Chapter 4: Attack from All Sides

Back in the castle living room, Maria and her parents are still talking to Silver about the disaster that will happen at this time period and how it will affect the future.

"I dunno… I was expecting something different from this time period..." Silver says.

Sonic interrupts, "Hey, we can make it work no matter what."

"Perhaps if you can give us a little more detail beyond 'The world is going to end...'"

"Yeah. We could use a little more details on it," Maria says.

Just then an echidna maid comes in with her arms covered by a white fabric, "I do beg your pardon. If you will be staying up, may I bring you some refreshments?"

"Thank you, but nothing for me," Sally answers.

"No thank you," Maria answers.

"Ditto. At this age, I just can't do the chilli dogs at all hours anymore," Sonic says.

The maid then turns to Silver, and asks, "And you, sir?"

"I, um, no thank you," Silver shyly answers.

"Aren't you that brave and mysterious stranger? The one who save our king with his amazing powers?" The maid asks.

"Aw, well, I don't know about 'amazing' or 'brave.' I mean, I did sure, but…" Silver shyly says.

But before he can answer, the made removes the cover to reveals a gas gun and hits Silver with it.

With a smirk, she says, "Well, we can't have a repeat of that, hero."

The gas causes Silver to past out in second. Acting quickly, Maria grabs the maid and presses her front body to the wall while her as her arm with the gun twist to the back.

Sonic also confronts her, "Ten years is a long time to be a sleeper agent."

"Don't worry sire, the kids are safe in their bed. Of course, we definitely don't want to cause harm to our king's princess," the doubleagent says.

Maria grabs the gun and uses it to knock the maid out with the gas. Sally kneels down to Silver to see if he's alright.

"He's alright. He's asleep," Sally says.

"Lien-Da probably want to see to us personally," Sonic says.

Maria puts the maid down in a lay down possession, "And it seem that Lien-Da isn't going to let me get involved.

"Right. Here's the plan… Sally, you take sleeping beauty here and the kids and you lock yourselves in the panic room. I'll hold off the Dark Presence," Sonic says.

"Wait! You don't mean me too. I'm not going to sit around and let these guys attack us. I'm a Freedom Fighter for crying out loud .I even faced their leader by myself!" Maria says.

"I agree. I served next to King Shadow for years. I've never taken to being a damsel in distress," Sally says.

"They shot a rocket at my head. They're gunning for me first. You can get the kids to safety," Sonic says.

"And then sit around while you risk life and limb and play action hero again," Sally sternly says.

"Yes! This kingdom and our kids are more important than me by a long shot!" Sonic shouts.

Sally shouts, "Fine then!"

"Fine," Sonic says.

"And Maria's going with you!" Sally says.

"Sounds good!" Sonic says.

"Be careful!" Sally says.

"I will!" Sonic says.

Sally shouts, "Good!"

Good!" Sonic shouts.

Then the two kiss passionately, and part their lips. Sonic and Maria head down the halls while Sally picks up Silver and head to the twin's room.

Sonic says in thought with a grin, "Sonic the hedgehog… winning arguments for married men the world over!"

Sonic and Maira use their speed to get down the hall faster. But then, they slide to a halt to see Laura-Su and Yong-Ho with a pile of unconscious Dark Presence soldiers.

"Aww… Laura-Su! Don't tell me you and Yong-Ho got them all already!" Sonic says in disappointment.

"You need to be quicker your majesty," Laura-Su comments.

Sonic then notices one of the soldiers getting up, so he sonic spins him at the head.

Sonic smirks, "Still got it."

"That you do. You're going to have to teach me that move," Laura-Su says.

"Sure. It's all in the legs, and…" Sonic begins to explain.

"Yong-Ho, what are you doing here?" Maira asks.

"Well, I wanted to check up on you about what happened this morning, but we noticed the Dark Presence and decide to intervene," Yong-Ho says.

"Glad that you're here. We need to find the others before…" Maira says, but then hears a beeping sound.

The four look up to see the security system are moving directly towards them.

"Uh on," The two teens reply.

Laura-Su panics, "The security system has been turned against us!"

Yong-Ho screams, "Run!"

The security system begins to fire lasers from the camera. The two hedgehogs and two echidna make a run for it.

"Lien-Da must have had some kind of back-door into the security access codes!" Laura-Su says.

Then Sonic says, "And I told Knuckles he was being paranoid when he wanted to replace the entire security system."

