Hey, peoples! I'm baaaaack! XD Did ya'll miss me while I was gone? Well, if you were concerned that I would drop the story, don't be, okay? I promise you, I don't plan on dropping this story at all! However, I don't know how long this story is going to take, though. I'm aiming for less than 20 chapters at the most. And if there's going to be any delays with updating this story, I'll be sure to let you know. I promise! Okay, anyways…

Disclaimer: Here we go again… I DO NOT OWN SONIC AND CO.! I own Ruby and Leo. (Even though Leo might not be in some of the chapters, I'll still include him in the disclaimer, just to be sure.)

Shadowed Photo Ch. 8- Maria?

I examined the picture carefully. It was quite an old photograph, with a few stains on the side. It was a picture of an old man and a young girl, around my age. The old man was bald, wore dark glasses and a lab coat, had a bald mustache, and was slightly rotund (or chubby). 'He must be Professor Gerald Robotnic! Wow… he actually looks a lot like the Doctor… wait!' My heart thumped as I recalled something that I heard about Eggman before. 'I remember one time on the news that my favorite reporter, Scarlet Garcia, also said that his name was also Dr. Ivo Robotnic… Professor Gerald Robotnic… Dr. Ivo Robotnic…oh my gosh.'

Then it hit me. DR. EGGMAN IS THE DESCENDENT OF PROFESSOR GERALD! 'And I'll bet that that's how Eggman came to know about the Eclipse Cannon. I should write this stuff down…' I quickly jotted down the stuff that I learned. I glanced at the picture and stared at the girl at the professor's side with her hands resting on both shoulders.

'Oh, wow. She's actually very pretty.' She had on a nice looking blouse, a dress and had her light hair with a headband. 'I think she could be at least a year older than me… I wonder who she is…?' I flipped to the back of the picture to see if there was and address or date. Nope. Nothing… wait, hold on. There was a name on the back.

Maria.

"…Maria…?" I whispered. 'Maybe,' I thought. 'She is some how connected with Gerald…? But how? And why?' My thoughts were interrupted with the sound of footsteps right down the hall, coming closer to the room.

"Oh, crud!" I whispered in panic. Then I heard the footsteps stop and I heard a "Huh?" I slapped my hand over my mouth for acting so stupid. Since the footsteps stopped for now, I took this opportunity to hide the evidence. I put the picture back into the folder and closed it up. Okay, that's taken care of. Now what about the folder? I spotted the small dresser by the bed. 'This'll have to do!' I shoved the folder into the dresser and shut it. Oh, no… the footsteps were getting even closer!

'Waaaaah! Gotta hide, gotta hide, gotta hide! But where? Wait, the bed!'

Then, like a secret agent that would avoid a bullet on the battlefield, I dove underneath the bed. (Without even hurting myself, too! 0.o) About a half a second later the door slid opened. 'That… was… way… too… close…!' My heart was pounding from the sudden action I had just did. I looked at the feet that were right in front of the bed to find a pair of jet sneakers… Shadow's jet sneakers. Great.

"All right, girl," He began. "Come out. I know you're in here… so don't give me the trouble of going through all of this stuff just to find you."

I still lay there under the bed, motionless, but I was paying attention to what he was saying.

"I guess that wouldn't make you come out, even if I said 'please', would it?" He softly chuckled to himself. "You're scared of me, aren't you?"

'What…? Why does he care?'

"Look, I really wasn't going to kill you, if that makes you feel any better." He said plainly.

I really wanted to shout, "YA THINK THAT'S GOING TO MAKE ME COME OUT?" But, I remembered how strong he was and he still might be mad at me, so I just kept quiet.

"Okay, then…" He paused for a moment. "What if I give back your camera?" He slowly kneeled down and sure enough, he put my camera on the floor. "Just think of this as a truce. You'll get your camera back if you come out." He stood back up and waited. A minute went by… two minutes… five minutes… eight minutes… Wow, despite his image of Sonic, who is always running around the world (literally) and could never stay in one spot, Shadow seemed very patient.

I slightly poked my head out from under the bed. Shadow was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes closed, completely still. He could have been a giant plushie if he wasn't breathing.

I crawled out from the bed, very slowly, not wanting to wake Shadow up and scooted over to get my camera. "My camera…!" I cooed softly. "Oh, I thought I'd never see you again!" I hugged my camera and slightly moved back and forth like I was some love struck idiot. Man, I was soooo lucky that Shadow was asleep… and like a disease, I started to get sleepy, too. I put the camera around my neck and stretched my arms out.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwn! Wow, I'm so sleeeeeeeeepy…" I glanced over at the bed. "I guess it was pretty convenient that I found a room with a bed in it." I walked over to the bed and plopped right on it. I turned away from Shadow's sleeping form and towards the wall, only to find that half of the wall was actually one big window. I've seen the stars on earth before, but seeing it in outer space was like seeing the real thing for the first time. I rested my head on the pillow and slowly drifted into a dark slumber.

