Not to worry, I still have tons of ideas to run through that I`ve had since chapter 1. Though it`s pretty awesome that this project is the longest running one I`ve had and has had more chapters to it than any other project I`ve had. I`m rather happy with this. I hope you are, too.
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At the cafeteria table, Sonic has his arms folded. He sighs with his eyes closed and says,"Well, now that Shadow has once again gotten detention for both himself and me..."

Rouge looks at Shadow,"Shadow, you should join us in the talent show for the fund raiser."

Shadow is less than enthusiastic for the idea. Currently, he`s sitting at the end of the table, with Maria beside him. His arms are folded and he`s looking down at the table, deep in thought in whether or not what he did was such a good idea since it seems to have upset Maria. Has he already screwed up his chances with her? When Rouge speaks to him, he doesn`t move his gaze from the table and his tone reflects how displeased he is with participation,"No thanks."

Maria looks at Rouge,"Fund raiser?"

Rouge turns her attention to Maria,"Yeah, the fund raiser Station Square runs every year. They have talent shows and other events for people to go to and buy tickets to see. They raise money to give to charities. The talent show also awards money to the top 3 winners."

Maria smiles,"Wow, that sounds like fun."

Amy suddenly pipes up with an idea,"Hey, why not we have boys versus girls? It`ll make the talent show more interesting."

Rouge smiles,"I like that idea."

Sonic smiles,"Hey yeah, that could be fun. It`ll be something different."

Sonic smacks Shadow`s shoulder with the back of his hand,"You should join us, Shad."

Shadow shifts his eyes upward from his downward brooding state, looking at Sonic rather darkly,"I`ll pass."

Maria has a wide smile on her face. She didn`t hear Sonic and Shadow`s mini conversation,"That sounds like a lot of fun!"

She turns to Shadow,"Will you be in the talent show, too, Shadow?"

Shadow turns to Maria, with an obvious surprised expression on his face, though his arms remain folded,"Uh..."

Maria leans towards Shadow some,"Aww, come on. Please, Shadow?"

There`s those two famous, magic words again. Shadow lowers his head a little, softening his expression to Maria and says,"All right."

Sonic winks,"Great!"

Blaze nods her head,"We should start practice as soon as possible."

Amy looks at Blaze,"Maybe we can start tonight?"

Just then, Shadow`s cell phone rings. He digs into his pocket to fetch it as Maria turns her head to look at him. Her smile has dropped. Looking at the screen, Shadow sees it`s GUN contacting him. Knowing he`s at school right now, they`ve sent a text message. GUN is expecting him to carry out a mission today after school. Shadow closes the phone and sighs as he puts the phone back in his pocket. Maria looks a little sad,"You`ve got work, huh?"

"Yeah..."

Shadow turns his head and looks at Maria,"But it`s a small one. It won`t take long. You can go ahead with the girls and I`ll meet with you later."

Maria starts to smile a little,"All right."

Rouge has her arms folded and her expression is of boredom. Her tone reflects this as well,"So what time you want her back home, Shadow?"

Shadow doesn`t even look at Rouge, picking right up on the attitude she has suddenly adopted. He turns his head at an angle away from her and downward somewhat to show his dislike to her attitude,"Early enough she`ll have rest for tomorrow`s classes."

Amy tries to keep the scene light by using a positive tone to her voice,"Nine o`clock it is. We`ll take her back to the condo."

Shadow turns his head to Amy but doesn`t say anything. His silent "thank yous" are something to take time to get used to. Amy looks at Maria,"This will be great, we`ll have lots of fun!"

As school ends, Sonic and Shadow stay behind to serve their detentions. Everyone else leaves. The girls, including Cream, go to Amy`s house to work out their plans for the talent show. The boys, however, decide to go to Knuckles`s house for their plans. Once detention is done, Shadow heads out to do that mission GUN called him for and Sonic races off to meet the guys.

