Thanks to Solar Tonatiuh, you guys will know the answer to the reason why Shadow didn't try to escape from Knuckles in the last chapter, or chaos control away! ^_^ All you'll have to do is read this absurdly long author's note. But I'd better start already... The reason why he didn't try to free himself was because, let's face it, if he accidentally injures Knuckles in his escape, that isn't part of helping is it? And second, Knuckles could have tightened his grip pretty fast, choking Shadow, whiiiiiiiich I did not want to write. Thirdly, my fingers were doing the typing, and leaving my brain no time to do anything other than quickly suggest ideas, and they stubbornly refused to edit it afterwards. :P For the chaos control part, yes, that idea passed through my mind, but then I thought of this: Because the chaos emeralds he used to come to the past (or the time the Sonic characters lived), they dissolved because they weren't necessary in that time (they'd go back to the future). Shadow also didn't know where the emeralds were on Angel Island, and he also is presently unaware of the fact that he doesn't need the chaos emeralds to chaos control.

Disclaimer: AND NOW FOR THE STORY!!!!!! :D And you can call me from now on...... DS! :D

But I do not want to call you DS, and no one else does either. Enjoy this chappie!

Rouge and the others protested (quite loudly) against the chains. "Knuckie there's no reason for it!"

"Oh yes there is!"

"What is it then?!"

"He can't get away with them on."

"Oh Knuckles come on! No one should be chained up!" Despite the protests, it happened. Shadow sat on the fringes of the group as they had the picnic which had been originally planned by Rouge. But Rouge sat near him, watching him. "So... what's your name? I'm Rouge." She smiled at him. He looked the other way, ignoring her. "I'll get you to talk at some point you know." No reply. "Ever heard of the Master Emerald?"

"Yes." Said Shadow. Rouge smirked.

"Good... do you know that I've been trying to steal it for the past year... and Knuckles has stopped me each time?" Shadow looked at her, with a frown.

"Why do you want to steal it?"

"It's a gem! It's gorgeous! And besides... if I decide to sell it, it could be worth a couple of fortunes." Shadow gave her a disgusted look then turned away again. Rouge sighed. "Why are you here anyway?"

"To help in the upcoming battle." Sonic, who had started to eavesdrop, yawned.

"We've heard that story already buddy... care to elaborate?" Shadow shot a glare at him.

"No... I would not." Sonic yawned again.

"Hey Tails.... do you have a mind reading device yet?"

"I have a prototype..." Said Tails.

"Think you could read his memories?" Shadow's eyes blazed.

"You have no right to search through my memories Sonic." He spat out. Sonic stepped back a pace.

"Whoa... you've got some venom don't you." Shadow turned away from them all and ignored them. Rouge's hand snaked around his shoulders and played with his chest fur.

"Come on... would you please talk to us... or..." she added in a whisper, "... would you help me steal the Master Emerald? I can pick locks, you'd be free pretty quick if you helped me." Shadow smirked slightly.

"Step back bat girl." Rouge frowned, only Knuckles had called her bat girl before. But she did. To their astonishment, Shadow whirled in a circle and stood amid the ruined chains. The manacles were still on his wrists and ankles, but he disregarded them. "I'll see you around." He said casually, whizzing away. Knuckles swore, Rouge whacked his head for such language, and Sonic ran after Shadow, with Tails in hot pursuit, that was the direction the Tornado was in.

Shadow skidded to a halt at the edge of the island. Sonic did too. "End of the line buddy, come on... I'll see if I can get Knuckles to stop the whole "chain him up" business of his, if only you'll come." Shadow smirked.

"You expect me to be an idiot don't you?" Shadow shook his head and pretended to step forward, Sonic's face brightened, but then he back flipped off the island. Sonic gave a shout of surprise as Shadow fell towards the water far below. Shadow smirked to himself and pulled from his quills the chaos emerald that had been on Angel Island, it was green. He watched the water coming closer and raised the chaos emerald. "Chaos control!" He disappeared in a flash of green light.

Of course, Sonic did not see the green flash which would have told him Shadow had chaos controlled, at that moment, he was telling the others what had happened, and they were all going out to "capture" (as Knuckles put it) Shadow again. This time... Sonic and Tails would be the "guardians" of Shadow. Unfortunately... for them at least... it turned out to not be necessary at all.

