this popped up in my mind when I was doodling his headcanon design, but what if his species is artificial-turned-natural?
elaboration: as far as I'm concerned, we don't know where Silver's psychokinesis comes from; precisely speaking, he says everyone has this ability in his times, but how could it possibly evolve? we don't see anyone with anything similar in Sonic's times (they probably could easily just introduce some characters to give a general idea who could pass the genes aaand powers don't really have/need a pseudo-scientific explanation of origins in this cartoon animal franchise but shush)
now let me introduce you to Arkveld from Monster Hunter Wilds (I say while not giving any explanation for Silver and taking everyone's knowledge of Sonic lore for granted. anyway he's like another funky hedgehog with powers and comes from an apocalyptic future)
there was once an ancient civilization who mastered the way of weaponizing monsters for their benefit - that is, they invented a technology that allowed them to copy and recreate existing organisms as artificial "guardians" with enhanced abilities based on the material they were made of and stripping them off biological instincts like eating or reproducing so they're perfect war machines
this aforementioned beast went extinct at their times, and they decided to recreate it as guardian; very fast forward to current times, one of those recreations emerges from long inactivity and goes berserk
as well as showing signs of natural instincts and trying to perform them.
it eventually fails to become a lifeform compatible with the ecosystem and must be slain for its own good, but it manages to reproduce before that happens ("life, uh, finds a way"). the species eventually rises from the dead and evolves natural traits while also losing the artificial ones, becoming a rather common sight in the game
now I think you see where I'm going, but let me present one more thing: there is a high difficulty version of monsters called Arch Tempered, which gives them new attacks - in the universe it's exceptionally strong monsters who lived through many fights and accumulated experience as well as scars
Arch Tempered Arkveld is an interesting case, as it grows so powerful it regains the artificial traits and reawakens the powers coming with them, becoming both organic and artificial in nature (and one hell of a fight)
now to wrap this up, my idea is:
what if hedgehogs (or anthros in general; was it ever mentioned if any non-hedgehog from Silver's times can have psychokinesis? Archie comics don't count) went extinct at one point, someone tried recreating them as artificial lifeforms with some super powers sprinkled in, they started reproducing on their own and eventually became natural species?