"She's probably initiated a full lock-down. What do we do?" Yong-Ho asks.

"We need to get out of here and find the others. Then we can think of a plan," Maira says.

"What about the queen and…?" Laura-Su is about to ask.

But Sonic says, "Sally has everything under control. They'll be safe. Now… Let's do it to it!"

Sonic and Maria burst out the window in a ball while Laura-Su and Yong-Ho fly in the air. Yong Ho catches Mara's hand while Laura-Su grabs Sonic's.

As they fly away, Laura-Su ask, "Did you seriously use that line back in the day?"

"It's a classic! Or would you prefer 'Hasta la vista mistah?'" Sonic says.

Laura-Su, Yong-Ho, and Maria begin laughing.

"Only you could make me laugh in a situation like…" Laura-Su says with a smile.

But frowns as she looks down, "... Oh no."

"What's up? Do you see a problem?" Sonic asks.

"Signs of one," Laura-Su answers.

Laura-Su and Yong-Ho float down and place the two hedgehogs on the ground. Maria and Yong-Ho look to see two of their friends running this way. What's more, Chomper, Mystic, Twinkle, and Sugar are with them.

"Isn't that Melody and Skye?" Yong-Ho asks.

"Yeah, but… something's wrong," Maira says.

Melody and Skye continue to run this way.

Melody cries, "Maria! King Sonic! Help!"

Maria runs to the twins and asks, "Skye! Melody! Are you alright? Something wrong?"

"Yes, we're alright, but you've got to help! A bunch of guys in black attacked our parents!" Melody explains.

Laura-Su becomes shocked, "They already got to the Prowers?!"

"Mom wanted us to find you quickly. We tried to help, but all the E.S.T. are busy with all the people partying. We round up the others to get them to the castle, and-and-and…" Melody panics

Sonic calms them down, "Shh, you did fine."

"No, we didn't! Mom dropped us off and couldn't get much help. We could have them them! The others told us that some of the black suited also invaded the hotel and captured their families!" Melody cries.

Skye, Twinkle, and Sugar even begin to try.

Laura-Su panics, "King Shadow was just one guy! How are we supposed to take back the entire castle with the Dark Presence locked in? Maybe if we'd had the Prowers with us. But now…"

"Everyone calm down!" Maria shouts.

That cause everyone to stare at her. Maria blushes a little.

Calming herself down, Maria says, "Look, I know things look bad right now, but we're not going to stop the Dark Presence with us panicking and crying."

"Sonic tells the little ones, "I know how these bad guys work. Your families are asleep and probably tied up, but fine. Until we rescue them, we'll make sure nothing bad happens to you two. Okay?

"A-alright," Melody answers.

"… okay," Skye replies.

"And Laura-Su will help out too because she's a guardian and is going to pull herself together, right?" Sonic adds.

"Y-yeah. Sorry about that, sir," Laura-Su says.

Sonic reassures, "Don't worry. Half of Mobius is in the city right now for the party. There's bound to be somebody here we can recruit."

"Right," Laura-Su replies.

"That's right. First, we need to find a safe place to discuss our rescue plan," Maira says.

Chomper has an idea, "How about my house? It's big enough for all of us to hide out."

"And we actually have a few friends in town who just love to help us our," Yong-Ho says.

"Yeah. We can call them and ask to come here," Twinkle says.

"That's a great idea, and I'm sure Argyle will help us too," Laura-Su says.

"Sounds good," Sonic says.

Suddenly, they hear something goes, "Chao! Chao!"

Everyone quickly turn their heads to see Blackberry the Chao flying their way.

"Blackberry!" Maria calls out.

Blackberry quickly flies to Maria. When she reaches them, the little choa gives Maria a note.

Maria reads the note and gasps in shock, "Oh no!"

"What is it?" Sonic asks.

"It's from Grace," Maria says.

"You mean one of the maids?" Twinkle asks.

"Yes. She manage to overhear the Dark Presence. Eggman snuck into the catacombs to Tikal's chamber and abduct her, again," Maria shockley says.

Everyone gasps in shock.

Maria says, "I got to go back to the castle. I need to save Tikal."

"How?" Mystic asks.

Maria sighs, "I'm afraid I need to get the chaos emeralds. It's a good thing we manage to find all of them in the city."

Yong-Ho comes up to her, "Alright, but be careful. The Dark Presence have surrounded the castle.

