Chapter 5: Friend Rescue Success
Shadow, Sonic, and the others look to see they have been confronted by Scourge and the Destructix. The heroes glare at them in anger knowing that they still have their friends.
"Alright Scourge, we want to know where our friends are!" Sonic says.
"Relax, your friends are safely locked up in a cell somewhere," Scourge says.
Shadow angrily demands, "Where is Maria?!"
"The kid is safe, but not sure for how long," Scourge says with a smirk.
"What do you mean by that?" Shadow asks with a glare.
"You'll have to fight me and find out," Scourge says.
Scourge super speed towards Shadow. Shadow skates to Scourge and they both counter each other with a spin dash. Sonic and the others look to see Shadow is fighting against Scourge harder than what he usually does.
Espio says, "We need to find the others."
"Right. Espio you, Might and Ray look to where Julie-Su and the others are being held. The rest of us will deal with them," Vector says.
"Right," Espio says.
Espio, Might, and Ray head off to find Julie-Su and the others. Simian is about to charge at them, but Sonic spin dashes at him, giving the others room to go down the hall. Sonic and the others begin to fight off the Destructix while Shadow and Scourge have a one on one battle.
In a lab, full of machines, a metal table, and a desk full of paper. Maria however is not having fun. She is walking back towards the wall with a scared look on her face as Finitevus approaches her.
"Come now child, there's no need to be afraid," Finitevus says.
"Um, I'm good. I I don't think I like to be experimented on," Maria nervously says.
Finitevus smirks, "Sorry little girl, but you don't have much of a choice."
The white echidna lifts his hand and creates a dark aura around it. Maria becomes more scared to see the very end approaching her. Maria continues to walk backward to he him coming closer to her.
"Now hold still, this won't hurt a bit," Finitevus says.
Maria becomes so scared that she screams and uses her super speed to leave the room quickly. Finitevus smirks and decides to have a little fun with her.
Maria continues to run down the hall as she screams, "SHADOW!"
Maria screams so loud that it can be heard from all over the pyramid. Soon enough, it reaches Shadow's hear.
"Maria?" Shadow asks.
Scourge lands close to Shadow on his feet, and says, "Well, it looks like she's not going to make this easy for her."
"Why's that?" Shadow asks.
"Let's just say that Maria is going to be Doc's new test subject," Scourge says, showing his sharp teeth.
"He's going to what?!" Shadow angrily asks, gritting his teeth.
Shadow becomes so enraged that the Chaos Energy is flowing around his body.
Charmy asks, "Uh Shadow, are you okay."
"Experimenting on Maria is he," Shadow says gritting his teeth.
He then shouts, "I'll kill him!"
Everyone around the are flinch in fright, even Scourge and the Destructix are feeling uneasy about Shadow expressing his anger. Shadow is not going to let Maria become an experiment for anyone, not even Finitevus.
Meanwhile, Espio, Mighty, and Ray look around for Julie-Su and the others.
"Julie-Su! Tails!" Mighty calls out.
"Cream!" Ray adds.
Just then, they hear Julie-Su's voice, "Guys, we're over here."
The three look to see Julie-Su's hand waving past the bars. They run over to see Julie-Su, Tails, and Cream locked in the cell.
Might says, "Move out of the way everyone, I'm going to open the door."
Julie and the others move far back of their cell. Espio and Ray move away. Might grabs the bars and yanks the door off of the door way, and places it on the ground. Julie-Su and the others hurry out.
"Glad to see you guys," Tails says.
"So are we, but where's Maria?" Mighty asks.
"That creep Flying took her," Julie-Su answers.
"Aww great, now we gotta find her before Shadow flips," Mighty says.
Suddenly they hear an explosion, follow by a familiar scream of fright. The six becomes shocked to hear this, and know this could mean bad news.
In a different part of the hall, Maria has fallen to the ground and is trying to get up. Finitevus stands a few feet away from her with his hand admitting what is actually Chaos Energy.
Maria covers her eyes, and asks in thought, "What am I going to do? If I don't do something soon, I'll be finished. I won't be able to be with Shadow."
