Now then, did you guys notice that on each Sonic story, be it on the Games of Archie, there are always teams of 3 for each Sonic character?

Team Heroes is always Sonic, Tails & Knuckles;

Team Dark is always Shadow, Rouge and E-123 Omega;

Team Rose is Amy, Cream and Blaze (BIG DOESN'T COUNT);

Team Babylon is always Jet, Wave and Storm;

Team Chaotix is always Espio, Charmy and Vector (With a bit of Mighty in the mix);

Team Hooligan is always Fang/Nack, Bean and Bark (With a bit of Nicollete, I guess.).

So then, why not create a Team set for Maria to be in? While E09ETM has Team Magic on his DeviantArt, I'll have a different team for Maria in this story: Team Light. Currently, I'm organizing Team Light including Maria, and her newfound friend, Honey, now, I need a 3rd character, and I wanna know: Do you guys want this 3rd Character to be official or Fan-made?

Arriving in Station Square, Shadow looked around the place while messing a bit with his cellphone. He was still trying to locate the source of the Chaos Energy that had suddenly appeared in the outskirts of Station Square in the Green Fields. He was waiting for his Team to arrive to help him with the search of that source, but he was still pretty much confused. Once he inspected the area back there, he saw that the Chaos Energy source was the genuine article, but it just felt weaker than before. However, he also noted the Energy was sort of similar to his, only not in a destructive way.

"…Whoever is using this Chaos Energy might have something related to me… But I'm not sure about that, yet." Shadow talked to himself. "Still… Did Dr. Gerald make another Ultimate Life-Form like me…? It doesn't seem like so…"

There were still a lot of mysteries about this person managing to control Chaos Energy that Shadow wanted to find out, and he will do so, and no one will stop him!

MARIA
BETWEEN ANGELS & DEVILS

Episode 2: The Angel's Training

Having traveled with the group on the Tornado 6, Maria arrived on Tails' Workshop that was located on the Hillsides of Station Square. It was a very simple place, it looked like a Plane Hangar from the outside, but it had lots of details outside that made the place look like a small part of the Cyberpunk trope that the main city had. Maria was a bit surprised.

The fighter plane then started to land using the same landing gears for VTOL, which had now formed small wheels, as it then landed and started stopping on the runway that was being used for the plane; it then stopped in front of the workshop, making everyone being free to exit the plane and check out the main place.

"This feels very small… At least for me…" Maria said, commenting on the workshop.

"Well, yeah, it is very small on the outside…" Tails said. "But once you enter, you're going to say otherwise."

And once the 4 did, Maria just inhaled in surprise.

The Workshop did look even bigger on the inside, especially the initial living room. It was very spacious, having a big enough window by the side, a long couch that turns a bit around the wall, a small table in the middle before the Widescreen TV that was stuck to the wall.

"…T…This feels…a lot bigger than the room I live…" Maria commented.

"Where do ya live then, Maria?" Sonic asked her.

"A-A small room at the Station Square city… Inside a hotel…" She answered.

"I see, so that's why you got so surprised." Tails commented. "Well, make yourself at home if you want, you can get back to your apartment later, I mean, like I said, I just wanted to know more about you and make you be more comfortable."

Honey jokingly approached from behind and hugged Tails a bit, to which Tails reacted in surprise and reared back from her. "What are you doing!?"

"Why, can't I hug an old friend, Tails~nyan?" She giggled.

"Are you two… dating perhaps…?" Maria asked, to which Tails blushed heavily.

"NO! W-What gave you that idea!?" Tails answered. "S-She just likes to tease me a lot!"

Maria laughed a slight bit. "Well, it does seem like you two are a couple. A cute one at that!"

"Well, while you can say that…" Tails spoke, scratching his head a bit. "…I haven't really… had a really good luck with relationships."

"Ah, don't feel so bad, Tails!" Sonic said, tapping Tails' back. "You'll find someone to get it on with. Heck, Honey here's a good candidate."

Tails blushed again. "Like I don't freaking know that…" Honey hugged him again, only it was a bit better this time.

