Chapter 4
Can't get enough of black and red
Maria and Sonic tiptoed around the security guarding the stairs and elevators. It wasn't too hard; most of them were already waiting for their shift to be over and some of them were actually asleep. Sonic and Maria stood in front of the bronze colored doors of the elevator, pondering about what move they should make next.
"Okay, so there are over one hundred floors and we need to find one room." Sonic said, "This is definitely a job for more than two people!"
Maria slumped against the doors and sighed, "So, what are we supposed to do?"
"The only thing we can do, search every floor. I'll start on floor one, while you start on floor one hundred. Every door is usually left open at this time of night so all you have to do is zoom by and see if Eggman is in there. We have enough time with our speed. We'll meet on floor fifty or so, depending on how far we get." He stopped and handed her a walky-talky. "Here, we'll use this to keep in contact. If you spot him, call me and tell me what floor you are on. I'll do the same. That clear?" Sonic asked.
"Yup, I'll do my best!" Maria said. She took the walky-talky and latched it onto her jean shorts. She turned it on so that a red light blinked. Maria walked into the elevator and pressed the hundredth floor button. As the bronze doors closed, She gave Sonic a thumbs up sign.
@--------
"Hey Rouge?" Amy asked, while everyone waited for Sonic and Maria to return. Tails sat down on the edge of the sidewalk, watching the people walk through the streets. Knuckles leaned against the building with one arm around Rouge. "Whatever happened to those weird questions The President was asking?"
"Yeah, did you find out what he was trying to say?" Knuckles asked. Tails just looked up.
Rouge cuddled up to Knuckles, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly. "He didn't really tell me why he asked those questions. I bothered him so much so that he wasn't thinking. He mumbled something about an old friend of mine coming in contact with him. As soon as he realized he said that, he had the guards take me out of the room. I guess he didn't want to let anything else slip. I still don't get it though."
"Do you have any friends that could reach The President?" Knuckles asked, patting her on the head.
"The only people who can reach The President himself are his workers, associates, and people of importance. I don't have any friends who fit those categories." Rouge explained.
"Well, there has to be another category that you aren't thinking of, Rouge." Tails said. He stood up and walked around in circles. "Mystery upon mystery.will they ever get solved."
Since they were wrapped up in solving the mystery, they didn't notice a dark hedgehog walk through the front doors, smirking as he stepped in.
@------
Sonic ran down the thirty-fourth hallway, with still no sign of anyone. All the doors on all the floors were open and yet there was not a soul in them. He stopped as he saw a door closed. 'Hmm.could he be in here?' Sonic thought. 'Oh, well. Here goes nothing!' Sonic threw open the door and shouted, "Aha! There you are Eggman!" Unfortunately, it was only the janitor's closet Sonic stumbled upon. 'Man, I hope Maria is doing better than me.'
@------
Maria just finished with the eighty-first floor and was now running down the stairway to the next floor. She opened the door to the next floor and ran right in. Sonic was right, all the doors were left open. Still, so far it didn't matter even if the were closed; there was no trace of anyone around. 'The people in this building must leave early.' Maria thought.
Her feet ached and her breath was ragged, checking all these floors were more than any workout ever did for her. She leaned against the wall while she caught her breath. "Alight then, off I go." Maria murmured, pushing herself off the wall. It only resulted in her falling on the floor. She used all her strength just to get back up again. 'I can't go on any further; I'm too tired. The only thing I can do now is rest.'
She dragged herself over to a big vacant room. One side of the wall was all windows, containing a beautiful view of the city. There was also a big leather chair with two facing it but no desk in between them. Empty cardboard boxes were piles on the outside corners of the room. Maria sat down in the big chair and sighed. She could feel her feet throbbing inside her shoes. "This isn't good," Maria, said, "I think I should call Sonic and tell him it's up to him." Maria checked her walky-talky to see if it was still on, which it was. As she reached for her phone, she heard feet shuffle from outside he room. They weren't running, so it wasn't Sonic.
