Disclaimer: Sonic isn't mine, so don't sue me or I'll scream bloody murder. O_o

Kita: o.o! Geeze, is my story that good?! O.O –faint-

Amy: Oh goodness… Well, uh, I'll take over for her when she wakes up. ^_^!!! Thanks for reviewing this story, all you readers! Um…. On with this chapter-thingie! Yay!

(a/n: I am so sorry about the delay. My mouse died, and my mom went and exploded on me for a bad grade -_-;; but now I got a new mouse. And I don't have to worry since mom lets me off the hook most of the times. .  )

Broken Hope

Scared, scared shit she was. Clinging to the only solid object was all she thought about now, shivering and shaking like hell was about to wash over. It almost did in the case when Amy was nearly engulfed by a lava wave in the creation of a pyroclastic(sp?) flow exulting from the volcano's top. Covered in soot of ash and partially dried mud, Amy didn't let go, afraid of her surroundings. The one thing she was thinking about recently was her frantic, constant worry of the danger that passed moments ago.

No longer were the waves of intense heat from the volcanic impending doom anywhere near the noises of cars, and people.

Was it real?

Was it a dream, a bad one at that?

"You can let go now, you know." Shadow's voice interrupted her thoughts, so she could hear the distant honking of cars, and … traffic? Is this some type of illusion before the moments of death?

What the hell?…

Slowly, yet surely, an eye peeped open, to find the both of them upon a rooftop of a skyscraper. The sounds of police vehicles passing by down below were enough to think she wasn't going insane, or she didn't die of a hot death. Amy opens her eyes completely, to find herself clinging to Shadow for her very life. A wave of embarrassment swept over her, and she released him immediately, backing away until she was at a comfortable distance, of approximately three feet and seven inches. Both pink and black hedgehogs were covered in filth, and they both needed to clean off before anyone could notice…

Then again…

In the distance, the taller skyscraper with an occupant on its rooftop noticed that a flash had been emitted earlier, attracting her attention when she was about to plot the thievery of the ruby-red chaos emerald from this particular building. Taking a pair of binoculars, the figure takes a long peek at what could have happened upon that location, only to find something she never even expected at all. This turned out to be a total surprise for herself, seeing as a supposedly 'dead' hedgehog had… come back alive?? And this particular person didn't turn down the opportunity to identify the pink hedgehog as well to be Amy.

"What the fuck? No, that can't be! It just can't be… Shadow?… I must be seeing things or I wouldn't have seen that flash! He must have used Chaos Control, but that …incident …was months ago! And what on earth is Amy doing with him? Something fishy is going on, unless he could have survived the fall…," Sighed the looming secretive figure "I will have to look into it myself."

The figure turned, and walked away, until she ran, and vanished into the shadows of the Air-Conditioning Units, her mind changing about the robbery, maybe for another day.

His eyes fixated upon the taller building, and he grunted. Shadow felt the presence of eyes upon them; only one pair, and he discontinued himself of that little problem once that feeling vanished. The vague familiarity was uncertain, but he was suspecting hunches of people who could be attempting to take a look-see. Shaking his head, quills feeling the breeze of air. He didn't know where he was now; he just focused on getting Amy to safety. He wanted no harm to come to her, and if harm did fall upon her, he would take responsibility, no matter what…

Wait… since when did he start having responsibility for Amy all of a sudden? Scowling mentally, he veered his gaze away from the building, and put his vexed look upon the clouds.

"You look angry, Shadow. What's got your tongue?"

Blinking, Shadow looked around, and had an obvious face of confusion spread out.

"Oh, bah, nevermind. Anyways, where are we? Kinda looks familiar..."

"Who knows?"

Amy took a walk to the edge, peeking at the surrounding area. Surveying, it took some details to figure out where she was now. Amy and Shadow were back in San Francisco; Downtown. It took a while for Shadow to see that, but it didn't take long for Amy to know. Sighing, she shakes her head. Why did they have to come back here…?

"What am I going to do? I don't want to see Sonic ever again, and he probably knows I'm here somewhere," sighed Amy depressively. Really she didn't want to see his face ever again, not to mention she'll try to disconnect any sort of connection between herself, and that dumb blue hedgehog. Nothing but a cocky jerk.

Later, somewhere else

Blizzard was finally able to stop, after Sonic yanked her hand out of her rolling position. Having crash-landed on her face for no apparent reason, she felt a little disoriented for a while, making comments to herself, sometimes they were more profane, which made both Sonic and Tails think she acted as if she were drunk, or something along the lines of drunkenness or hallucinating.

"Hey, uh, Blizzard, you got a problem or something?" Sonic spoke up, as the three were just heading down a sidewalk, trying not to run this time. Wrong question to ask.

"What?"

"Erm… why are you acting like this? Do you drink or something?" Another stupid question.

"I don't drink… it would mess my internal composition up. In other words, I would become poisoned badly. And I acted because something had messed with the way I balance myself, and my self-control… I couldn't help but mumble out some words."

"Huh?"