Both sides have decided that their show would be a music thing. But what song and how to execute it? Then there`s costume and what everyone`s role will be. Well, tonight, only some of those things will be decided on. The guys decide they will do the band thing, where they will play the actual instruments and sing the song themselves. The girls, however, will have a recording of the music play, and they will do the singing and dancing for it. Both sides decide to keep their performance a secret from the other to keep it a surprise until the day of the talent show. It would help the peace between the sides and make it so that one side won`t change their plans to try and one-up the other. It will be interesting to see which side will win. The boys? Or the girls?

It`s a little past 9 o`clock, which prompts Amy to quickly interrupt the girls` meeting for the talent show plans. They need to get Maria home! The whole group will walk Maria home, they need to get home themselves anyway. Plus, Maria hasn`t learned the navigation of the city yet so she would definitely need guidance.

It`s pretty dark out and the traffic has slowed down tremendously from the day so things are quieter for their walk. During this walk, the girls decide to discuss costume design. They can`t quite agree, especially Amy and Rouge. Maria stays out though, letting everyone else decide. She isn`t sure of costume design and would be happy with whatever everyone decides on. Cream is just a kid so she can`t really contribute to the decision.

There is a pick-up truck coming so the girl group stop at the intersection to let the truck pass through. They need to cross the intersection to continue on to the condo complex area. While they wait for the truck to pass, Rouge and Amy still can`t agree on costume design. Then Blaze comes up with a suggestion,"Let`s just combine the two. Make a compromise."

Rouge and Amy both stop and turn to Blaze. That`s a good idea. No one looses then. Perfect!

Then they hear a guy`s voice,"Hey, girls, what`s up?"

The girls all turn around and see that the truck they were allowing to pass before they cross this intersection has stopped by them. It`s the driver talking to them and his passenger, also a guy, smiles silently from his seat. This immediately gets Amy upset, not wanting anyone but Sonic making moves on her. She stomps her foot angrily,"Great! They think we`re a bunch of 'ladies of the night'!"

Then the driver says,"I`ll take the blonde."

Rouge huffs,"Beat it, losers."

"Hey, where`s the fire?"

She walks behind the truck, wanting to just cross the intersection and just get away from these guys. The rest of the girls follow Rouge`s lead, also walking behind the truck and wanting to escape the scene. The truck begins to pulls off. As she passes by, Amy wants to give these guys one last piece before moving on. She pulls down her eye lid and sticks her tongue out at the guys where they could see her in the rear view mirror. The truck suddenly stops. Amy pulls her hand from her face, quickly withdrawing her tongue. The truck is thrown in reverse with the driver angrily yelling at Amy for the face she made at him. Amy quickly runs to catch up with the group,"Guys! Run!!"

Hearing Amy`s warning and the sound of the truck coming closer, the girls quickly put two and two together. Everyone begins to bolt. No telling if whether or not this guy is carrying any weaponry in his truck like a gun. Amy and Blaze are among the fastest of the runners. Rouge is second, followed by Cream. Poor Maria isn`t as quick as the others and already she is growing tired with her weak body. She falls behind quickly. As she is the slowest, Maria becomes the first target for the truck driver.

Lining up his truck, the driver suddenly turns the steering wheel over and makes the truck sharply veer towards Maria. Luckily, she sees it in time and is able to stop herself before the truck hits her. So, the truck hits a pole instead of Maria. As a result of trying to stop herself so quickly, Maria falls. She falls in a way where she does land on her rear but also somewhat sideways so she uses her hands to stop herself from falling completely on the sidewalk.

Now the truck driver is even more enraged about his truck hitting the pole.

The truck starts backing up as the driver clearly voices his feelings. Maria`s own feelings are of fear. She tries to get up but her lack of strength won`t permit it. She can`t get up. best she can do is a bit of flopping as she tries to get up.

Amy, Rouge, Blaze and Cream have come aware of Maria`s situation. The truck is positioning itself to hit helpless Maria. The girls quickly run back to the scene to try and save Maria before she gets seriously hurt.

