Through the city of Station Square, Sonic appears as nothing more than a blue blur. He zips here and there, seeming to be looking for something. He looks around as he runs on the streets of the city, avoiding the cars. He has been running for some time now and is just about done covering Station Square.

In the condo, Shadow and Maria return. Shadow is ending a phone call on his cell that he received from GUN. He still hasn`t told Maria that he works for them or that they were the ones who called. But they have a mission for him nonetheless and he has to go take care of it tonight. This means leaving Maria to herself sooner than expected, Shadow is hesitant to do it. With the phone in hand, Shadow drops his hand to the side and sighs, feeling frustration from this decision. He watches Maria take her shoes off and leave them by the door. She is bearing a smile on her face as she had enjoyed the motorcycle ride. Maria happily comes up to Shadow and wraps her arms around his abdomen, leaning her head into him,"Mmmm~!"

As she hugs him, Shadow puts his free arm around Maria. Maria tilts her head up, looking up to Shadow,"Thank you for the ride on your bike, Shadow. I really enjoyed it."

Shadow softens up his expression a little at hearing Maria. He lowers his head down so that it sits on top of hers,"You`re welcome."

Maria makes a small noise, which indicates that she is happy. Shadow shifts his eyes down to his cell phone in his hand then shifts his look down to Maria. It`s either go do these missions or run out of finances where he can`t support Maria. It may not bother him to live on the streets but it would bother Maria, not to mention be extremely dangerous for her health. He is in sole responsibility for her care, she is counting on him to be able to provide for her.

Maria finally releases Shadow and begins heading to the bedroom, expecting Shadow to do the same. Shadow watches her backside as she walks away from him. Shadow lowers his head a little, puts his free hand on his hip and his hand with the cell phone rises up. This hand scratches the phone`s corner against his head as he prepares himself to say to Maria,"Maria...?"

"Mm?"

Maria stops and turns around to face Shadow. Her smile isn`t present on her face but she still looks so innocent. Innocence seems to be just pouring from her with the expression she is looking to Shadow with. It makes him hesitant to say anything more. He looks back to Maria with a softened expression, almost guilty. His silence causes Maria to step back towards him and ask,"What is it, Shadow?"

The hand holding the cell phone drops again and Shadow directs his eyes away from Maria for a moment, down to the floor. When she stands right in front of him, Shadow looks back to her. Now Maria looks like she is worried that something is wrong. She begins to draw her hands together and holding them to her chest. This gesture she usually uses either when she`s worried or she is excited. The latter is not the reason for it this time. Shadow finally speaks,"I`m sorry, Maria...I`m being called away for a job tonight."

A smile starts to work back on her face,"Oh is that what it is? You had me worried that something serious was happening."

"I don`t want to leave you by yourself."

Maria smiles up to Shadow,"It`s all right. I`ll be fine. I will stay here and work on Sudoku puzzles until I fall asleep."

"Are you sure?"

"I will be fine, don`t worry about it."

Maria gives Shadow a hug around his neck. Shadow gives her a hug back, one arm around her upper back and the other around her waist. Maria still has a smile on her face,"I will be right here when you come back."

"All right...Stay inside, ok, Maria?"

"I promise."

Shadow releases Maria as she releases him,"I`ll be back as soon as I can."

Maria gives Shadow a little wave,"All right. Bye. Good luck with work."

As Shadow leaves the condo, he locks the door behind him. After that, Maria goes into the bedroom. She is reminded of their like on the Arc; Shadow would go into his training and she would be in her room.

Before she settles in, Maria changes to her night wear, which has been wearing one of Shadow`s white button shirts. After that, she sets her headband on the dresser and climbs into bed. She grabs her Sudoku book and a pen and begins to work on a few of the puzzles.

It`s already pretty late in the night so by the time she drifts off to sleep, Maria has just one puzzle completed. She falls asleep being somewhat upright against the pile of pillows. She is on her side and the Sudoku book that was in her hand slips from her grip and flops on the bed. The way she looks now, Maria looks exhausted, totally wiped out from the excitement of the day.

When Maria wakes, it`s still late at night, about 2am. What wakes her up is the sound of someone knocking on the door. Maria sits up and rubs her eye with the palm of her hand, which is covered by the sleeve that is too long for her. She looks at the clock to check the time. Who could it be knocking at the door? Shadow must have forgotten his key when he left.

