HOLY SHIT! OVER 600 HITS! HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE READING THIS! Is my story really THAT good! Or is someone reading it over and over again? Hmm… Wow… Anyway, a new chapter is posted, along with listening to my favorite song, What's Left Of The Flag by Flogging Molly.

Really good song! Loud though… but the lyrics (kinda) relate to what happened to Sonic. At least some of it does. Anyway, a new chapter is here. Next chapter is the ultimate plot twist. Chapter X. Ooh. Sounds mysterious. The X Chapter! Next!

Tails – 31

Knuckles – 38

Amy – 36

Shadow – 41 (technically 91) Damn!

Rouge – 41

Samantha – 21

Swift – 15

Never Look Back

Chapter IX

Mysterious Happenings

Thirteen years have past with no sighting of Eggman. A lot of the gang were now getting middle-aged. Sam was now grown up and moved out. Swift is a sophomore now. He's a handsome, popular kid and sort of a frat boy, but he stays out of trouble. His half-sister, Julia is 13. She's a lot like her father, looks and personality. She's got an onyx colored body with white streaks on her quills. Her quills are somewhat pointed a lot like Sonic's. She's sort of a shady person and very shy, but very popular in school. She may be shady, but she's really a bubbly girl, just like her mother was. Her favorite outfit is a white tank top with purple jeans, but tonight she wore one of her mother's old, hot pink dresses. She was preparing for a slumber party as Swift helped her…

Swift had made half a batch of chocolate chip cookies in less than a minute. As he grabbed some chocolate chips from the bag, he quickly said, "After you do that you grab some of these put 'em in and BAM!" in about 2 seconds. He turned in a semi-circle, throwing the chocolate chips in over his shoulder as he missed a few. As soon as he turned around, he was back in front of the mixing pan, stirring the chips in. Julia stared in awe as her brother mixed in the chips

"You'd better clean up that mess when you're done!" Yelled Amy. The oven was done pre-heating when he threw it in.

"Tada! THAT'S how you do it! Nice and quick!"

"Did you hear what I said!"

"Yes mom!" He yelled. He set the timer on the oven. "You know how to get these out, right?"

"Yeah! I'm fine!"

"Alright! Ya need anything else, just tell me and I'll have it done in a split-second! They don't call me Swift for nothin'!"

"You inherited that from your father, ya know!" Amy yelled.

"Yes, yes, you told me a thousand times before,"

"He was the fastest living thing on the planet!" They said at the same time.

"Hey, hey, hey! I was just as fast as he was!" Shadow remarked.

"Yes, Dad, I know." Swift sighed and looked at his sister who had a grin on her face. "Ya gotta love 'em!" Swift had a sarcastic grin.

In Shadow and Amy's bedroom…

"Kids. Ya gotta love 'em!" Amy sighed.

"They're not so little anymore. They're teenagers now."

"Yeah and Julia's PMSing and she takes it out on me."

"I can't feel your pain."

"You wanna talk about pain, don't you even say anything to me!"

"Oh boy. Here we go."

"You don't understand what I had to go through with YOUR child!"

"I bet I don't."

"I was in labor for 48 hours!"

"And you called me every single word in the colorful dictionary the whole time."

"You don't know how much that hurt!"

"Yea, I bet."

"It hurt really bad!"

"Damn. 42 hours. How big was she anyway?"

"Not as big as your ego, that's for sure."

"Heh. Whatever."

"Yeah I bet." Shadow just laughed. "I'm going downstairs. Check if Swift cleaned up his mess."

"I'm not goin' anywhere." Shadow replied. With that, Amy left the room. Shadow looked at the window and saw a shadow (not himself) on the blinds. "The hell?" He got off the bed and opened the blinds to see a circular figure fly off in the distance… "Was that…" Shadow stood for a minute thinking about what he had seen, then went downstairs to alert the others.

END CHAPTER

What had Shadow seen? Was it the long, gone Eggman? Or was Shadow just seeing things? We'll find out next time in: The X Chapter.