Chapter 8
"Why spiders?"
This was the only thought that had come across Maria's mind for the last little bit of time. As soon as the robotic spider landed on the outskirts of the city there was sheer panic everywhere in the street. People running and screaming, scrambling into buildings for shelter. Maria darted into an ally way with Amy in hot pursuit behind her. The two girls sat behind a dumpster trying to catch their breath, waiting for the robo-spider to disappear. Amy looked at Maria, her eyes were wide with fright.
"You okay?" Maria asked. Amy nodded weakly.
" Yeah I'm okay," she said, her voice seemed quiet from the shock of the giant robot. "How about you?"
"Other than memories of Ted coming back...alright," Maria stated with a chuckle.
"Ted was a tarantula that came up on the ARK when I was seven," she explained to the pink hedgehog. "He was going to be the design of the new Ultimate Lifeform...since the Bio-Lizard was such a success. Anyway, there was one day Ted escaped from the lab, and decided my hair looked nice to nest in," Maria shivered. "Been an arachnophobe ever since...also the reason why Grandpa didn't go with something with eight legs." Both girls giggled until the sound of steam came from close by. Maria got up and poked her head out of the ally way.
The robot was a few blocks away from the ally way where she and Amy were currently taking shelter. Amy peered around the corner to see what was going on as well. The robo-spider seemed to bend down to get closer to the ground. The back opened up and a ramp slowly descended to the ground. Plump orange robots started walking down the ramp and into the city.
"Eggpawns?!" Amy exclaimed as she glared at the porky robots."So Eggman's behind all this!"
"EggWho?"Maria asked, turning around to look at Amy, who had her signature Piko Piko Hammer in hand and was darting out of the ally way.
"Let's go show Eggman who he's messing with!" Amy said, a slight smile on her face. Maria forced a nod.
"When did she become so aggressive...and where did the hammer come from?" Maria pondered as she followed Amy towards the orange fleet.
-XXX-
"How can such a simple task for The Fastest Thing Alive take so long?!" Tails yelled in frustration. He had lost track of the time but it seemed to be forever since he had even last heard from Sonic . Groaning, Tails leaned back over the plane to see if anything else needed some tweaking.
"Tails! Where's Sonic and that girl?!"
"AH!" screamed the fox. He jumped in surprise over the voice and bashed his head off the cover of the motor of the Tornado and landed on the ground. He looked up to see Knuckles standing there looking worried.
"Really Knuckles did you have to scare me like that?" Tails spat looking over at the guardian. Knuckles looked at him with no effect from what the fox had just said.
"Never mind about that. Where's the girl? There's something not right about her."
"Oh not you too," Tails groaned. "First Sonic now you? Why can't you give her a break?"
"No...Tails you don't get it. The girl is actually sixty-two years old!"
"Well...she's not! What hit you in the head anyway?"
"NOTHING! Tikal told me. She was able to sense due to the fact the girl gives off Chaos Energy, which isn't normal either along with the age." Tails pondered the information that Knuckles had given him when a loud bang came from the city. Tails jumped up and flew, looking to see what the noise was.
"What was that?" Knuckles asked. Tails came back down to the ground and started running towards Station Square.
"There's a giant robot in city! Could be Eggman! Let's go!" Tails shouted. Knuckles, slightly confused, nodded and went with the fox.
-XXX-
Sonic glared at Rouge. Normally the two would have a small chat if they had seen each other, but this time it was different. A certain girl's safety was on the line.
"Not going to ask again Sonic, where is she," Rouge asked, the annoyance very clear in her voice.
"Why do you want to know so bad?" Sonic retorted, "What's G.U.N want with her anyways?"
"G.U.N?" Rouge questioned, "What's G.U.N got to do with this?" Sonic looked at the bat, baffled.
"Didn't they send you to capture Maria?"Sonic asked. The bat shook her head.
"No, they didn't. I'm on 'vacation' so this is news to me."
"Vacation? "
"Well...not really a vacation...more like I took time off for a special mission." She looked at Sonic, who had gone off of his defensive mode, and sighed.