"It's all better, Tails~nyan!" She said, hugging him nicely. Maria could notice Tails slightly smiled as Honey hugged him. "…He's really wanting to have a girlfriend…" she thought, going to sit down at the couch. After Honey let Tails go, he went to sit across from her while Honey sat beside her. Sonic went to sit on the other couch.

"So, Maria… You come from the ARK, right?" Tails asked, in which she nodded. "Is it safe to assume that… You are someone that lived in it?"

"The first thing I knew about me was my real name… Which is Maria Robotnik." She answered, and that just did it for both Tails and Sonic.

"And when you think she's gone, too…" Sonic commented. Maria looked confused.

"Listen… We kind of know who you are; we just don't know how did you… 'Revive', per say, as a Hedgehog." Tails said. "Can you tell me what were you first experience after 55 years?"

Maria breathed for a moment before then calming down enough and remembering her first experience living after lots of years presumed 'dead'.

"It was… very weird." She started. "I was encased in a capsule of some sort… It was very cold… But then, the capsule started to heat up, and I started to wake up… After a bit, I was able to walk normally around the… small room I was. I was basically a bit naked and quickly became embarrassed. But exploring the room around me allowed me to find a small compartment where the clothes I currently wear were in."

"Did you manage to get out of that room at first?" Tails asked, in which Maria shook her head.

"The room was locked from the outside." She said. "Then, I started hearing a voice through my headphones. He presented himself as… Gerald Robotnik…? I think that was his name…"

"Do you know who that old man was?" Sonic asked, to which Maria shook her head yet again. "Well, he was your granddad."

"My… Grandfather?" Maria's assumption that Gerald was a familiar then was right. "…I see…"

"…Did you have an assumption?" Tails asked, to which Maria did her first nod.

"When he said his full name, I saw his surname was similar to mine, so I had that assumption in my head." She answered.

"Oh boy, do I have a doozy…" Sonic said, to which Maria turned to look at him. "You know that guy, Dr. Eggman you just kicked the ass off?"

"Uhh… What about it?" Maria was pretty much confused.

"…His real name is Ivo Robotnik. And he's your cousin." Sonic's answer made Maria gasp a slight bit. "Yeah, like I told ya: A real doozy."

"B-But why is he doing all those things in d-destroying the city?! T-That's not right!" Maria argued.

"Maria, listen…" Tails started. "If you were here 5 years earlier, you would understand." Maria turned to Tails. "Before I dwell further into this, I need to know more about your first experiences, more likely how you learned the Chaos Control."

"Well, that's when… my grandfather was talking to me through these Headphones." Maria said while she pulled off the headphones from her head.

"Wow! They're really stylish~nyan!" Honey commented.

"I know, right?" Maria said back while handing the device to Tails to inspect it. "He told me about the many events that happened on the ARK and… he was the one that taught me how to do the Chaos Control with my Fake Emerald." She showed the Yellow Emerald again.

"Hm. I see…" Tails said, still checking out the headphones.

"After that…" Maria continued "…Gerald told me about the pictures of both my room and Station Square, and I practiced my Chaos Control with that. It's… how I was able to also use it again at that battle, although, I only used it to teleport. Never to… Stop time altogether…"

"So that was the first time you stopped time using the Fake Emerald?" Tails asked, to which Maria nodded. "Whoa… I've seen Shadow do that a lot of times, but he was only able to slow time to a good point, and he never really stopped it altogether."

"Well, it felt to me she managed to stop time." Sonic commented.

(A/N: Spare me your DIO or Sakuya memes, please.)

"Then maybe her Chaos Energy capabilities are larger than Shadow…?" Tails thought, but then he noticed Maria was holding her head a bit. "A-Are you okay?!"

"I-It's that… name… 'Shadow'… It's just making me hurt my head so much…!" She answered, holding her head a bit.

Tails and Sonic looked at each other, then at Maria, then back at each other. Then, the two started to talk by themselves for a moment, with Honey trying to help Maria cope with her headache. "You have Amnesia, right…?" She asked her.

"Y-Yeah… I-I don't remember a lot…" Maria answered. "But that name just… hurts my head… I want to find out who it is, but… I can't do that without risking my mind…"

"It's gonna be fine." Honey reassured her. "Just don't think about it too much~nyan."

Maria nodded as she breathed a bit and calmed down, the headache disappearing as she smiled to Honey. "…Thanks."

