Thank you so much for reviews! I got surprised there are people reading this!

Shadow managed to limp away from the broken museum site just in time before the GUN arrived with horrified and confused looks on their faces, cursing Shadow once again believing that it was his doing. Amy was also there with the GUN but didn't bother to say anything about Mephiles because she was too frustrated about Sonic leaving her all of the sudden to chase after Shadow.

"Sonic is so dead once he comes back!" Amy shouted to the top of her lung and a lot of the people stopped talking and stared at Amy. "What?! Don't you guys get upset when your boyfriend just leaves you behind?!" she stated with her hammer once again summoned to her right hand.

Meanwhile, Sonic stalked Shadow quietly but decided to not call his name until Shadow got settled. They were both slightly far away from the city and were in the entrance of a small forest that people used for hiking. Sonic looked around for any signs of GUN or people just in case he need to warn Shadow. By this time, the whole half of the city was infested with police forces and soldiers searching desperately for Shadow the hedgehog.

'He got lucky since no one seems to be here at this moment,' Sonic sighed and kept his eye on his rival.

Shadow also looked around but failed to see Sonic hiding behind bunch of trees and with his left eye severely injured, it made it even harder for him to look around his surroundings. This stressed Shadow to a very high degree and not to mention his left leg also suffered from a cut that was deep enough to cause pain every time he took a step.

'This is just great' Shadow rubbed his bleeding leg to alleviate some sore, 'Should I just rest here until my body is recovered a little…?'

"Hey Shadow! Finally I can talk to you in peace!"

'Maybe I should just continue to move,' Shadow rolled his eyes and stood up from the grass again.

"H-Hey! Where are you going?!" Sonic desperately called and in a flash he was right in front of Shadow.

"To be as far away from you," said Shadow and hoped that Sonic would move out of the way. The blue hedgehog had no intention of leaving Shadow alone as he scratched his ear with a huge grin on his face.

"I'm happy that your personality didn't change," Sonic laughed, "But seriously, I need to talk to you for a second and from what I can see you can't even put up a fight with me in your condition."

"Look, I didn't do anything wrong okay? I don't know why the GUN is after me! If you plan to work with them to capture me then fine by me but don't plead mercy when I have to take you down you down by force."

Sonic noticed that Shadow was tensed at this moment since he jumped into conclusion about him working or having some kind of connection with the GUN. To Sonic's eyes, Shadow looked like a scared child trying to protect himself from any possible harm since he was so vulnerable at the moment.

'Mephiles must have gotten stronger somehow…' was the only thing that crossed Sonic's mind.

"If you have nothing to say then I shall leave now," Shadow turned around and tried to skate but failed miserably so he decided to limp away again.

"Hold on! Geeze, what made you think I was working with the GUN to capture you? Weren't you the one that worked with the GUN as an agent in the first place?" Sonic frowned and continued to follow Shadow which annoyed the black hedgehog a lot at this point.

"It wasn't like I signed a contract," Shadow growled, clearly annoyed at Sonic's presence, "I just had to work with them for my own purpose. Now if you don't mind, stop following me!"

"But I just want to talk to my old friend~ Is that too much to ask?" Sonic quickened his pace so he was walking right next to Shadow.

"Don't waste my time," Shadow bit his mouth and even though the pain on his leg would tell him to stop, he decided to make a run for it.

Sonic was surprised to see Shadow can still run in such speed with a deep cut on his leg.

"Well, that's Shadow," Sonic shrugged and he decided to run off to catch up with the black hedgehog.

'He's not going to leave me alone at this rate' Shadow thought when he realized the blue blur was right behind him.

"What's the deal with Mephiles?!" Sonic yelled while running at the same speed with Shadow, "You can tell your best friend, right?!"

"I don't have a best friend!" Shadow snapped and thought of a plan that would get Sonic off is back. If he can't run away from Sonic, then he would make Sonic go away from him. One of Sonic's traits that almost everyone knew was he never denied a challenge. Even if the challenge was as ridiculous as something small like eating a twenty chilidog in ten seconds or someone daring him to jump up and down while singing a song, Sonic would do it. That's just how it was because one thing that Sonic hated was when he had to admit that he can't do it. It would simply hurt his ego and pride.