As the knocking continues, Maria sleepily climbs out of bed. She straightens out the shirt when she stands to cover everything up to the best of the shirt`s ability and she exits the bedroom. She walks down the extremely short hallway and enter the living room. Everything is dark, none of the light are on. Maria can barely see where the furniture is to avoid walking into them. She yawns and works on unlocking the front door and begins to smile. As she pulls open the door, a dark figure at the door suddenly reaches in and grabs Maria by the front of the shirt.

The sun is beginning to rise. It`s rays cover over the city. Today is Sunday, which means school will begin tomorrow. There`s still time for fun for the students so everyone is trying to squeeze in last minute fun activities before they have to go back to school. No one has seen Sonic since he did his run around Station Square and then suddenly took off for the Mystic Ruins. Tails is still missing, too.

It is at the beginning of sunrise that Shadow returns to the condo. As he rides the elevator up to the floor where he and Maria stays, he checks his cell phone for the time. 6am. He stuffs the phone back in his pants pocket, glad to have today`s job done. At least GUN still needs him so he won`t have worry too much about being out of work. Activity has picked up so GUN has become busier. This may work in Shadow`s favour for both the financial needs and also perhaps they`re too busy to have seen the news about Maria being brought down from the Arc and revived. Time will tell.

After exiting the elevator, Shadow walks down the hall towards the door to his and Maria`s condo. He pulls out his key, ready to unlock the door. But when he gets there, he finds that the door is left ajar. That`s not how Shadow left it. He had closed and locked the door when he left. And if Maria did break her promise and left, she wouldn`t leave the door open. Shadow quickly runs up to the door and enters the condo with a small bit of hope that Maria is still there and alive,"Maria!"

He pushes open the door, uncaring of how rough he shoves the door open. Looking around the living room, it looks like most of everything is in it`s place. The only thing that has changed is that a little table by the door has been knocked over. Shadow stares at this for a few moments. It`s small but feels very ominous to Shadow. But he has to be sure. He dashes through the condo, calling for Maria, checking all the rooms to see if she was still around. All of her items are still here but she is nowhere to be found. Getting very worried, Shadow darts out of the condo, though he manages to close the door and lock it behind him.

Sonic finally returns to Station Square after his trip to the Mystic Ruins. He exits the train station and scratches the side of his head,"Ugh..."

He is quickly greeted by Knuckles, Silver and Blaze. Knuckles is the first to arrive to Sonic,"There you are, we`ve been looking all over for you."

Sonic turns his attention to his friends and put his fists on his hips, but his cocky smile is absent,"What`s going on?"

"There`s some weird stuff going on."

Blaze speaks up next,"Marine is missing-"

Sonic shakes his head and looks off to the side,"I`m noticing. A few other people are missing, too. Tails disappeared. I can`t find Amy anywhere and she isn`t answering her phone..."

Knuckles looks seriously at Sonic,"Do you think Eggman is behind all this?"

Sonic turns back to looking at Knuckles,"I`m pretty sure of it."

Silver suddenly points off behind Sonic and exclaims,"Hey, here comes Shadow!"

Sonic turns around and sees the black blur of Shadow coming right up to them. Shadow stops right in front of Sonic and seems clearly angry,"Have any of you seen Maria?"

Blaze widens her eyes,"Maria was kidnapped, too?"

" 'Too'?"

Sonic nods his head,"Yeah, there are some other people missing as well. They must have taken Maria, too."

Silver balls both of his hands into fists,"We`re about to go see if Eggman has them."

If Eggman does have her, Maria would be exposed to all kinds of filthy conditions and could be sick. Who knows what the man is doing to her since he was giving the impression that he was going to let her die the first time he had her. Plus, Eggman may still be holding a grudge against Shadow for taking Maria AND the chaos emerald. Shadow then decides that he should go along with the group if it means he`ll find Maria.

The five of them immediately make tracks for heading to Eggman`s city. It`s the likelier choice of where he could be found. Sonic and Shadow can`t run too fast or else their comrades would be left too far behind. So, it takes them about an hour to get there. But their trip is wasted. Eggman is nowhere to be found in his city. Not even any of the missing people. In fact, his robots that usually patrol are inactive and don`t seem to care that Sonic is present. This is highly suspicious. That can`t be worried about now. Finding the missing people are what`s more important. But where would Eggman be with them?

The group of five will continue their search. But since Eggman wasn`t in his city, Sonic and Shadow decide to scout ahead and check other areas. If they find out where Eggman is, they will give Knuckles and the others a call on the cell phone. In the meantime, Knuckles, Silver and Blaze are in their own group checking other areas. It shouldn`t be too difficult to find such a large man.

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