"So…" Tails spoke again, making Honey and Maria turn to him. "You have a type of Amnesia, which makes your head hurt if you try to remember very important people of things, so we've decided to… be a bit more careful on that note."

"Thank you…" Maria said back. "This could make me more comfortable."

"Now then… What did you do after you managed your Chaos Control and things in the ARK?" Tails asked.

"I… packed up my things and then used Chaos Control again to appear in Station Square. I managed to buy a room and get myself fitted in." She answered, finishing her story and with Tails handing back her headphones.

"That was… a pretty weird first experience, if you do let me comment." Tails said. "So, you might probably still need help in… getting used to the new environment, I guess, right?"

She nodded.

"I could do that!" Honey said. "I can also introduce her to some other friends I have, too~nyan!"

"Hm, seeing you're her first friend here, this might work." Tails said. "But there's also another thing that confused me: How were you able to defeat Eggman back at that place?" He asked to Maria.

"I'm… not really sure." She answered. "My body just… moved on its own lots of times and I also even… broke the sound barrier, too!"

"Oh, great." Sonic said. "Another person that'll give me a run for my mone-OW!" He was clocked in the head by Tails. "Be polite." He said, but then thought: "If what I'm thinking is right, then Maria is somehow similar to Shadow in many senses. Only she feels nicer than him…"

"So you say your body moved on its own as you dashed to Eggman?" Maria nodded at that. "Hm… You must've used of your instincts, then."

"Instincts?" Maria didn't really know lots of things about the world, due to lack of a normal childhood.

"It's when your body does a response on its own about a situation. Your instincts must've allowed you to avoid Eggman's Robot's legs as you went in and then used the Self-Destruction system to defeat him."

"Y-Yeesh…" Maria cringed a bit. "I didn't really know I was that acrobatic…"

"You probably still need some more training, and while I'm a bit against it, Sonic can help you with that." Tails said, pointing his thumb at him.

"I can help with what?" Sonic asked, pretending to be clueless while Tails deadpanned towards him.

"Dummy. You need to train her in how to control her speed and getting her to learn some of your tricks. She IS able to keep up with you." Tails explained.

"W-Why? What's wrong, Mr. Sonic?" Maria asked him.

"First off: Just call me Sonic." He outright said to her. "Second off: It's just that I don't want anyone taking my title of 'The Fastest Thing Alive'. Sha-Oh sorry, I mean, that Faker's already a run for my money…"

Maria assumed they were talking about Shadow and just weren't trying to use his name to not give her a headache, to which she smiled a bit. "I-I don't really… think of myself like that… I just have a… high-rate of speed on foot, I'm guessing… but I'm not really fond of being the fastest thing alive…"

Sonic smiled at that. "Heh, Good to know! I guess I can help ya, then!" He said, extending his gloved hand to her, to which she took and shook their hands with.

Now that she took a good look at Sonic, she could see that he was a matured man. Being 25 years old, Sonic wore some sport glasses on his forehead like the goggles on Tails & Honey, his trademark white gloves, blue shorts and his trademark red and white sneakers.

"Now then, if you don't mind me borrowing her for a moment, Honey~!" He used the hands they were holding to then drag Maria outside and climb up the hill with her, to which Honey showed an interrogation point above her head comically.

BREAK TIME

Something I forgot to ask at Episode 1, but you guys could also help me in deciding how to handle this story by telling me which events do you want me to do next on the future episodes of Maria's adventure. Yes, you can actively help me in writing my story if you want! Tell me your ideas in the reviews and I'll consider how to do them on my story!

STORY TIME

Sonic brought Maria to the top of the hill, which showed a wide open grass area for them to practice on. Sonic firstly started to stretch out while Maria watched him; however, Sonic noticed her lack of movement. "What are ya doing standing still there?" He asked her.

"Eh? Ah, um… I don't know how to start…" She answered.

"Well, you always need to stretch out like how I'm doing here. Hold on." Sonic went to help Maria in letting her know how to stretch herself to make her able to practice better. Maria was a bit surprised in how flexible her body was while she stretched out, and while Sonic helping her stretch was slightly embarrassing (He had to touch her in some areas, but no perverseness, at least), it at least helped her in knowing how well she could stretch her body, and even surprised her in some instances.