Maria jumped out of the seat and hid behind one of the piles of boxes. The cracks in between the boxes were enough for her to see. The footsteps got closer and Maria turned around. She wasn't going to peak unless it was necessary.
"This is it," said a gruff, low sounding voice. It sounded familiar. It reminded her of Dr. Gerald's voice, only this voice sound more evil. Could it belong to.Dr. Eggman? Maria remembered when little baby Ivo visited ARK. Shadow wanted nothing to do with a baby so he hid in his room all day. The late Maria was stuck taking care of him by herself. Ivo was a cute baby; she wondered what he looked like now.
Maria decided to find out. She looked through the crack to see a big fat egg-shaped man and a humongous orange mustache. He looked like a clown! Maria rolled around on the ground, trying to suppress her giggles by holding her hands over her mouth.
She sat up and looked again. There were two black floatly things at his sides. They looked like cats but after their heads were ghostly tails. (Have you ever seen Katz on Courage the Cowardly Dog? I love that show! Anyway, take Katz's head and make a complete black silluette of it. Then add a ghost tail. There you have it, now you have a better understanding of what they look like! I'll draw a picture sometime too.) 'I've never seen anything like them. I heard Eggman only makes robots, so those things couldn't be his creations. I wonder what he's doing with them?'
The other person he was talking to stepped in through the doorway. Maria didn't want to look yet until she heard this new person speak. Plus, Maria swore one of those things looked at her. When the other person spoke, Maria didn't have to look to know who is was.
"So this is the room you rented? I hope you didn't spend THAT much money on It." Said the second person; you could hear the smirk in his voice. His voice was calm and smooth with a hint of a British accent in it. (I'm sure the accent is British! Correct me if I'm wrong!)
Maria couldn't believe her ears. 'How could this be? His voice.it's the same voice in my memories unless I'm hallucinating!' She slowly turned her body and lowered her head so that she could see through the cracks. At the sight she saw, her hands flew to her mouth, stifling a gasp from escaping her throat. 'It's.its.Shadow!'
The figure she saw through the cracks could be no other than Shadow the Hedgehog. There stood a black hedgehog with red streaks on the ends of his quills and on the sides of his arms and legs. He wore the shoes with the jets and the same gloves, only with one wristband missing. His eyes were blood red; they weren't warm like in Maria's memories but cold. Maybe it's because of everything he when through or maybe he was just wary around other people.
Maria faced away again, hugging her knees to her chest. Even though she hoped for a miracle, she wasn't sure if she could handle it. 'Now that he's here, I'm shaking all over. I-I can't face him because I'm so nervous. I mean, I only knew him in my memories but to see him now alive and in front of me.and without him knowing that someone dear to him came all his way to find him, it worries me too.'
"Stop complaining and take a seat, hedgehog. We have much to discuss." Eggman said. Maria heard the shuffling of feet and noise of the chairs as they were sat on.
"I'm not interested in one of your brilliant schemes. I came because you were an old ally; it is only right to answer your call." Shadow said.
"What? So you thought it would be right to answer my call and not your friends?" Eggman said, slyly.
Shadow sighed, "When I found out I survived the fall, I also found out the faker and the others were looking for me. They were worried sick. I didn't want to come to them.after what I did. They couldn't have accepted me so easily. Since the world was in danger and I was fit to fight they chose me and we became allies for those few minutes. I don't think they even realized that I found out what I was doing was wrong. I believed they only used me then and I didn't feel bad about because that's how I should be treated for the crimes I committed." Shadow paused and looked out the window at the broken moon. "That moon will never fix itself."
"You even sent a letter to the President telling him not to look for you." Eggman confirmed.
"Of course." Shadow said, "You were the only person who knew I was still alive. The case on Project Shadow had closed after the ARK accident but if I were seen, G.U.N. would surely hunt me down. When I answered you and decided to come to Station Square, I knew the team would find out I was here. I told the President about everything to officially close the case and to not get captured by G.U.N. Since I knew Rouge worked for the government, the President would surely tell her of my existence."
"So, you wanted to keep it a secret that you were coming." Eggman said. One of the black creatures shifted position.
