Chapter 9 - The Four Sides of Maria Wolf

When the wolves and Sally returned to the village, first thing Lupe did was ordering her daughter to go home and wait for the medic; while Lupe ordered another warrior to get said medic, Sally went with Maria to start a little checkup.

"Okay, Maria, first... how does your body feel; harder than usual, or as if you were made of something lighter than air?" Sally asked the young wolf as they both sat on Maria's bed. Sally had felt like this at times, when adopting some shapes, so it was a good start point.

"I... I don't think I can describe it. When... my father woke me up at the lab... I felt so heavy and tired... then again, maybe that was just a consequence of the explosion's force. But, after I kicked that robot away, I felt mostly normal, except for that sudden weight on my leg and foot I used for the kick. And now... I only feel very tired, but no real difference." Maria admitted while looking at her hands. A moment later, she made another conscious effort to shapeshift, and her hands grew twice their normal size. "And this feels so weird... I have no way to describe it."

"Yes, I know the feeling." Sally comforted her and motioned Maria to change her hands back to normal. "When I first got the powers, I had no time to get used to these sensations because we were in the middle of a battle, and I had no time to think about it, just... to fight and use these abilities as instinct and fighting experience guided me; but later, when I finally got the time to actually feel how much my body had changed... I admit it, I was as excited as I was scared." Sally smiled a bit before looking back at Maria. "In your case, it was definitely more traumatic since you got the powers in a far more violent way than I did, plus you didn't get to fight immediately after getting them, unless you consider that kick to the robot as part of a fight, so you hadn't stopped thinking about what happened to you."

"I kinda expect this to be some sort of weird dream, but then I remember that I'm awake and this is real..." Maria then got a thoughtful expression. "You think Sonic felt this way the first time he found out he could outrun basically anything in the world?"

"I hadn't asked him." Sally realized Maria had a very valid question; even if her abilities were different from Sonic's, they were still super powers, and they both weren't born with them but gained their powers on relatively recent times. "Then again, this is Sonic we're talking about; he might be very hyperactive and impatient when it comes to action, but the rest of the time he's one of the most relaxed, easy-going guys I've ever met, so it's hard to tell if becoming that fast made him a thoughtful hedghehog, at least for some time. Knowing him, he probably just became super happy for having an ability that would help him fight, run, and eat chili dogs faster than anyone in the planet."

Sally and Maria shared a good natured laugh, the princess happy that the wolf was now a bit more relaxed. The medic arrived a few moments later, with Lupe and Lobo behind him. The doctor gave Maria a complete check up and, at least when it came to her vitals, she was as healthy and normal as usual; of course, even the doctor admitted his resources were kinda limited when it came to analyzing genetic-level, meta-abilities granting changes in a Moebian wolf's physiology; Sally kindly translated this scientific explanation as 'when it comes to super powers, call someone else' so Maria and her parents would know what the doctor was talking about.

"Guess this is the most we can do for tonight." Lupe sighed and then looked back at her daughter. "We'll have dinner now, and then we're all going to bed so we can take you with the Freedom Fighters first thing in the morning."

"Good idea, Mother. I really feel as if have a hole in my stomach right now." Maria said and then noticed everyone was staring at her. When she looked down, Maria noticed she now, literally, had a hole in her stomach, and a nasty headache product of frustration.

"Okay... first lesson, Maria... be careful with what you say; sometimes, your body will take your words very literally." Sally explained the young wolf, who sighed, nodded, and concentrated to close the hole.

"I really need a snack now... and after that, I'm taking a..." Maria paused. "I'm going to sleep. I don't wanna risk breaking in two if I say I'm taking a break."

A while later, Maria finally got herself to sleep; despite being so tired after the whole day's ordeals, it was hard for her to finally get to sleep due to her many concerns and personal doubts about her new condition. Even in her dreams, she couldn't find peace, imagining herself losing control of her elasticity and not being able to turn back to normal.

The dreams soon became even more vivid and realistic. At one point of her dream, Maria saw herself in a large, deserted area, with nobody else around in what seemed to be miles and miles of dead, dry land.

"Hello?" Dream Maria started yelling while looking around. "Anyone there? Mother? Father? I'll even take Marcus, if he's the only one available! Really, nobody's here? Please, I don't wanna be alone!"

"You're not alone."