'A challenge that Sonic cannot deny but he also cannot accomplish,' Shadow thought and gave a dark grin, 'Ah, there's the river.'

Shadow easily jumped over the river and turned around to see Sonic running and getting ready to jump as well.

"If you want to help me dealing with Mephiles then cross this river without leaping over!" Shadow pointed and this immediately caused Sonic to stop on the other side of the water. "And I know the great hero shouldn't say no to a simple challenge, am I right?"

Sonic looked at Shadow and then looked at the river below him. The clear refreshing stared right back at him and the sound of water rushing made Sonic's heart bump louder.

'I.. I can jump over this…' Sonic thought to himself but that would just hurt his pride in front of his rival. 'Wait.. how did Shadow even know that my biggest fear is water?!' Sonic shook his head.

"Why in the world would you give m a childish challenge, Shadow?" said Sonic.

"Are you afraid of getting wet?" Shadow smiled again in victory knowing that Sonic would just turn around, probably cursing Shadow along the way for being immature but Shadow really couldn't care less. Shadow was able to figure out Sonic's fear of water when he observed him once in a while when Sonic was on his usual hero duties. He would always go around anything that had water involved, period. It didn't take long for Shadow to realize that Sonic seriously hated contact with water.

'I bet he doesn't even know how to swim,' thought Shadow as he observed confused blue hedgehog.

"Fine Faker! You think I can't complete your idiotic challenge?!" Sonic fumed and with his ears flapped down, a clear sign that he was terrified at this moment (a rare scene for Shadow to see), the blue hedgehog slowly entered the cold water. The coldness traveled from the bottom of his red shoes to the top of his large quills and this sensation did not help Sonic to deal with his water phobia. The rushing sound became even louder but Sonic tried to pay attention to something that was less…liquid.

'It's not so bad," Sonic encouraged himself, 'See the water is not even that deep! I can just cross this and then Shadow would tell me what's going on and... oh man… why is the water rising?! It's almost to my stomach!' Sonic stopped along the way and thought about his action. Was this really worth doing it?

"What the…. He's clearly shivering," the black hedgehog murmured and tilted his head in mixture of curiosity and confusion. Shadow never thought he could imagine Sonic acting like a scared child since he was so used to with Sonic's brave and ignorant image. 'Doesn't he know that in the middle of the river you really have to swim across?'

"Y-You.. you better keep your promise, Shadow!" Sonc's voice cracked a little because of his fear and continued to move forward, "I'm not crossing this water for nothing you know!"

"Why are you so desperate to talk to me," Shadow was slightly ticked off, "You are scaring yourself to death and I hope you know how to swim because this river is not that shallow."

"I think it's going to be worth it once I make it out alive," Sonic chuckled even though he was terrified inside, "I don't die easy."

The water was almost to Sonic's neck and he literally froze at this point, not knowing if he should continue crossing the river or just turn around and pretend this never happened.

'I never thought I would be facing my fear for Shadow," Sonic thought and looked up to see Shadow still frowning at him, not noticing that here was a small concern on Shadow's face as well. 'But… I think it's still worth…oh wait I think I'm going to drown at this rate…!'

"He's breathing hard," Shadow noticed and he had to admit, Sonic looked really really really poor. Sonic rarely showed any physical signs of weakness such as shivering, chattering his teeth or even noticeably flapping his ears down especially in front of his rival; Shadow almost felt sorry for asking such challenge.

"You're not giving up are you," Shadow got Sonic's attention, "Just turn around. At this rate, you're really going to drown. I doubt you even know how to swim."

"Look, I just want to help you out and if I have to cross this stupid river then I will! You'll see!" and Sonic's anger caused him to take a huge step and both of his feet were not even touching the bottom floor of the river anymore. 'This is really deep! What should I do?! Call for Shadow's help! There's no way he's going to come for my rescue. He's just laugh at my own stupidity!' Sonic;s mind ran wild thinking about the worst case scenario that could happen while he splashed but his high self esteem did not allow him to cry out for help or even say anything.

This actually made Sonic's situation more pitiful than Shadow had imagined.

