A child screamed aloud, followed by another.

Children huddled together for warmth and comfort. There were, of course, adults, but there weren't very many. Those said few watched the children with hopeless expressions across each and every face. Their faces lit up, though, when a blur of blue ran past them and skidded to a stop. It was none other than Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic's eyes were glued to the ground in shame.

"Why was I, Sonic the Hedgehog, too slow for something like this?" he murmured under his breath as he ducked his head downwards, his eyes clouded with sorrow.

Tails was right. Westopolis was about to blow up, and blow up it had.

Westopolis had been threatened like this before, when the Black Arms had attacked, but Shadow had been able to stop them. Here . . . Well, this was, without a doubt, the outcome that would've happened months ago, had Shadow not been there to protect the city.

A little girl caught the attention of the blue hedgehog, and she looked up at her idol, her eyes full of hope.

"Have you seen my mommy?" she whispered. Her tone was soft as her fingers intertwined with each other over her chest, her lips parting, waiting for his answer…

This only made the hedgehog feel worse as he shook his head, turning away from the child.

"No, I have not seen your mother. Sorry..." he mumbled quietly.

Sonic then heard a slight, distressed noise, but he blocked it out. He wanted, more than anything, to help her find her mother. The need to do so was overwhelming and intense, but he knew there wasn't much he could do. GUN was helping the families of Westopolis, right now. He was meant to look at the bigger picture.

Why did he feel so guilty, then?

Some believed that the catastrophe couldn't have been prevented because it came out of nowhere. Others tried to find people to blame. The blue hedgehog had overheard someone mention Shadow…

As Sonic crossed his arms, he heard some familiar noises coming from behind him. Someone was out of breath, approaching him…

He rose an eye-ridge and looked over his shoulder to see the familiar form of Tails, who landed on his feet, his expression pain-stricken.

"This is horrible! Have you seen all the damage that was done?" Tails exclaimed, which earned a small nod from Sonic.

"Were any of our friends caught in that explosion?" Sonic asked, turning to face Tails. The latter scrunched his face in thought before he shook his head.

"No, I don't believe so. Rouge should've been there on a mission, I think, but without Shadow... I don't think she would have been qualified to go there on her own, even with Omega. Amy is somewhere in that forest, and no one has even seen Knuckles... Everyone was everywhere but Westopolis."

Sonic nodded and closed his eyes.

"Shadow should've been here."

They both stood there in silence, mourning.

"Sonic," Tails began, frowning. "GUN asked me to do some surveillance around with my plane, to see if there are any people around that have gotten lost in all this commotion…"

"Of course," Sonic said, giving Tails and thumbs-up and a weak smile. "Go ahead; I have some of my own business to take care of."

With that, both pals split up in their own direction, with Tails heading for his plane and Sonic running towards a certain forest...

After running for half a minute or so, Sonic let out a squeak as Amy, out of nowhere, stood her ground, firmly in the way of the path he was taking.

He shuffled his feet so that they induced enough friction to slow him down, but he couldn't stop in time, so instead of standing safely on the ground, he landed on Amy, the two tumbling together into some shrubbery.

He let out a groan and got up in a hurry, brushing himself off. In the corner of his eyes, he could see Amy mirroring his actions.

"What are you doing here, Amy? Don't you know it's dangerous to jump in front of a speeding hedgehog's path!" he cried out, moving his hands to rest at his hips.

"Well, sorry!" Amy cried out with a 'humph.' "I was trying to find you so I could let you know that we may have a serious issue on our hands."

"What are you talking about? Westopolis had just been completely destroyed! What can be more serious than that?"

Amy watched him, frowning. They didn't have the time for this.

Even Sonic had to blink as Amy spat out his name.

"Huh?" He blinked in surprise, but he then sighed and regained his posture. "What is going on"

"You'll see. Follow me, Sonic!" Amy explained as she ran over to her hero's side and grabbed his arm.

When she made sure her grip was secure, Sonic didn't even have the time to complain before he found himself being dragged through the forest.

.

. . .

.

Hurry up you guys!