"Yes, I want to return to them.but I'll do that on my own." Shadow said, "But enough about me. Why did you call me here?"
Eggman smirked and patted the head of one of the creatures. "I found these two creatures had gotten into my base one night. I let them into my lab to find out what they were.to test them. The next thing I knew my mood had suddenly changed. I made awesome plans out of nowhere. To put them in action, I need the Chaos Emeralds."
"You want me to get them for you?" Shadow asked.
"You are the only one who can do it! If nothing else, then do it for old times sake?" Eggman said. The creature on the other side purred.
"I will do no such thing. I won't go back to evil.even when I was there I didn't know I was doing the wrong thing." Shadow looked him up and down, noticing that his eyes, through his goggles, were a weird yellow color. "Eggman, you don't seem yourself anyway. Those plans must have come from those creatures that are standing by your sides."
Eggman ignored the last comment and continued, "If you don't help me then-" An annoying static scratching sound stopped him from talking. The sound was coming from a pile of boxes. Both Eggman and Shadow stopped what they were doing.
Maria looked at her waist and noticed it was the walky-talky. She tried to cover it so the sound wouldn't come out but it didn't work. The static disappeared and was replaced by Sonic's voice. "Hey! Mari*sqwwwkkk* Where are you? Did you*sqwwkkk* find Eggman yet?"
'Two words." Maria thought, in the brief period of time she had to think, 'Oh, S***!' (Well, I'm sure you would say that too if you were about to be discovered! I edited it anyway.) Before Maria even had time to turn and run, one of the black creatures tore through the cardboard boxes; stopping short right in front of Maria's face.
"Well, well, well.it looks like we've found a rat in hiding!" Eggman laughed. His eyes burned with a yellow light. Shadow stood up from his chair and stared at her. The creature that broke through the boxes hovered back to Eggman's side, leaving Maria sitting on the floor shaking with fear.
'Okay.I just have to act normal, I can't look scared.' Maria thought while she got to her feet. 'Maybe.' Maria's shaking stopped and the fear on her face was quickly replaced by a smile. 'Here goes!' "Ivo, it's so nice to see you again after all these years!" Maria said. What she was saying was true so she had no problem making small talk. She tried to ignore Shadow for the moment; if she were to look at him now, her act would falter.
"What do you mean?" Eggman asked, scratching his head.
"Don't you remember your cousin?" Maria asked, a placid smile still hanging on her face. Perhaps if she could continue, Sonic would get here in time to save her.
"Cousin?!" Eggman shouted, banging his fist down on the chair. His yellow eyes gleamed. "No cousin of mine is a hedgehog! How dare you try to relate me to a hedgehog!"
'Oh no! I didn't know he was touchy about hedgehogs! What am I going to do now?' Maria thought. That's when she finally looked straight at Shadow. He was staring at her the whole time. When she looked into his eyes, she saw that his eyes were warm like in her memories, perhaps it's because he knows she knows Sonic.
"What is your name?" Shadow asked.
"Well, I.uh.." Maria stuttered, backing up towards the windows. She stopped and sucked in her breath, calming herself down. "My name is..!"
Before Maria could finish, the other creature left Eggman's side and head butted Maria's stomach; knocking her through the glass windows unconscious. She was now falling down the side of the building, possibly to her death.
Shadow gasped and ran to the edge of the window and was about to turn on his hover boots to save her when the two creatures wrapped around him to hold him in place. He turned his head to see Eggman grinning madly, his eyes glowing brighter than ever. "We won't have any of that rescuing stuff, Shadow. It's the rat's fault for spying." Eggman noticed Shadow struggling against the creatures bonds. "You won't escape, Shadow. Those creatures are too strong. The same thing will happen to you if you don't join me."