"Damn, you really love to put yourself into troubles!" Shadow couldn't stand there and watch poor Sonic splashing and trying to stay in the surface. So the black hedgehog jumped into the water. Shadow swiftly scooped up Sonic and brought him back to the land.

"You jump into the water, knowing that you have an apprehension not to mention you don't even know how to swim and yet you still do it because you can't back away from a stupid challenge," Shadow growled and waited for Sonic to catch his breath.

"That stupid challenge was from you Shadow," Sonic laughed and this even surprised Shadow more. How can you laugh at this time? Only Sonic can, apparently. "Plus, it wasn't only because of the challenge, I really do want to help you ever thought of that?"

Shadow raised an eyebrow, and didn't speak.

"I mean I don't know if you remember few of those events but you saved the Earth like four times! One from the ARK, from Metarex, Black Doom and Solaris."

"I can't believe you still remember those events," Shadow murmured as if those were not very meaningful to him.

"The point is," Sonic stood up from the ground, "I can at least return something to you, right? So how about you tell me what's the deal with you and Mephiles? I think the GUN mistaken you for Mephiles as well."

Sonic shook a little to get himself dried from the water while Shadow was trapped in his own little thought again. It was nice to know that Sonic seemed to show a lot of care but probably it was because Sonic felt that he needed to return the debt or something since Shadow did helped Sonic many times. At the same time, Shadow was not used to with receiving help from anyone… especially from the annoying hedgehog. He was the ultimate life form which means he can take care of himself.

"He did go though such trouble though…" Shadow trailed off, reflecting back to Sonic's horrified look when he was nearly panting in the river.

"What was that?" Sonic perked his ear to show that he was still listening.

"Look," Shadow signed, "I don't really know what Mephiles is up to but I think it has something to do with him collecting the emeralds and perhaps contacting the Black Arms," Shadow remembered what the commander told him, "I don't think he is really after the world domination though. More like he holds a grudge against me," Shadow looked away.

"You guys got close enough to have a personal dilemma?" Sonic asked, "I can't say I'm a little jealous, buddy!" Sonic teased.

"This is something serious and not a joke," Shadow flatly stated, "anyways instead of going after Mephiles, I was planning to maybe gather all the emerald before he does… just to be on the safe side." Shadow slowly opened to eyes to find out that his eyes stopped bleeding a while ago but there was still a lot of blood clot covering his previous injury.

Sonic winced at this site but pretended not to be affected by it.

"So planning to secretly play the hero and saving the world again," Sonic patted Shadow's back and Shadow took this by a surprise, "Let me join on your little adventure then!"

"I don't need any-" But Shadow's remark was cut off by a certain robot.

"Target sited, Shadow the hedgehog, located in the southern part of the city. Must be eliminated to stop destruction to mankind."

"What the-" Sonic looked up, "Hey Shadow, isn't that your friend?" Sonic pointed at the red and yellow colored robot.

Shadow turned around and saw that the robot was about to open fire at both of them, "Omega?!"

Then Shadow had a quick flash back of the time when Omega warned about how he was going to be reprogrammed to defeat and capture Shadow (From Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 game in Shadow's story _). Shadow just slightly ignored Omega's comment, knowing that from the bottom of his heart, Omega would never betray him because even though they didn't speak to each other very much, both of them held a pretty close bond. But now that bond was about to be shattered.

"Shadow watch out!" Sonic quickly used his speed to push Shadow away from the massive blast. Sonic landed perfectly on his feet but Shadow on the other hand felt the dirt scratching his knee. "What's wrong Shadow? Feeling tired to dodge an easy attack?" Sonic helped Shadow up.

"Omega… he has been reprogrammed," was the only thing that Shadow said and this worried Sonic. Sonic never saw Shadow's face expression so surprised with a hint of melancholy? 'Omega must have been a close friend to Shadow if he is this upset right now.'

"Shadow, we have to get out of here," Sonic tried to get Shadow's attention.

"Cannot let Shadow the hedgehog, the wanted prisoner escape," Omega leaped up to the air and fired some more bullets at Shadow but this time Shadow quickly evaded the attack but yelped a little when he landed hard on his injured leg.

