Shadow's expression intensified when Amy didn't respond, only remaining limp and pale in his grasp.

"Amy?" Shadow said her name again, pulling her back and grabbing her shoulder. "Come on!" He said harshly, masking any sense of panic he had with a sharp command and a firm shake.

Still, she didn't respond and those same old haunting memories cascaded in on the hedgehog like a nightmare. He Had failed to save Maria- would he fail to save Amy too?
No, he couldn't- he couldn't! He was supposed to be the Ultimate lifeform!

Just as Shadow was contemplating what to do, Amy shuddered to life again, coughing and sputtering. Shadow stared in silence at this, feeling such a sense of relief that he sighed- rather more loudly than he normally would have… It seemed that he had been holding his breath up to this point.

For a while the two of them said nothing while she gulped air down, staring up at the peaceful blue sky. The hedgehog felt himself lean back and close his eyes for a moment of respite. He wasn't… overwhelmed, per say- but he had never been in the position of keeping anyone alive other than himself, and it was draining.
Finally, Amy broke the silence.

"I'm tired of all this mumbo jumbo!" she announced, sounding like herself for the first time in a while, "Sorry Shadow, but I'm getting out of here."

And then..she did nothing. Shadow looked down from his reclined position. He had made no attempt to stop her, but it seemed he didn't have to. Without even excusing herself, Amy remained, sprawled out in every direction. It would have been funny if he felt like laughing.

At least she sounded a bit more perky, though she did not look it. He didn't know if it was a turn for the better or if it was just adrenaline. Either way, he had a bone to pick with Robotnik, so he got up with the girl. Shadow then hopped down from the ledge, and slid gracefully down the dome. There was a large, Robotnik shaped call-button on the inside of the archway. Shadow kicked it impatiently, and was further irritated by the doorbell tune.

On a good day, Amy didn't mind getting toted around a little. She quite liked it, actually. It fulfilled a sort of heroine-like need in her heart. By now, though, her quota was far beyond full. And Shadow wasn't even gentle about it. Although, if Amy was really being honest with herself she knew that Sonic wasn't so gentle either. Oh Sonic, I wish you'd carry me all day, thought Amy with a daydreamy sigh.
She let Shadow lug her along, but she was a handful.

"Just hang on, would you? You've taken me all over this island and I still don't know what's going on! My leg hurts! And what happened to Sonic? And Tails!" she'd ran out of breath, but sucked in another and kept going, "Okay, okay, I'll come in for a minute, but I can't stay. Wait! Is this Dr. Eggman's house? I'm not going in there!"

Her adrenaline had kicked in alright, and not in a good way.

Meanwhile, Robotnik came to see who had rung his special doorbell. He'd wired the thing to play a guitar-heavy rock song which rallied his self-empowerment whenever it went off. There was no reason for him to be surprised when the visitors turned out to be Shadow and Amy, but he wished it had been Sonic. A small part of him wanted Sonic to hear his doorbell.

"Why are you all wet?" he asked in his growl of a voice.

He looked up into the sky, as if searching for a sign of rain. There was not a cloud in sight, it was a beautiful day. Eggman grunted and put the mystery aside, he was more interested in knowing why Shadow had come without Tails.

"And I said I wanted Tails, not Amy! This is no good. Hurry, come in and take a seat. We need Sonic and Tails before we can settle this properly."

That had done it. Shadow's patience finally broke under the pressure of the incessant annoyances. He had come here to be alone, and yet… Rouge bothered him, Amy washed up on his beach like a gutted fish, Eggman was extorting him, Sonic- SONIC! And then he was dragged and tossed around by a tidal wave, his hair was torn out and the only person who benefited at all from any of these efforts was wailing and squirming and carrying on.
It was too much, too much for one anti-social hedgehog to take in a day. The last thing he needed was Eggman to run his mustache.

Shadow set an ugly glare on Robotnik, scowling more deeply than he had all that day. He put Amy down and stepped towards Robotnik with an aura of intense discontent. "No." He growled in a low tone, then he activated his boots and leapt up, catching Robotnik's jumpsuit by the collar and landing his feet on the man's round belly. There was no time to escape from Shadow's wrath. Although Robotnik was four times the size of the hedgehog and equally as temperamental, he made no struggle to resist; only braced himself for the blow. Shadow brought his face in close, meeting Robotnik's goggles with his own eyes.

"This is what we're going to do, Robotnik. Because so far, I'm not impressed with your goose chase idea." Shadow snarled menacingly and thrust a free hand back to pin Amy as his new target subject. "You're going to help her. If I have to babysit her, then you're going to at least make her comfortable so I don't have to hear her bubbling all day."

He didn't care if he wouldn't cure her until Sonic and Tails were captured, but this current situation was not ideal.

"Then you're going to take that walky-talky and you're going to engineer it so I can find Tails and bring him here. Then we'll have all the leverage over Sonic that we need. Do you understand me, Robotnik?" Although he was fuming, his voice remained a level monotone- though it did have an edge of danger to it that he normally left for his rival, Sonic.

Dr. Eggman was feeling reasonable, even if Shadow was not. He considered Shadow a partner, a very useful one, and one he did not have much control over. So Robotnik willingly received his input, however it was given.

But what to do about Amy.. Robotnik had not expected her to be this big of a problem. From the start, it looked so simple: injure the pink hedgehog and use her as blackmail. Easy enough. But now Shadow was at his throat, making demands for the hostage and disobeying the most obvious orders. It was enough to make Eggman throw his hands into the air.

"If you will have it no other way, so be it!" he resigned, gathering the shreds of his dignity, "Plans can be altered. I will program the robocopter to fetch some pillows while I take a look at that walkytalky. I hope you like wire mesh, Amy, I encase all of my pillows with it."

Amy looked despondently at Eggman, unmoved from the spot Shadow set her. She had just been shuffling her feet against the floor, trying to decide whether to run to Sonic or wait for him at Eggman's base.

"It sounds awful.." Amy wisely observed, and a bit dolefully. It seemed she would be here a while.