@---------
"Ugh.what's going on?" Maria moaned, struggling to open her eyes. She could feel the wind all over her but she couldn't remember why. When her eyes went into focus, She noticed she was falling head first next to the side of the building. Broken shards of glass were falling with her. 'I remember now, I got thrown out the window.' She looked all around her, "How am I supposed to survive? At the last minute I saw Shadow being surrounded by those creatures, he can't save me now. Sonic can't either." Tears dripped off of her eyes and into the sky in front of her. Suddenly, something came to her mind. Her mother's warning about keeping the jacket on, that it will protect her. And.and the limo driver commenting her about the wings embroidered on the back of her jacket. "I wish those wings were real so I could fly, fly out of this danger and more." Maria closed her eyes as her body hit the tops of some of the tallest trees. 'This is it' She thought 'The end.'
Instead of hitting the ground, her body just completely stopped. She hung in mid air. She flipped herself right side up and turned her head towards her back. The embroidered wings where no longer there. Instead, two tiny real wings attached to her jacket held her up. She flew around and pinched herself to she if it was just a dream; it wasn't. "I'm really flying!" Maria whispered, slowly spinning around in a circle. "My mom was right, it did protect me. I have a jacket that enables me to fly!"
Maria looked up at the building and spotted the window she fell out of. "I can't go back there." Maria said, "I-I could get killed by those creatures if I go back. I'm also ashamed to show my face there again, I acted so stupid." Maria faced away from the building and flew in the opposite direction. 'I can see everyone tomorrow and explain to them what happened.' Looking back one last time She whispered, "Shadow, please be safe."
@---------
Sonic heard the whole thing over the walky-talky because Maria had left it on the whole time. He ran as fast as he could to the room she fell out of. "I hope I can get there in time!" As he was running down the eighty-second hallway, he heard noises and burst into the room where they came from. He stood frozen in the doorway at first, trying to put together what he saw. Broken cardboard pieces were scattered around the room. Eggman was there- his eyes were a strange yellow color-and he was laughing. Shadow was there too. He stood at the edge of the broken window, tied down by these two black blob things. Also next to the broken window was Maria's walky-talky.
"Eggman! What are you doing?" Was the first thing to pop out of Sonic's mouth. He stood in a fighting position.
"Sonic." Shadow whispered, there was a look of sadness in his eyes as he struggled against the creatures. He shifted his gaze from Sonic to Maria's walky-talky.
"Sonic the Hedgehog! What a pleasant surprise. Maybe to me, but not to you. Your rat is as good as dead; you are to late to save her. Good news though." Eggman said. He snapped his fingers and the two creatures released Shadow. ".You are just in time to save Shadow and to see me leave." Eggman pressed a button on wrist- he and his creatures' teleported away.
"EGGMAN!" Sonic shouted. He looked over at Shadow who was rubbing his wrists. He was happy Shadow was alive, very happy. But right now wasn't the time to catch up on old times." Shadow! You can fly, right?"
"With my hover boots, yes." Shadow replied. He seemed to understand too.
"Then help me find Maria! She couldn't have died, we have to find her!" Sonic shouted.
"Maria?" Shadow echoed.
"Yes, she was the name of the girl who was here. Hurry Shadow!" Sonic said. He figured if Maria were okay, she would tell him herself about being the reincarnation of the late Maria.
Shadow stood at the edge of the window and turned on his boots. "Sonic, climb onto my back." Sonic nodded and did what he was told. Shadow push off the side of the building and they flew.
Shadow remained silent while Sonic shouted at the top of his lungs her name. "MARIA!"
Kimmie's Corner
Kimmie: Chapter 4 is finally done. Whew! I'm sorry it took so long to bring but this chapter was planned in my mind mostly. When it was time to write it, I found it hard to write what I dreamt up in my mind. So, I'm finally done with this chapter, on to the next! Oh yeah! I might take a longer time for the fifth chapter to go up because I'm moving. It's not a big move, but I won't be on the computer for at least two weeks. So, because of that, I'm adding a new section: Next Chapter Previews, so here goes!
Preview of next Chapter:
"Hi there, I'm Maria the Hedgehog. Sonic and the gang think I'm dead from that fall still! Well, I didn't make it home that night; I was so tired so while I was flying home I collapsed on top of a rooftop! What? Amy? She woke me up! I hope she can take me to where the others are, but I fear we'll both get into more trouble than I did last night.
Next Chapter: The Chase and Awkward Acquaintances. See you there!"
