"…Miss Lyla?"

"Hun?" Lyla asked looking around. A few people snickered and the teacher frowned.

"Can you answer the question Lyla.", Mr. T , the lion demanded. Lyla had the guts to say, "I don't know." Mr. T sighed out of disappointment and annoyance, and asked someone else. Lyla sighed too, but out of frustration. It wasn't her fault that math was boring, and that she was tired. Ever since Sliver got back almost two weeks ago she had been worried about Sonic.

"Hey, what's up?" Mandy asked.

"Nothing." Lyla said, but Mandy knew her friend better than that. Lyla sighed and said, "I'll tell you at lunch." That satisfied Mandy. Lyla had been like this for the past few weeks.

As soon as soon as lunch came, Mandy demanded to know what was going on. So did everyone else.

"What's wrong Lyla?" Mandy asked as soon as they sat down.

"Nothing." Lyla said.

"You're never this down." Nathan said.

"Are you're grades coming down?" Dale asked. Colin said nothing.

"Nothing is wrong." Lyla said, but sighed when everyone gave her a questioning look.

"I'm worried about my Dad. He's been gone the past three weeks. Even Shadow is home before him. My Dad is the fastest thing on Earth; he should have been home long before anyone else." Lyla said, stabbing her chicken.

"Unless he got lost or captured." Colin said. Lyla and Mandy glared daggers at him.

"My Dad does not get lost. He knows his way around town better than you do," Lyla said, making Colin glare at her, "And if anyone even tried to catch my Dad, they better be pretty fast." With that Lyla sat down and ate her sandwich. Mandy back-handed her brother for making her best friend upset.

"I'm sure your dad is fine. Maybe he went to get you and your mom a really nice present on the other side of the world." Nathan said. Lyla smiled. Nathan was good at making her feel better.

"Well, since my Dad's back, how about we all go skateboarding this afternoon?" Colin said.

"Sure." Dale said, and Nathan nodded.

"I'll only go if Lyla goes. And I doubt she'll want to go if you're there." Mandy said, pointing at her brother.

"Of course I'll go. I'd never miss a chance to kick Colin's butt at skateboarding." Lyla said.

OoOoOoOoOoO

"Ow!" Dale said after he landed hard on the grown. Lyla helped him up out of the dirt. Their skateboard park was an old abandoned contortion site. There were ginormous pipes and a bit of pavement up the sides of the gravel dug out. No one else knew about it, so it was their little hide out.

"Thanks." Dale said before trying again. Dale was trying to learn tricks, but Colin wasn't a great teacher. Nathan always cheated when he did any tricks, and Lyla was just in it for the speed. Mandy didn't skateboard. She was there because everyone else was.

"Who wants to race?" Lyla asked. The three boys moaned.

"Come on, Lyla. No one can beat you. Not even Rocket." Nathan said.

"What? Too chicken to race with me?" she started imitating a chicken. Colin growled under his breath. He wasn't going to let some hedgehog girl say she was better than him.

"Fine. I'll race you. Only if I get to pick the track." Colin said. Lyla shrugged.

"Sure." she said.

"Ok then. The start line is back there," he said pointing to the end of the hole, "We race through the pipes, go up the wall, go around the hole and end at the starting line." Lyla stared at him like he was crazy. She could almost run at the speed of sound in a straight line. She didn't know if she was fast enough to get over the wall. But she wasn't about to put down a challenge.

"You're on!" She said. They lined up at the starting line. Mandy yelled from her spot on the bench, "Ready? Set, GO!" the two racers were off. The beginning part was easy, it was straight forward. Lyla was in the lead, but not by much. Colin kept inching ahead, but Lyla would just go a little faster. As they got to the other side of the hole, Colin threw his skateboard over the side and started climbing up with his knuckles. Lyla picked up her board without stopping and ran up the side. Both got to the top at the same time, thought Colin didn't get moving as fast as Lyla. Lyla made it down and past the finish line just before Colin did. Nathan, Dale and Mandy cheered, though Nathan and Dale stopped when Colin glared at them.

