Chapter 4: Explore Around Mobotropolis
Early the next day in the old building, Maria and Blackberry the chao are still asleep in it. The sun begins to shine through the cracks of the wooden doors and one is able to reach her. She moves a little until she wakes up from her sleep. Maria sits up and yawns as she stretches her arms. Blackberry stretches her little arms as she yawns as well.
Maria smiles, and says, "Morning Blackberry."
"Chao chao!" Blackberry says.
She gets up from bed, and says, "Well, I better get going. We only have a two days before my birthday and to find my aunt."
"Chao," Blackberry says.
Maria changes her clothes to different ones and the one she has wear last night in her suitcase. She is now wearing a dark red shirt with a black vest, and dark blue pants. She is wearing the same shoes and wrist bands.
She looks at a broken mirror to see herself. She then takes off the hair tie and brushes her quills a little. She leaves her quills down that are close to waist length.
Maria and Blackberry begin to head out with the luggage in the hedgehog's hand. She then decides to walk around the city to see what it's like to be here. She has never see a city like this before, and excited to see what the city life is like.
Meanwhile, Queen Sally is looking at the balcony with a worried expression on her face.
"Rouge, where are you? You should have answer by now. Maria, I hope you will come back to me soon," Sally worriedly says.
In the throne room, King Sonic is waiting Sally and others to come for an important discussion. Sally arrives into the throne room with sadness and concern. The guards come in with Knuckles, his wife, Julie-Su, and their daughter Laura-Su, Tails and his wife, Mina, And Team Chaotix; Vector, Espio, and Charmy, all grown up now.
Sonic comes to Sally, "Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm fine. I'm just worried. We should have got a response from Rouge about now, but she hadn't answer," Sally says.
"Don't worry, we'll find her. But first, we need to discuss this with the others. The Oracle says that it's our time to do our part," Sonic says.
"Yes," Sally says.
Sonic inform the guards to leave the room and make sure no one enters. Tails and the others are rather confused to this discussion they need to speak.
"Sonic, what's going on? You said it's urgent," Tails asks.
"Yeah. You told us that we need to come to the palace right away," Knuckles says.
"I'll explain everything to you. We need to prepare for what is about to happen in a few days," Sonic says.
"What do you mean?" Charmy asks.
"Is something happening?" Mina asks.
"Yes. There is," Sonic answers.
Everyone excluding Sonic and Sally grow concern to hear the serious tone in his voice.
In the city, Maria and her chao are wondering around the city to see so many people driving in hover cars, and walking around the street. She has never seen so many buildings in one place. She sees, food stores, cafes, clothing stores, and other stored where anything can be bought.
"Wow! This place looks so huge," Maria says to herself.
Maria and Blackberry look around the city to find a large park. There are children playing together, couples doing on walks, and families having picnics. Seeing those families, she wishes that her Aunt Rouge is here right now. Maria sighs sadly and continues to walk around the park.
"Hey look out!" Someone shouts.
Maria turns her head and grabs a ball.
Blackberry looks at the ball, "Chao chao?"
Maria looks ahead to see a male red Echidna. He looks like he's a year older than she is. He has a brown scarf around his neck with white gloves with two needles on each one, and yellow and green color shoes.
The boy says, "Sorry about that, I kind of hit it harder than I should have. I almost… "
He stops to see Maria. He is unable to say a single word.
"That's alright," Maria says, giving the ball back to the boy.
The boy regain himself, and says, "You know, I never seen you around town before. Are you new here?"
"Yeah. I'm new here. My name is Maria, and this is my chao friend, Blackberry," Maria says.
"Um it's very nice to meet you, my name is… Yong. Yong-Ho," The boy says, with his cheeks turning a little red.
Maria smiles, "It's nice to meet, Yong-Ho."
"Uh say, you wanna play ball with me and my friends? We could use more players," Yong-Ho asks.
"Sure," Maira answers.
Maria and Blackberry follow Yong-Ho to go play with their friends.
In the palace, King Sonic and Queen Sally have explain to them what is going on.
"What?! The Black Arms are coming back?!" Knuckles exclaims.
"And that you have a daughter that is also Shadow's daughter," Julie-Su adds.
"Pretty much. We had to give her to Rouge so she can be protected from the Dark Presence. I don't want to think about what will happen if they knew about Maria," Sally says.
"So what you need us to do? You want us to find her and bring her to the palace," Knuckles asks.
"Yes. Luckily, she is already in the city," A voice says.
Everyone have their heads turning to see the Oracle is standing in the room, and walks towards them.
"Oracle, you're here? And she's in the city?" Sonic asks in surprise.
"Yes. She is. Sadly however, I'm afraid Rouge has been captured by the Black Arms. She manage to protect Maria and is now somewhere in the city. You must find her quickly, but try not to bring too much attention to this," The Oracle says.
"Of course, we don't want the Dark Presence to know anything about the prophecy or my daughter," Sally says.
"Don't worry Sally, we'll find her and we won't let anyone know about this," Sonic says.
Tails says, "We'll find her and bring to the palace. We can only hope she isn't in any trouble."
"I'm sure we'll find her. What she look like?" Laura-Su asks.
Sally brings out a picture and shows it to the others, "This is the picture that Rouge has taken a week ago."
The others take a look at the picture to see Maria and know the girl they are looking for.
In the park, there are eight other kids. A young blue boy hedgehog, Manic, a mobian chipmunk wearing a pink dress name Sonia, and a little girl bunny with a light orange dress, Sugar. All three of them are seven years old. There is a green boy crocodile, Chomper, a purple boy chameleon with a orange horn, Mystic, and a yellow girl bumble bee, Twinkle. Those three are teenagers. Finally there is a young male two tailed fox, Skye and a mobian mongoose, Melody. The two are around seven years old.