Dream Maria turned to find herself face to face with... herself. Another wolf, looking exactly like her, was smirking at Maria while standing just a few feet away from her. Dream Maria started approaching her when noticing a second duplicate had appeared right next to her. When Dream Maria fully turned at her, she felt someone touching her back, and jumped, realizing she had bumped into another duplicate. Dream Maria looked at the trio and before saying anything else, she heard another duplicate, moving from behind the other ones, talking to her.

"You don't need anyone, Maria. You have yourself. And yourself. And yourself. And, of course, yourself."

Dream Maria wanted to talk but found her voice gone, and then, in a sudden, her whole body started contorting violently while her chest seemed to inflate and about to explode, as the 4 duplicates approached her, slow and silently.

Back in the real world, the real Maria's body was experiencing the same changes as her dream self. However, unlike the dream world, Maria wasn't completely alone here, and despite not yelling or making other sounds with her mouth, her violent contortions and wild stretching were hitting the walls and furniture of her room, making enough noise to wake up her parents.

"Maria? Maria, what's wrong?" Lobo, entering the room, got a concerned tone while trying to approach his daughter without getting hit by the quick, contorting, stretching limbs.

"We need Sally!" Lupe said after a few seconds, and when Marcus finally appeared, the noise waking him up as well, Lupe sent him to the tent where Sally was staying.

After a few seconds, Maria seemed to calm down, as her limbs returned to a normal size, but her chest and belly were still inflating like a giant balloon. When her parents finally got close enough to notice she had been sleeping the whole time...

KA-BLAM!

The explosion was heard all over the village; when Lupe and Lobo recovered from the stunning noise, they paled when realizing their daughter was gone and only remained as large rubber-like spots. Before the parents could start wailing at the loss of their daughter, however, the remains started attacking themselves, forming a body... or more precisely, four bodies. Lupe and Lobo watched in awe as the four unidentifiable bodies finally got a distinctive shape and color; Maria's.

"M-Maria? Sweetheart, are you..." Lupe's voice made the 4 bodies to react, opening their eyes wide and getting predatory stances. Then, before Lupe or Lobo had any time to do a thing, the foursome morphed into balls and started bouncing on the walls, ceiling and floor until they got out of the room; two by the window, one by the door, and the last one making her own exit by making a hole in the ceiling.

Sally, who had finally arrived at the place, with Marcus behind her, gasped at the sight of the 4 rubber balls exiting Lupe and Lobo's home, and almost shocked when the balls morphed back into their canine shapes. The foursome then started jumping around and over the villagers (obviously, they had heard the explosion and were now trying to find out what happened) and their homes, and at times they morphed into different shapes without retaining one for more than a few seconds.

"Okay, this can't be good..." Sally finally reacted and morphed her hands into a shield, just in time to protect a wolf that was about to be hit by an out of control rubber disc.

When Lupe and Lobo exited the house, and with the help of moonlight and the other houses' lights, they finally noticed a detail they missed in the darkness of Maria's bedroom; all the 'Marias' had differently colored outfits; one was Red and Black, another was Red and White, one was Blue and Black and the last was Blue and White. Those differences aside, they all behaved and looked exactly the same.

"Quick, we must capture them before they get hurt or they hurt someone else." Lupe said to her husband. Lobo nodded and addressed Sally and the other wolves.

"Try to catch them without hurting them, but be careful and don't expose yourselves!" Everyone nodded at Lobo's words. Sally, having the same powers, knew for sure that she would run the least risk while having the best chances to capture the Marias.

Sally morphed into her ball shape to bounce after one of the Marias while the rest of the wolves tried to surround the others. Lupe and Lobo separated so they could try to speak to one Maria at a time and see if the clones recognized them and calmed down.

This was easier said than done. Once Sally finally tackled the clone she was chasing (the one with a red and black uniform), the wolf snapped at her and got a battle stance, immediately replying with a giant double fist attack that Sally barely dodged. The princess then morphed her body into her muscular form to fight the clone but the wolf eluded her with a big leap. Even if Sally had the more experience with these abilities, Maria was a trained wolf warrior and obviously these clones, even if feral, still had her fighting skills, and these got incredibly enhanced by the elastic powers.

Lobo and a dozen warrior finally managed to corner the clone in white and blue. This one had stopped jumping around already and now seemed to be more curious than anxious, staring at the other wolves yet still ready to escaped if considering it necessary.