"What, you didn't knew you could stretch it like that?" Sonic sometimes commented.

"Well, n-no… I don't even know my capabilities yet…" Maria would always answer.

After they were done, Sonic would start training their speed by starting with a slow jog and Maria following close behind him. "So then, tell me a bit: How fast were you able to go on your first try?" Sonic asked her while they jogged.

"I… think I broke the Mach 1? I don't know, Tails told me that the Mach 1 was the sound's speed, and I kinda broke through that…" Maria answered, although she wasn't very sure yet.

"Heh. Cool! I've already passed beyond that with my years of experience, but I can help you get there!" He said, increasing the speed to a fast run, with Maria still following and also increasing her speed.

They kept going with this cycle until they managed to reach Mach 1, the familiar vortex of sound forming around them. Sonic then grabbed Maria's hand and then boosted, both of them breaking the sound barrier and dashing off at unbelievable speeds beyond the Mach 1, with Sonic guiding Maria all the way and letting her get used to the speeds they were running.

After that, Sonic went to try and check out if Maria could do some of the same tricks, to which he had a surprise:

"Huh. So you can't do a Homing Attack…" Sonic thought. Sonic had demonstrated how to do the Homing Attack by doing it against a rock, which he managed to break. Maria, however, was only able to do the Spin Jump and nothing more. "Can you do a Spin Dash?"

"What's that?" Maria asked, to which Sonic demonstrated by curling into a ball and then spinning in place while lots of smoke came from him. Then, he dashed off at high speeds towards another rock, breaking it. He boosted back after he had done that. "That's the Spin Dash."

"Wow…" Maria put a hand on her chin before then attempting the same thing. Turns out she was able to do it as she suddenly dashed off curled in a ball and breaking another rock. To which she started jogging back and slid to a stop beside Sonic. "I… guess I can do it, too."

"That's one thing, then." Sonic said. "Tails could probably help you in making you able to do the Homing Attack with some kind of grapple, but we'll look at it later. How about this one?"

Sonic did the Spin Jump and then performed his Ground Stomp, a small blue shockwave forming around him. Maria tried the same, but to no avail, in fact, she actually comically landed on her face rather than on her feet, making Sonic laugh at her fail. Maria tapped her fingers on the ground while she held her head with the other hand. "Very funny…" She said.

"S-Sorry, but that was just hilarious!" Sonic said while laughing. "Okay, so you can't do a Homing Attack or a Ground Stomp, that's already different enough. Do you have any other unique moves?"

"Hm…" Maria tried thinking about something before she then started to do the process of a Spin Dash, but then, when Sonic thought she was going to dash off, she suddenly jumped, the height being even bigger than a normal Spin Jump as Sonic saw her fly upwards to the Sky. Then, she landed normally on her feet, safely. "…That was different." Sonic commented.

"What should I call that move?" Maria asked him, to which Sonic said: "I'd say it's a… Dash Jump."

Maria then nodded, keeping that name on her head.

"Do you have some fighting abilities?" Sonic asked her, to which Maria shook her head. "Heh. Expected. I shall teach ya some moves, then, but you gotta teach yourself how to make your own fighting style, 'cause, well, you know I don't like copies."

"It'll be fine, Sonic." Maria reassured him. "I won't copy your abilities, alright?"

"Good, good. But don't speak like that a lot, it makes me feel like a father and I don't plan to be one so soon, hehe…" Sonic said to her while scratching his head; Maria giggled with him for a bit.

Sonic then started to teach Maria some fighting moves, for example, a punch, a kick and many others. He was a bit surprised at how quickly Maria was able to learn the fighting movements by herself; he concluded she could have some kind of 'Instant Learning' feature.

(A/N: Instant Learning is an actual power, believe it or not, and that's what Maria has.)

After some short moments, Maria was able to learn the Martial Arts Sonic showed her and devised her own style, focusing more on kicks for zoning and attacking and powerful punches to finish, although Sonic took notice that some of her punches created small wind pressure waves, implying her strength might be more than what he's thinking. "Maybe she's a lot crazier than Shadow…" he thought.

