years ago, natural selection was cutting its way through the ranks of the Echidna race. Echidnas were destined to be strong, powerful, yet perhaps lacking a little in intelligence, leaving them fairly gullible but more than able to defend themselves against preditors.
There was, however, a second breed that proved itself useful to nature, developing agility, keen eyes, sleek bodies and greater speed than their brothers. These were rare examples to the race.

Netalia is one of those Echidnas. She became an exceptional fighter very quickly and was soon brought into the ranks of the elite covert operatives of the shadow operatives. The royal guard were the shining broadswords of the army, the shadow operatives were the blackened daggers.

She defied the will of the tribal leaders by falling in love with and later marrying one who was considered far too weak for breeding. She was looked down upon and shunned by her own tribe for siring two children to this man, watering down, in their eyes, the perfect warrior blood that flowed within her.

As a warrior, she was fast, accurate, precise and deadly efficient. As a mother she was gentle, caring, patient and encouraging. She trained her children at an early age how to look after themselves and taught them both well.

When Robotnik began his invasion she lead the rebellious charge and was taken out by gun fire. Her body was never recovered, and some question whether one of the greatest warriors of Mobius had managed to survive the take over somehow, living out there and fighting her battles in her own way.

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The exposition was longer than I intended, but I figure someone would be interested.
Kudos to  jessycelly for designing Netalia pretty much from scratch, especially the costume, and also for coming up with a much better name than I had picked for her. She's taking comissions right now too, so go note her!

I'm quite pleased with this one. It's the ones that come together by themselves without requiring vast amounts of tinkering that always end up looking the best. Sadly, I can't pick 'em. They just happen.

As a side note...I'm very aware that any stealth operative wouldn't be seen dead with shiney silver parts on their outfit. I coloured them silver to break up the colour a bit, nothing more =)

[Original sketch by  jessycelly]
[Netalia copyright to me]