"Maria... it's me. Your Father. Please, if you're still in there, speak to me." Lobo talked in a firm yet obviously caring tone. His words seemed to affect this particular clone, as she elongated her neck in order to get her head and nose closer to Lobo, and sniff him.

Meanwhile, Lupe and some other warriors managed to chase another clone inside a house that, Lupe realized, was the village's library. Lupe made the warriors surround the building to capture the Maria if she escaped again while the wolf leader would enter and try reasoning with her. Lupe entered with extreme caution, but dropped due to the surprise of finding this clone, the one dressed in red and white, not trying to fight or hide, but grabbing some books and started reading them, her eyes moving in different directions, like a chameleon's, in order to read several pages at once. Lupe just stood there, realizing this clone wasn't going anywhere, and right now she was calm and harmless, so the wolf leader kept her place, allowing her daughter (or what she hoped was still her daughter) to continue with her reading.

The last clone, dressed in blue and black, was now having fun at the other warriors' expense, using her powers to keep herself at a distance, and distracting the male ones with flirty looks and even blowing some kisses at them. This was especially surprising and stunning to the wolves since they knew the real Maria would never act this way.

This clone's fun, finally, was interrupted by two of her 'sisters', the Red/White and the Blue/White, appearing out of nowhere and using their own powers to tie themselves around the flirty one, similar to 2 snakes catching a third one. Lupe and Lobo joined the scene almost immediately.

"You got one to reason?" Lobo asked his wife as they both watched the elastic struggle.

"Actually, I just allowed her to regain her reason; she did it by reading, believe it or not." Lupe replied, making Lobo to chuckle a bit.

"The other sniffed me and then called me 'Father' before getting me into a hug. She actually acted like Maria when she was a cub."

As Lobo said, the White/Blue Maria was now talking in a sweet, almost child-like tone to her flirty sister, trying to calm her down, while the third clone used a more educated, sophisticated tone.

"Sister, please, you're scaring everyone. Mother and Father are worried about us." The Kind one said, looking at her troublesome sister face to face and giving her a puppy eyed look that actually made the troublesome to start struggling.

"In deed. We understand you're just acting by instinct, as we did until a few moments ago, but if we could regain our rational mind, you are perfectly capable as well." The other didn't just talk like someone wiser beyond her years, but she really was as convincing as a smart yet nice person would be.

The two 'in control' Marias started unwrapping themselves from the third one's body, and this Maria started getting a calmer expression. After a few moments, she surprised everyone when she stretched her arms again, but this time it was for hugging her sisters.

"Aw, thank you, Gals! I needed some girl chat... heh, talk about a wild party we organized." This Maria's tone was very casual and light, but the voice's sound was surprisingly attractive, and in fact reminded Lupe and Lobo of Rouge The Bat when she was being seductive.

"Okay... you're gonna behave now?" Lupe talked to the three Marias.

"I'll do, Mother." The Wise one nodded at the wolf leader. The Kind Maria just nodded, keeping respectful silence, while the one with the flirty voice grinned and nodded as well.

"But you have to ask our other sister too." The Flirty one commented and, in a perfect cue, everyone turned when hearing an extremely loud noise.

"Battle sounds." Lobo frowned. "We better go and help Sally before one or both of them gets injured."

As Lobo said, Sally and the last clone were still in a very intense fight. Now that the aggressive wolf had seen how Sally used her powers, she was mimicking some of the princess' shapes, including the mallet and lasso arms, and now was thinking clearly enough to try the most dangerous shapes, like the mace and the giant blade. Sally had to use a combination of her muscular form and the agility of her ninja shape (alternating between both forms constantly) to keep the wolf out of balance and counter the attacks without severely injuring her and avoiding a beating herself.

"Time to get sneaky." Sally charged at the clone, who was about to hit her with giant fists with spiked knuckles, and then, at the last moment, changed into her semi-liquid form, covering the clone, and then solidified herself, at least partially, restraining the clone's moves.

Before Sally could start trying to talk to the wolf and calm her down, now that she wasn't moving that much (yet still struggling), the rest of the wolves arrived, including the other 3 clones. The Marias aided Sally, all of them stretching their arms to contribute at holding their sister, while talking to the still furious one.