After training her newfound skills and powers enough with Sonic, Maria was pretty much a ready girl, albeit she still had the gentle personality from before, she just knew how to defend herself now, after all. "…Thanks for training me, Sonic!" She said to him smiling.

"Hah. Don't mention it, it's the least I can do!" He answers, albeit a bit cocky. However, before they can celebrate more, a Container fell to their side and opened, revealing tons of robots starting to charge towards them. When Sonic heard the familiar laugh, he knew who it was.

"Again, Egg-head?" He said, smiling and looking up, seeing his familiar capsule up in the sky.

"I'll always come back, Sonic! Attack upon attack! Never ceasing to- HM!?" Eggman was in the middle of his speech before he then noticed the yellow hedgehog with him. "YOU!"

"Oh, um… Hi again… Cousin?" She sheepishly waved back at him, and the use of the word 'Cousin' made Eggman raise an eyebrow.

"Seriously? By the clothes, you can't recognize her? You're seriously a bird brain, Egg-head." Sonic mocked him.

"SILENCE!" Eggman shouted, pointing at him, before then pointing at the other Hedgehog. "And YOU! Who are you!?"

"Umm… It's a bit hard to explain it the first time, but…" She hesitated for a moment. "…My name is Maria."

"Maria…?!" Eggman already made the connection. "So this means you are…"

"Yes, I guess." She scratched her head, as if not really minding that connection.

"Very surprising, eh?" Sonic joked, to which Eggman glared at him for a moment "But Cousin!" …before Maria's voice put him back on track.

"Why are you doing this!? Why are you trying to take over the world in such a violent manner!?" She asked him in a way a child would just beg to their parent. Eggman just fixed his mustache for a moment while then speaking back to Maria.

"I'm sorry, Maria, but that is but a secret you need not to know! Especially since you've also started to defy me from that moment back." He was referring to when Maria destroyed his Spider with the Self-Destruction system.

"What?" Maria was a bit confused.

"It means he now hates you because you stopped his Spider back there, remember?" Sonic told her. "…Oh. Well, I-I had to, or he was going to hurt someone really badly!"

"Who, me? Nah, don't get worried about me." Sonic said, shrugging her off. "I've taken Eggman on thousands of times, never got badly hurt once!"

"HEY! You did indeed! And I captured you that time as well, remember!?" Eggman argued.

"HEY! That was just once! It won't happen again, okay!?"

What the two were arguing about was the time that Eggman used of a new ally, named "Infinite", to defeat Sonic and take over the world as a result.

(A/N: I don't care how bad it was, Sonic Forces is canon here, and yes, that does mean the Avatar character is coming to this story, however, he won't be any OC of mine, instead, I'll use the one everyone's going with since his announcement: Gadget the Wolf.)

"A-At any rate!" Maria stopped their argument. "E-Even if you try to keep going with this, Cousin… I… I… I will stop you!"

"HMPH! Your own funeral, then!" Eggman answered, extending his arm and letting the robots charge towards them.

Once they did, Maria suddenly got a flash from the past: her vision suddenly glitched, making the robots suddenly turned into human soldiers as they charged towards her. The vision made her eyes go wide as she suddenly dashed backwards, stopping just before the edge of the cliff.

The robots kept charging to her as she held her head as more visions flooded her mind, showing through her vision the times she seemed to look pretty weak or something similar. She then shook her head and looked up, seeing the robots still charging to her. She gritted her teeth.

"Was… Was I really that weak in my past…?!" she thought. "No… I… I…"

Then, her head came back to Gerald's last words to her:

"Be strong. This world may have thorns where you can hurt yourself, but if you manage to be strong enough, no one and nothing will ever be able to stop you from achieving your dreams."

She stopped grittering her teeth and had her eyes closed for the moment. She pulled out the Fake Emerald from her pockets and… just stood there for the moment.

Sonic was already taking care of some of the robots, but he saw how Maria was simply standing still at the cliff edge. "…Maria!?" He shouted to her.

"Gerald's right… I might've been a very weak person before… but I can't let that drag me down." She thought. "I have to be stronger… I have to get stronger…!"

