Once Shadow had left, the rest of my morning seemed to go by rather quickly.

I walked leisurely out to my bronco and I pulled the driver seat forward to put my purse in its usual spot. I jumped to see Shadow asleep on the back seat that was essentially a bench seat for three people. He had neither a pillow nor a blanket and was lying on his stomach, his head tilted off to the side and resting on one arm. The other arm, the one that bore no inhibitor ring, was slung off the side of the bench and his fingers where barely grazing the ground.

He stirred when I touched his hanging arm.

"Hey what are you doing out here?" I tilted my head a bit.

He let out a small yawn "I got the faker and pink out of the house earlier so I figured I could sleep here and not have to worry about your parents..." he looked to me with partially opened eyes and a flat expression, his mouth forming a perfectly neutral line that indicated no smile nor frown.

With a curt nod I pushed my seat back into place and jumped in.

As I drove we chatted a bit, he answered mostly in small noises or grumbles.

"I would have figured you to be a morning person..." I looked in the rear view mirror to him.

"Why's that?" he spoke with closed eyes.

"All your work with GUN ops, mainly."

He grumbled a bit then actually answered "if I have time to sleep and recuperate then I use it. Especially sense I can burn through my energy much faster with only three inhibitor rings."

I pulled into my parking spot and hopped out. I pulled forward my seat and looked to him with a sideways frown.

"Off to school..." I sighed heavily and he gave a small wave with his flopped arm, his eyes still shut. I noticed that the red stripe on his arm had become a bit iridescent from the constant energy flowing about freely in that area of his system.

With a small smile in his general direction I leaned away from my car and shut the door. "Hey gurrlll!" a small but cheerful voice called from behind.

I jumped a bit and turned to my friend "hey Hallie! Ready for another day in this place?" I grinned, re-adjusting my binders.

She laughed and smiled brightly, only to switch into an expression of curiosity "when did you get the ring?"

"Oh I ordered it off the web the other day; I finally found one like Shadow's." I laughed.

"You are so adorable when you geek." she giggled back, her blonde hair swaying a bit as she took into a stride next to me.

"Speaking of the sonic peoples..." she didn't look at me when she spoke, her mind in an obvious thought tumble.

"What about 'em?" my palms broke into sweat.

"Uhm- never mind- I forgot what I was going to say."

"You are so adorable when you have poor memory." I joked.

"Oh thanks." she snorted with a laugh as we entered the school.

The day droned on as it always did with no incidents whatsoever.

I was happy to learn that all missing assignments where excused for me. However, constantly being asked about my wellbeing grew to be rather annoying. Everyone wondering how I was holding up from being "jumped".

I sat down at the lunch table and let out loud sigh.

"Hey, bum." Shona plopped down next to me, pulling out her phone.

"Sup bro-ski." I nodded to her.

My friend Rachel sat across from me, her eyes lighting up "Allie you're ok! I can't believe the guy got away!"

"Uh- yea me too." I poked at my food with my fork, unsure about how hungry I was.

You need to eat. Shadow's voice echoed and I started stabbing leaves of salad.

"Did you at least get a good look at him? So maybe the cops can find him?"

"No not really. He was taller than me and I didn't see his face."

I eyed over to Shona, the only one who knew who it really was.

A text appeared on my notice bar and it came from a device that had a serial number instead of phone number.

We have to talk. Get to a secure location.

- S

I grumbled and stood abruptly.

"I have to pee." I hummed and headed toward the bathroom. I walked in one door and simply passed through the girls' room and exited the second door, ending up in the art and music wing of my school. I kept a calm pace and walked right out the door that lead to outside and to the band building.

I made a quick left and walked around to the side of the building.

I quickly texted back and a flash over my shoulder turned my attention to the dark hedgehog that had just appeared.

"What is it?" I hummed.

"We may have found the first emerald." he replied, arms crossed.

"Well that's grea-"

"That means I'll be out of contact until I come back. So you have to be careful."

A chill rolled down my spine and knotted in my stomach.

"Make sure your never alone.-"

I tried to cut him off "but what if-"

However, he kept going anyway.

"-now. Since the only mobians we know exist in this realm are Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, Mephiles and myself, I can't actually leave anyone behind to protect you.-"

"But I-" I jumped in and I started to panic a bit "- what if the energy becomes unstable again? What will I do if Mephiles shows? How long will you even be gone?"

He looked to the ground in thought "that I am unsure of. But we believe the emerald is in Portland."

"That's like a 3 hour car drive from here!"

"I know that. But it is a 30 minute run for someone such as sonic or I."

He tilted his head back up to look at me.

"You'll be fine. You just have to be careful. Now here, hand me the inhibitor ring." He held out his hand, palm toward the sky.

I attempted to spin the ring off but I had found no success.

"I uh… I don't know how…"

He scoffed simply and I held out my arm.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me over a bit. He then ran a finger over the midline of the gold ring, the midline then illuminated and I felt the ring detach from my skin. With a twist it expanded and he released the ring from my wrist, pulling it off over my hand.

"So that's how you get that off?" I massaged where the ring used to be, surprised more people haven't said anything about it.

I eyed my wrist, a weird scaring and burned loop on my skin from where the ring had latched onto my system.

The veins on the underside of my wrist where a darker blue and new veining was etched on in an irritated skin red, mixed with a light purplish-blue color.

My heart was beginning to race from the energy having no restraints.

I drew out a shaky long breath.

He handed the ring back and I slid it onto its rightful spot, my pulse calming.

"I charged the ring to last for about 3 days."

"You're going to be gone for 3 days?!" I wanted to punch him…

… I wanted to punch him right in the face…

… Like, really hard…

"Allie?" I heard a familiar voice over my shoulder and we both turned to see molly standing with wide eyes at my companion.

God damn it.

"I thought you said you where-" Shadow started with a snarl, taking a few steps away from me.

"I know what I said." I snapped back to him with a small hiss to my words.

Molly closed her eyes and rubbed her temples "you know what- I have a migraine and don't really want to know right now..." she frowned and let out a breath.

I wasn't as surprised by her reaction as I thought I would have been.

"How long has he been here." her eyes where back open and she held a flat expression.

"A week-ish..." I felt sort of ashamed for not telling one her about his arrival.

Shadow turned on heal to leave but I was quick to grab his arm.

"Hey we weren't done talking." I gripped his wrist tightly and he glared up to me.

"We'll finish talking when you are in a secure location." his voice was cold.

With a strong pull, he tore his arm out of my grip. "What did I tell you about touching me, human." he snarled.

"Wow- you are way more of a douche than I thought you would be." Molly added in and received a glare from the ebony hedgehog.

A gust of wind pushed my hair into my face and a chipper voice ached in my ears.

"Ok, shads! Ready to go?" he grinned to me with a wave.

"Don't call me Shads, faker." Shadow returned with a snarl.

However, Sonic ignored Shadow and was quick to notice molly, smiling over to her as well.

"Oh! who's this?"

"I'm molly." she introduced herself, her voice was a calm and bored tone "Nice to meet ya' sonic."