A Few Days Ago, The Chaotix Detective Agency...
Tails examined the stasis tube one more time. Fortunately the double checking proved useful. It was a barely noticeable water tight drawer in the stasis tube. "Fascinating..." A few seconds and a few page turns later, Tails gasped.
"What is it?" Espio asked as he walked closer so he could read over Tails' non-existent shoulder.
"It's the notes for this machine. This tube is from the Space Colony ARK. Contact Shadow, he must see this. It's Maria!"
"I'm on it." Espio turned invisible, threw a smoke bomb to the ground or left the room,. Whatever ninjas do nowadays. Tails began to thoroughly read through Professor Gerald's notes.
Yesterday, Early in the Morning, Same Place
Tails' machine drained the liquid from the vertically standing tube via a hose on the bottom. As the water drained Maria stopped floating around in it, gravity returned to the girl as she slowly descended to her knees. A cheek was pressed against the glass. Don't worry, she won't suffocate in this airtight tube without the breathable liquid. "Done." Tails fiddled with the tube one last time. It made a bleep and a red light became green.
"Time to open up, right?" Vector, the only Chaotix in the room, asked.
"Right." The fox nodded. The Croc tried to open the door, a muscular guy like Vector shouldn't have that much trouble with something like that. The hinges were probably the only thing damaged in the water since they're horribly rusty. Tails spread out a bedsheet on the ground and spread out an adult sized towel on top of the sheet. He was on standby to catch the bird.
Three minutes later there was enough space for the still unconscious Maria to squeeze through. Tails, with some effort, lifted her up. He rested her body on top of the towel. She quickly got wrapped in both the towel, the sheet and placed her on the couch. Gotta say, it looks really cosy.
"I have to go, this liquid won't study itself. You sure you guys can do the rest?" The fox asked as walked back to his machine to drag it home.
"As long we don't leave her alone with Charmy, she's in safe hands."
"Alright. Any luck contacting Shadow?" Tails asked as he was about to leave.
"No. Do ya know in what city he lives? Because I couldn't find him in any neighbouring city's phone book."
Tails scratched his head thinking about it. "No… But if I see him I'll let him know. Bye."
"Bye." Vector sighed as he looked at Maria. "Looks like she'll be staying for a while..."
Seven and-a-Half Hours Later...
The whole Chaotix was in the room, Vector was lying back in sofa listening eyes closed to the Japanese/European soundtrack of Sonic CD. So his eyes weren't paying attention to the now dried up Maria. Espio was drinking tea on the ground, he was sitting down facing the couch. So once Maria wakes he was the first to know. Charmy was just lying on his belly reading his Skies of Arcadia comic book.
Then there was a moan. The chameleon and the bee took notice.
?
She felt weird. Several new sensations came to her. For example: everything felt slightly ticklish. "Charmy, tap Vector on the shoulder." A deep voice whispered. Who's Charmy? Who's Vector? Where was she? Her eyes were too tired to open yet.
"Alright!" A loud youthful voice yelled. It made her winch, the sudden movement made her realize she felt shorter, her eyes, head, hands and feet felt gigantic. Speaking of feet, she couldn't feel her toes, just a foot. She also noticed she can't move, something constricted her. Was she captured? What was she sitting on? A tail? A really wide tail? Did she become an Animal?
"Don't yell so loud!" A gruff voice screamed louder than the previous one, yet is somehow less cringe inducing. "Stop fooling around, she's waking up." The same voice said softer.
"But we!..."
"Hush..." Espio cut Charmy off. She could still hear the bee's muffled voice speak. She finally had enough energy to open her… beak?! Yeah, she felt a beak now. With some hardly noticeable teeth, confusingly enough.
She made a few moans. "What?... Who?"
"Don't worry, you're safe here." The whispery voice reassured her.
With that she found it less difficult to open her eyes, which she did slowly. She saw young bee, a teenage purple chameleon and giant crocodile. She tried to look past them, she vague recognized it as a messy living room. It's kinda intimidating. But not enough to ask a few questions. "Where am I?" Her voice sounded different, a little husky. "What happened? What happened to my voice? What am I? Am I who I think I am? Who're you?!" She now noticed she was wrapped in a bed sheet.
Espio answered her questions. "I'm Espio, that's the boss, Vector and that's our tracker, Charmy. You're safe within' our detective agency. What happened to you is written down in your grandfather's notes." Vector showed it off. "We don't know what happened to your voice. You're a canary. And if you remember that you're Maria Robotnik, the grand Gerald Robotnik, friend of Shadow The Hedgehog and an unfortunate victim of N.I.D.S., you are who you think you are."
"Did you have to bring up N.I.D.S., Espio? She's just awake and ya give her that harsh remember." Vector scolded Espio.
"Yeah, that's mean!" Charmy yelled. "What's N.I.D.S.?" He asked Maria.
"Charmy!" Vector yelled.