Maria and Sonic tiptoed around the security guarding the stairs and elevators. It wasn't too hard; most of them were already waiting for their shift to be over and some of them were actually asleep. Sonic and Maria stood in front of the bronze colored doors of the elevator, pondering about what move they should make next.
"Okay, so there are over one hundred floors and we need to find one room." Sonic said, "This is definitely a job for more than two people!"
Maria slumped against the doors and sighed, "So, what are we supposed to do?"
"The only thing we can do, search every floor. I'll start on floor one, while you start on floor one hundred. Every door is usually left open at this time of night so all you have to do is zoom by and see if Eggman is in there. We have enough time with our speed. We'll meet on floor fifty or so, depending on how far we get." He stopped and handed her a walky-talky. "Here, we'll use this to keep in contact. If you spot him, call me and tell me what floor you are on. I'll do the same. That clear?" Sonic asked.
"Yup, I'll do my best!" Maria said. She took the walky-talky and latched it onto her jean shorts. She turned it on so that a red light blinked. Maria walked into the elevator and pressed the hundredth floor button. As the bronze doors closed, She gave Sonic a thumbs up sign.
@--------
"Hey Rouge?" Amy asked, while everyone waited for Sonic and Maria to return. Tails sat down on the edge of the sidewalk, watching the people walk through the streets. Knuckles leaned against the building with one arm around Rouge. "Whatever happened to those weird questions The President was asking?"
"Yeah, did you find out what he was trying to say?" Knuckles asked. Tails just looked up.
Rouge cuddled up to Knuckles, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly. "He didn't really tell me why he asked those questions. I bothered him so much so that he wasn't thinking. He mumbled something about an old friend of mine coming in contact with him. As soon as he realized he said that, he had the guards take me out of the room. I guess he didn't want to let anything else slip. I still don't get it though."
"Do you have any friends that could reach The President?" Knuckles asked, patting her on the head.
"The only people who can reach The President himself are his workers, associates, and people of importance. I don't have any friends who fit those categories." Rouge explained.
"Well, there has to be another category that you aren't thinking of, Rouge." Tails said. He stood up and walked around in circles. "Mystery upon mystery.will they ever get solved."
Since they were wrapped up in solving the mystery, they didn't notice a dark hedgehog walk through the front doors, smirking as he stepped in.
@------
Sonic ran down the thirty-fourth hallway, with still no sign of anyone. All the doors on all the floors were open and yet there was not a soul in them. He stopped as he saw a door closed. 'Hmm.could he be in here?' Sonic thought. 'Oh, well. Here goes nothing!' Sonic threw open the door and shouted, "Aha! There you are Eggman!" Unfortunately, it was only the janitor's closet Sonic stumbled upon. 'Man, I hope Maria is doing better than me.'
@------
Maria just finished with the eighty-first floor and was now running down the stairway to the next floor. She opened the door to the next floor and ran right in. Sonic was right, all the doors were left open. Still, so far it didn't matter even if the were closed; there was no trace of anyone around. 'The people in this building must leave early.' Maria thought.
Her feet ached and her breath was ragged, checking all these floors were more than any workout ever did for her. She leaned against the wall while she caught her breath. "Alight then, off I go." Maria murmured, pushing herself off the wall. It only resulted in her falling on the floor. She used all her strength just to get back up again. 'I can't go on any further; I'm too tired. The only thing I can do now is rest.'
She dragged herself over to a big vacant room. One side of the wall was all windows, containing a beautiful view of the city. There was also a big leather chair with two facing it but no desk in between them. Empty cardboard boxes were piles on the outside corners of the room. Maria sat down in the big chair and sighed. She could feel her feet throbbing inside her shoes. "This isn't good," Maria, said, "I think I should call Sonic and tell him it's up to him." Maria checked her walky-talky to see if it was still on, which it was. As she reached for her phone, she heard feet shuffle from outside he room. They weren't running, so it wasn't Sonic.
Maria jumped out of the seat and hid behind one of the piles of boxes. The cracks in between the boxes were enough for her to see. The footsteps got closer and Maria turned around. She wasn't going to peak unless it was necessary.