"Omega, it's me! Don't you remember who you are talking to?" Shadow tried to reason but it was no use. Omega only responded by rising both of his gun directly to Shadow.

"Target must be captured, dead or alive."

"Omega…" Shadow just stood dumbfounded, open for a direct attack when Sonic kicked the machine straight on the back. Omega fell to the ground with a large crash and when he was about to get up again, Sonic quickly punched the robot on the leg to make sure he wouldn't get up again.

"What are you doing?!" Shadow yelled "Don't you dare break him!"

"Shadow! If you haven't noticed I only aimed for the leg, he won't break! And besides he could have killed you!"

"Reprogramming… reprogramming…" the sound came from the partly broken robot. Sonic grabbed Shadow's hand and pulled but the black hedgehog didn't plan to move one bit.

"Come on! If Omega is here that means the GUN could get here any minute! We have to get you to a safe place, now!" Sonic raised his tone which was something rare for him to do.

"….." Shadow didn't reply but his eyes were on his friend. Would it be okay for him to leave Omega in that state? But Sonic was right, currently Omega's target was himself so he needed to leave before things got worse.

"Shadow!" Sonic tugged and Shadow was about to follow along with Sonic but Omega's voice caught his attention.

"Sha-dow."

"…?!" Shadow turned around and walked back to Omega whose eyes changed from a dark purple to a dim lit yellow light.

"Take- the- emerald inside- my machinery."

"What?" Shadow's eyes opened widely and this caught Sonic's attention as well.

"Mephiles said he was here to get the emerald but couldn't find it… maybe he couldn't locate the emerald because it was inside Omega this whole time!" said Sonic.

"Omega, who did this to you? Who reprogrammed you?" Shadow demanded but the robot kept repeating the same sentence over and over again. To take out the emerald would mean that Shadow would have to cause further damage to his friend.

"Shadow I know how you feel but Omega's right. We have to take the emerald now and leave. Come to my house, it will be safe for a while and I can even get those injuries of your treated," Sonic reasoned, "Omega will be fine, I promise."

Sonic's last sentence echoed inside Shadow's ear and he hoped what Sonic said to him was right. Murmuring a small apology to Omega, Shadow gently punched inside the robot to take out a white chaos emerald.

"Let's go," was all what Shadow said and he and Sonic disappeared in a flash, leaving a malfunctioning Omega behind.

"Good luck- Shadow-the Hedgehog. Reprogramming… reprogramming.. repro-"

They were both rushing through the forest, but as the time passed by, Sonic was getting a little faster and faster. Actually, it was Shadow who started to slow down. Every time he skated, his left leg was killing him. Not only did Mephiles cut deep into his left leg muscle but he was lucky enough to hit the sensitive nerve ending which brought more pain to Shadow. But he couldn't stop now because they were going back to the city which was a dangerous boundary for Shadow. Not to mention, he didn't want to tell Sonic he was suffering. But Sonic, being a good observer, caught Shadow wincing in pain from the corner of his eyes and stopped right away.

"Why are you stopping?" Shadow sounded a little annoyed but deep inside, he was glad that they decided to take a break.

"Hop on!" Sonic flashed his famous grin as he placed both of his hands out, preparing to hold Shadow in bridal style. "I wish I can hold you on my back but my quills could get in your way and I don't want you do have another cut in your right eye," Sonic chuckled.

Shadow's face reddened a little but he quickly composed himself and backed away from Sonic. Sonic did not just say what he thought he heard.

"You have got to be kidding me," Shadow crossed his arm, "Just lead the way."

"You are getting slower and slower, buddy," Sonic tapped his foot, "I don't like when something or someone slows me down."

"Watch your mouth," said Shadow, showing his fangs a little.

"Hey, I'm just saying the truth. Don't you dare start a fight with me because with your injuries to your eye and leg, I have the upper advantage," Sonic came close to Shadow.

"Don't touch me!" was a Shadow said but Sonic had a good point. He was slowing Sonic down a little. 'I'm going to cut off Mephiles' leg when I see him the next time.'

"There you go~" Sonic quickly took Shadow in his arms and decided to run at a sonic speed so Shadow wouldn't try to get off from him. But he sure got a lot of complaining from Shadow.