"Looks like I'm still faster." Lyla said. Colin glared at her, but put out his hand.

"Good race." He grumbled. Lyla shook his hand.

"Better luck next time." She said smiling. They went back to doing tricks in the pipes, when a cell phone rang.

"It's not mine!" Mandy yelled, even though she was texting. Lyla pulled out a black one from her pocket.

"It's mine." She called.

"I thought yours was at Tails getting fixed." Nathan said.

"Mine is. This is my Moms. She wanted me to take it, just in case. I'll be right back." She said as she as she ran out of the hole. Once on top, she flipped open the phone.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Is this Amy Rose?" a male voice asked. Lyla never had heard anyone call her Mom by her maiden name before. She wasn't too sure if she should answer.

"No, this is her daughter, Lyla." She said very slowly. The voice on the other end started laughing, though he sounded a bit like Santa Clause when he laughed.

"Are you the daughter of Sonic the Hedgehog?" the voice asked. She thought she heard someone yell 'no' in the background.

"Maybe. Who wants to know?" Lyla asked. She could swear she was hearing someone yell no in the background.

"I am Dr. Eggman, and I'd like to discuss some business with you, Lyla." He said Lyla loudly, as if he wanted someone else to her. From somewhere in the background, a voice yelled, "Leave her out of this Eggman!" Lyla knew that voice.

"Dad!" She yelled. Eggman laughed again.

"Yes, I have your father. It's funny, all those years of waiting really did pay off."

"You let him go, right now. Or I'll…" Lyla didn't get to finish.

"Or you'll do what? I doubt you can do much. But I might be able to let your father go…" Eggman said. Sonic yelled, "Don't do anything he says Lyla!" he yelled in pain.

"What are you doing to him?" Lyla asked barley above a whisper.

"Nothing. Now you want your Daddy back right? I'll give him back to you, for a price. Have you ever heard of a thing called the chaos emeralds?" Eggman asked. Lyla thought.

"Maybe, they're suppose to be really powerful. Why would you want them?" Lyla asked.

"I don't want them, my dear hedgehog, I need them. I need all seven of them. If I get all seven of them, then, and only then, I'll let your father go. But if I don't get them…" Eggman said.

"If you don't get them what?" Lyla asked.

"If I don't get them you can be sure you won't be seeing you Daddy again." Eggman said. "Don't do it Lyla!" Sonic yelled. Lyla was quiet for a long time.

"Well, make up your mind, I don't have all day!" Eggman said.

"Fine. I'll get you the emeralds. Just give me some time. I need to know where you are too." Lyla said.

"I'll give you seven days. Seven. Starting tomorrow. Call me on the seventh day when you have all the emeralds. Oh, and if I find that you have anyone like Shadow, Amy, Knuckles, Tails, Rouge, Sliver or Blaze with you, I'll kill Sonic on the spot. Good luck." Eggman said and hang up. Lyla slowly pulled the phone away from her ear. On the good side, she now knew where her Dad was, but how in the world was she supposed to find these chaos emeralds when she didn't even know what they were? A light bulb went off in her head. She slowly walked back as a plan formed in her mind.

"Who called, your secret boyfriend?" Mandy asked. Both Lyla and Nathan glared at her.

"Nope, just my Mom. She said supper was almost ready." Lyla said.

"I guess we better get home too. Com' on Mandy." Colin said as he headed toward Angel Island.

"See you guys later." Mandy said as she flew after Colin. Lyla walked Dale back to his house while Nathan 'flew' home. On the way there Lyla asked Dale, "Do you know what a chaos emerald is Dale?"

"I think so. Dad said it's this powerful gem that can get you to where ever you want to go. You just have to imagine the place and say 'chaos control'. There's seven of them, I think. If you get all seven of them, Sliver, Shadow and Sonic can turn supper and do lots of cool tricks! Why'd you need to know?" Dale asked.

"I have to do a project on them at school. Hey, do you have something that can find them?" Lyla asked.

"Maybe. I think Dad made something. I could get it for you if you want." Dale said. Lyla smiled.

