Chapter 7

Maria stood there on the outskirts of the wooded area, like a deer stunned by the headlights of a passing car. She kept reading the sign that said Greenwood High, hoping that it would change, but it didn't.

"This can't be happening," Maria groaned in disbelief. Sonic looked over at her.

"What's up," He asked. Maria just stood there dumbfounded and pointing at the building.

"That," she said, her voice shaky, "Is my high school."

"Oh…crap."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Uh…Sonic?" said the voice from the walkie talkie causing the two of them to jump. Sonic pulled out the device.

"Geez buddy you scared me there," Sonic stammered out to the fox on the other end, "anyways, what's up?" A deep sigh from the other end could only mean nothing good.

"The pistons blew. I'm not sure how though. They looked fine this morning and I only just put these ones in less than a week ago. UGH this is so unfair!" Tails yelled the frustration clearly in his voice. "I'm gonna have to go to the parts shop and pick up some more AND spares in the Tornado…OH that reminds me, where the heck are you guys? It's been roughly two hours since you two left."

"Two hours!?" Maria squeaked.

"It didn't feel that long," Sonic mumbled, "Anyways bud we're near Greenwood High, apparently it's near the middle of Station Square…"

"Sonic, the parts shop is on Kidd Avenue, can you PLEASE go there and get me two sets of pistons," pleaded Tails, in that voice of desperation that crushed Sonic's heart into pieces if he didn't say yes.

"Yeah bud I can do that for you." The squee of glee and the amount of thank yous that came out of the was to send Sonic on a pride trip as the fox said he was going to do some stuff and turned off his walkie talkie.

"We're going in…Station Square…" Maria muttered in sheer panic. Sonic looked at her and felt the pride bubble burst. He had forgotten about Maria. She turned to the hedgehog, "Sonic I don't know if they're looking for me. If I stay in one spot I'm screwed and if I go with you and get spotted I'm screwed. There's no win here…" Sonic stood there, raking his brain for any way to get her in a safer area then out in the open. The idea of the one place pinged into his head.

"But…I don't want to get her involve in this," Sonic thought, grimacing at the thought of endangering or even putting her in this.

"I know someone that can keep you safe. She's…going to question some stuff, so I may need to explain some stuff. Are you okay with that?" Maria nodded.

"What do I have to lose right now? Let's do it to it." Sonic smiled and the two exited the woods and entered Station Square, ready to face any dangers that would come across them.

-XXX-

The city bustled with all kinds of people, running around about their daily lives. Teens talking about their exam marks or the latest trends that were going on, business suited men and women bounding from streetcar to street car, mothers pushing strollers of sleeping babies and the weary looks of the passerbyers as Sonic and Maria hurried along the busy sidewalk trying not to get spotted.

"So…where are we going?" Maria asked.

"Just to a friend's place," explained Sonic, "She's nice…for the most part…and she makes amazing cupcakes. So you have to look forward to. OH and she makes the best tea out of honey and cookies and…"

"…Is…is she your girlfriend?" Maria pried, a smile crept along her face has the hedgehog's went beat red knowing that she had hit a nerve straight on the head.

"She's not my girlfriend!" squeaked the ever so upset Sonic, confused on how the 20 question game had turned onto him. Maria's smiled widen.

"Really? You seem very upset over this girl who you claim not to be your girlfriend. Is she a love interest?"

"NO SHE'S NOT!" Sonic shouted, "Amy is just a girl that is my friend that I occasionally save because Eggman has creepy thing about kidnapping her, kinda like Bowser has for Peach in the Mario games."

"Right…" Maria sighed. They had wondered into one of the many parks that littered the city. How she wished to hear someone to say something about her…

"I can't believe Nokia would even let GUN go on a man hunt for Maria! Like honestly, how fair is that?!"

Sonic and Maria looked at each other and bolted to the nearest bush near the bench of the three people, two teens around Maria's age and a young girl around the age of ten.

"Do you know these people?" Sonic whispered. Maria nodded and pointed to the boy with the sandy brown hair.

