CHAPTER 2

BACK TO REALITY

The next day at the Chaotix, Shadow was trying to refresh Kayla's memory and tried to get her to remember everyone else.

A purple female cat kneeled down to the child, "Okay Kayla, so who am I?"

It didn't take long for her to figure it out, "Tonya. Your name is Tonya."

She smiled, "That's right. And I must say that dress looks very pretty on you. It even matches the ribbons in your hair."

Kayla spun around a bit and looked at her blue dress, "Thank you, Tonya. Detective Hedgehog gave it to me. I think it's pretty too."

She smiled as she saw Kayla run over to Shadow and hug him.

Vector shook his head and walked over to Shadow and faced him with a serious look on his face. "Shadow, can I talk for you for a moment? In private."

He nodded and pulled away from Kayla and the rest of the group. "What is it?"

"I wouldn't get too attached to her if I were you, Shad."

"Why not?"

"She was brought back from the dead and who knows what she is now."

"Are you trying to say she's like a demon or something?"

He nodded slowly.

"She's not a demon, Vec. I'm a demon myself and I would know if she was a demon because if she was, my demon senses would be going haywire."

Vector still didn't believe what he said, "I'm still pretty worried. I mean she was brought back from the dead and once they're resurrected, they're not really the same person they once were. We have never seen someone that was resurrected from the dead being normal."

"I know but it's different this time. She's not some evil supernatural being bent on destroying us all."

Vector crossed his arms, "Whatever you say, but this is under my orders, Shadow."

Shadow then had his attention on Vector.

"If she even starts to act weird, it's your job to kill her. Understand?"

"What! Vector, I won't..."

"Shadow, I just gave you an order so you better do it! Do you understand me?" He shouted in a firm voice.

Shadow had never seen Vector this serious before. He really didn't want nothing bad to happen that's for sure. He looked down to the floor with his ears flopped down, "Yes sir", he muttered.

The crocodile then turned his back and walked away from him.

As Vector left his sight, Shadow clenched his fists and looked away from the floor with utter frustration. 'I can't. I just can't take her out of my life again. I lost her once.' He looked over to Kayla playing with Charmy, 'I'm not losing her again.'

Tonya was typing on her computer until she spotted something about a Chaos Emerald. "Vector!" She called.

Vector ran up to her, "What's up, Ton?"

"I just came across an article about a Chaos Emerald in the Tech City museum", she answered.

"A Chaos Emerald? We haven't come across a Chaos Emerald in months. Well, ever since Charmy placed all seven of them together. Afterwards they all scattered all over the place again."

"Well it's there. What do we do?"

"We're gonna get that emerald."

"Are we gonna steal it?" Rouge said in a sly smile. Of course stealing was her specialty, especially if it dealt with jewels.

"We have to. I mean they're not going to let us just have it."

Charmy gasped, "But...that's wrong."

"I know but it's for the best. Besides these people don't even know what the emerald does."

Later that night, Shadow was in his house about to leave to meet with the others at the museum. All he had to do was call Kayla, but before he could he heard his doorbell ring. He sighed and started to walk towards the door to open it. "Who the hell has the nerve to show up this late?" He opened the door and saw a female grey hippopotamus glaring at him, "Dear god it's the old hag!"

When he tried to close the door on her, she flung it back open with brute force. "Don't you dare try that move on me again, Mr. Hedgehog. And by the way it's not old hag, it's Miss Jenkins to you."

"Whatever", he murmured under his breath as he closed the door. "What do you want?"

"I came to inspect you remember?"

He took his hand and hit his head with it, "Shit, I forgot. You know what, this is kinda a bad time. I gotta go out and take care of some business."

"No, you are not going to slide through this one. You skipped one too many inspections already and..." she was interrupted when a little brown squirrel girl had came into the room.

"Detective Hedgehog", she called. "Are you ready yet?" She then noticed the old woman in the room and quickly pulled her dress up to her knees and bowed. "Hello", she greeted.

It took a while for her to say anything. She was just so shocked to see a child living with Shadow. "Hello, little girl. May I ask for your name?"

"My name is Kayla."

"Why are you here with Mr. Hedgehog?"

She shrugged, "I don't know."

Shadow then gently pushed Kayla upstairs, "Uh Kayla, the adults have to talk for a minute. Go upstairs for a while okay?"

She sighed, "Okay", she said in a low voice as she made her way upstairs.

The hedgehog slowly turned to a confusion hippo.

"So", she spoke. "You like kids huh? It looks like I've seen her somewhere before. Wait, I have. Kayla Parkinson."

"You know her?"

"Her father, Roger. She was his daughter, but that unfortunate accident with the Street Punks happened."

"Yeah, yeah I know. Hey, was Roger ever married? Maybe I can reunite her with her mother."

She shook her head, "I don't think so. Her mother was a prostitute so...that wouldn't work out very well. I know we both don't want to introduce her into that kind of life."

He shook his head agreeing with her, "Well, she could stay with me..."

"No", she said quickly.

"What? Why not?"

"One. You two aren't blood related. Two. You're a drug addict. And three. You have a slutty girlfriend."

"Hey you hag! Don't be dissing Rouge!"

She turned her back to him, "Anyway, I'll have to send Kayla to an orphanage since she has no one to look after her."

"But I can look after her."

She laughed a bit under her breath, "Right, like I'd leave her in the hands of you. I'll be back soon to take her away."

"No! You can't do that!"

"I believe I can", she said with a smile. "Oh and by the way you fail the inspection."

"Why?"

"Well beer bottles are everywhere, your girlfriend's underwear is on your kitchen counter, and I hate you." She smiled once again and left his sight.

After when she left Shadow immediately yelled, "BITCH!" He then heard a soft gasp from behind him. He slowly turned and faced Kayla slowly.

"You swore. It's not nice to swear."

He made a small smile and kneeled down to her, "Sorry about that. So, are you ready to meet the others now?"

She nodded with a wide smile, "Yes!"