Maria

The commotion down the hall had drawn Maria Robotnik to the door of the experiment room. She stood there now, shaking her head and watching two more scientists as they attempted to enter Shadow the Hedgehog's room simultaneously. After a collusion course of shoulders, a collapse of crinolines and a good deal of elbowing and hissing, the women somehow managed to squeeze through to join the throng already inside.

It didn't take a lawyer or spy to figure out what was happening. He was back. It happened once or twice a year. The arrival and departure of Shadow the Hedgehog sent the entire office into a tizzy, a frenzy of swishing skirts and sighs and giggles. Last spring, someone had broken an ankle racing down the hall. All for a glimpse of Shadow the Hedgehog. All for the sake of a fluttering heart. A fleeting sigh.

Such silliness.

It wasn't that she was immune, Maria thought as she made her way to the window. That wasn't the case at all. It was rather that she didn't believe in expending useless emotions. She wasn't the sort of person who wasted on dreams. Not that she had any. But if she had…

She gave a little shrug, and was looking out the window when the door of Gerald Robotnik's opened. There was a last moment jostling in the laboratory, a flurry of movement followed by a communal sigh that dwindled to breathless hush as Gerald's most illustrious experiment appeared.

Maria's hand halted in midair. Her heart, like countless others in the room, gathered speed, bounded in her throat and then plummeted to the pit of her stomach.

Shadow the Hedgehog was the most handsome thing in the world. From his red striped black fur to his hover shoes.

"well?" Gerald Robotnik stood beside Shadow. He spoke with a hushed tone of a conspirator. "that's a lot of them. A bevy, if you will. Take your pick, Shadow. And be quick about it. I'd like to get back to business."

"It doesn't matter." Shadow shifted his stance and crossed his arms, surveying the roomful of women. "I'll need her for a month only. That's it. What about her?"

"Her?"