I'm BACK!!!! Sorry to keep you guys waiting!! I've had several things going on at once and it's a bit overwhelming... You try putting AMVs together, writing fanfiction, keeping an OEL Manga series updated on time, (which include sending pages back and forth to my artist team) while stressing out over how the cover of its first book should look (not to mention the bonus pages... Self published too!), trying to find a replacement to my Sony Ericsson Z310a (to hopefully retrieve my pics and ringtones from my broken one...long story.),
and dealing with the EVILS of Wal-Mart not carrying my HOTPOCKETS!! (lol, okay that last one not THAT bad...)

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Chapter 25: Anything For Her part 4

The rest of the shocked group watched as Shadow held the passed out Maria.

Silver glared at the now hedgehog M-chan.

"You didn't..." He said, quietly.

A sweatdrop appeared on M-chan's head as Silver stormed off.

"Okay, safe to say he's mad..." She mumbled to herself.

M-chan then noticed the rest of the group just standing there, staring.

"Uh, maybe I should've warned you guys after all..." She said.

Sonic took a few steps toward the transformed pair, inspecting M-chan.

"M-chan?" The blue hedgehog asked, wanting to confirm that it was her.

"Konichiwa, Son-san!" M-chan said, with a grin.

A sweatdrop formed on Amy's head.

"Yep, that's M-chan alright. She's the only one who'd use that nickname." Amy said, mostly to herself.

Sonic studied M-chan for a bit longer, making her a little nervous.

"Uh, something wrong?" M-chan asked.

"M-chan..." Sonic said, quietly.

M-chan's sweatdrop returned.

"You look hot!" He grinned widely, giving her a thumbs up.

The rest of the group fell over, with the exception of Shadow and M-chan.

"WHAT?!" M-chan and Amy both yelled.

The two girls hit Sonic on the head, Amy with her hammer and M-chan with her fist.

"You perv!!" The yellow and pink hedgehogs said, loudly.

Sonic crawled away a few feet.

"Ow..." He said, rubbing his head.

Rouge walked over to M-chan, still a little stunned.

"How did this happen?" She asked.

"Long story, I'll explain it all later. Right now we need to get Maria up to her room." M-chan said.

"And get you a change of clothes. Those are too big for you." Amy added in.

"No kidding." Rouge said.

M-chan shrugged and turned back to Shadow.

"You take Maria up to her room, and stay with her. If she's not up in 15 minutes, come get us." M-chan said.

Shadow nodded, standing up with Maria in his arms.

Then, the girls noticed Sonic nearly passed out in the corner.

"What do we do about him?" Rouge asked.

"Leave the perv where he is." Amy and M-chan said angrily.

Knuckles quickly moved out of the way of the two angry hedgehog girls.

Rouge shrugged as she passed him.

"Just make sure he's not dead." She said quietly, pointing towards Sonic.

Knuckles nodded.

The three girls headed to Amy's room.

MEANWHILE:

Shadow and Maria were in Maria's room.

Maria was still passed out form the shock of seeing Shadow in human form.

Or, at least, Shadow hoped it was just shock.

Shadow brushed a strand of hair from Maria's face.

'Maria... Did I do something wrong?' The former hedgehog thought.

Maria stirred slightly, seeming to be waking up.

The blonde groaned quietly, raised a hand to her face and rubbed her eyes.

"I had the weirdest dream. M-chan was a hedgehog and you were human." Maria said.

Shadow sighed quietly.

"That WAS just a dream, right?" Maria asked, in a more demanding tone.

Shadow stayed silent.

"Tell me that was a dream..." Maria said, sadly.

Maria sat up quickly and glared at Shadow.

Shadow leaned back slightly, nervous because of Maria's expression.

Maria sat on the side of the bed, glaring at Shadow.

"How?" She asked, shock finding its way onto her face again.

Shadow sighed again.

"A chromosome replacement. It wasn't the method I intended to use, but that's what happened and it worked." Shadow said.

Maria shook her head slowly, eyes closed and looking down slightly.

"Why... Why would you do this?" She asked, in disbelief.

"After what those people, my so-called "Fan-Girls", said... I had to do something. If I became human, everything would be fine and no one would ever say anything about us again." Shadow said.

Maria couldn't believe what she was hearing, but stayed quiet.

"I knew M-chan had some abilities that none of us had. If there was any way to make me human, she'd know what to do." Shadow said.

Maria came closer to Shadow, inspecting his face.

As much as Shadow changed, somehow he still looked the same, partly because of Shadow's crimson eyes.

Tears filled Maria's eyes as she rested her head on Shadow's shoulder.

Shadow put his arms around Maria, pulling her closer.

"Shadow you idiot!" Maria said, hitting Shadow's chest several times.

Said former hedgehog remained mostly unfazed.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, Shadow!" Maria said, crying.

Shadow just held Maria closer, rubbing her back gently.

"If something had gone wrong, you could've died! You know I don't care that were different, and you still go and do something reckless!" Maria said loudly.

"Maria..."

No! Don't 'Maria...' me! I..." Maria said, pulling back quickly.

"I could've lost you." She added, tears running down her cheeks.

Shadow wiped some of Maria's tears away with his thumb.

"But you didn't. I'm still here, and now no one will care that we're together. We can be a normal couple now."

Maria scoffed.

"'Normal couple' huh? We were as normal as any other couple we know before you changed. And, did you ever think
people would notice 'Shadow the Hedgehog' has disappeared? They are going to wonder where you've gone."

Shadow hesitated, then closed his eyes.

"I didn't think about that." He said, quietly.

"That's my point." Maria said.

Shadow looked down sadly, and Maria sighed.

"We'll figure something out. We always have right? Besides, it's not like anyone could ever figure out you
became human."

Shadow nodded.

"I might as well tell you, M-chan said this is temporary for now." He said.

"That's good. You might decide you don't like being human." Maria said, with a smile.

Shadow held Maria closer.

"I doubt it." He said, quietly.

Maria's smile faded slightly.

"How do you think Silver is taking M-chan being a hedgehog?" She asked.

Shadow grimaced.

"He reacted worse then you and stormed off somewhere. He was very, very upset."

"Poor M-chan. I hope everything's alright..." Maria said, a little worried.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Phew... Done!! :) Yes, I suck at updating. I'm working on that.

Again, sorry it took so long, but I've already got some stuff written for the next chapter so it should be done by the end of June, I hope...

I'm still having some issues with M-chan's clothes so no pic just yet... Maybe next time... ^^;