Chapter 3

"Run," Maria's mind screamed at her. Her legs burning from running so much, her breath ragged and hard as she tried to keep up with the black and red hedgehog. He seemed miles ahead of her but he was right there. She turned her head to GUN Soldiers catching up to them. She proceeded to look back at the task at hand to see a wall in front of them.

"We're trapped," muttered the hedgehog. Maria took a deep breath in, closed her eyes, and grabbed his hand. The soldiers surrounded them, screaming and yelling things that didn't make sense.

A loud bang was heard.

Maria felt the hand she was hanging onto slip from his grasp. She opened her eyes to see her friend fall to the ground.

-XXX-

Maria bolted upright, the sweat dripping off of her face. She sighed.

"Just a dream," she said to herself as she closed her eyes and flopped back down on the couch.

"Wait," Maria thought, "How did I get onto a couch?" Maria's eyes snapped as she frantically tried to get up, only with her falling face first onto the floor.

"Ouch," Maria groaned as she stood up to observe her new surroundings. It appeared to be a rather small house. Small, yet cozy. The kitchen was right across from where she was sleeping, the living room. In the back of the living room was a stair case that led to the upstairs. The living room had two giant bookshelves filled with books about cooking, mechanics, airplanes among other books. A small TV sat in the corner with a black Nintendo GameCube hooked up beside it. Maria was in complete awe over the place that she didn't hear the footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Wow, I've got to admit, this place is amazing. But…how did I get here?" Maria asked herself.

"Sonic found you."

Maria froze. She wasn't excepting an answer. She looked over to the stairs to see a young fox. His golden brown fur sparkled in the sunlight. Cyan eyes expressed life and happiness in them. The twin tails that made him so unique draped behind him. A smile plastered on his face.

"Hi," greeted the fox, "I'm Tails."

"Uh…Hi," Maria stammered out.

"Sorry if I startled you, but you were talking to yourself. You were at the train station last night during the storm. Sonic found you sleeping on one of the benches and brought you home. It's safer and drier here then there."

"Um…if you don't mind me asking," Maria started slowly, "But what's a Sonic?"

"HA! What's a Sonic…funny."

Maria whipped her head around to see a hedgehog standing at the door. His sapphire blue fur just seemed to make his emerald green eyes pop right out. His heart warming smile on came across his face as he walked in from the outdoors.

"Funny. His looks and his personality kind of remind me of..." Maria shook her head. "Oh come on now. He's seems way too cocky and Shadow is based on Mobian hedgehogs so of course he's going to look like them in some ways."

"So…uh I take it you're Sonic?" she asked. The hedgehog nodded.

"Yep. I don't mean to brag or anything but I'm as cool as I am blue," He said, puffing out his chest in pride, as giggling started up. He looked at the girl and the fox confused. "What?"

"That was really lame," Maria stammered out between laughs. Sonic glared at the girl and starting to fume.

"Sorry Sonic, but that was really bad," agreed Tails.

"Oh who needs you…" the hedgehog pouted and sat on the couch. Tails rolled his eye, as if the was completely normal to him by now. Maria walked to the couch and sat beside him.

"Anyways, thanks so much for bringing me here. You honestly didn't have to." The hedgehog smiled meekly over at the human girl.

"It was raining really badly and you were shivering. I did it because I didn't want to see you get sick or worse," he said, smile never leaving his face, "But if you really want to thank me…you could tell me your name."

Maria went pale. She didn't know if they knew anything about the ARK or not, so using her real name was out. She franticly searched through her mind.

"Okay Maria, let's think, there's got to be something that isn't too obvious," her thoughts speaking to her before she could control her mouth.

"Mars," she blurted out, mentally smacking herself.

"Really? You named yourself after the planet that you can rearrange your initials to. Smart. And you have an IQ of 305…"

"Mars?" asked Sonic quite bluntly.

"Like…the planet?" Tails asked in awe. Maria nodded.

"Yeah," Maria said, "now that introductions are out of the way, why don't make us breakfast? Don't mean to brag but I can make really good omelettes." The other two nodded and three went into the kitchen.

-XXX-

Nokia sat at her desk in complete disbelief. She knew that one day Maria would find out about Shadow but she never thought like this. She wished that she would have told the girl the truth, instead of having to tell GUN and have them go on a wild goose chase through the city to find this one little girl. The commander walked into Nokia's office.

"So what is this news you needed to tell me," The commander asked rather bored, like he had better things to do, like golf, then to worry about small things. Nokia sighed.

"Maria found out last night about Shadow." The commander's eyes widen in fear.

"Have you been able to locate her?" He asked. Nokia shook her head. The commander stared at her, his face looked like that he had swallowed poison and had no cure for it.

"Right. We'll have to do a search around the city and surrounding areas. Put Shadow in lock down until further notice."

"He's going to question commander…" Nokia started, but was interrupted.

"Then lie. I don't care how you do it, you just get him in lock down," he kept his eyes on Nokia.

"Mark my words. If he were to ever find about Maria Robotnik being alive… I fear for our lives."

Not known by the commander or remembered by Nokia, the Ultimate Lifeform was standing outside about to go in for his meeting when he accidently eavesdropped onto the conversation that had been going on. He pulled out a gem stone that was emerald green in colour, and in a flash of light was gone.

-XXX-

AN: Well that was an exciting chapter. Hope you enjoy.

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