Hello, people! 'Tis me, saphireKat, the author of the story.

Also, there was mistake last chapter, in the last few paragraphs: 'cabernets' should have been 'cabinets'. Something went wrong with the spellcheck… sorry for the confusion, if any!

Well, I really don't have anything else to say, so let's get this show on the road, me amigos!

Disclaimer: (sigh) Again, I don't own Sonic and Co. I do own Ruby and Leo.

Shadowed Photo Ch. 7- The File, the Professor, and the Photo

I mostly ate in silence. Shadow didn't eat anything. He just sat there and observed me. I didn't know why I even asked him to stay. I guess I didn't want to be left by myself in a big empty room. I was hoping to start a conversation and ask a few questions about ARK and when was it built, stuff like that. I wanted to know a little about him too. I didn't know why I even bothered, though. He still kind of made me feel… a little uneasy. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out, so I just took the last bite of my sandwich. I was about to get up to look through the cabinet something else to eat until a bag of chips was slid across the table.

I picked up the bag to look at it. "Ooooo… my favorite! BBQ! Thank you very much, Shadow." I tore open the bag and started snacking on it.

"…Why?" He asked.

"Huh? 'Why' what?" I stopped eating the chips.

He looked up at me with a mixture of puzzlement and slight anger. "Why are you so nice?"

My expression saddened a bit. "…Am I bugging you with how nice I am…?" I asked quietly. I don't know why, buy I felt a little jumpy; I did not want to receive another death glare from him.

He just simply shifted his chair to the side, gave me a 'humph' and plainly said, "No, you don't."

I felt a tad more relaxed and replied, "Okay. And to answer your question, I'm usually nicer to people once I feel more relaxed with them and I get to know them a little."

"…"

I sighed and kept on eating. I offered some to Shadow. Surprisingly, he took a few of them. Then Eggman walked in. Oh, goodie.

"Well, I see you two aren't giving each other trouble." He grinned, in his usually evil way. He opened the cabinet and said, "Hey, where's the bag of chips?"

I was about to plop another chip in my mouth, but stopped myself and dumped the whole bag into a plastic one. I held the empty bag up to him.

"Sorry, you mean this one?" I asked innocently. He looked at it for a second and grabbed it greedily. When he reached in the bag, he found it was empty. He scowled at me. I had a slightly amused grin on my face.

"You little… harrumph!" As he turned to leave, I quickly stuck my tongue at him while he wasn't looking. When he left I put on a slight triumphant smile. "Hee, hee…"

"…That wasn't nice." Shadow stated.

"Well, Eggman isn't a nice person himself." I corrected him. "You know what they say, 'nice gets nice, and nasty gets nasty back!' "

"And you are the one to enforce that rule?" He amused, with a cocky smile.

"Yes-- I mean-- it's not really a rule—I'm not—" I stuttered. Darn. Looks like he won this battle… but not the war! "Blacky." I murmured.

"Brat." He shot back.

"WHAT!" I shouted. I was outraged. 'Did he just…!' I stood up and slammed my hands on the table. "YOU JERK! I KNOW YOU DID NOT JUST CALL ME A—!"

He did his famous death glare again, but this time he was standing up. "I'll give you a 10 second head start." He said in a warning tone and his voice dripping with venom.

"10…"

"L-look…" My voice was shaky and a little nervous. "W-we got off on the wrong foot, how about we try again?"

"9…"

"Hey! I'm trying to apologize! There's no need to get rough!"

"3…"

Realizing that he skipped 5 numbers, I knew he was serious. I dashed out while grabbing the bag of candy that Eggman left on the counter. I needed all the sugar I could consume to run from this black blur!

Elsewhere on the ARK…

"…and the red wire goes here. So the green one goes there… but why isn't it WORKING?" Eggman hollered in frustration and scratched his head. He was adding adjustments to the 'Eclipse Cannon's' main computer. Rouge casually hovered over his head. Bokkun, one of Eggman's other robots, was dozing off on the over sized chair in front of the computer. He's shorter than even Rouge and was dark, but not as dark as Shadow's fur. He looked like he had horns on the top of his head and had a belt with an 'M' on the buckle that was attached to a jet pack on his back. (Most of you should know which robot I'm talking about from the SonicX cartoons. You know, the one who delivers massages to Sonic and the gang and then the message blows up in there face. Hee, hee… funny.)

"Are you sure that it wasn't just a fluke when it blew up the moon? Maybe you used up all of its energy." Rouge pointed out. Eggman stopped working and turned to her.

"Well, pardon me, batgirl, but I'm the genius with an IQ of 300. And this war craft was built over 50 years ago, so it might still have a few bugs to smooth out. But it should be running in no—"

"EEEEEEEEEK! HEEEEEEEEEELLLLPP!"

That's when I came in, screaming. Eggman was so startled that he bumped the back of his head on the bottom of the computer and Rouge flew up another five feet into the air. Bokkun shot up and shouted, "Waaaah! Okay! I'm awake, I'm awake, I'm awake, I'm a… Hey, what's going on around here?"

"Your not the only one who wants to find out, Bokkun." Eggman mumbled, rubbing his head. I ducked right behind the computer, with the bag of candy still in my hand.

"What the blazes is going on, pip-squeak?" Eggman asked. It sounded more like a demand.

"Shh! I'm not here! And I ain't no 'pip-squeak!' " I hissed. I ate two pieces of mini Snickers candy bites, after taking off the rapper first, of course. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy.

"Did Shadow do something that scared you, sweetie?" Rouge asked.