"It's okay, Mr. Vector. N.I.D.S. stands for Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It weakens a person's immune system drastically..." Maria explained to Charmy somberly. "Among other things..."
"Well, good news, ya no longer have it. Nowadays there's also medicine that suppresses it. If not eliminate entirely." Vector said. He doesn't follow the advances in the medical world so take those words with a grain of salt.
"Now that you mention it. I feel better than I usually do." Maria smiled, she felt better than ever.
"That's great!" Charmy yelled gliding in circles.
"Yeah." Vector agreed. The room went silent for a few second.
Then it hit Maria out of the blue. "I'm not wearing any clothes, am I?" She blushed.
"Here." Charmy threw some pink clothes on top of Maria. "Put these on."
"We'll be in our office behind that door, if you need us. If you have anymore questions, just ask." Vector said. "Here's Gerald's notes, if you think you can handle what you find out." That doesn't bode well for Maria.
A few seconds later...
"NO PEEKING BEHIND THE DOOR, YA LI'L BRAT!" Bursted a voice behind the door.
A few minutes, and a thorough reading through later…
The now clothed Maria had several questions and reactions to her grandfather's notes. Among those are: 'Poor chao. I'm a clone? Biolizard? I didn't mind if were to die prematurely, grandfather... Shadow…' Maria needed answers, and the only ones who could answer them was a team of misfit detectives.
She knocked on the door. "Come iiiiiiiiiin~!" Charmy said really quietly. Maria entered the room. Espio and Vector noticed the Maria's face.
Espio got the first word in. "You must have a lot have a lot on your mind." Maria nodded.
"W-what happened to the ARK? Are there any survivors?"
'Remember to sugarcoat it for her, she doesn't need to know need to know her Grandad went nuts.' Vector reminded himself. "It was shut down after G.U.N. discovered your grandpa was working on something with government money that he wasn't allowed to work on. So he got sent to take your grandpa to a firing squa-" Vector got a slap from Espio.
"We agreed that we weren't going to mention about that, Vector." Espio's voice got suddenly really deep. "This is hard a enough situation to be in already."
"Grandfather? How?" A tear went down the canary's face. Charmy's got real sympathetic and got her a seat. "Thank you, Charmy." The bird thanked the bee.
"Ya can leave if this gets too heavy for you, Charmy." Vector pointed at his six years old friend.
"Okay." The bee left. Good, because I don't see him adding anything.
"Where were we?" Vector asked.
"My Grandfather's death."
"Right." Vector looked to the ground and scratched his head. "Little information on this was released to the public, but we once got the chance to instigate it. He was killed by a firing squad. For what we don't know. Right, Espio?" Vector elbow poked the ninja.
"Um… Correct."
"When was he executed?" Maria asked. She felt really heavy.
"Give or take 50 years ago." The chameleon answered calmly.
"WHAT?! What year is it?" Water escaped her eyes.
"Take it easy, please." Vector signaled for Maria to relax. "It's 20XX."
Maria's heart sank. "Everyone I knew must be dead." Her voice cracked slightly. Possibly tears.
"Wouldn't be so sure of that, most of them just got old. Except for Shadow."
"Shadow is alright?" She said so hopeful with her hands clasped.
"Yeah. We're still trying to contact him since we figured out your identity."
"We figured you'd like the company of familiar face." Espio added.
"That's wonderful." Now the canary was reassured that adjusting to her new second life will be a little easier. Well if Shadow believed her anyway. Saying you're Maria when you don't look or sound like Maria might be a little hard to believe...
"All thanks to you."
"Huh?" Thanks Mr. Chameleon, Maria is confused.
"You helped Shadow esca..."
"She wouldn't remember that, Espio. Her memory got probably uploaded before she saved him." Vector cut the ninja off.
"Saved him from what?" Maria has had enough confusion. Vector had another 'Oops let that slip' moment.
"Ask Shadow, we don't know the details. Speaking of Shadow. You're free to stay here can stay here until we come into contact. You can sleep in Charmy's bed, he can sleep on the couch."
"Does he mind that?" Maria said, worried for the little boy's comfort.
"He won't." Vector shook his head.
"He will." Espio nodded his head as corrected Vector.
"I shall sleep on the couch if he wants." Maria compromised.
"Are ya sure?" Vector asked.
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Alright, just protect us from Shadow if he finds out..." Vector shuddered.
Maria giggled. "I shall." One more time, something came to one of the characters realized something. "Oh, I have three more questions, may I ask them?"
"Shoot."
"Do you maybe have some more clothes? Where did you find me? And what's a clone?"
This felt too clumsily written, this is just the setup. The things we researched are, did the Babylon Rogues have teeth and what NIDS does. What's that? I just got word that the author can't write Charmy or explain things properly, among other things. Have a gag:
Notice that the G.U.N. Commander wasn't one of Maria's concerns. Because he was a jerk even back then. He was taken of the ARK 'cause bad behaviour. He only invited Shadow to dinner in the to stay on his good side.