Shadow looked around the forest, hearing distant birds calling to one another he shrank against the trunk of a tree, ears twitching, trying to detect any foot falls. When he was confident that he couldn't hear any, he cautiously continued through the through the trees. It was dark, and thus, perfect for him. He wandered around for hours, memorizing the layout of the forest, then he skated to the mountains and inspected them too, finding a cave he sat down at the "mouth" of the cave and watched the forest. It was really quite pretty. He blinked. Pretty... how many ideas and feelings were connected to that word, in comparison to the people he had connected to it... only two. Maria and Sally... both of them were pretty, but in different ways, Maria was pretty like an angel (at least, that was how he thought of it), but Sally was pretty... like being tough. There was no one else he knew... "No... there is. Sonic, who's pretty annoying." At that he chuckled to himself, then resumed watching the forest.

Rouge thought for awhile then snapped her fingers. "I know! GUN's been after these two renegade Eggman robots for awhile... seeing as they're destroying all of Eggie's robots, for recruiting. Maybe we could see if they can find that hedgehog." Knuckles frowned at Rouge, he was only staying at her house because she'd said that the Master Emerald was probably safer with Vanilla and Team Chaotix than with Knuckles... and that if he didn't come she'd tell everyone he was a coward. Aaaaand at that he'd flared up... but not unreasonably, he'd just broken around thirty of her expensive vases while she'd watched him, amused.

"Is it really advisable? Eggman might start using him..."

"I don't think he'd help Eggman."

"And why not?"

"Because, he said he was going to help US in an upcoming battle. If he was going to help Eggman he could have injured you anyway." Knuckles glared.

Next morning

Shadow had been awake all night, it wasn't like he needed sleep all the time. Seeing a tree fall down in the distance he stood, the chaos emerald in his hand. He focused on that area of forest and chaos controlled. Minutes later, cold robotic eyes viewed the cave, then the robot left too. It had to report to it's master.

Eggman paced around his ship. "A strange hedgehog... who could it be...?" He quickly searched through his files, looking for the names of any other hedgehogs, other than Sonic and Amy. None appeared. Metal Sonic stood to the side, finished his mission. And now recharging. Eggman looked thoughtfully at Metal Sonic, then snapped his evil fingers. "I'll take a look through my Grandfather's files!" He quickly typed in the password, then searched. Nothing came up. Frowning, Eggman searched through the projects. Two hundred and sixty came up. Eggman opened the first. He was determined to find out who this new hedgehog was, and besides... he might get an idea for a new machine that could destroy Sonic.

"Must annihilate all Eggman robots!" Two robotic voices said at the same time. The two robots in question were both of Eggman's E-100 series. On the left was E-102 Gamma, who was charging at E-123 Omega who happened to be bulkier. Shadow stepped between the two and froze time with chaos control, deactivated their weapons, then stepped back, and watched them try to attack each other. They both ground to a halt. "Weapons error! Dysfunctional!" Said Omega.

"Weapons have ceased functioning!" Agreed Gamma. Shadow stepped forward.

"And I made them stop functioning. Who are you?" The two E series robots looked at him.

"Unable to identify life form." Said Gamma. Omega soon said the same thing. Shadow sighed.

"That's all very lovely but who are you?" Gamma and Omega looked at each other.

"E-123 Omega. Must annihilate all Eggman robots!"

"E-102 Gamma, must destroy Eggman!"

"We are the ultimate robots!" The two said in unison. Shadow looked thoroughly unimpressed.

"If you're the ultimate robots, then why are you trying to destroy each other?"

"No reason can be found in my databases." Said Omega after three seconds.

"No reason can be found in my databases either." Said Gamma after three minutes. Shadow looked at them.

"Then why are you here?"

"Life-form Rouge gave us a mission." Said Omega.

"And that was?"

"Find unnamed black hedgehog life-form." Said Gamma. Shadow looked at them.

"I am Shadow, and she meant me." The two robots looked at each other again.

"Will you come willingly?"

"Fine." Shadow shrugged, he could chaos control away at any time now that he had a chaos emerald, so he wasn't unduly concerned.

Heh heh... next chapter shall introduce FIGHTS! :D

Disclaimer: Go go Shads....... hey wait.... *screams like a girl*

Shut up!

Disclaimer: *still screaming*

I put him in a cheerleader outfit you see. ^_^