"Okay…I think we lost 'em…"

It had been relatively a few hours before Sonic, Amy, Angel, and Tails stopped to respite. They found themselves pacing down the beleaguered backstreets of their home conurbation, Station Square. The place was in chaos. Papers lined the streets as graffiti swathed broken down structures. Amy caught a glimpse of a homeless man curled up in an alley way, wasting away as he consumed his last pill. It was undeniably not a place for four teenagers to be traveling at night, let alone anybody.

In the distance they could distinguish the dazzling, brilliant illumination of their municipality. They yearned to hide there rather than the ghetto, but it was too dangerous…someone could see them and report them to the officers, Sonic especially.

"Oh…I don't like this place!" Amy whined as she adhered on to Sonic's arm. Angel agreed, but continued to walk as she remained to clasp the emerald in her grip.

"We…we really need to get out of here…" Angel said hastily, looking behind her with anxiety in her russets. Her voice sounded horrified and appeared to have goose bumps running up her arms.

"There's nothing to worry about, it's not like we're being followed…" Sonic bolstered, even though he was not exclusively sure himself. Knowing she was probably being exceedingly paranoid, she endeavored as hard as she could not to glance behind her and to blockade the disconcerting sounds in her head.

The hours of darkness grew frigid and bleak with every passing minute. A soft waft in the air sent a chill down the teenager's backs as they examined shadows and silhouettes projecting themselves onto the streets on which they walked.

"What?" Angel said quietly to herself as she looked aloft and then to her left and right.

"Huh?" Amy questioned.

"Were you-someone was-oh nevermind…"

The breeze began to pick up again, producing whistling noises amid the heaps of rubbish and waste around them.

"So uh…Angel…," Sonic said, trying to rupture the silence, "Why are you after the emeralds anyways?"

"Well…um…I'm trying to keep them away from somebody…"

"Hmm, sounds a lot like what me and Tails are tryin' to do!"

"Yeah…"

"Dr. Robotnik…we can't let him get the emeralds, right Tails?"

"Right!"

Angel looked up at Sonic and his two-tailed companion with a look of incredulity and astonishment on her face.

"Gerald…?" she said under her breath.

"What?"

"Uh…nothing."

"Angel, you've been acting strange ever since we got he-"

"Let's keep going..."

On and on they walked, deeper and deeper into the backstreets they went so their pursuers would not find them, though they had no idea where exactly they were heading.

Angel lifted her gaze from the cluttered streets and came to a pause. Her eye caught a drifting silhouette on a dilapidated building. She, however, recognized the shadow. It was…

"Shadow!" she exclaimed as she turned around, only to apprehend that no one was there but a stray cat. Sonic, Tails, and Amy turned to look at her, wondering what was wrong with her and why she screamed out "Shadow".

"It's been a while…Angel…" said a low, enigmatic voice behind them. The four returned their gaze to the path they had been traveling on to see a remarkable sight.  There, standing before them, was a tall ominous looking hedgehog. His fur was jet black excluding a small patch of white on his chest. Spiky quills darted upwards as vivid red streaks graced the top of them; he definitely wasn't your typical being. His eyes…blood red…they were looking for something…murder. His manifestation resembled Sonic's, elucidating why the G.U.N. soldiers had mistaken him for this sinister man.

"Angel, why do you go with these lowlifes? You're better than them-WE'RE better than them! Give the emerald to me, together we could get them all and show this world not to fuck with us. We'll make them pay for Maria!"

"NO! I'm not going with you! This isn't what she would have wanted! How cou-"

"Silence!" He roared, pointing his finger at her. And that moment Angel froze in her steps as still as a stone. Not one muscle moved; she didn't even blink.

"What are you doing to her!?" Amy cried at the sight of her friend, "STOP IT!"

Amy ran towards Shadow with her Piko-Piko hammer in hand. She took a swing at him, which he smoothly eluded with a sneer.

"Pathetic bitch…" He taunted. He extended his arm and pushed her, making her literally fly across the alley and into Sonic and Tails.

 The unfathomable hedgehog appeared to be quite pleased with himself. He snapped his fingers, making Angel release the emerald as she fell to the ground.

"Like taking candy from a baby," he declared as the gem rolled over to where he stood.

"You just can't get away that easily!" Sonic called out as he and the stranger shot toward each other violently. Curling his fists, Sonic tried to land a punch on his adversary, but for the first time in his life he was not fast enough to keep up. The dark hedgehog dodged every one of his strikes with simplicity as he narrowed his scarlet eyes.

"Chaos control!"

The iniquitous foreigner held the emerald high into the air as he spoke these words. An incandescent beam enveloped the gemstone, as well as he. And within the blink of one's eye, he vanished.

"Where'd he go?" Tails questioned, glaring around his surroundings as he knelt down beside the passed-out Angel.

An evil, malicious laugh pierced through the frigid air. He reappeared, positioned at the top of a dank, decrepit building with his arms crossed.

"Don't underestimate me," he declared, "Do not take Angel lightly either." And with another flash and bang, he was gone.

"God damn it!" Sonic yelled out into the night, "He got the emerald!!"

Everyone remained hushed as his shriek echoed through the dilapidated alley way, desolation and despondency filling their minds.

"…What do you think he meant," said Tails, "when he said 'don't take Angel lightly either'?"

"I don't know, but I it seems like there's more to this girl than meets the eye…"Sonic replied.

Amy did not say anything.

"You don't think she's with Robotnik do you?"

Silence.

The temperature began to drop drastically as rain clouds cast themselves in the heavens high above them.

 "Where are we going to sleep tonight?" Amy asked, rubbing her arms in attempt to keep warm.

"Um…we could sleep in my workshop," Tails answered, "and tomorrow we can use the Tornado to try to locate another emerald before anybody else gets it!"

"Good idea, the Mystic Ruins aren't very far away from here, plus it's still too dangerous to return there yet."

Sonic lifted Angel up from off the cold gravel, since she was still knocked out cold. Many question drifted into his mind while he gazed upon her. Where had she come from? How did she know this black hedgehog? And what did his words about her mean? He had more questions than answers, but he decided it was best to set them aside until her awakening.