"This is it," said a gruff, low sounding voice. It sounded familiar. It reminded her of Dr. Gerald's voice, only this voice sound more evil. Could it belong to.Dr. Eggman? Maria remembered when little baby Ivo visited ARK. Shadow wanted nothing to do with a baby so he hid in his room all day. The late Maria was stuck taking care of him by herself. Ivo was a cute baby; she wondered what he looked like now.
Maria decided to find out. She looked through the crack to see a big fat egg-shaped man and a humongous orange mustache. He looked like a clown! Maria rolled around on the ground, trying to suppress her giggles by holding her hands over her mouth.
She sat up and looked again. There were two black floatly things at his sides. They looked like cats but after their heads were ghostly tails. (Have you ever seen Katz on Courage the Cowardly Dog? I love that show! Anyway, take Katz's head and make a complete black silluette of it. Then add a ghost tail. There you have it, now you have a better understanding of what they look like! I'll draw a picture sometime too.) 'I've never seen anything like them. I heard Eggman only makes robots, so those things couldn't be his creations. I wonder what he's doing with them?'
The other person he was talking to stepped in through the doorway. Maria didn't want to look yet until she heard this new person speak. Plus, Maria swore one of those things looked at her. When the other person spoke, Maria didn't have to look to know who is was.
"So this is the room you rented? I hope you didn't spend THAT much money on It." Said the second person; you could hear the smirk in his voice. His voice was calm and smooth with a hint of a British accent in it. (I'm sure the accent is British! Correct me if I'm wrong!)
Maria couldn't believe her ears. 'How could this be? His voice.it's the same voice in my memories unless I'm hallucinating!' She slowly turned her body and lowered her head so that she could see through the cracks. At the sight she saw, her hands flew to her mouth, stifling a gasp from escaping her throat. 'It's.its.Shadow!'
The figure she saw through the cracks could be no other than Shadow the Hedgehog. There stood a black hedgehog with red streaks on the ends of his quills and on the sides of his arms and legs. He wore the shoes with the jets and the same gloves, only with one wristband missing. His eyes were blood red; they weren't warm like in Maria's memories but cold. Maybe it's because of everything he when through or maybe he was just wary around other people.
Maria faced away again, hugging her knees to her chest. Even though she hoped for a miracle, she wasn't sure if she could handle it. 'Now that he's here, I'm shaking all over. I-I can't face him because I'm so nervous. I mean, I only knew him in my memories but to see him now alive and in front of me.and without him knowing that someone dear to him came all his way to find him, it worries me too.'
"Stop complaining and take a seat, hedgehog. We have much to discuss." Eggman said. Maria heard the shuffling of feet and noise of the chairs as they were sat on.
"I'm not interested in one of your brilliant schemes. I came because you were an old ally; it is only right to answer your call." Shadow said.
"What? So you thought it would be right to answer my call and not your friends?" Eggman said, slyly.
Shadow sighed, "When I found out I survived the fall, I also found out the faker and the others were looking for me. They were worried sick. I didn't want to come to them.after what I did. They couldn't have accepted me so easily. Since the world was in danger and I was fit to fight they chose me and we became allies for those few minutes. I don't think they even realized that I found out what I was doing was wrong. I believed they only used me then and I didn't feel bad about because that's how I should be treated for the crimes I committed." Shadow paused and looked out the window at the broken moon. "That moon will never fix itself."
"You even sent a letter to the President telling him not to look for you." Eggman confirmed.
"Of course." Shadow said, "You were the only person who knew I was still alive. The case on Project Shadow had closed after the ARK accident but if I were seen, G.U.N. would surely hunt me down. When I answered you and decided to come to Station Square, I knew the team would find out I was here. I told the President about everything to officially close the case and to not get captured by G.U.N. Since I knew Rouge worked for the government, the President would surely tell her of my existence."
"So, you wanted to keep it a secret that you were coming." Eggman said. One of the black creatures shifted position.
"Yes, I want to return to them.but I'll do that on my own." Shadow said, "But enough about me. Why did you call me here?"
