Maria gripped onto Chris's hand tightly, leading him to the window. She dropped his hand and sighed wistfully when she caught sight of Earth floating in the dark void.
"Someday…I hope I'll go down there. Ever since the doctors diagnosed me with this disease, I've lived up here."
Chris nodded, looking down at the ground. She's been through so much. I have to do something…I can't just let her die! I-huh?
Maria's hand intertwined with Chris's fingers again and squeezed tightly, but gently. Chris looked at Maria, and, after studying her for a moment, he realized that she looked a lot like his crush, Helen.
A pair of fast footsteps raced down the hallway and a loud voice echoed out, "MARIA!!!" Maria turned around and exclaimed joyfully, "Shadow!!!"
Chris turned around too, curious of what this Shadow is like.
A black and red hedgehog appeared behind them. He walked up to Maria and gave her a hug. He looked at the boy with suspicious eyes, and asked Maria, a little cold, "Who is this?"
Maria shook her head with amusement, "This is my new friend, Chris Thorndyke. Grandfather found him." Chris waved shyly, and looked back down to the ground.
Shadow walked a few steps closer, and asked, "Are you afraid of me?" Chris shook his head, "Of course I'm not. You're a living being. Some people, maybe even the people on Earth will see it."
Shadow looked up at Chris's face with a look of surprise. Maria smiled widely at Chris, finally happy to know there was another human in this world who thought of Shadow as a living being and a friend.
Shadow nodded slowly and looked at Earth with Maria. Chris sighed, and walked over to the hall and left quietly.
Chris looked at his Chaos Emerald ring and sighed. Tails was going to kill him when he gets home…if he ever does. Chris looked out the nearby window, and saw a huge creature that was a cross between a lizard and a dragon. It was roaring loudly, and the scientists outside were having a hard time quieting it down.
Suddenly, Chris's ring began to glow!