Shadow slowly uncovered Amy's ears and looked at her with worried eyes. She lifted her eyelids to see that there were no remains of the enemy in front of them.

"Who was that, Shadow?" Amy questioned innocently.

"I...I'm not sure." he answered angrily. "But whatever it was is gone now." His fingertips traced Amy's jaw and he let out a short smile. Amy giggled under her breath as she looked down to the floor. "Now all we need to do is find a way out of here..."

"Ugh..."

"What-?"

"Tails, get off of me!"

"Knuckles, move your big foot!"

"Ew, what's all this wet stuff?"

Shadow quickly stood up at the sound of his friends regaining their consciousness. Shadow laughed as he saw the small pile of animals squirming to get to their feet, their fur dripping wet.

"What are you laughing at, Shadow?" Knuckles asked.

"How funny you look right now." Shadow smirked. All of the animals jumped to their feet and walked toward Amy and Shadow. All of them had confused looks on their faces as they loaded him with penetrating questions.

"Shadow, what happened here?"

"Why are we in here?"

"What are all these computers and stuff doing here?"

"How are we getting back home?"

"That screaming...where did it come-?"

"Will all of you just shut up!" barked Shadow, annoyed. He pushed his way through the group and stood with his back facing them. He folded his arms mechanically and leaned on one foot.

"Shadow," said Sonic as he slowly pushed himself up and walked over to him, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, they're just confused." Shadow turned to face Sonic and shrugged.

"What am I supposed to tell them?" he whispered.

"Tell them what they should know, and that's it." Sonic said. Shadow shuffled to Sonic's side and eyed the beings in front of him. Amy had forced herself to the front of everyone.

"Guys..." Shadow sighed. Short and sweet. he thought. "Eggman decided to find a new accomplice, who, although, a powerful ally it was, was defeated. You guys are safe now."

"What was it?" Vanilla asked.

"Yeah, and why did it choose us to kidnap?" Knuckles added.

"Well, I would assume that it took the most vulnerable of our...circle of friends." Sonic answered, looking at Shadow's relieved face.

"I am NOT vulnerable." scoffed Knuckles.

"That's besides the point." Shadow stated. "It was trying to get to me. Eggman always tries to get to me, you should know this." Shadow stomped to the group and continued. "Listen, this was all just a more advanced version of Eggman's plans. Trust me, there's nothing more to worry about. Whatever it was is gone. You're all safe. Eggman will get what is coming to him."

"Then let's find a way out of here!" squeaked Cream cheerfully as she grabbed Amy's arm.

"I don't think we'll have such an easy time, darling." said Vanilla.

"Don't worry, I think Shadow and I have a few tricks up our sleeves." Sonic winked at Shadow. Shadow nodded in agreement and walked to one of the large computer panels that wasn't totally ruined by the cold liquid that streamed over the room.

"There has to be something, some kind of command system in here." Shadow said to himself. He scanned over the various buttons and screens. He could hear everyone mumbling behind him, but there was one voice that he couldn't hear among them. He adjusted his head to see Amy staring at him with a hopeful look. Her eyes tore through his and into his mind. She's not stupid... Shadow thought. He returned to his job, hopelessy pressing a series of buttons. After a few minutes with no luck he slammed his fists against the panel and growled.

"Wait." said Tails. "Do you hear that?" Everyone looked up at the ceiling with their ears perked.

"We're underground. You're hearing things." Shadow grumbled.

"No, it sounds like...like wind." Knuckles justified. Everyone froze. Suddenly, the ground started shaking and all of the lights dimmed. Shadow heard the screams coming from the girls and quickly ran over to them, tripping on himself.

"Guys, there's overhead doors!" Sonic yelled as he pointed above them. Shadow glanced up and realized that they were in a sort of hangar. It was night out, for the only light slipping through the cracks were fromt the moon. The doors stopped short, giving enough room for the group to see Vector hanging from a ladder. The surroundings stopped shaking as Vector cried out, "Rescue mission, party of seven!" Everyone cheered wildly and one by one were helped up the ladder by Vector into an overhead helicopter, operated by none other than Charmy and Espio. Finally, Shadow being the last one boarding, they left in the helicopter towards home.

As they began to leave Shadow stared out of the window of the helicopter, eyeing the place they had just left. He saw nothing but the opening in the ground where they had come out. In the middle of a desert? he thought. There's something else here...something... His thoughts were suddenly gone when Cream screamed with delight at some gossip that Amy was telling her. Shadow brought himself back to reality and observed the happiness that filled the space. He rested his head in his hand as he faced the window once more.

Amy looked at Shadow through the corner of her eye and frowned. Emotions flushed through her and she began to reach out to him, but then stopped. Space... she told herself. He'll be ok. I'll talk to him when we get back...

"Amy!" Cream squealed. "You didn't finish telling me!" Amy shook her head and continued her conversation with Cream.

Sonic looked at Shadow and sighed. "You know Shadow, you can't be this happy when we get saved from a death inside an underground laboratory." Sonic pursed his lips when he didn't get a reaction. Shadow wrinkled his nose. "Shadow, what's up?" He leaned over towards him so they could keep their dialogue somewhat private.

"I don't understand." Shadow said. "That thing, that...creation...what were the humans thinking! I thought they had got enough from me."

"What are you talking about?" Sonic asked.

"While you were knocked out I overheard it telling Amy that they created it to be a weapon, stronger than anything they could ever imagine. It killed them..." Shadow stopped. He turned to Sonic. "What if they were trying to develop something to overcome me!? I'm not familiar with that laboratory of the location of it but it was so similar to..." He stopped again.

"You might have to confront Eggman about it." implied Sonic. "As stupid as that fat man can be, he might know something."

"I suppose." Shadow said. "But this is why I stay away from everyone. I talked to you about this, Sonic."

"I know, I know." Sonic cupped his hands and rested his elbows on his knees. "But you can't avoid us forever. Especially...Amy." Shadow glared at him, letting go of the intensity as he came to understand that Sonic was right.

"I'm not stupid." Shadow defended himself.

"I didn't say you were." Sonic replied. "However, you haven't been really smart about...certain things." Shadow looked at Amy who was giggling along with Cream and Tails, then turned back to Sonic.

"I don't have all the answers, Sonic. I don't always know what to do." Shadow looked back through the window of the helicopter, resting his head back onto his hand.

Sonic leaned back in his seat and looked at observed the bubbly girls. Knuckles was snoring in the seat next to him and Tails was arguing with Charmy and Vector about how much better his plane was than theirs.

"Lovely bunch, aren't they?" Espio mentioned to Sonic.

Sonic grinned. "Indeed."