CHAPTER 5

IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE

After a few hours later, Charmy had the gun that the two thieves had and was making some new arrangements to it.

Vector stood beside him and watched, "I hope what you're doing works, Charms."

"Don't worry, Vector. I'm sure altering the invisibility effects should make Shadow visible again." He held the huge gun in his arms, "I think I did a pretty good job."

"That's great."

"Yeah great, but just one problem", Espio said. "We can't test it on Shadow if he's not here."

Kayla sighed, "I hope he's okay. I'm worried about him."

Tonya kneeled down to the child and smiled, "Don't worry, Kayla. I'm sure he's fine."

"Of course he's fine", a female voice said from the doorway.

Everyone looked and saw Rouge giving them all a wide smile.

"You seem pretty happy", Tonya said in a low voice.

"Of course I'm happy", she said as she walked up to the group. "I found Shadow."

"You did? Where?" Kayla asked with excitement.

She laughed a bit, "Beside me."

She started to look around the place, but she still didn't spot the black hedgehog. Soon she then remembered that he was invisible and no one could see him so she decided to call out to him. "Detective Hedgehog, can you hear me?"

"I sure can." A familiar voice said out of nowhere.

Kayla recognized that deep voice anywhere, "Detective Hedgehog!" She shouted with happiness. "It is you."

Rouge looked over to Charmy, "Okay Charmy, you got the gun ready?"

He nodded, "Yeah." He then pointed the gun where he heard Shadow's voice, but he still wasn't sure if he was standing in that spot or not. He hesitated to fire. He was afraid that he would miss since he couldn't see him. "Um."

Rouge was annoyed by Charmy's hesitation, "What's taking so long? Shoot him already."

The kid bee sighed and lowered the gun to the floor, "I can't. I can't see him. I'll miss if I fire." He then felt the huge gun ease out of his grip. He yelled as he saw the gun floating in the air. "Ah! It's alive!"

"Shut up, Charmy. I'll do it myself", Shadow's voice had said. The floating gun was pointed towards the wall and the trigger was pulled.

Everyone smiled with happiness when they saw the black hedgehog standing before them.

Shadow threw the gun to the floor and made a small smile at the group. "You guys can see me now right?"

Rouge ran over to him and hugged him tightly, "Yeah and I missed your handsome face, Shad." She leaned over to him and kissed him lightly on the lips. She took her mouth away from his as Kayla tackled him to the floor and hugged him.

"Detective Hedgehog, I missed you so much!"

Shadow practically suffocated as her grip around his body got tighter and tighter around him. He finally pulled her away from him and smiled warmly at her. "I hope you didn't get too lonely while I was gone."

She shook her head multiple times, "Nope."

"That's what I like about you, Kayla. You stand strong."

She smiled and blushed at the comment.

Later that next morning at Shadow's house, Kayla was in the living room watching cartoons while Shadow was sitting at the table in the kitchen looking through his bills until one envelope caught his eye. He set all the rest of the bills down and focused on the strange envelope. He opened it and saw a white sheet of paper in it. He unfolded it and realized it was a letter. "Wha-a letter? I hope it's not from Anita."

Dear Shadow,

Hey baby, I just found out something that you would more than likely be interested in. While one day I was messing around in a top secret military facility. I saw a beautiful red emerald. It looked like a Chaos Emerald. I was planning to snatch it and give it to you as a present but those guard robots sure are killer. I couldn't make it so I thought it would be easier to inform you about this. I hope this letter helps. I'll meet up with you soon hopefully. Later for now sexy.

Your Lover, Nails

After reading the last line, Shadow immediately threw the paper on the floor. "Nails is so sick", he muttered.

"Who's sick?" Kayla asked when she came into the kitchen.

"Uh, no one."

She took her mind off the subject and her mind suddenly brought her to Miss Jenkins. "Hey whatever happened to that really nice lady?"

"You mean the fat hippo woman? Heh, something tells me we won't ever see that old hag ever again."

"Aw, that's too bad. She seems really nice."

Shadow practically gagged at the thought of someone calling her nice. 'Nice? Yeah right.'