"What the hell are you doing! Put me down right now! I didn't ask for you do this! Before I decide to kill you for real put me down this-"

"Aww Shadow, I didn't know you would be enjoying this that much," Sonic giggled, feeling a little happy that he was able to make Shadow feel so helpless. 'I don't know why it's so fun to tease with him,' Sonic noted to himself and smiled.

"Once I fully recover, you are dead," Shadow finally gave up the struggle relaxed a little while Sonic carried him in a fast speed. With the cold wind blowing and finally not feeling the pain from his leg, Shadow had to admit, it felt a nice. He sighed deeply and his eye lids suddenly became heavy, signing him to sleep.

"My body was pressured to be on its alert mode for so long. I must be getting sleepy since I feel relaxed," Shadow whispered to himself.

"Go to sleep a little. I'll wake you up when we reach my house," Sonic increased his speed even more. "Besides, I've never seen the ultimate life form sleep before."

Shadow opened his mouth to have a comeback for Sonic's comment but he was too tired. He didn't sleep for days because the GUN was constantly chasing after him and his muscle was always tense, getting ready to fight just in case something or someone would give him a surprise attack.

Still one thing that Shadow couldn't understand was, why Sonic would go through so much trouble just to help him. Mephiles was his problem and his alone but Sonic just had to get in his way once again.

'Maybe he's not that annoying….' Shadow thought and closed his eyes gently, allowing Sonic to be his full protection for once.

"Tails! Did we have any specious knocks?" Sonic entered his house with resting Shadow on his arms. 'I never thought he would really fall asleep' Sonic thought.

Tails, who was currently watching the news about GUN searching for a certain black hedgehog, was surprised to see the company that Sonic brought to their house. The two tailed fox jumped down from the couch and pointed at Shadow.

"Sonic, did you hear the news? Authorities are looking everywhere for Shadow and they might just come knocking into our door any time soon! It says that Shadow is responsible for destructions at the GUN base and there were videos showing that he is currently collecting emeralds for some bad purpose," said Tails, his voice filled with worry.

"Tails, Tails~" Sonic gently placed Shadow on the couch that the fox used and turned off the television, "Everyone got this whole thing wrong! Shadow is innocent and he's definitely not responsible for any type of destruction. It's Mephiles and I don't know how he returned but he's behind all this," Sonic explained, "Hey what happened to play date with Cream by the way?"

"Oh, she wanted me to stay longer for some tea party but I really had enough of her cup cakes and tea cookies…" Tails trailed off but brought his focus back to the topic, "Well that would make sense since I can't imagine Shadow doing anything bad anymore since he helped us so much during the past."

"I wish more people would think like you instead of always relating me with some criminal issues."

"Shadow-?" Sonic turned around and noticed his rival sitting down on the red couch, stretching his arms for a brief second. Shadow's eye was a huge mess because of the dirty looking blood clot and there were some drops of blood that tainted his white skates, probably from the leg injury. Shadow looked around Sonic's house, inspecting to see if there was any danger because he was so used to with being on guard all the time while Sonic rushed to the bathroom to bring out a small wet towel.

"Shadow, what happened to you?" asked Tails.

"Your little friend was too slow to save his girl friend," Shadow said calmly but Sonic didn't like Shadow labeling Amy as his girl friend in the first place.

"Hey, if you are jealous of Amy, you can have her any time you want, Shadow," Sonic sat down next to him, "Now close your left eye for a while so I can get that stuff off."

Shadow snatched the towel from Sonic's hand and expected Sonic to get mad by his ruthless behavior but the blue hedgehog just laughed it off, saying something like how he missed Shadow's usual behaviors. Shadow's gloves were also tainted with red liquid but he didn't bother to wash then as he rubbed his eyes gently. The internal bleeding on the left eye stopped which meant the curing process was finished when Shadow was asleep. Shadow thanked his body for being so quick at self repairing.

"Stop poking my leg. It's not like you are helping," Shadow commented but this didn't stop Sonic from examining any further.

"Your eye seems okay but I think I should treat your leg. You also shouldn't run- well in your case skate around for a day just to have it recover faster." Tails joined Sonic and he started to place a white powdery substance followed by a green gel on Shadow's leg. After Tails did all the medical part, Sonic brought a long bandage from the cabinet and started to wrap Shadow's left leg a little.