"Darcy," She whispered back, "He's my best friend in the world." She looked over at the girl. She was the same age as Darcy. Deep chestnut coloured hair just touching the tip of chin made her fair skin look pale and her hazel eyes seemed dim.

"The girl that looks my age is Hera. Her mother had something for the Apotos Gods and Goddesses, and the younger girl Halina, Darcy's little sister."

Sonic looked at the younger girl. She had dark skin and jet black hair and deep chocolate brown eyes.

"But…they look so different," Sonic said.

"Halina was adopted from Shamar ," Maria explained. Sonic nodded looking at the girl. He knew he hadseen her before somewhere.

"Yeah…it doesn't seem like Nokia to give the go ahead until she looks over the area," Hera said, bring back the other two into the conversation at hand, "But the thing I don't get is why would she run away? She's got it good where she is so why give it up? You were closer to her then I was Darcy, did she say anything to you about anything?"

"Not really. Like normal stuff about her past and the ARK but nothing too out of the ordinary for her to say. Cookies, her grandfather, that hedgehog she's always gone on about…what's his name…"

"Sonic?!" squeaked Halina causing the other two to groan.

"No Halina, not Sonic. What is your obsession over him anyways?" Darcy questioned.

"He bought me ice cream last week when I was sad about that B+ on that math test," she mumbled.

"No…Halina he didn't."

"Yes he did Darcy!"

"No. He didn't."

"Yes I did. It was strawberry with chocolate sprinkles."

Maria looked over to her right and noticed that the hedgehog was gone and was now defending Halina. She groaned and crawled away from the bush and darted a ways to a giant oak tree so she wouldn't be spotted but still could see Sonic and dart back if needed.

"At least he's thoughtful to stick up for her," Maria thought and gave a faint smile.

"Well hello there Maria."

The smile quickly faded as Maria looked up in the tree. The ivory coloured bat looked down at her and smile as she jumped from the tree and landed beside her. Maria started to back away towards Sonic.

"How do you know my name?" Maria asked sternly, eyes not leaving the bat, "Who are you?"

"Read it before," the bat said, holding up the files of Maria's three years of being awake, "Name's Rouge the Bat. I work for an agency called GUN, but I'm doing a secret…"

Maria bolted towards Sonic after hearing the word GUN.

-XXX-

Sonic was walking quickly through the park. After helping out Halina, he noticed that Maria had gone off somewhere and was worried. He kept in one spot scanning for any sign of her when…

"CRAZY BAT LADY IS COMING TO GET ME!"

A sigh of relief came from Sonic as the crazed girl ran over to him and yanked arm trying to pull him away for the area.

"Whoa, what's going on? Crazy Bat Lady?" Sonic asked in confusion, not moving an inch. Maria looked at him like he was nuts for not moving.

"She knew my name; ivory in colour, name…Ruby…Scarlett…not it was French…"Maria stammered.

"Rouge," Sonic groaned.

"That's it!" Maria said.

"This really does mean trouble if they've got her out searching for you." He looked over at her. Without a second thought Sonic scooped Maria up into his arms bridal style.

"AH! What are you doing?! Put me down!" Maria shouted. Sonic looked at her sternly.

"Look. Do you want to get out of here fast?" Maria just stared at him and nodded.

"Good, because here we go. "Maria wrapped her arms around his neck, and within a split second the two were gone.

-XXX-

Within 30 seconds Sonic came to a screeching halt. He put Maria down, noticing that she was shaking.

"You okay?" He asked quietly. Maria turned to him.

"That was utterly terrifying, but exhilarating at the same time," she stated. Sonic smiled.

"Shadow never went-"

"Shadow wasn't allowed to go that fast unless it was for test purposes," Maria explained, cutting of Sonic in the process, "Grandpa had some tight grip on him for some reason. Only time he ever felt himself was when he was with me, and by the time I got to eleven…we hardly saw each other at all because of one stupid thing…it wasn't Shadow's fault to begin with! And then…the ARK closed down and you know basically know what happened," A long deep sigh came from the girl, "We didn't have a warning…"

"Seems like the ARK wasn't that fun…"Sonic muttered. Maria looked at him.

