Ch55: An Old New Face

"Chip? What are you doing here?" I asked when I saw the little guy talking to Tikal, Tails, and Sonia. Chip looked at us as well as the girls and Tails, who all had unsure smiles on them. "What's the matter?... What's with the smiles?" Sonic asked. "W-Well... Chip has something he has to tell you guys," Tails said as he pushed the little guy forward a bit.

"Well... I happen to have found something while I was traversing this one moon base of Eggman's," Chip said as he looked at me with an unsure look of his own. "What is it? And you mean the ARK, right? I have to wonder what that place is used for since Adventure 2 ended," I said as I pondered along with Chaos. "Well... it's a machine that has someone in it... and I think you may know this someone..."

After saying this, Chip used his powers from over the edge to bring what seemed to be a large stasis capsule big enough to hold a teenage woman. And then he lowered it down to us and me and Sonic gasped at who it was. There, in that very capsule, was a blonde-haired girl wearing a light blue and white dress, no shoes, and having the kindest eyes on her... and in her left chest was a hole small enough to resemble a bullet.

"I-I-It's Maria Robotnik!" I exclaimed when I saw her, but even more surprised that she was still breathing. "I used some of my magic to help her wound heal and removed the bullet, but she's still not very well... she has some kind of health disorder or something," Chip frowned as he revealed the bullet that was supposed to have ended Maria's life. But it didn't. She was right here, in deep catatonic sleep. "I think I can help her... but who knows how the timeline will change if Maria is resurrected..." Chaos frowned in my head.

"Probably not too much... after all, the fact that Eggman knows everything that will happen from now until the end of your memories about us is going to be the thing that makes the levels of Generations," Tikal frowned. "You sure? Because Lava Reef Zone has been replaced with Hydro City Zone and Green Hill Zone with the infamous Scrap Brain Zone," I frowned to her.

Tikal sighed heavily at this as Sonic simply shook it off like it was nothing. Well, we're always up for a few challenges here and there, right?" Sonic smiled to me. "Yeah, remind me to laugh when I get Maria out of this thing," I frowned as I looked at the capsule and saw the keypad for a code on the right. It had a lot of different letters, but I knew the password Gerald Robotnik used for all of his last inventions. I entered the code "MARIA" and the capsule made a ding sound as it slowly opened up, the girl within actually falling out and into my grasp. When she did, Chaos immediately went to work on helping her disorder by connecting her life force to mine via tying our hands together like I did with Elise.

"Urgh... Where... am I?" Maria asked as her eyes slowly opened up. "Good morning, hon. Nice to see you're up," I smiled as I helped her off the ground and into my grasp. "Rgh... what happened?... And why do I feel some kind of pain in my chest?" she asked as she moved her free hand to her bullet hole and gasped. "U-Um... is this... is this where..." "Where you were shot by a GUN soldier, yes," I frowned.

"But... wait... what are you guys?... You look like different colors of Shadow... but that can't be..." she gasped as she saw all of us. "A lot of time has passed since you were shot, Maria," I frowned as I hefted her up and held her in my grasp. She was much lighter than Elise, and I liked that she held her arms tight around my head as if she knew what would happen. "How long... rgh... how long have I been asleep?" she asked as I looked at the others with a smile.

"You've been asleep for over fifty years, Maria... and the same could be said with Shadow, though he was revived a little earlier than you," I smiled as she realized the only reason she was alive was because of her arm being melded to mine. "Gerald... what about him? And cousin Ivo? Are they okay?" Maria asked. I sighed as I pointed up to the moon station that was ARK where Maria seemed to understand. "Gerald died after he went nuts trying to destroy the world because of your supposed death," I sighed as I pointed towards a giant sign in the park that said Eggman on it. "And Ivo has become Dr. Eggman, supreme evil genius... luck isn't really on your side to say the least..."

"So... why am I even here?" Maria asked with tears in her eyes. "My guess is that Gerald put you in this stasis capsule to hopefully resurrect you one day... and you're just lucky that Chip here has healing powers, otherwise you'd still have a bullet in you as well as a literal broken heart," I smiled at her. "I... I see... thank you... but I have a question... how come your hand is conjoined to mine? And why do I feel stronger somewhat from it?"

"First answer is that I have it conjoined to you as a life support for you in your weakened state and you feel stronger from me and Chaos supplying your body with strength so that you can survive without a Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome," I explained as I looked at the others. "Are we taking her with us to save the world?" Sonia asked with a smile. "Of course... I don't really have any other options, do I?" Maria asked with a small smirk. "Also... I want to see where Ivo is... and I want to see if he can answer me some questions... how did he make this park again?"

"With an IQ of 300, lots of scrap metal, and a heck of a lot of free time," Sonic smiled with his usual cocky attitude. "Then let's go! Sonic, Sonia, Chip, and Tails will go to Sweet Mountain while Maria, Yacker, Tikal, and I will head to the Starlight Carnival. Look for a large generator in the area. That's where you need to strike," I explained while Maria wrapped her arms around me. "Hold on tight, Maria. We're gonna go pretty fast," I smiled as Tikal and Yacker joined by our sides and the four of us jetted off towards the elevator that would lead to the Starlight Carnival, the most breathtaking view of space in any game to date.