Vweeeeeeen.

A long electronic keening sound sliced abruptly through the silence, earning a faint start from the lethargic hedgehog.

Virrrrrrreeeeen.

Ever so slowly his eyes cracked open. He started again, opening them just a little more. Right above him, a shimmering curtain of blue-green light was again whipping through the sky, creating a steady crackling sound and an occasional soaring cry, like a sweeter, gentler version of microphone feedback. Or Rudolph's nose.

Shadow watched for a moment, his eyelids sliding closed and open lazily, his face illuminated blue from the aurora light in the sky. So beautiful . . . hm, so they did sing after all. He had promised Maria that he would record the sound, but he just couldn't bring himself to move. He wanted so much to close his eyes and sleep, but he kept forcing his eyelids back open, trying to motivate himself to roll over and grab the recorder. So . . . sleepy . . . so . . .

Suddenly, mixed in with the humming of the aurora, a strange three-note whistling sound echoed in the distance. Shadow's frozen ears twitched slightly as he woke up just a little more. That sounded . . . exactly like the special search whistle he and his teammates used on missions . . .

A few minutes later, he heard it again. There was no mistaking it this time, and it was closer than before. His teammates were out looking for him! Bolting upright, fully awake, he put his numb fingers to his lips and struggled to blow the reply whistle. After a few attempts, he succeeded.

Silence. The aurora had abruptly vanished, leaving nothing but the whining of the wind. Snowflakes swirled into Shadow's eyes as he sat motionlessly, leaning back on his hands, staring up at the clifftop and waiting. Still no sound.

Suddenly again, the search whistle. Had they heard him? He whistled the reply more readily now, chafing at his lack of mobility.

There! A distant whoop that was ever so distinctly Rouge's. They'd heard him!

Shadow flopped back and readied himself to keep whistling so the searchers could find him. Well, things would go in a straight line from here on out. It was only a matter of time now before his teammates were roughing him up exuberantly and giving him the teasing of a lifetime, and after that only a little more time before all the others were carrying on and asking stupid embarrassing questions. Frankly, he was looking forward to neither of those fracases.

Aww, who was he kidding? Maybe he kind of was.

It took several rounds of ammunition before Omega could break Shadow free; the robot was not amused, since most rocks blew to bits after the first round. Then again, the robot wasn't amused in the first place. The electrical disturbances were getting to him too, temporarily blowing out his voice chip and making him generally erratic. Rouge couldn't wait to get out of there, before Omega suffered an outright seizure and started rebooting all his systems. Again.

Not even asking for any explanations, Shadow grabbed a piece of the shattered rock for the sample in one hand, snatched the Chaos Emerald his teammates had brought in the other, and limped to a fair distance away from the main cliff. With a little effort (and only when Rouge took the rock from him), he was able to generate enough Chaos energy to transport them right to Amy's door. Rouge and a rapidly-recovered Omega trotted inside; Shadow slipped in last, bracing for the storm of questions and fussing that was liable to follow. He just wanted to hurry up and see if Maria was all right.

Barely had he stepped inside before there was a squeal of "Shadow!", and a small forcewave plowed into him, smacking the back of his head against the door. His first thought was that Maria had been spending wayyyy too much time with that hooliganic Kid Brigade. His second thought—

"Maria?!"

"Shadow, I'm so glad you're okay!" Maria murmured into his shoulder, her arms wrapped tightly around him. "They said you'd come, we were so worried when you didn't . . . "

"Maria, you're—you're all right?" Shadow held her back slightly to look into her face; she looked the picture of shining-eyed health. Drawing in his breath sharply, he pulled her close again, forgetting even that the others were watching.

"What do you mean?" asked Maria, squirming around slightly to tilt her head up at Shadow. "Why wouldn't I be all right?"

"They said you were sick . . . "

"Ohhh," said Maria, blushing. "That . . . " She laughed softly. "It was nothing, I just got a little carried away. I was making a gingerbread house with the others, and the gumdrops were so good, I ate a little too many and had to lie down for a while. That's all."

"Oh?"