"Do you know how to wrap that thing?" Shadow was a little embarrassed by this whole situation and just wanted to say something to tease Sonic to hide his expression.

"Keep talking Shadow and I'll wrap it tighter than you think," Sonic smirked and released both of his hands, "Done~~~!"

"Hmph.." Shadow sighed and stood up from the couch to test out his legs. "Guess I'll be walking around just for one day."

"And you guessed correctly my friend," said Sonic, "So are you gonna let me enjoy into your little adventure of yours?"

"A… what….?" Shadow was a little confused.

"You said you want to gather the chaos emerald and want to figure out what Mephiles is really up to! I can help you, Shadow."

"More like you have to help him, Sonic," Tails tapped Sonic's shoulder, "Remember what we did with the emerald after the incident with last time..?"

"What do you mean? What did you guys do with emeralds?" asked Shadow. It has been a while since he searched for the chaos emerald since he had no purpose in finding them. It was also weird because he remembered Rouge saying something like she wasn't able to detect some of emeralds these day… was Sonic and Tails responsible for this?

"Oh yeah~~~ hey Shadow guess what? You have to let me in on your little search now!" Sonic jumped up and now with his expression filled with excitement, "I can't remember the last time when I partnered up with you!" Actually Sonic practically remembers the exact event when he and Shadow worked together and that was during the Black Doom's invasion. It was so fun working with his rival and Sonic didn't have to bother slowing down for him. Even though Shadow didn't really talk to him that much during their missions, it was still nice to have him as a company.

"Hold a second," Shadow sounded a little pissed off, "Before you jump into any conclusions what happened to emeralds? Did you guys destroy them or something?"

"Well you see Shadow, after the incident with Dr. Eggman, Sonic and I decided to send six of chaos emeralds into another dimension so they can be separated from each other," explained Tails.

"What? Why would you do that?"

"Because Shadow, those the seven emeralds always bring nothing but trouble when they fall into the wrong hand!" Sonic exclaimed, "I was tired of always making sure that the emeralds didn't go to the wrong hand and I even tried spreading the emerald in this planet once," Sonic remembered his battle with the Metarex, "And that plan still failed."

"Why did you guys only send six emeralds into another dimension then? Why not the whole seven chaos emeralds?" The topic interested Shadow but he also knew that he would definitely need Sonic's help to retrieve those emeralds.

"Well.. Tails's machine can only open six different worlds," Sonic shrugged, "He basically opened six portals and we dumped each chaos emeralds in there."

"And also, the city wanted to keep one of the chaos emerald for their studies," Tails rolled his eyes, "I guess the scientists are intrigued with the emerald's power so one emerald was in a secured museum."

"Yup, and that same secured museum was pulverized by Mephiles," said Sonic and this surprised Tails.

"H-he did?! So Mephiles took that emerald?! I think the color was white!"

"Don't worry Tails, we have it right here," Sonic took out the white emerald and showed to Tails who relaxed instantly, knowing that emerald did not fall into the evil's hand. "B-but how…?" Tails asked but Sonic was too lazy to explain the whole story with Omega and Shadow also didn't feel like talking to Tails.

"Eh.. long story short, we got the emerald and I can't believe I'm saying this but I guess we have to retrieve the other six emeralds then…" Sonic sighed and he sluggishly brought his body next to the couch Shadow sat on, a clear sign that Sonic was lazy to do all those task.

"Wait, why don't we just leave each of the emeralds in their own dimension?" Tails suggested, "As long as Mephiles can't reach those emeralds… then wouldn't it be safer for us to not retrieve them?"

"Mephiles can travel through time and different dimensions without chaos emeralds," Shadow jumped in before Sonic answered, "It wouldn't take long for him to find out that rest of the chaos emeralds are not in this world and-"

"He would start to search in different part of the world," Sonic finished and Shadow was about to open his mouth to say something to Sonic for cutting him off like that but Sonic was faster, "Yes I dared to interrupt your ultimate sentence, Shadow," he chuckled and Shadow just ignored Sonic with a frown on his lips.