"I'll be careful. I just need to sneak into the catacombs to grab them while they're not looking," Maria says.

"Be careful, and hurry back. The rest of us are going to Chompers house," Sonic says.

Maria nods her head. Then then uses her super speed to get back to the castle with Blackberry following her. Sonic and the others make their way to Chomper's house to talk about their plan of action.

At the castle, the Dark Presence is guarding the front gate, the front door, and on the walls. They are making sure that not even a chao can get through. What they're not aware, Maria is secretly running past the guard and to the back door with Blackberry on her shoulder. She opens it and runs inside. The Dark Presence are continuing to patrol the halls of the castle with the security cameras. Maria uses her super speed and knowledge of the castle to get past them without being spotted.

Maria looks down the hall to see the entrance to the catacombs. Luckily, no one is around. Maria uses her speed to hurry through the passage. Down the halls, and get down stairs to the catacombs. She stops, and hides behind a few machineries.

She looks past the machines and gapss to see a female echidna sitting on a chair behind a statue of King Acorn. Seeing the image, Maria knows who she is. It's Lien-da Leader of the Dark Presence and the mother of one of her friends

"It's Yong-Ho's mother!" Maria says in thought.

Just then, two echidna wearing dark body suits walks to her.

One says, "All Teams have check in ma'am.

"Then report my Dark Eyes," Lien-Da says.

The Dark Eyes report, "Miles and Mina Prower have been secured in their hotel room. All castle staff have been confined to their rooms. The security system is now at your command. The Team Monitoring it says they saw most of the royal family heading to an unknown section of the castle."

"The panic room, I'm sure. They're locking themselves away for us, which is fine by me," Lien-Da says.

The agent says, "The King and Guardian are still at large, and the princess is not with them."

"It doesn't matter at this point. Bring the Chaos Syphon and follow me. And make sure the security keep an eye out for the princess," Lien-Da says, walking down the hall.

"Chaos Syphon? What are they up to?" Maria asks herself.

Blackberry looks confused. Maria continues to secretly follow them. She sees that the Syphon is carried by a cart and there's a narrow space. She decides to use it to her advantage.

Lien-Da says, "By the time they stage a counter-offensive, our mission will be complete. A fitting end to this pitiful regme."

Lien-Da and the two guard stop in front of the elevator and waits for it to come up. Maria secretly sneaks to them, and crawls to the narrow part of the cart. The elevator opens, and they walk inside without noticing Maria.

Lien-Da says, I don't care what 'stability' she brough, I never liked the queen. Things got done under king Shadow. He appreciate what we did."

The elevator goes down, and opens. Then Lien-Da and the two guard take the syphon to their destination.

"The rest of the world think things are better now, but they don't see the chaos on the horizon. We need strong decisive leadership. Spare the rod and you spoil the world. It's taken fifteen years of R&D… but it'll be worth it. A world saved and my family returned to me," Lien-Da says.

Lien-Da puts her hand on a scanner and the door opens. Then they take the machine inside. The machine is puts to a stop and Lien-Da and two soldiers leave to head front of it. While distracted, Maria secretly sneak out and hide behind one of the boxes and machines close by. She looks to see a machine like chamber.

Lien-Da look at it, and says, "Who was it that shaped the chaos fire that hold you? Knuckles? Miles? That horrible Kintobor woman?"

Maria is growing more confused by the second, "What is Lien-Da and the Dark Presence up to? What's more, what's inside that chamber? I need to get the chaos emeralds which is close to where Tikal is being held, but I need to see what they're up to."

She decides to stay put and listen to what they say.

The Dark Presence soldier is montering the syphon that is flowing into the chamber, "We're all set. Inverse energy flow is steady."

Another at the computer says, "Vitals are stable… spatial matrix is deteriorating… he's coming out of it."

"He?" Maria asks looking confused.

"Chao?" Blackberry asks with the same expression.

Just then, the chamber begins to open up. The Dark Presence begins to bow to the ground.

Lien-Da says, "At long last."

Lien-Da bows as well as the chamber follows open. Maria takes a peek to see who is in there. When the chamber is fully open, Maria gasps in shock to see who it is.

A voice comes up, "Lien-Da…?"

"My sincere apologies for taking so long your majesty. Let the reign of King Shadow begin a new," Lien-Da says.

Maria has never been shocked in her whole life. This is what Lien-Da is up to this whole time. She has freed King Shadow, her father from being trapped in time of chaos control.