They are waiting for their friend to show up.
"Where's Yong-Ho, he should be back by now?" Manic asks.
"Manic, try to be patient. I'm sure he'll be back soon," Sonia replies.
Twinkle and Sugar nod their heads.
"Um, you think we should go find him?" Skye nervously asks.
"I'm sure he'll be here soon bro. We just need to wait. Otherwise our game will be over before it begins, "Melody says.
Mystic turns his head, "There he comes now."
Everyone turn their heads to see Yong- Ho the Echidna is coming back, but someone else is with him.
"Hey who is that?" Manic asks.
"She's very pretty," Sugar comments.
"And a hedgehog. Just like you. She even has a chao with her," Sonia adds.
Yong-Ho, Maria, and the chao walks over to them.
Melody walks over to the three, and asks, "Hey Yong-Ho, who is your new friend?"
"Guys, this is Maria and her chao friend Blackberry," Yong-Ho says.
Maria waves her hand, "Hello."
"Chao!" Blackberry replies.
"Hi I'm Chomper," The crocodile says.
"I'm Twinkel," The bee says.
"Mystic," the chameleon says.
The mongoose says, "I'm Melody, and this is my brother Skye."
"Um, hello," Skye shyly says.
"I'm Sugar," The bunny says.
The chipmunk says, "I'm Sonia, Princess Sonia to be exactly. And this is my twin brother, Prince Manic, but you can call him Manic."
"Hey. It's a pleasure to meet you, "Manic says.
"It's nice to meet you guys," Maria says.
"Are you new here? I don't remember seeing you around before," Twinkle asks.
"Yes. I'm new here. I lived in the Grass Zone, so this is the first Time I ever gone to the city," Maria says.
"Really? This is your first time to Mobotropolis?" Manic asks.
"That's right," Maria answers.
"Where you got the cute chao?" Sonia asks.
"Well, Blackberry and I have been together since I was a kid. I was friends with a lot of them, but Blackberry is my best friend out of all of them," Maria says.
"Sounds cool," Mystic says.
Twinkle happily says, "And your chao is so cute."
Sugar happily says, "We gotta show her around!"
The girls answer, "Yeah!"
"Hey, what about our game?" Chomper asks.
"We have lots of time to play ball. Right now, we gotta show Maira and Blackberry around the city," Melody says.
Sonia and Melody grab Maria by the arm and take her to town with the other girls.
"Come on boys, let's go," Twinkle happily says.
Yong-Ho says, "You know, that's actually not a bad idea. We can show her around and take her to all the best places."
"I quite agree," Mystic says.
"I want to take her to the chilli dog stand," Manic says.
Chomper groans,"Fine, we'll show our new friends around the neighborhood."
"Then let's go," Manic says."
The boys begin to follow the girls as they show Maria and Blackberry around the neighborhood.
They first take her to a music store. The gang play with instruments and sing through microphones. Maria tap on a drum with a stick, and Blackberry taps a triangle. They continue to play the instruments in the store.
After that, they look at the clothing store and try on some new clothes. The girls try on dresses, skirts, pants, makeup and jewelry. The boys groan with annoyed and bored looks as the girls try on girl things. The girls star laughing when they find the boys sleeping at the corner.
After that, they take Maria to an extreme gear store. Maria is amazed and never seen these kind of boards before. Young-Ho an the others explain to them what the extreme gear boards are and how to use them. The gang give Maria a little lesson on how to use the gears and riding on them.
Maria is amazed to see so many things that the city has to offer, and wonders how come she has never come here for. That is when she remembers the reason who she is kept away, is for her own protection.
Meanwhile, Knuckles and the others search and search for the young hedgehog. They search in stores, stands, alleys, and other places they can think of. Sadly, they haven't' been able to find Maria. They meet back on town square to discuss about their result.
"Did you find her? Tails asks.
"No. With those stips on her quills they stick out like a sore thumb," Laura-Su says.
"But you know, she is still a child. She can be anywhere in the city by now," Mina says.
"We just have to keep looking. Sonic said that he needs us to find her before something happens. With the Black Arms in the loose, we can't get to careless," Tails says.
Everyone nod their heads and split up again to find the little black and red hedgehog in a big city.
In the food court at the mall, the gang sitting on the table talking among themselves as they are having their lunch. Maria remembers that she and Blackberry hasn't eaten this morning, so they're both hungry.
"So Maria, when you arrive at the city? Skye shyly asks.
"I actually arrive at the city this morning. There is something that I need to do," Maria answers.
"Like what?" Yong-Ho asks.
"Well um, you see… I kind of need some help, per say," Maira says.
While Maria is telling her friends some of the details, a few Dark Arm aliens are lurking around the dark corners and are invisible to the people. They look to see Maria and her friends. They see their target.
"So, your Aunt was taken and you were told to come here?" Melody asks.
"Yeah. I got to find her and get her away from these creeps," Maria says.
"Don't worry, I'm sure my dad is able to help you. He is King Sonic after all," Sonia says.
"King Sonic?" Maria asks.
"Yeah. Our dad was a hero. If anyone can help you, he can," Manic says.
"Don't forget our dad and Yong-Ho's uncle," Melody says.
Maria smiles, "Thank guys, I could really use the help."
Suddenly, they hear people screaming in fear. They all look to see the Dark Arm aliens are beginning to appear and attack the people in the food court. Maria gasps in shock to see them, and they look exactly like the aliens that attacked and taken her Aunt Rouge. Maria knows that she needs answers, but will need to protect the people as well. She is planning on doing what she needs to do.