Back on Earth with Leo and the others…

"Oh, shoot! More G.U.N. soldiers!" Leo shouted to the others.

"Yeah, I can see that." Knuckles said sounding irritated. The G.U.N. soldiers approached them with guns, ready to fire. One of them stepped forward with a megaphone.

"This is the Guardian Units of Nations. Surrender or we will be forced to shoot." The man said loud and clear in a stern voice. 'Are they being SERIOUS?' Leo stomped his foot forward.

"W-wait!" He called out. "You can't shoot us unless you state the crimes against us first…!"

TOO LATE!

"Fire!" All of them raised their guns to shoot, but in a blink of an eye, someone snatched up their guns and suddenly made a whirlwind. The soldiers stared in confusion while the leader shouted random orders. Of course no one could hear him because of the strong wind.

In side the whirlwind the Sonic created (It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he did it. DUH!), Leo felt some one tugging his shirt. Leo opened his one closed eye to see Tails was the one doing it.

"C'mon, Leo!" He tried shouting over the wind. "While Sonic's distracting them, we've got to get out of here!" Leo nodded as Tails used his two tails as a propeller to float in the air right above Leo's head. He reached out for Leo's hand. Leo took it and then shouted to Amy and Knuckles.

"Amy! Knuckles! We've gotta jet!" Knuckles and Amy nodded at each other than ran over to Leo and each took one of his ankles. All three of them were lifted into the air and onto the 'X Typhoon'. Leo and Amy sat behind Tails in the cockpit and Knuckles road on one of the wings of the plane. Tails started up the engine and took off. Knuckles was growling furiously and said, "I can't believe it! Even though a kid was with us (meaning Leo), they didn't even hesitate to shoot! What is wrong with them?"

"WAIT! WHERE'S SONIC?" Amy suddenly cried. On cue, Sonic stopped the whirlwind and jumped onto the other wing of the plane.

"Sonic!" Amy squealed with joy.

Leo rolled his eyes. 'Women…' He thought. He looked over Tails' seat and asked, "So, what do we do now?" Knuckles looked at him like he was an idiot.

"What else? Find Eggman and kick his butt! Have you been paying attention lately?"

Leo did a small anime sweatdrop. "…yes, I have. And that's not what I meant. I meant, 'How are we going to find Eggman?' "

"Actually…" Tails started. "I think I might have an hypothesis." Everyone turned to Tails, eyes glued on him, ready to hear his idea.

"Well?" They questioned him.

"This afternoon," he continued, "on the news, it was reported that a rocket was sighted going up into space from a desert a little away from here. And it just so happens that Eggman launched his attack from space so was thinking…" Tails left the floor open for some one else to finish.

"Eggman is hiding some where in outer space!" Sonic finished for him. Tails smiled and nodded.

"So where exactly in the desert was the rocket launched?" Knuckles asked.

"I already have the coordinates (sp?)." He announced with a smile. He pressed a button and a screen popped up with a red blinking dot, which was the X Typhoon, and a white dot, which was where they were heading.

Leo grinned, starting to feel hopeful. "That's great Tails! When do we get there?"

Tails blushed a slight pink due to Leo's complement. "Um… we won't arrive there until morning." He said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Well, we'll just have to put the metal to the petal than, won't we?" Sonic smirked. He turned to Leo. "Don't worry, Leo. We'll get your friend back, promise!"

"And don't worry too much about the Earth, either. My Sonic will see to that, as well." Amy said happily with a lovey-dovey expression. Sonic shivered. Boy, was he glad that he was outside on the wing and Amy was inside in the cockpit. Knuckles "hmphed" a bit, but he smirked a bit. Tails gave him reassuring smile. Leo couldn't help but put on a determined smile.

'Hang on, Ruby… I'm coming for ya!'

There, done! I think I could've made this chapter a little longer, but I wanted to keep you guys guessing on what would happen next. So will Leo and Sonic & Co. be able to rescue Ruby before theEarth is destroyed? You'll find out… also, I don't know if you guys noticed, but if I'm missing a few details from the original story, SORRY! But this is MY fanfic, so I guess it really doesn't matter… Well, that's kind of it. Thanks so much for reviewing! So R&R and no flamz, plz! Ta-ta! ;P