Silver sighed as he rested against a wall of the small room they were in. It was Rouge's office; one she had since she didwork for G.U.N., after all.

After he had found the Chaos Emerald, he immediately reported his new-found information to Rouge, who told him to go get Sonic.

He had found Amy while searching for the blue blur and decided that she could bring him to where they were just as well as he could, if not better. The silver-quilled teenager swore she had some sort of 'Sonic sense.'

Silver moved his one of his hands to his chest, where a shattered rock piece began to shine in the said hand's grip.

"Hmm..." he murmured as he closed his eyes, letting the Chaos Emerald's familiar warmth flow through him. It did feel a bit strange, as he could sense a hint of Shadow's own signature Chaos energy within the emerald. He supposed that's what happened when one shares their power with something for so long.

Feeling the energy spike, the hedgehog shot his eyes open and placed the rock back to his side, glancing at the door, waiting…

"Hey, stop that, already! Your grip is too tight! Where'd you learn to be so strong!?" he heard a familiar, nasally voice echo throughout the halls.

"Oh, quit your whining, already! We're almost there!"

"Then why can't you let me go!?"

"Fine!"

"Thank you!"

The door shot open, revealing their last guests.

Amy stood there, her arms crossed, as she glared at her traveling partner, who winced at the arm that Amy had, no doubt, dragged him with. In his other hand, he held a Chaos Emerald, the object which spiked his own – or should he say Shadow's – shard's limited energy.

"Why couldn't we have just used Chaos Control?" he complained.

"Hello, Sonic." Silver finally spoke, a hint of amusement in his voice. Blaze echoed the greeting and Rouge waved.

"Silver, Blaze, Rouge..." Sonic greeted, his face lightening up a bit at the sight of his friends. "D'ya hear about the news?"

"Westopolis was already destroyed in my timeline..." Silver muttered softly, looking downwards. "So the news doesn't bother me, though the possible deaths of those citizens do."

"Hmm, a shame that city was destroyed. Westopolis was a nice place..." Rouge sighed, twirling one of her boots in an aimless circle on the floor. "It had the nicest jewels to steal – not to mention the horrible security that made my job so much easier..."

"I thought you said you bought your jewels, now." Sonic shot back, holding back a weak smirk.

Of course she wouldn't stop her normal antics, but still...

"No, I still steal. What else could I do in my spare time?" She then gave Sonic a devilish smirk, which Sonic responded back to with cheesy grin. "I just buy jewels to make it look like my ever-growing collection of gems could be from my salary and from stores. G.U.N. wouldn't appreciate me being caught stealing from jewelry stores, and I do hate lectures."

"Of course you do." Sonic resorted, playful.

Rouge snorted and crossed her arms.

"It's not like you don't."

"I never said I didn't."

"Guys..." Silver murmured, getting agitated by the amount of time they were wasting.

Sonic scoffed at the interruption.

"Always the party-pooper, Silver." he teased with a wink.

Silver tried to ignore that.

"I found this." He said, getting straight to the point, as he tossed the shard at Sonic.

The blue hedgehog caught it with ease and brought it down to his level. From behind, Amy looked at the rock with curiosity clear in her face, and Sonic's eyes moved to look at Silver.

"A Chaos Emerald." he said, but knew that it wasn't that simple.

"It's Shadow's," Silver pointed out and then motioned his head towards Blaze and Rouge, who both stood to his right. "Blaze and I found it, thought it was Shadow's, and Rouge was here to confirm that. It was broken when we found it. We also couldn't find any of the other pieces from it."

Sonic frowned and observed the evidence that he held.

"It is strange, though. Are all emeralds able to break that easily?" Blaze asked.

Sonic shook his head.

"Not exactly... It's possible, but you usually need a large force or a lotta power." Sonic explained and tossed the emerald back at Silver, who caught it with ease.

Sonic then turned to Rouge and frowned.

"So, you think this all has to connect with anything?" Sonic asked, resting his chin on one of his hands as he gave her a perplexed look.

Rouge sighed and looked out a nearby window.

"Maybe... I just hope he's okay." she muttered, her head lowering.