Then, she rose her head and opened her eyes in a serious fashion, to which Sonic smirked at. She extended the Emerald in front of her, and in the moment the robots were about to tackle her…

"Chaos… CONTROL!" She traveled a short distance using the Fake Emerald as she teleported to behind the group of robots. Putting the emerald back in her pocket, Maria then charged a Spin Dash before then aiming at one of the robots. After she destroyed the first with the dash, she then started a chain as she Dashed around the many robots as if she was homing in on them, and after destroying the last robot, she slid to a stop near the Cliff's Edge again. Eggman was surprised while Sonic was simply amused. "…a Homing Spindash, eh?" he commented.

"GRR! Come on, you slowpokes! Get her!" Eggman shouted, ordering his robots to chase after her again.

"Not today, Cousin…" Maria thought. "I'm gonna show you now… What I'm really made of!"

(Play: Crush 40 – What I'm made of; from Sonic Heroes)

Maria dashed after the robots chasing her as she did a Spin Jump and destroyed one of them as she landed on it; she landed on the ground and started to attack the next robot using of her kicks and finishing by punching a hole through it with a punch, pulling it out as sparks flew out from the robot and flew around Maria, giving Eggman a rather fearful look of who she's trying to become now.

She continued fighting with her kicks and punches on the robots and using of the skills she learned from Sonic to defeat them as well, when some robots suddenly surrounded her, she did the motion for the Spin Dash, then performed her new Dash Jump, as she jumped high in the sky. "I'm not someone weak anymore!" She shouted, lifting a leg up as she then fell down towards the robots. She then landed the kick, destroying the robots around her and creating a strong earthquake in the hill that even cracked the ground around them, with Sonic also trying to keep his balance over the powerful attack.

"What is this!? You aren't supposed to be this strong!" Eggman shouted.

"…You can thank Grandpa." Maria said, standing up and dusting herself off.

"Grandpa…" Eggman then gasped. "G-Gerald made this body for you!?"

"Not only that… It seems he left some gifts for me in this body… for me to defend myself…" She started walking towards Eggman, Sonic dashing behind and walking towards him along with her; Maria looked at her hand. "From what I can tell… he gave me an Enhanced Strength… an Enhanced Speed, which is what makes me able to keep up with Sonic… and probably an Enhanced Mind, too, as I can learn new abilities in an instant and get stronger with every new ability I manage to learn, even if I do lack in some of them…" She then looked up at Eggman. "But with these things Grandpa left me with… I'll definitely get stronger… and protect this world from people like you!" On that last part, she pointed at Eggman; and after she was done with her speech, Sonic jumped in the air and slammed onto Eggman's capsule in a Homing Attack. "…and I won't do it alone, either." Maria added after Sonic did his attack.

"CURSE YOU, MARIAAAAAAA!" Eggman shouted, he was basically frustrated, but he wasn't going to give up yet. He flew out towards the distance and flew down the cliff, Maria felt it wasn't over yet, but then, the Earth started to shake, and then, a huge robot burst out from the ground. It was Eggman's old Egg Dragoon, and it seems it hasn't really been well kept by the doctor for all those 5 years of use.

"Yeesh. That machine again, Egg-face?" Sonic said.

Maria, however, slightly walked backwards as Sonic looked at her.

"…Is… Is he… really gonna go… that far…?!" Maria said, and it showed the obvious fear she had about dying.

She didn't want to go down now, not until she knows completely everything about herself.

Meanwhile, at Station Square, Shadow received a communication from HQ:

["Agent Shadow! Come in!"]

"Shadow here, what's going on?"

["Dr. Eggman has been spotted at some hills near this area! We're already sending Team Dark over, but just get going, quickly!"]

"Roger that, sir!" He answered, already using his Air Sneakers to rush at high speeds towards the hillsides on the outskirts of Station Square.

"This doctor…"

I know, I know, it's a cliffhanger, but come on, dammit, 5000 words!? I wasn't expecting to do a lot of those in such a short span of time, and this is only Episode 2!

Anyways, on the next episode, you'll see how much power I'll be giving Maria now, and I hope you guys don't mind it. But even if you don't like it, PLEASE, don't flame me because of it. While I do want some help from you guys to learn how to do this story better, I at least want to make sure that some elements can go up here, alright?

See ya next chapter!