Maria then remembers all the time she has with him when they used to live on the ARK and now living in Mobius.
She then hears Finitevus says, "Don't worry little girl, my little research won't be too much. It will hurt a little, but it will be worth something."
Maria turns to face him on her feet. With tears coming out of her eyes, she screams and throws multiple Chaos Spears at him, but mostly on the ground. Maria then runs away in fright.
Maria says, "I need to get out of here and find the others. I also need to find Shadow."
Maria continues to run away for her life. Suddenly, a warp ring appears and a powerful chaos energy flies through, hitting the ground where Maria is going to step on. Tjhen Maria flies back and land on her front body on the ground. Finitevus walks out of the ring and firmly faces Maria who is still on the ground.
"I am losing my patience girl, surrender and get it over with," Finitevus says.
He then begins to make an attack on Maria.
Suddenly someone shouts, "Hold it!"
Maria looks up and amazed to see a familiar face and hears him say, "I refused to let you hurt her. I refuse to let anyone hurt her as long as I'm alive. I promised to protect her."
Maria sits up to see Shadow standing in front of her.
"You sure have big talk for a small hedgehog. You should know that you shouldn't interfere with something that isn't any of your business," Finitevus says.
"Stopping you and saving Maria is my business. I won't allow you to hurt her any further," Shadow says.
"Shadow," Maria quietly says.
Shadow turns to Maria and picks her up.
He then glares at Finitevus and says, "Don't let me catch you near her again, or you'll really regret is."
Then Shadow skates off without saying another word.
Back at the entrance of the pyramid and meeting up with the others. The group are waiting for Shadow. After Shadow's destructive attack on the Destructix, they think it's best to leave the rest to Shadow. Luckily, Shadow is able to return to the others with Maria in her arms.
"Hey Shadow, nice of you to finally join us," Knuckles says.
"Are you okay Mara?" Cream asks.
"I'm okay. Shadow rescued me before he can um, use his Chaos energy on me or something," Maria says, and on the verge of tears.
"Are you sure you'll be fine? Scourge said Finitevus wanted to perform an experiment on you, Shadow asks.
"I admit, he was. He could sense Chaos Energy from within me. I didn't even what to think what kind of experiment he has for me," Maria says.
"It's okay now. So let's get out of here," Shadow says.
"If you say so," Sonic says.
After leaving Sandopolis, they all return to the Master Emerald Shrine to relax and finish with their camping trip. Shadow is not going to take chances with Maria getting herself into danger so he decides to keep a closer eye on her. While everyone are getting things for dinner, Maria is laying down in her tent with Shadow sitting next to her.
Maria says, "Shadow, thank you for saving me. And… and I'm sorry."
"For what?" Shadow asks.
"For getting myself into trouble in the first place. I shouldn't have gone back to the ten so late at night, or at least ask one of you to come with me," Maria says.
Shadow sighs, "Maria, I know that you were just trying to be nice, but you do need to understand that there are dangerous being in this world."
"Like Dr. Eggman, Eclipse, and Scourge the Hedgehog?" Maria asks.
"Exactly. With problems like them, it's not safe for you to be on your own. I know you were fine in some situations, but well," Shadow says. Then stops talking.
Maria hugs Shadow, "I know. I'm glad that you saved me, and how brave you were to stop the Destructix. I think that what they're called."
"To true, but to be honest. I maybe angry, upset, and annoyed, I was also scared," Shadow says.
He then puts his hand on Maria, "I was afraid that I might lose you."
"It's okay Shadow, everyone gets scared sometimes. I'm just happy you saved me and the others. What I learned, that was courage really means. Being afraid and standing up to it," Maria says.
Maria yawns, "I'm so tired."
"You should rest, you were up all night and was locked in a cell for a while now," Shadow says.
Maria lays down, and closes her eyes to get some sleep. Shadow looks to see Maria is fast asleep. He shows a calm smile and places his hand on her head. Soon enough,Shadow ends up falling asleep as well. They both end up with a long hard day, and glad that it's over and they are together again.