"Please, Sister, you're destroying our home, and the one you're fighting is our friend. She only wants to help you. Stop fighting and listen to us." Kind Maria talked to the Furious one, while Wise motioned Flirty to stay silent; being the, obviously, smartest of the bunch, this Maria realized that Kind's voice and attitude were the best options to calm down the enraged sister without risking confusing and angering her again if listening to many voices at once.

Furious Maria looked at her sisters, focusing on the Kind one when she placed her face in front of her own, and, slowly, started cooling down. The other sisters realized it and stopped holding her, standing in front of their sister in non aggressive stances; Sally still kept a firm yet not that hard hold on this clone, just in case. When Furious looked at her parents moving next to her sisters, both of them showing no signs of aggression, and then at Sally, who wasn't giving her an angry or challenging face despite still holding her, this clone finally calmed down completely.

"You can release me now, Princess. I'm not gonna fight you... unless you wanna spar later." This clone's voice was strong and firm yet with an obvious sarcastic tone. Sally, recognizing this kind of voice and tone, hearing it many times in the past when Knuckles was in a particularly good mood, finally released the clone, who then looked at her parents and got a different attitude; basically, the same expression and body language of a tough kid who has to apologize to her parents.

"Uh... sorry about that... Guess I went a bit..."

"Crazy? Destructive? Born to be wild?" Flirty grinned at her sister, everyone realizing instantly that this particular clone seemed to have the most active sense of humor of the foursome.

"Fine, I caused a lot of trouble, but in my defense, we all went crazy." Furious groaned, and the other clones nodded at this.

"First, we'll start rebuilding whatever you four damaged..." Lupe paused when looking at Kind and Wise. "Okay, what some of you damaged, and then we'll work on the little detail of finding out why suddenly I got quadruplets... or whatever word describes when you have 4 kids at once."

"I think you used the correct term, Mother." Wise nodded at Lupe while Sally's scientific mind started running scenarios that might explain this situation.

Later, when most of the most extensive damage was undone (or at least, enough to make those buildings habitable again), Lupe went with the foursome to Sally's room while Lobo supervised the rest of the repairing. Sally contacted Nicole via a communicator, and they started discussing theories and hypothesis.

During the repairs, the clones decided to use their Shape - shifting powers to help the other wolves, and when doing this, they actually started morphing their clothing, subconsciously giving themselves an individuality sense beyond their suits' colors. The formerly Furious clone, now addressing herself as Courage, ended with a suit that looked perfect for a professional wrestler, including boots and a bandana, plus she had morphed her body to appear a bit taller and more muscular than her sisters; even if they could all morph like this, it seemed Courage could hold the Amazonian build much better than the others. The Wise one used a suit that somehow resembled her mother's, but added a pair of glasses; despite having perfect eyesight, she felt comfortable with them and actually added a sense of maturity and intelligence to her looks. The Kind one, being a bit more shy and feminine than the others, decided to go for a long dress, with gloves covering up to her elbows and wearing a belt, copying one from a fairy tale the original Maria had read many years ago. Finally, the Flirty one, who decided to call herself Heart, at first tried copying Rouge's outfit, but realizing she didn't have the body for that, and using her powers to get it would probably give her parents a heart attack, went for a tight, sexy looking suit yet still conserving her normal shape; also, due to her sense of humor and wanting to contribute with her sisters' new looks and names, she suggested Kind to change her name to Soul, something her sister accepted. The foursome stood around Sally and their mother while everybody heard at Nicole and the Princess talking.

"Considering that this ray gives your body's cells an increased resistance and reproduction rate, it's actually very possible that you, Sally, can actually regrow a lost limb if, by any chance, and let's hope it never happens, it occurs. This incident would be a more extreme version of cellular replication." Nicole pointed out.

"So, basically, Maria developed new bodies like I would develop a new arm in the event of losing it." Sally commented. "And since she created 4 bodies, she needed her whole body mass in order to make them exactly like her. Otherwise, we'd have different sized clones."

"But why they all have different personalities?" Lupe asked.

"Because of Maria, subconsciously, trying to control each of her separated forms, she divided her psyche into four parts; it's not to say that, for example, Courage can't be nice, but her niceness level isn't the same as Soul. Each clone has a predominant characteristic, representing Maria's Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul, with all of them having a little bit of the others' personalities... that would explain why none of them is villainous or pure aggression... or that Heart, Wise and Soul can still fight even if Courage is obviously the warrior one of the foursome." Sally explained.