Suddenly, Shadow comes out of nowhere and leaps on the driver`s side of the truck. One hand grasps the edge of the open window, one foot is on the side view mirror for balance. His other hand quickly grabs the steering wheel and turns it hard. The truck swerves and misses Maria, in fact hitting the same pole.

The girls stop running when they see Shadow handling the situation. They feel it best to keep their distance to keep out of the line of fire that is surely to come.

The driver directs his anger towards Shadow now. He throws it in reverse and tries to shake Shadow off the truck. This attempt fails horribly. Not only is Shadow still attached the to the truck, but he is still capable on continuing his defending Maria. His hand that once gripped the steering wheel earlier now grips the guy`s throat. As an instant reaction, the guy`s hands instantly go to Shadow`s hands in attempt to remove them from his throat. Since no one is controlling the steering wheel, the truck becomes out of control. The truck wobbles side to side and eventually comes to a stop against the side of a building, smashing up the backside.

Shadow`s feet plop down on the sidewalk. With one good heave, Shadow yanks out the driver right out the window and throws him down on the sidewalk. The guy lands on his back. For that split moment, Shadow turns his eyes to the passenger in the truck. That guy is too scared to come out of the truck. Smart move. Shadow turns back to to the driver. The driver is attempting to get up from the sidewalk. Shadow foils that plan with a swift kick to the face. The guys goes flying back down onto the sidewalk.

Inside, Shadow badly wants to trash this guy for putting Maria in such danger. The guy could`ve killed Maria with such a move, but judging by the smell, the guy isn`t in his right mind to realize what he`s doing. What he ought to do is kill the guy. Killing doesn`t bother Shadow in the least. However, Maria`s reaction to it would bother him. She didn`t approve of how bad he beat the kid at school, she won`t approve of him killing this guy either. Luckily, despite his rage, his brain is functioning well enough to remind him of Maria`s opinion of his actions. He is trying to keep in her good favour after all. So, instead of blasting the guy`s head off his shoulders, as originally planned, Shadow settles for giving the guy a few kicks. A couple to the ribs and some to the head. Enough blood to get the message across to stay away but enough health left over that he`ll live...if his friend gets him to the hospital in time.

Shadow leaves the truck driver on the sidewalk to face the pain and heads over to Maria. Maria is relieved that Shadow is allowing the guy to live and also quite relieved that he showed up just in the nick of time to save her from being run over. He leans over and helps Maria get up to her feet. By this point, the other girls feel it`s safe enough to move in on the scene. They come up to Shadow and Maria, all asking if Maria is all right. She checks herself over for any injuries. Her hip is sore from flopping on it and her knee on that side has minor scrapings. Doesn`t look too bad. Shadow happens to see the scrapings on his hands from when she braced herself form the fall on the sidewalk. Concrete is pretty rough on the skin. Maria downplays the injuries though,"I`m sure everything will be fine. I`ll just need to clean them and they`ll heal up."

Shadow`s red eyes narrow a little at seeing the injuries. At least the guy already got dealt with. Now is the time for the healing. First, he needs to get her home. Shadow looks at Maria,"Can you walk all right?"

Maria looks right back up at Shadow with her innocent, blue eyes,"I think so."

"All right, let`s go."

Beginning to walk away, Shadow`s hand finds it`s way on the small of Maria`s back in an escorting manner as she walks beside him. The other girls decide to walk with Shadow and Maria, actually walking behind them, feeling it safer to travel with a guy present in case there are anyone else like the truck driver roaming around. Cream lives down this direction so they might as well walk her home, too. Shadow doesn`t seem to mind the extra company, or at least he isn`t chasing them away. The only downside to all the girls traveling with Shadow is that another guy driving by gets the wrong idea and shouts a praise to Shadow for having all the girls with him. This annoys him greatly but he decides to let it go.

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