"Plus," Sonic added, "we would need those emeralds to defeat Mephiles again but this time for real. We would have to make sure he is really dead.. right Shadow?"

But Shadow didn't answer and just stared coldly at Sonic.

"So Tails do you think you can do the magic and start opening those portals for us? Oh and bring that transmitter watch too. One for me and one for Shadow so when we find the emerald, we'll signal you to help us come back to this world and we'll just repeat the whole step until we gather all six of them."

Shadow was shocked to see Sonic actually coming up with a plan but it sounded pretty reasonable. Tails just smiled and told both of the hedgehogs to follow him to his lab that was located in the basement. 'One day I'm getting chased from GUN and now I have to work with him? My day is getting more and more interesting…' Shadow took a deep breath to release his frustration out.

"Okay you guys are all ready to go. Just shoot me a transmission if something seems a little off and I'll open an exit portal so you guys can escape and come back to this world," Tails explained calmly.

"Isn't it nice to have a smart friend around, Shadow?" Sonic gave a small nudge to Shadow's shoulder but Shadow didn't answer once again to Sonic's slight disappointment.

"How do you guys know if this is safe?" Shadow questioned while the dark portal opened, "What if something un-reversible happens while we're in there?

"Don't worry Shadow~ Tails is good with this stuff. He was able to play around with the emerald's power, well chaos control to be specific, and discovered this! Unless you want me to hold your hand when we enter the por-gyyyaaahhh!"

Shadow pushed off Sonic into the dark portal and the only thing that was heard was Sonic yelling something to Shadow but was hard to comprehend.

"Don't worry, I'll babysit him," Shadow reassured Tails before he also stepped into the portal. There were different types of blinding lights that passed around Shadow it made him really dizzy. 'Maybe I should close my eyes before I land on somethi-'

Crash

"Never mind.." Shadow said under his breath, "Where are you?"

"If you're looking for me buddy, I'm down here," Sonic tapped Shadow's tail, "Oh and nice trick with the pushing. I'll return the favor next time."

Shadow quickly stood up from Sonic but didn't bother to lend him a hand to get up or even say sorry. But Sonic tired to not let Shadow's action bother him because he was just being Shadow.

'It would have been nice if he showed some type of caring,' thought Sonic while he stood up from the cold floor.

"Where are we…?" Sonic asked Shadow but not really expecting an answer.

The surrounding was dark with a bright moon light that was covered by red clouds. The air smelled like roasted pumpkins and each trees had a shading that somewhat looked like scary faces. The floor lighted up with orange and white light bulbs and a eerie party music came from an unknown location. What really caught both of the hedgehogs' attentions was a huge castle right behind them shooting off various types of fireworks and there were crowds of people- well animals entering the castle in many directions while bantering away.

One thing that caught Shadow's attention was that these crowds were all in pairs, to be more specific they were in couples. A cat wearing a pirate clothing was talking to a squirrel dressed up in a nurse costume.

"Excuse me but I think you are standing in our way," someone tapped Shadow's shoulder and Shadow barely moved to allow two bunnies both dressed in a prince and a princess costume walk pass him.

"What in the world is this place…" Shadow questioned and it took him a few second to realize that Sonic was nowhere in is site. "Where the hell is he?!"

"Hey Shadow! Look over here!" as if Sonic heard Shadow's fury, the blue hedgehog waved his hand while he jumped up and down like a child not too far away from Shadow.

"Don't just run off like that!" Shadow snapped, a little scared that he might have lost Sonic in this unknown world, "We are not here on a vacation."

"Yeah Yeah~ I missed you to ," Sonic commented and pointed at the poster, "Read what this says!"

Celebrating fifty four annual Halloween Royal in Nightscown Ville.

There will be drinks, music, games and annual presentation of the purple gem that guarantees one year luck with anyone who takes it home for the rest of the year This night the party is only couple exclusive so get your costume and find your date! Because tonight is going to be a night with a heated fun that you will never regret!

"A… Nightscown Ville…?" Shadow raised an eyebrow. Now this whole situation seemed to have made sense a little. These couples were basically going to a childish Halloween party not that it mattered to Shadow.