Eggman smirked and patted the head of one of the creatures. "I found these two creatures had gotten into my base one night. I let them into my lab to find out what they were.to test them. The next thing I knew my mood had suddenly changed. I made awesome plans out of nowhere. To put them in action, I need the Chaos Emeralds."
"You want me to get them for you?" Shadow asked.
"You are the only one who can do it! If nothing else, then do it for old times sake?" Eggman said. The creature on the other side purred.
"I will do no such thing. I won't go back to evil.even when I was there I didn't know I was doing the wrong thing." Shadow looked him up and down, noticing that his eyes, through his goggles, were a weird yellow color. "Eggman, you don't seem yourself anyway. Those plans must have come from those creatures that are standing by your sides."
Eggman ignored the last comment and continued, "If you don't help me then-" An annoying static scratching sound stopped him from talking. The sound was coming from a pile of boxes. Both Eggman and Shadow stopped what they were doing.
Maria looked at her waist and noticed it was the walky-talky. She tried to cover it so the sound wouldn't come out but it didn't work. The static disappeared and was replaced by Sonic's voice. "Hey! Mari*sqwwwkkk* Where are you? Did you*sqwwkkk* find Eggman yet?"
'Two words." Maria thought, in the brief period of time she had to think, 'Oh, S***!' (Well, I'm sure you would say that too if you were about to be discovered! I edited it anyway.) Before Maria even had time to turn and run, one of the black creatures tore through the cardboard boxes; stopping short right in front of Maria's face.
"Well, well, well.it looks like we've found a rat in hiding!" Eggman laughed. His eyes burned with a yellow light. Shadow stood up from his chair and stared at her. The creature that broke through the boxes hovered back to Eggman's side, leaving Maria sitting on the floor shaking with fear.
'Okay.I just have to act normal, I can't look scared.' Maria thought while she got to her feet. 'Maybe.' Maria's shaking stopped and the fear on her face was quickly replaced by a smile. 'Here goes!' "Ivo, it's so nice to see you again after all these years!" Maria said. What she was saying was true so she had no problem making small talk. She tried to ignore Shadow for the moment; if she were to look at him now, her act would falter.
"What do you mean?" Eggman asked, scratching his head.
"Don't you remember your cousin?" Maria asked, a placid smile still hanging on her face. Perhaps if she could continue, Sonic would get here in time to save her.
"Cousin?!" Eggman shouted, banging his fist down on the chair. His yellow eyes gleamed. "No cousin of mine is a hedgehog! How dare you try to relate me to a hedgehog!"
'Oh no! I didn't know he was touchy about hedgehogs! What am I going to do now?' Maria thought. That's when she finally looked straight at Shadow. He was staring at her the whole time. When she looked into his eyes, she saw that his eyes were warm like in her memories, perhaps it's because he knows she knows Sonic.
"What is your name?" Shadow asked.
"Well, I.uh.." Maria stuttered, backing up towards the windows. She stopped and sucked in her breath, calming herself down. "My name is..!"
Before Maria could finish, the other creature left Eggman's side and head butted Maria's stomach; knocking her through the glass windows unconscious. She was now falling down the side of the building, possibly to her death.
Shadow gasped and ran to the edge of the window and was about to turn on his hover boots to save her when the two creatures wrapped around him to hold him in place. He turned his head to see Eggman grinning madly, his eyes glowing brighter than ever. "We won't have any of that rescuing stuff, Shadow. It's the rat's fault for spying." Eggman noticed Shadow struggling against the creatures bonds. "You won't escape, Shadow. Those creatures are too strong. The same thing will happen to you if you don't join me."