Shadow quietly raised one eyebrow at Rouge, who pointed at Amy.

"Don't try to pin this on me!" squealed Amy indignantly. Rouge gave her a look, so she gulped and began.

"I—I—Rouge and I figured—we—" Her ears folded back guiltily. "We didn't think—"

"The rockslide wasn't part of the plan," assured Rouge, finally coming to Amy's rescue.

Shadow shut his eyes for a moment and opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly stopped and shook his head, a resigned smile flickering across his muzzle.

"Well played," he conceded softly.

"Were you worried?" asked Maria, evidently oblivious to the intrigues going on among the older Mobians. "It was nothing, really!"

"Where Rouge starts plotting, nothing is nothing," said Shadow drily.

"I'm telling you, it was Amy's idea," scoffed Rouge. "I just fine-tuned it, and took over on the phone because she kept wanting to laugh. Lousy actress, that Pinkie."

"I couldn't help it!" protested Amy, reddening. "With all the kids war-dancing all over the place, how in the world did you pull it off?"

"What can I say, I'm good," smirked Rouge.

Shadow shook his head. That explained Amy's strange voice, and probably the long time before she picked up too. Gosh darn it, they'd really come up with a master plan. He still kind of wished he wasn't mixed up in it, though . . . he could feel his muzzle growing warm already.

"Yeah, I wish I'd had a camera to film that," remarked Sonic from the kitchen doorway, his mouth full of Christmas cookie. "The whole plan depended on you calling home, and nobody knew if you would, so the place nearly came down around our ears when you did." He chuckled good-naturedly. "Just have to be the center of attention, huh Shads? You just couldn't stay quietly at home and not raise a fuss."

"Believe me, Faker," muttered Shadow. "Name me any other place on Mobius I could be right now—"

"Back at the bottom of that cliff?" suggested Rouge brightly.

Shadow groaned resignedly and looked around for Tails.

"Do you think you can identify this rock?" he asked, handing Tails the sample. "Without damaging it; I have to take it to G.U.N. after this."

"Hmm . . . " Tails turned the rock over in his hands thoughtfully. "So you say it causes electrical disturbances?"

"And messes up my Chaos powers, too. And it's very hard."

"Hmm . . . " said Tails again, squinting thoughtfully at the stone. He tapped it, scraped it, rubbed it, and even licked slightly at one corner. He smacked his lips thoughtfully.

"Try it," he smiled. "It tastes like cranberries."

Shadow tilted his head dubiously as Tails held the rock out to him.

"I'll . . . take your word for it."

"I've heard of this rock before!" said Tails, handing it back to Shadow. "I ran into its description once while researching. It's a practically legendary type of stone, called Ordonium. Most descriptions of it are too old to include electricity, but it was known to attract lightning and do other weird stuff. I never thought I'd get to see some in real life!"

"So in other words, it would be useful for modern research, right?" said Shadow.

"And a lot of other things," said Tails, his young voice turning serious. "It might be dangerous if it got into the wrong hands. You've seen what it does to electrical equipment—and to you. What if Eggman got hold of it?"

The others exchanged glances.

"We're going to have to tread carefully in how we explain this to G.U.N.," said Rouge grimly. "I have a feeling they may want to keep the Ordonium deposit secret."

Shadow nodded silently. Something told him this wasn't the last they were going to hear about this particular type of stone. Turning the plain-looking rock over in his hand, he felt the Chaos energy in his body fleeing away from it. Quite a marvel . . . a real-world Kryptonite.

"Ah, well," shrugged Amy, shaking off the serious atmosphere. "Come on you guys, you can worry about the old rock after Christmas, right?"

"Yeah, later," murmured Shadow, tucking the sample away for safekeeping.

"That's that then," said Amy cheerfully. "Now come on Shadow, get yourself warmed up and rest that foot. We have to head out for the kids' Christmas play soon, and there's still the presents to exchange after that!"

"That's fine, I'll just wait in the kitch-" Shadow got no further, as Maria had already grabbed his hand and tugged him out of the hall.