"I don't know where he went Sonic, and I wish I did. All I know from Shadow is that he knows she's alive and is in hiding since G.U.N is after him. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised that they would go after Maria as well." Sonic nodded.
"I got her over at Amy's," Sonic finally admitted. "We better get over there and-"
A loud crash echoed through the city as people started screaming and running in every direction. Sonic looked up and saw what had crashed: a large robotic spider, with the symbol of his arch enemy plastered on the one side.
"Eggman!" Sonic shouted, glaring at the robot. "Just what's he up to this time?"
"Who knows," Rouge sighed. "Right now we need to get these people evacuated from the area. Then we deal with the doctor." Sonic nodded and the two raced off towards the robot.
-XXX-
"Amy!" Maria shouted, following the charging hedgehog into the battle front. "Are you sure this is really a good idea?" Amy looked at the girl and huffed.
"Of course it's a good idea! Showing that I cannot get captured by Eggman's goons will sure prove to Sonic I can protect myself, thus winning him over and ending with us getting married!"
"That, or it's going to get us killed," Maria thought as she walked straight into Amy. It was a sudden stop for the pink hedgehog, her eyes now wide with fright. The girls were now at the battle front. The plump orange robots looked at them, scrambling to find a weapon in a comedic fashion. Maria giggled at them, not paying any attention to the robot in the shadows, the one that had Amy's full attention.
"Metal," she said, her voice very shaky and quiet.
"Huh," Maria sputtered. She looked to where Amy was staring to see the metallic blue robotic hedgehog, who had definantly spotted them.
"Great, a robohog," Maria muttered.
"Run," Amy shouted. Maria looked at her confused.
"Wha? Why?"
"Just RUN!" Amy shouted again. With not a moment to lose the two girls sprinted off in two different directions. The Eggpawns chased after them, with Metal Sonic following Amy.
-XXX-
Amy looked behind her. The Eggpawns seemed to be bumbling around after her, but there was no sign of Metal anywhere behind her. She stopped and turned around. The pawns looked at her confused until one of them charged to grab her...
And was thrown into the air and five feet back. The others looked at the hedgehog girl, her hammer over her right shoulder, and backed away. She turned around to start her trek back to her house when her wrist was grabbed and she was forcefully pushed down to the ground. Amy tried to get back up but to no avail, the cold feel of metal kept her pushed down and firmly in place as the Eggpawns came and grabbed her arms and pulled her up. Her eyes now filled with tears, her pride hurt, the feeling of guilt washed over her. Metal lifted up her head; the cold, neon, red eyes stared dead into her jade ones. The tears spilled from her eyes as she watched unwillingly as the robot hedgehog blasted off into the direction Maria had bolted.
As the Eggpawns dragged her back to the Robo-Spider, Amy realized that she had failed her hero to protect the girl from the ARK.
-XXX-
Maria had stopped and looked at the pathetic sight before her. The Eggpawns for whatever reason seemed to have gotten tired and had fallen face first onto the road, causing the girl to laugh uncontrollably at them. She left them in that state for five minutes and made her way deeper into the city.
"Well so far so good," she thought as she kept moving. It felt like she was home free. No G.U.N forces out, the robots were too tired, everything just seemed too perfect.
That's when Metal blindsided Maria. He came from nowhere and launched himself, hitting right into the girl's right side, causing her to be thrown in the air and landing roughly on the ground. A loud crack came from her left wrist followed by pain, indicating that it had been broken somewhere. Maria was trying to catch her breath as Metal started to draw near.
"No," she thought fearfully. "This is not happening. He needs to go away. I have to live...I need to find him." Maria closed her eyes, feeling utterly hopeless.
"Go...Away..." She whispered to herself.
What happened next was the robot flew backwards after hitting a blue force field that surrounded Maria. She looked at it with amazement.
"How did I...?" She started to question, but then drowsiness crawled up into her body. Everything was fading, going to black.
"No! You need to get up!"
Maria perked up to the voice telling her what to do, but could not find the energy she needed to obey it.
"Shadow," she murmured. "I'm sorry..."
