When Amy got back to her house she began to look around outside to see if there were any signs of a struggle or really anything at all that would give her a clue as to where Carm might have gone. There had to be something that Vector didn't notice after he stopped looking. Carm couldn't have just disappeared without a trace. Her clothes had been noticed, so there had to be something else that would point in the right direction.

Amy searched for almost an hour. Finding nothing, she sat down at her front door and sighed deeply. "I guess I'll just have to talk to Kaoru when she gets back," she mumbled to herself.

"Talk to her about what?" Sonic asked, appearing in front of her. "What were you looking for?"

"Nothing, Sonic," Amy said stiffly, not looking up at him.

"It doesn't look like nothing. In fact, it kind of looked important from my point of view. You wouldn't have looked so long if it wasn't. Sounds like it's about Kaoru, right? I think I know where she is." Amy's head snapped up at this. "I heard her arguing with Shadow a few days ago. I think she's supposed to meet him somewhere around here. I don't know all the details but..."

"She's meeting Shadow?" Amy jumped up, smiling brightly. "That's wonderful! You have to take me to her! Right now! I need to see what she's doing. Let's go!" Clearly all of Amy's previous worries had been forgotten.

Sonic was confused by her enthusiasm, but he was happy that she was at least paying attention to him again. "Well, I don't exactly know where they are... I just..."

"YOU'RE THE FASTEST PERSON EVER! JUST RUN EVERYWHERE AND WE'LL FIND THEM EVENTUALLY! LET'S GO!" she yelled, running off a few meters before stopping to look at Sonic. "You know where they are! Not me! Let's go!"

Shadow leaned against a tree and frowned at the chameleon sleeping in a nearby burrow. He hadn't expected anyone to be around while he met Kaoru here and it was too late to change the location. It didn't make any sense. He had picked to meet in the forest because of the lack of chance that people would be around and now he had to deal with rogue chameleon.

From somewhere ahead, he heard someone yelp before what sounded like a bunch of twigs snapped. Someone must have tripped and fallen. He cursed to himself and cast a glance at the chameleon, who didn't seem to woken up. She sighed softly and turned over, causing Shadow to roll his eyes. She was so exposed out her. Anything could happen to her and she didn't even care. Slowly he walked past her towards the noise, scowling deeply. "Can you be making any more noise?" he sneered at the hare.

Kaoru pulled herself up and glared. "It's not like there's anyone around to hear us."

"That's where you'd be wrong. We should move before we're overheard."

"If you're trying to lure me into the forest, you can forget it!" Kaoru practically screamed.

Shadow moved so fast that she could barely see him. He covered her mouth from behind and hissed, "Shut up. She doesn't look that stable. If you wake her up who knows what will happen?"

"What the lemon are you talking about?" Kaoru said in a harsh whisper, turning to him after she released her. "There's no one here but us."

"Look, this isn't the time to argue. We have to..."

"This is taking too long," Kaoru said, getting impatient. "Can you just tell me what the favor is? I'd like to get out of here before..."

Suddenly, hands were on Kaoru's shoulders as she was forced to the ground from behind. Shadow jumped back a couple of steps, watching the struggle with disdain. From above, Ash fell onto Shadow's head, making him fall backwards. She untwisted herself from Shadow and jumped onto Carm, pulling her off of the hare who had refused to fight back against the chameleon.

"What the hell was that?" Ash asked after Carm managed to escape and run away. "And you!" she pointed into Kaoru's face. You've studied martial arts for years! You have black belts for heck's sake! What were you doing?"

Kaoru mumbled something about being a pacifist before turning back to Shadow to find Amy behind him, staring wide-eyed at the group in front of her. "Hey, Amy," Kaoru waved awkwardly.

The pink hedgehog opened and closed her mouth a few times before saying, "I...Sonic went after her. I was looking for you to tell you that she had been missing for a while. She must have been following you..."

"What?" Kaoru asked confused before shaking her head. "Nevermind. We'll figure it out later. Shadow, what was it that you needed?"

Shadow looked around himself at his two unwanted visitors before giving up and fishing a piece of paper out of his pocket. "I need you to build me something," he told her.

"You...What?" This was no where near where Kaoru thought this meeting was going to go. Yes, she had nearly been killed, but not at the hands of Shadow.

"Look," Shadow unfolded the piece of paper in his hand and showed her a diagram for a robot. "I need you to build this for me."

She took the paper from his hands. "Can't Tails do this?"

"I don't think Tails would want to. This is more of a...toy," Shadow replied, almost embarrassed.

"Toy? I don't think I can..."

"Don't lie to me," Shadow said flatly. "I've seen your notebook. I've seen all your pictures and plans. You have all the connections and materials needed to build this. You'd be willing to do it... And you owe me a favor."

"I..." Kaoru stared down at the paper. The picture was of a young girl. Along the side of the picture, there was a list of things Shadow would like the "toy" to do. "I think I can do this," she said finally. "I'll just need a few days."

Shadow nodded tersely and turned away. "I can give you a few days."

"Toys?" Ash asked after he was gone, taking the paper from Kaoru's hands.

"Yeah," Kaoru said. "Toys."

A/N

Well everyone, that's it! That's the end of New Girl In Town! This leads directly into Sonic Products (with a three year gap) and there are hints as to what happened. Carm was put into a mental institution. This is how Kaoru got into the toy business. I pretty much refuse to make a Maria toy (And I doubt I'll change my mind) so this was a hint at one. And don't forget that you can read about Kaoru's childhood in Raising Kaoru.

Tell me all your thoughts in the review section.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in my other stories.

Have a good day and DFTBA