A/N: I'll be busy tomorrow, seeing how it's the fourth of July, so I'm going to go ahead and upload this now. Sorry it's significantly shorter, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do right now without having some time to think this through. I just wanted to get this one out of the gate as quickly as possible.

Plus, it's kind of nice to have it hang on the front page for a while :) .

Seeing as how I've failed to do this before, here goes: I don't own Sonic. Duh.

Shadow crossed his arms and closed his eyes, leaning against the wall in the elevator. Eggman stood beside him, feeling rather tense. "You know, your visit today surprised me," he explained. "I thought that you would have attended that other rodent's birthday party."

"There are some things that you don't feel absolutely obligated to do," Shadow explained calmly without opening his eyes. "Attending Sonic's birthday party is one of those things."

Eggman studied the black hedgehog warily under his dark sunglasses. Shadow never acts this calm and carefree, he thought. He's putting on an act. He knows to get what he wants, he can't attack me. He's…he's actually NERVOUS!

Shadow opened one eye to look at the chubby doctor. "Is there something troubling you, or are my spines so glamorous today that you can't stop gawking at them?"

"Nothing's the matter," Eggman said swiftly, jerking his head in the other direction.

The rest of the ride was silent, and when the elevator finally dinged to announce the arrival to the third floor, Shadow and Eggman walked out.

The third floor was much smaller than Shadow had imagined. There were no giant computers that were ready to receive data inputs; no flashy metallic designs or robot guards. One of the sole items in the room lie in the center: a filing cabinet that was carefully locked.

"Professor Gerald's reports and diary entries are in here?" Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow.

However, there was no response from Eggman.

Shadow spun around and clenched his teeth as the elevator doors closed, holding Dr. Eggman. The scientist grinned evilly and pressed a button on his remote right before the doors to the elevator completely closed.

The file cabinet started to shake violently. Shadow gasped and studied it with his ruby gaze. Suddenly, a pair of mechanical arms and legs burst out of the cabinet, and then the cabinet itself busted, revealing a spherical-shaded robot.

"I should've known," Shadow muttered to himself through clenched teeth.

The robot extended its giant arm and tried to pound the black hedgehog, but he was too quick for it. He leapt up and spun into a ball before launching himself at the center.

All of Eggman's robots are the same! Shadow thought smugly. You just need to hit the center a few times, and they'll blow up!

The robot had other plans, however. It brought up a shield to protect itself from Shadow's assault. He fell back to the ground on his feet and crossed his arms. "A shield? Come on, is that all you got?"

Shadow bent his knees and was about to attempt to knock the shield out of the robot's hand when suddenly a green substance began to seep throughout the room. "What the…?!" he exclaimed, and held his nose, trying to avoid breathing in the green gas.

The robot seemed to laugh as he staggered forward, intent on stomping Shadow to the ground. He saw this coming and dashed out of the way. Then he leapt up and kicked the robot's head, knocking him forward.

This drained the oxygen from his system, however. I need to breathe! He thought desperately. Thinking fast, Shadow ran towards the elevator and punched in the button. The small container wasn't much, and it would fill quickly with the gas, but it would at least provide a breath of fresh air.

In the mean time, the robot hadn't gotten up from Shadow kicking it forward. He assumed he had knocked something loose, and decided to ignore it.

After what seemed like an eternity, the elevator arrived. Shadow dashed in and held the door shut behind him, gasping in fresh air. If he could keep the door shut, then he could get to another part of the building and escape the poison gas…

Shadow's gaze flew to the door as he heard rumbling. "Oh, sweet Maria," he muttered to himself as his pupils dilated it. He pressed a floor number on the elevator and prayed with everything that he had that the elevator would escape before the robot could destroy it…

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"Is something the matter, Sonic?"

Amy sat down next to Sonic at the table he was sitting at. The blue hedgehog rested his palm on his chin and sighed.

"Nah…just wondering where Shadow could be."

Amy smiled kindly. "Shadow's got a mysterious past and everything…there's no telling where he could be."

Sonic smirked at his friend. "Yeah, but I mean…he couldn't take ONE day out of his oh-so-busy schedule to come and say 'hey' to all of us?"

The two hedgehogs watched everyone chat and eat cake out on the floor. "No offense, but this doesn't seem like Shadow's kind of party," Amy pointed out. Sonic chuckled.

"The only kind of party he'd go is a Halloween party," the hero laughed. "And he wouldn't even need to dress up! He'd scare everyone anyway!"

The two of them laughed, but Sonic couldn't help but go back to his original thought.

Shadow…where could you be?

Where could Shadow be indeed...? Find out next chapter, which will be up after the holiday! Also, please review (if you think it's bad or something...or good, that works too).