The last sounds she heard were that of the robotic hedgehog walking over to her and being picked up. Then everything went to black.
-XXX-
"Is that everyone?" Sonic asked. Rouge gazed around the barren area for any signs of life and nodded. Sonic sighed in relief and turned his focus on the robo-spider. The giant robot had been still for the last twenty minutes and Sonic felt on edge about it.
"Have you seen any of the Pawns?" Sonic asked. Rouge shook her head.
"No I haven't. Seems way too quiet for Eggman."
"SONIC!"
Sonic whipped around to see his two-tailed flying fox of a little brother come down from the sky with the echidna right behind him.
"Hey Tails," he greeted him. Tails looked at him with great detestation.
"REALLY?!" he blurted out. "What honestly took you so long to get me those-" He was cut by Sonic handing him the pistons, "...Oh..."
"Where's the girl?" Knuckles demanded looking at Sonic.
"She's with Amy," he explained. "She'll be fine there."
"Tikal says that she's supposed to be 62 years old."
"And I think Knuckles is crazy," Tails muttered. Sonic shook his head.
"No buddy, he's not," he sighed.
"You haven't told them?!" Rouge asked in annoyance.
"I thought Tails really didn't know who she was..." Sonic shrugged.
"What do you mean 'who she was'? It's Mars right?" Tails asked frantically. "It's not like you to keep things from Sonic."
"I'll explain later, okay?" Sonic said. Tails looked at him with very little reassurance
"What's that?" Knuckles questioned as a small ball like object came from the spider robot. The ball morphed into a holographic screen with a logo that caused all four Mobians to groan. A man appeared on the screen. His orange bushy moustache extended outward of his face; he wore goggles on his forehead and round dark glasses over his eyes. The trademark red coat and black pants, for which this man was well-known, identified this character.
"Nah ha ha ha," cackled the man. "Citizens of Station Square. I, Dr. Eggman, here now claim that this city is under hostile takeover."
"Like I'm going to sit around and let that happen!" Sonic fumed, causing the other three to nod, giving him the support he needed.
"Oh, and Sonic," Eggman added. "I really think you should find the time to rescue these two ." The screen flashed over to a dungeon, and to one Sonic the Hedgehog's nightmares.
Amy was sitting there in one cell, crying for some reason. Most likely because she needed to be saved. In the other cell next to her lay an unconscious Maria Robotnik.
"Safe with Amy huh," Rouge snapped causing Sonic to flinch out of guilt.
"Pity," Eggman said, coming back on to the screen. "I wasn't even going for the human girl. She just got in my way, though she did do some damage to my precious Metal Sonic." He gave a smile that seemed most sinister.
"You have 3 hours to find my base and get them out safe." And with that the screen disappeared and the robot spider jumped, propellers emerging from its legs, and flew off.
"So...what do we do now?" Knuckles asked. Rouge rolled her eyes at him.
"Well isn't it obvious, we follow him back."
"True," Sonic stated, "but we're going to need a way to get them back." The cogs in his brain starting working as he tried to come up with something.
"Okay. Rouge, you and Knuckles follow Eggman. We need to figure out where he is. Tails and I will get the Tornado back up and running and will come shortly after. Once we figure out where he is, we break in and get Amy and Maria out."
"Maria?" Both Tails and Knuckles asked in confusion.
"I'll explain to Knuckles what's going on," Rouge sighed. Tails handed her a walkie talkie and the two were off leaving Sonic and Tails dashing towards the Tornado in the other direction.
"I shouldn't have gotten her involved at all..." Sonic thought.
"So...Mars isn't her name?" Tails asked. Sonic popped back into reality and chuckled.
"No buddy. We've been housing a girl that was presumed dead fifty years ago."
-XXX-
AN: Well another chapter done! Thank you all for your patience on waiting for an update. I honestly am so proud for getting this done and it is all thanks to you guys that keep reading. I cannot thank you enough.
Thank you so much again SeaMonkey Queen for being my editor! When you get back I'm going to make you some cookies.
I really hope you enjoyed this chapter.
R&R
Darko's Moonlight~ out