"What was it that he called it? It's a vague phrase I've heard before."

"Who is 'he'?" Tails became curious, and just simply asked aloud.

Blizzard's facial expression changed from a normal, to a more hurt look. Like something stabbed her, and she was on the verge of just walking away, or really pretty much skipping the subject. Her sapphire eyes darted away from two confused faces. Something that tails asked obviously makes a note to never bring up on who it might be. Shaking her head gently, Blizzard managed to smile a little, but behind that, she put up a fake smile to mask over her hurt feelings. Confusion sometimes overwhelmed her thoughts, thus she looked hurt when she tried to remember, and further bugging on that particular subject just would make her outright angry.

"I get the point," Sonic said sheepishly.

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to talk about that."

"No, I should be sorry, Blizzard. I didn't mean to ask that if you don't like it," Tails added.

"It's fine."

Inhaling deeply, and exhaling just as quickly, she turned to face them. Well, certainly one out of the two knew how to say things better than the blue copycat. Rubbing her forehead a little bit, which she was developing a small throbbing pain of an oncoming headache, restlessly; she began to walk on her way. Whatever the heck that was, it certainly wasn't good, since she knew that two hedgehogs could use the Chaos Control. But how could she have even known?

Two years ago, when she apparently had been locked away, the large discharging amounts of energy given off by the Chaos Emeralds' power disturbed the sleeping stasis. It was like she woke up just as soon as she fell asleep fifty years ago, and had been monitoring what the heck had happened in space for a while, until the large bursting use of the Chaos Control to teleport the Colony away towards the end knocked her out cold for the next two years, and a few months..

Shadow was obviously alive, because that memory flashback of trying to flee from the G.U.N. forces, and that Shadow helped Sonic to save the earth from a demise which could not of been avoided if Sonic were to have had no help. Sonic couldn't have done it alone, because he hadn't the power to use this Chaos Control. Not enough power to move an entire falling Colony from the warpath of destruction. The teamwork of those two curbed the chances of the earth being destroyed into oblivion.

/ You're out there, still, Shadow. Maybe we'll meet again. /

Unknown Location

Time of Day: Unknown mostly blackened clouds hang overhead.

"This is preposterous! I was defeated by a mere image of Sonic, yet it was not even Sonic at all! Blast my Grandfather for making these Hedgehogs to be self-sufficient for themselves. Shadow, more importantly, and that Sonic-like pest, Blizzard." There was just too many to be dealt with, even Sonic himself, and those miserable idiots that seem to tag along with that stupid blue hedgehog wherever he went.

Of course, he had his trusted loyal robots at his command to take care of them, but all Sonic did was smash them to pieces and free the captive animals within. Only one could match the abilities of Sonic, and that was Metal Sonic. The perfect creation designed to be like Sonic, except his function was to annihilate Sonic for good. So far, that hasn't been achieved, but nor was Metal destroyed.

Dr. Eggman had also looked forwards to something else, which he had not been able to really clearly test out yet, but he was looking forward to the day where he can utilize his two newest greatest creations behind Metal Sonic. For the past two years, he had hidden himself within his confines, working repeatedly hour after hour. Frequent visits to outer space did his job, as he had hidden his two projects aboard the dormant ARK Space Colony. Little did anyone know that he had managed to sneak in, and wipe out the G.U.N. robots, and replace them with ones that gave off the same signals, yet obeyed Robotnik only.

The second project was hidden away, developing at an abnormal rate, but of course it was far beyond the size Robotnik expected, so crushing a few floors, and remodeling the entire place for its final home was not necessarily easy to accommodate the project.

The first was something he had taken interest in before the whole ARK incident. Merely he had barged in upon an Echidna settlement, by pure accident, and as always, the Doctor had bludgeoned the entire settlement, reducing it to ashes and waste, slaughtering many in his path, and enslaving most of them to work with the machines that produce the badniks. One older Echidna caught his attention, in the stunning appearance he looked just like Knuckles. In the Knuckles-lookalike's arms was a baby, A supposedly heroic effort on the 'father's' end. The glare that the Echidna gave was menacing, of course, it was Knuckles' real father, still alive. Speaking out against Eggman, he scorned him for laying waste to a peaceful environment.

Of course, the doctor cared less…

A surprise lunge by many badniks overwhelmed the struggling Echidna, attempting to protect the little one in his arms. This was not Knuckles. One of the robots manages to pry the crying baby, who's shrills of yelling and screaming persisted by the constant disturbing notions. Within a minute, the Echidna took one last look desperately for one last look at the baby, before his vision darkened after the sound of a laser gun going off. The robots dropped the echidna, and Eggman laughed, cold-heartedly.

"Meddling fool, that child turned out to be more useful than I thought," Chuckled Eggman, remembering that 'sad' little moment when he murdered the Echidna.

~*~

Kita: Sorry for the delay on posting, but at least I was able to get it up as soon as possible! ^_^ My "Twin" requested a character to be put in here, so I did it. I bet you guys can guess already. Anyways, till then next chapter! =D