"Apparently, this purple gem is the chaos emerald. So we have to go to that party and just snatch the emerald and tell Tails to open the portal and boom! First mission done in a flash!" Sonic snapped his fingers.

"I'm not sure if you want to just go in and crash the party," Shadow warned Sonic, "if you haven't noticed but some of these guys seem to have powers and are not just some ordinary creatures. We don't' want to have two versus the whole party group."

Sonic wanted to object to what Shadow just said about stating that Sonic's plan was a horrible idea but he realized Shadow had a good point. While some of the couples walked into the castle, they were playing around by summoning fires from their hands just like the ability that Blaze could perform. What shocked Sonic was the presence of another purple colored hedgehog that seemed to have the speed as he held his couple in his arm when rushing into the castle.

While Sonic was lost in observing different types of abilities that the crowd possessed, he felt a slight tug on his tail and his face blushed right away, thinking that it was Shadow.

"Hey Shadow! Watch the tail… uh.. w-what.?" Sonic's tail was wrapped around a black colored string that came directly from the fox lady.

"Excuse me honey, but could you be my date for this lovely evening? My boy friend seemed to have left me hanging again," the foxed smiled and when she snapped her fingers, the black string vanished into a thin smoke. "I'll make it worth a while…" She gave a small lick to her lips and slowly approached Sonic and this terrified the blue hedgehog a lot.

"S-sorry lady but I was just passing by with my buddy here!" Sonic pointed at Shadow, "We'll be leaving now."

"Oh come one~ I haven't seen a blue hedgehog in this town before," the fox summoned her black glowing string as a threat to Sonic, "Why don't we just go for a spin a little behind the castle."

This made Sonic sick to the stomach and he did not want to figure out what the lady was actually implying. Sonic was just about to protest when Shadow stepped between them and faced the fox lady who was slightly taller them him.

"Sorry but I believe what he's trying to tell you is that he is taken," said Shadow in a dull tone.

"Oh really? Well I don't see his girl friend nearby," she looked around, "Don't make me laugh."

"I'm his partner in a romantic sense if that's what you want so I would appreciate if you step aside," said Shadow as he took a step back to stand right next to Sonic.

'What did Shadow just say?!' Sonic thought. It took a while for the blue hedgehog to hide his confused and rather shocked face expression from the fox lady and clearly to Shadow. 'I hope he knows what he's saying!' Sonic blushed and directed his attention to his shoes which seemed really interesting at this moment. He wondered how his shoes would have looked if it was not a white stripe but a black or even blue stripe…

"Oh don't get too protective," she grinned at Shadow and her so called weapon vanished again, "I'm sorry if I was hitting on your boyfriend but I believe this is a strict female and male couple party so I think you guys should go and visit another party." The lady did not sound angry at all but rather disappointed as the fox looked around to find another target to be her boyfriend for the night.

"S-Shadow you.." Sonic didn't know what to say, "was that really necessary?!"

"Did you want that fox thing to get all touchy and possibly rape you?" Shadow hissed and Sonic scratched his ear in the slight uncomfortable topic.

"I thought so. Now we need to find a proper costume so we can join this absurd Halloween Party for a while before we clearly locate the emerald." Shadow pointed at a small shop just near the party castle and both he and Sonic jogged since Shadow still could not skate properly yet.

"Look costume seems a great but didn't you hear what that fox said?" Sonic rubbed through his blue quill with his hand, "it is a couple party and uh.. hello?! You and I do not have any girl friends at this moment?"

"Aren't you dating that pink hedgehog?" Shadow didn't face Sonic while they headed to the costume store.

"Don't you have something going with Rouge?" there was a hint of jealousy in Sonic's voice bur of course Shadow failed to recognize.

"She is just a comrade and nothing more."

"Same goes for me Shadow," Sonic stretched out his arms and yawned, "Amy is just a good friend of mine and nothing more~" But Sonic still didn't know how they were supposed to go into the couples only Halloween Party.

"So back to the topic Shadow, how are we going inside again?"

Then Shadow opened the door of the shop and made a hand gesture for Sonic to enter before him.

"Ladies first," he smirked. Shadow was going to enjoy Sonic's humiliation tonight as he scanned over the blue hero with his mouth wide open.

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