"That would be awesome. But you can't tell anyone else though, ok?" Lyla said.

"Ok. Pinky swear." Dale said.

They went in the garaged door and down into the trap door room. It was pretty dark, even with the light on. Dale went over to a desk. He opened every draw till he found the thing he was looking for.

"Here it is." He said, handing her a thing that looked like a remote control with a screen and a beautiful yellow gem, "this is a chaos emerald. This is a chaos emerald detector. It'll show you where the other ones are." Lyla hugged him.

"You are absolutely awesome. You deserve a package of cookies." Lyla said.

"Can I get them?" He asked.

"I'll get you some tomorrow. Let's get out of here." Lyla said.

As soon as Dale went into the house, Lyla ran all the way home. She could pull this off. Of course she'd have to miss some school, and her Mom would be mad. But it was the end of school anyways, and she wouldn't be gone that long. She'd need food, water, some clothes. She'd need something big to carry it all in…

"Hi honey. How was school?" Amy asked when Lyla walked in. Lyla had barley noticed that she was home.

"It was ok. I have to go work on homework. I'll be up for supper." She said in a rush and ran down stairs. She dumped out everything that was in her backpack and tossed in a pair of jeans, a shirt, sweater, socks, and her iPod. She threw in a blanket, just in case. This was going to be a long seven days.

As soon as her mom was asleep that night, Lyla snuck upstairs and into the kitchen. She took a package of cookies, a bag of bread, jam, carrot sticks and a big bottle of water. She scribbled a note:

Mom, I'm sorry, but I have to do this. I can't tell you what, but I have to do this. I'm so sorry. I'll be ok. Please don't send anyone to look for me. I love you.

Love, Lyla

She snuck out of her house and into the night. She wanted to do this when no one would see. She walked through all the back alleys, but no matter how many turns she did or how fast she went, it always felt like someone was watching. She ran faster and faster till she reached a lonely tree on the outskirts of town. For the first time in a long time she felt nervous. She put her backpack down and dug through it. She stopped when she heard a rustle in the trees. She looked up in the tree. She slowly picked up a rock and threw it into the tree. A gray hedgehog fell out right in front of her.

"Ow." He said as he looked up.

"What are you doing out here at….," Lyla said looking down at her watch, "two in the morning? I don't think this is the time for a stroll."

"I should be asking you the same thing." Nathan said, sitting up.

"I asked you first. I have a feeling that you know why I'm out here." Lyla said. Nathan looked down sheepishly.

"Actually, I don't know why you're out here. I was babysitting Dale and Casey tonight, or last night now, and Dale said you were acting weird. I asked him what he meant and he said you asked him of a chaos emerald. He said that he wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but then he thought that it'd be ok to tell me. What are you doing with the emerald?" He asked. Lyla sighed.

"You know how I said my Mom called me? It wasn't. It was Eggman. He had my Dad, and he wasn't going to let him go without having all seven chaos emeralds. So I have seven days to get them to him, otherwise I don't know what will happen to my dad. I can't tell or bring any adults, otherwise he'll kill dad on the spot." They were quiet for a minute.

"So, are we going?" Nathan asked.

"What?"

"I asked are we going. You're goanna need someone to help you if you get stuck." Nathan said. Lyla looked at him, and then smiled.

"Sure, you can come. Let's find that first emerald." Lyla said, and pulled out the chaos emerald detector. She placed the chaos emerald in it. It beeped and glowed. Finally, a map showed up.

"There it is. Come on, let's go." Lyla said, but Nathan grabbed her by the arm.

"Can't we just go 'chaos control' and we're there?" Nathan said. Lyla was surprised that he knew that, and that she forgot.

"Where did you learn that?" Lyla asked.

"I asked Dale." Nathan said. Lyla looked at the digital map once more.

"Let's hope this works. Chaos...CONTROL!" she yell, and they disappeared from the tree.

Did the chaos control work? Will they be able to save Sonic, or is it another one of Eggman's trick? What will their friends and families think? And why am I asking questions that I know the answers to? Please review.