"No it had its fun moments, it was just in the last year being up there…"she drifted off, focused now on the absolutely perfect house. White picketed fence, nice even yard, and was just outside the city by a five minute walk. Maria gawked at it a bit longer.

"When did we get to perfect-land?"

"Since we stopped running," Sonic bluntly said as they walked up the path way. He looked at the door. Everything in his gut was telling him to turn away, not to get her involved in this…

Maria, on the other hand, was too impatient on waiting for Sonic to knock and decided to knock for him. Sonic's face went into sheer panic mode as the pink hedgehog answered the door, her jade eyes quickly locked onto emerald. The smile on her face grew as she grasped the blue hedgehog, who was trying to escape, which in all made the blonde human fall to the ground laughing.

"Oh my darling Sonic, I knew you would come. Have you thought about marriage?" The pink hedgehog asked.

"OH No, no marriage. Look Amy…can't breathe, let go!"gasped Sonic. Amy did what she was told and looked over at Maria who had finally stopped laughing.

"Who are you?!" Amy asked in alarmed.

"…Maria Ro…bot…..nik," Maria blurted out causing Sonic to smack himself upside the head.

"I thought we were still going for the "Mars" approach," Sonic yelled.

"It slipped!" Maria yelled back.

"Maria Robotnik…why is that name so familiar…" Amy pondered on what was just said.

"Uh, Maria can explain later. Anyways I have to ask you …you keep Maria here for an hour at max?" Amy looked over at Sonic, whose face was grimacing at this whole idea, and smiled.

"Of course I can…but it's going to cost you" Amy said excitedly.

"I'm afraid to ask what?" Sonic groaned.

"How about…a date?" cheerfully asked Amy.

"NO WAY" Sonic yelled bluntly.

"You know…you kind of owe her that Sonic…at least that," Maria told him.

"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!" Sonic yelled at Maria. He looked back Amy, "I promise I'll make it up to you somehow. I'll be back in an hour tops." And with that he was gone, leaving Amy and Maria to themselves.

"Um…would like a cup of tea?" asked Amy.

"Sure!" Maria said happily and the two walked into the house of perfection.

-XXX-

Amy was busy making the tea as Maria sat on the couch listening to the radio blather on about something about…

"Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, a disease that apparently has no cure to it…" The news lady droned on. Maria sat there, still as a rock, when Amy walked in with the tea, her breathing speeding up with every word.

"…until we hear that GUN has been hiding a cured person all along. Maria Anne Sophia Robotnik, the presumed dead girl from the Space Colony ARK, is alive and completely cured from NIDS. But with something troubling her, the girl has ran away from GUN's control. Maybe she is looking for somewhere safe to tell the world what the cur-"The radio went dead as Amy turned it off, placing the tea of the coffee table beforehand. She looked at Maria, finally connecting two and two together.

"You're really…?" Amy asked. Maria could only nod.

"Oh my gosh! Wait until Shadow finds out. He's going to be so excited!"

"That's the thing…a couple days ago I just found out he was alive," Maria said, sipping her tea, the sweet taste of honey going down her throat.

"Sonic's right. You do make good tea."

With that statement Amy began beaming and asking other things about what Sonic liked about her.

-XXX-

Sonic smiled as he left the store that was filled to the brink with plane parts. The man was kind and gave him four sets of pistons for the price of two. He was half way to Amy's. All he needed to do was grabbing and get back to Tails…

"Where is she Sonic!"

Sonic stopped dead in his tracked and whipped around to see one very mad Rouge the Bat.

"Where's who?" he asked innocently, only causing more to fuel to the fuming fire.

"Cut the jokes Sonic. Where's Maria Robotnik!"

"I'm trapped between a rock and a hard place," he thought to himself.

-XXX-

After what seemed to take forever for another interrogation scene, Maria and Amy decided to do some baking, since Sonic said she made great cookies. They had went to the store to buy eggs.

"You know, she's a sweet girl. Little obsessive over Sonic but a sweet girl…"

Maria's thought were broken with a scream from Amy as a giant mechanical leg fell from the sky. She looked up to see that the leg was connected to a giant robotic spider.

"This is not my day," Maria muttered.