"Exactly, Sally." Nicole continued. "They all have a little bit of Maria's feelings, sentience and conscience. However, since Maria did this entirely by accident, and triggered by a subconscious event, most probably a nightmare, she had little sentient control over them during the cloning process. That would explain why they were so difficult to handle when first created; they acted like normal wild animals finding themselves in a confusing environment."

"A very precise and accurate idea." Wise finally spoke again. "And our individuality showed up after a few minutes; that explains why Soul was the less violent and why Father could control her with relative ease, and why I subconsciously searched for a knowledge source in a controlled, quiet environment that helped me self-control."

"Mhmm... and Courage and I needed to be calmed down because we were running wild and high, each one in her own style, because that's how our personalities work without a conscience to give us some control." Heart shared a grin with her muscular sister.

"Thanks again for calming us, Sis." Courage playfully elbowed Soul's side, not hard enough to hurt her, thanks to the muscular wolf now controlling her strength a lot better than before.

"You're most welcome, Dear Sister." Soul replied with her cute, nice smile. It was obvious that she had a calming effect not just on her sisters but in everyone around her, due to her having Maria's niceness and empathy enhanced to the max.

"All this is very interesting... but it means that now we have 4 Marias... and the original one is gone?" Lupe couldn't help but show her concern. Even if these four clones were basically her daughter, she still worried about the possibility of not having her original, complete Maria back.

"Well... when I turn myself into my liquid form, I'm in control of practically all of my cells." Sally got a thoughtful expression. "And no matter how disperse they are, I still can call them back to my original body with little problem."

"I see what you're about to propose, Sally," Nicole talked while making some calculations, "and your plan is a very factible one. If all the clones change into a semi-liquid state, or close enough, they can probably fuse back into one being and restore the original Maria."

"But that would mean we'd be gone for good, isn't it?" Courage frowned. "I will do anything necessary to bring back our original self, especially for Mother and Father's sake, but it doesn't mean I like the idea."

"I concur with you, Sister." Wise nodded at the muscular wolf. "However... since our original self can surely morph into the semi-liquid, fluid shape as well, and I know she will be able to do it if we can accomplish it as well, maybe she can divide herself again, this time on purpose, in order to bring us back at will."

"And being a sentient decision, you four will not lose control again." Sally added. "At least in theory."

Once everyone agreed on this plan, Sally started teaching the foursome how to transform into the fluid shape; Heart and Wise got it almost instantly, and in fact Heart enjoyed it a lot, but Courage, used by now to a strong, big self, and Soul, being the shiest of the group, even when it came to using her powers, took a while to achieve their sisters' level of control.

Finally, after hours of practice, Sally decided the foursome were ready to try the fusion.

"Nobody can say we're not close." Heart joked while she and her sisters formed a circle, holding hands and getting ready to fuse. Sally stayed out of the circle to direct them, while Lupe and Lobo watched from a short distance.

"Now, girls, we're ready. Like we practiced." Sally nodded at the foursome, the young wolves nodding at her before smiling at their parents, and then starting the transformation to fluid. Even if Wise and Heart could do this almost instantly, they kept up with their sisters' slower pace in order to achieve perfect coordination.

Soon, the four wolves were a huge, moving mass of liquid plastic, and after a minute or so, they started re-shaping themselves, but this time as an unique, only body. Then, as if she was never gone, the original Maria, wearing her original purple and gray costume, was standing in the middle of the room.

"Whoa... that was intense." Maria, in her normal voice, rubbed the sides of her head. Lupe and Lobo, no longer holding back, got her in a tight embrace.

"Welcome back, Daughter." Lupe said in Maria's ear.

"You gave us a big scare." Lobo said in her other ear.

"Sorry... guess now I have to be more careful about my wishes; I always wanted to have sisters." Maria smiled at them before returning the hug by stretching her entire body and wrapped her elongated arms around her parents.

Sally smiled at the scene. Even if Maria seemed to be fine, she and Nicole, in agreement with Lupe and Lobo, knew they'd later need to give her an extensive check-up. Also, the foursome wouldn't appear on scene again until Maria was in more control of her powers, so she wouldn't produce wild clones again and limit them to the already viable four personalities.