@---------
"Ugh.what's going on?" Maria moaned, struggling to open her eyes. She could feel the wind all over her but she couldn't remember why. When her eyes went into focus, She noticed she was falling head first next to the side of the building. Broken shards of glass were falling with her. 'I remember now, I got thrown out the window.' She looked all around her, "How am I supposed to survive? At the last minute I saw Shadow being surrounded by those creatures, he can't save me now. Sonic can't either." Tears dripped off of her eyes and into the sky in front of her. Suddenly, something came to her mind. Her mother's warning about keeping the jacket on, that it will protect her. And.and the limo driver commenting her about the wings embroidered on the back of her jacket. "I wish those wings were real so I could fly, fly out of this danger and more." Maria closed her eyes as her body hit the tops of some of the tallest trees. 'This is it' She thought 'The end.'
Instead of hitting the ground, her body just completely stopped. She hung in mid air. She flipped herself right side up and turned her head towards her back. The embroidered wings where no longer there. Instead, two tiny real wings attached to her jacket held her up. She flew around and pinched herself to she if it was just a dream; it wasn't. "I'm really flying!" Maria whispered, slowly spinning around in a circle. "My mom was right, it did protect me. I have a jacket that enables me to fly!"
Maria looked up at the building and spotted the window she fell out of. "I can't go back there." Maria said, "I-I could get killed by those creatures if I go back. I'm also ashamed to show my face there again, I acted so stupid." Maria faced away from the building and flew in the opposite direction. 'I can see everyone tomorrow and explain to them what happened.' Looking back one last time She whispered, "Shadow, please be safe."
@---------
Sonic heard the whole thing over the walky-talky because Maria had left it on the whole time. He ran as fast as he could to the room she fell out of. "I hope I can get there in time!" As he was running down the eighty-second hallway, he heard noises and burst into the room where they came from. He stood frozen in the doorway at first, trying to put together what he saw. Broken cardboard pieces were scattered around the room. Eggman was there- his eyes were a strange yellow color-and he was laughing. Shadow was there too. He stood at the edge of the broken window, tied down by these two black blob things. Also next to the broken window was Maria's walky-talky.
"Eggman! What are you doing?" Was the first thing to pop out of Sonic's mouth. He stood in a fighting position.
"Sonic." Shadow whispered, there was a look of sadness in his eyes as he struggled against the creatures. He shifted his gaze from Sonic to Maria's walky-talky.
"Sonic the Hedgehog! What a pleasant surprise. Maybe to me, but not to you. Your rat is as good as dead; you are to late to save her. Good news though." Eggman said. He snapped his fingers and the two creatures released Shadow. ".You are just in time to save Shadow and to see me leave." Eggman pressed a button on wrist- he and his creatures' teleported away.
"EGGMAN!" Sonic shouted. He looked over at Shadow who was rubbing his wrists. He was happy Shadow was alive, very happy. But right now wasn't the time to catch up on old times." Shadow! You can fly, right?"
"With my hover boots, yes." Shadow replied. He seemed to understand too.
"Then help me find Maria! She couldn't have died, we have to find her!" Sonic shouted.
"Maria?" Shadow echoed.
"Yes, she was the name of the girl who was here. Hurry Shadow!" Sonic said. He figured if Maria were okay, she would tell him herself about being the reincarnation of the late Maria.
Shadow stood at the edge of the window and turned on his boots. "Sonic, climb onto my back." Sonic nodded and did what he was told. Shadow push off the side of the building and they flew.
Shadow remained silent while Sonic shouted at the top of his lungs her name. "MARIA!"
Kimmie's Corner
Kimmie: Chapter 4 is finally done. Whew! I'm sorry it took so long to bring but this chapter was planned in my mind mostly. When it was time to write it, I found it hard to write what I dreamt up in my mind. So, I'm finally done with this chapter, on to the next! Oh yeah! I might take a longer time for the fifth chapter to go up because I'm moving. It's not a big move, but I won't be on the computer for at least two weeks. So, because of that, I'm adding a new section: Next Chapter Previews, so here goes!
Preview of next Chapter:
"Hi there, I'm Maria the Hedgehog. Sonic and the gang think I'm dead from that fall still! Well, I didn't make it home that night; I was so tired so while I was flying home I collapsed on top of a rooftop! What? Amy? She woke me up! I hope she can take me to where the others are, but I fear we'll both get into more trouble than I did last night.
Next Chapter: The Chase and Awkward Acquaintances. See you there!"