The bat almost flinched when Amy ran up to her and gave her a comforting smile.

"Don't worry, Rouge! He is Shadow, after all!" she pointed out, optimistic as ever. It was a little refreshing for everyone to hear, especially after all that had happened that day.

Rouge bit her lip, nodded her head, and then continued to look out the window. From the corner of her eyes, though, she saw Sonic's gaze snap from her, to Amy, to both Blaze and Silver…

"Even with this issue, we may have more important matters in our hands, sorry Rouge." Sonic added the last part, giving his bat-friend an apologetic glance, which she caught but didn't answer back to.

He sighed softly and then proceeded to continue. "We have a bad guy on our hands that we have to take down. He's a serious threat. There's that, and the fact that Eggman will probably see this as an opportune time to strike."

"Eggman? Why would he want to attack at a time like this?" Silver asked.

Sonic shook his head before he turned to face the younger hedgehog.

"With all the damage this guy has done, Eggman will probably see this as the perfect time to unleash one of his plans." he pointed out, shrugging his shoulders. "I dunno for sure, but that sounds like something he might do. It is Eggman, after all."

Silver sighed and nodded his head. He had grown up knowing a descendant of Eggman's, after all. They didn't seem to be too different. The apple didn't fall too far from the tree, there. What Sonic said sounded reasonable.

"So, how 'bout we go take care business, now. First, we'll all help the survivors – which I hope is everyone, but we'll just have to see how well GUN's emergency 'last-minute evacuation' went – and then we'll get some more back-up, like Omega and Knuckles. " Sonic explained.

Silver and Blaze nodded, both accepting of the plans, but the other two who remained stayed silent. Amy, though, after a while, agreed, as well.

That left one more.

Sonic looked over, watching Rouge…

"How about you guys wait outside?" he asked, directing his question towards Amy, Blaze, and Silver. "Rouge and I will catch up."

Amy gaze him a long, confused look, but she then nodded and left the room, followed by both Silver and Blaze.

When the door closed shut and the sounds of footsteps died off, Sonic turned to face Rouge, who gave him a calculating glance, in return. She stayed silent, otherwise.

"C'mon, Rouge. We'll find Shadow, don't you worry. That guy always comes around." he grinned and cocked his head to the side, an innocent gesture. "He's both your friend and mine, and I'm not even taking his disappearance that badly. If he's ever in trouble, he always finds a way out. Where's your faith in him? Besides, you've got us, right now. Knuckles, Omega, and me… We can do this together, and when Shadow comes around, you can scold him all you want for disappearing like this on us"

Getting only a small 'hmm,' Sonic sighed and walked over to the bat. Wrapping his right arm around her, he held out his Chaos Emerald with his left hand and snickered.

"How about, after all this, you and I both steal the Master Emerald together? I heard Knuckles' reaction is hilarious, and if so, I wanna see it badly!"

Rouge raised an eye-ridge and turned her head to face Sonic. The image of him trying to steal the Master Emerald with her was indeed... interesting...

"You sure, Big Blue? Knuckles isn't exactly the best person you'd want to see angry, if you don't know what you're dealing – especially with when it comes to his precious Master Emerald."

Sonic shrugged his shoulders and chuckled whole-heartedly.

"I think I've got a clue from past problems, but either way, I can still try. What's fun without the thrill of the unknown, am I right?"

He let go of Rouge and opened the door. Before he walked out, though, he turned to look back at Rouge and nodded his head.

"C'mon, then, let's go!"

When he left, Rouge got up and smiled a little. Sonic always tried to make everybody feel better, no matter whom the person was.

'-I'm not even taking his disappearancethat badly'...

She didn't exactly know why she was so worried, but Shadow was her friend, and being gone for so long...

Both friends cared for the others' safety, like all friends would, but it was just that...

She sighed and shook her head. Team Dark was awfully quiet without Shadow around. Even Omega realized this.

Something felt wrong.

She turned her head, once more, to look out the window, to where the scenery was quiet and almost fully abandoned.

Silent, strong yet damaged, lonely-looking...

"Shadow, I hope you're okay out there..."