"He tried to freegin' KILL me! He's evil! Evil I tell you! EVIL!" I waved a hand dramatically. Looks like the sugar was finally taking affect.

"Who's evil?"

"Duh, Shadow the Heeeeeee—" I slowly turned my head. "…oh, hi Shadow… heh, heh." Shadow was right next to me with his arms crossed, still looking like he was gonna kill me. 'Oh, great…! Now what'll I do?'

I had no choice. I had to do it. If I didn't, my life would have ended right then and there. If I did 'this' didn't work though, I might die none the less.

"Alright, Shadow, you've asked for it!" I announced fiercely and narrowed my eyes. He looked at me in surprise, but still had a frown on his face. "You're not the only one with a special ability… OH MY GOD! A GIANT, BIONICALLIZARD!" I screeched and pointed behind him.

Surprisingly enough, he… fell for it? "What! But that can't be—!" I took this opportunity to run, but something caught my eye before I could make my escape. It was a folder with the title "Professor Gerald Robotnic".

"…Professor Gerald Robotnic built this colony over fifty years ago. And was possibly one of the greatest minds the world has ever known…"

Shadows words were buzzing in my head. 'Maybe…' I thought. '… if I learned more about this Professor Gerald guy… I could learn more about Shadow… and what Eggman is planning!'

I grabbed the file while no body was looking and ran out the other door. I heard Shadow call out, "You sneaky, cheeky little…! When I find you, I'm stuffing you into the tinniest prison cell we've got!"

Yep, he's evil all right. "And that concludes my theory of Shadow being nice…" I mused to myself. Shadow + Nice NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS! x infinity.

A good 30 minutes later…

"Dang. She's pretty darn good…" Shadow said out loud.

"At tricking you or at hiding?" Rouge smirked.

"…at hiding, you twit." Shadow sneered. Rouge just turned the other way with her hands on her hips.

Shadow, Rouge, Decoe, Bokue, and Bokkun had spent the last 30 minutes searching for me. The robots searchedinthe most unusual places; trashcans, under carpets, tiles and other placed that were way to small for me. Rouge searched all of the high places I could have gotten to in the ARK and Shadow searched underneath and around the heavy machinery. It was a pretty easy task for him, too, considering he was so strong, which amazed me. I mean, I knew he was… pretty darn fast, but when I was still in one of my "hiding spots" (I kept moving from place to place because when ever I found a good spot, they would almost find me), I saw him pick up a box like machine one handed! I don't think Sonic could even do that, without trouble, of course.

Rouge sighed and tilted her head towards Shadow. "Hey, Shady," She started. " Maybe we should stop looking for her." Shadowed eyed Rouge as she continued. "I know we haven't checked every nook and cranny, but that could take us another hour or so, with this place being so big and all. Plus, she's just a kid! What harm could she do? If she gets tired or hungry again, she'll eventually come out, anyway. It's just a matter of being… huh?"

Before Rouge could finish, Shadow was already gone. "Well, I can see why Ruby started to call him 'Blacky.' " She went in the opposite direction of Shadow and disappeared as well.

I sighed with relief from my hiding spot. I was actually in a bedroom in the same hall that Shadow and Rouge were just in. For a second, I thought I would have to move again, luckily I didn't have to, considering I had to run from one room to another about15 times in the LAST 30 MINUTES! I decided to stay in there for a little while longer, so I could read the file I st—er…'borrowed' from Dr. Eggman.

I turned on the light for the room. To my pleasant surprise, it was actually kind of… pretty. The bed's sheets were pink and so were the pillows, too. The wall was a nice baby blue with white trimming. And it also had a white desk, chair, and end table, too. I walked over to the bed and sat down, then carefully opened the file to find… just a whole bunch of stuff I didn't understand! Seriously! It was just a bunch of formulas, chemical equations, and notes that made no sense to my 11-year-old mind!

"Whaaaaat? I DON'T GET ANY OF THIIIIIIIS! H0/e + 5 of 8 x 786 809 – (-32) 5.65… oh, my heeeeeeaaaaad…" (I'm not too sure if this is a real equation or not… I'm not that creative when it comes to mathmatics. -sweetdrops-) My head started to spin and feeling light-headed.

"Augh! Okay, ya know what? Forget this!" I tossed the folder aside on the floor. I curled my self into a ball feeling positively hopeless. I started to cry silently. 'Why did I have to pick now of all times to brake down…? I don't know what I should do… I'm just a little girl… what CAN I do…? What would Sonic the Hedgehog do?'

I wiped my eyes and glanced back at the folder. A picture was sticking out from it. I jumped off the bed and took the picture out of the folder.

'What…? Is this…?'

Me:MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Cliffy! I bet I got you all, didn't I?

………….silence…………

Me: …I guess not… (sigh) Oh yeah, before I go, I just wanted to say thankees so much for reviewing, y'all! I also have some bad news too, unfortunately. I sadly won't be able to update next week because I'm going on a vacation with my family… but I don't want to give away with WHERE I'm going… so…

Amy: Aw, c'mon! Just a little hint?

Me: I-I don't think so, Amy. I wouldn't want the people on the site to kill me that I'm going on a cruise to… oops.

Amy: WHAT! Take me with you! PWEEEEEEEEASE?

Me: ACK! NOT THE DREDED PUPPY POUT! ANYTHING BUT THAT! NOOOOooooooo…!

Cream: R&R and no flames, please. Bye, bye!

Me: P.S.- I don't get to go ona cruisevery often, so please don't kill me!