Maria Robotnik's Return

The Return of Maria Robotnik By: HyperSonicXdA Initial chapter and concept by Teen-Hero Characters and locations copyrighted by Sega "Sayonara...Shadow the Hedgehog," said a young girl as the life began to leave her body. Her blood began to pool beneath her, her body lying on a cold metal floor. "Maria!" cried out the hedgehog, Shadow, from inside an escape pod. It was firmly sealed and ready to blast off into space and towards the blue planet, Earth. Maria could only smile a sad smile as she watched the hedgehog that had been her best friend bang on the side of the escape pod with his fist, trying his hardest to break through it before it launched towards Earth. She knew she would never see him again, nor would he see her. She would have cried, but she was almost already gone by the time the pod launched towards the planet that she would never truly get to see. "I'm...so sorry, Shadow. I wish we...could see each other...again...one day..." Maria said. Those would be the last words she said before her eyes closed and her world became the darkest black. --------------- "Initializing Resurrection Program Alpha," said an electronic voice that sounded very much like the voice one would hear on an automatic answering service. "Commencing scan of subject Robotnik, Maria." A bright green light suddenly filled a room that had been darkened for over fifty years, giving it an eerie, almost ethereal glow. It was the only light in the room as there were no windows. "Vital signs...normal. Body structure...normal. Scan detects previous bullet wound, now fully healed. Brain activity...sedated, but normal. Transformation from Homo sapiens to Erinaceus albiventris...successful. Initiating revival program." The green glowing light illuminating the room became even brighter. From outside the pod, which was the source of the electronic voice, the form of a female hedgehog could be seen. She was wearing a blue dress with blue-gray stripes going down the front and the sides, a pair of white gloves, two blue and silver gauntlets, and a pair of blue and silver boots which had two metal rings on each boot. One could also see that the female hedgehog was floating inside of a glowing green liquid, the source of light in the room. The liquid would not be the only source of light in the room for long, however, as the room suddenly became illuminated by bright overhead lights. As the room became illuminated by the white overhead lights, the liquid inside of the pod began draining out through a small hole at the bottom of the pod. As it drained, the female hedgehog slowly began to settle at the bottom until she was lying on her side. Once the liquid had completely drained away, the front of the pod opened up towards the ceiling. "Resurrection Program Alpha...complete. Awaken...Maria Robotnik," said the electronic voice. At first, there was no indication, besides the low noise of her breathing, to suggest that the young female hedgehog was even alive. Then, her breathing slowly became louder as she began to stir. Soon after she began stirring, she made a moaning sound like one usually does after a long time asleep. Then, her eyes fluttered open, though her vision was blurry. "Wha...what happened?" she asked as she propped herself up to sit. She noticed that she was inside of a pod and moved to get out of it, though she was crawling. She hadn't yet tried to get up and wasn't quite sure her legs worked. She at least wanted to have some room to fall safely when she tried. Once she was clear of the pod, the female hedgehog slowly stood to her full height and somehow felt like she should have been taller. That didn't bother her that much, however, as she suddenly remembered something very important. "SHADOW!" she cried out. "Oh my god! Shadow! I hope he's okay." Maria Robotnik suddenly remembered the last few moments before she supposedly died, which made her feel very uneasy. First of all, she was worried about Shadow and sincerely hoped that her friend was okay. Second of all, she was supposed to be dead. She definitely remembered a bullet piercing her back and exiting her chest. She also remembered falling to the floor of the ARK and the life slowly draining out of her until she lost consciousness. "I...should be dead, but I'm alive. How is that possible?" Maria asked herself. As she stepped forward, she nearly tripped and fell. She quickly regained her balance, but noticed a strange reflection on the metallic floor. She looked back down and instead of the face of a twelve year old girl, she saw the face of a female hedgehog. Maria didn't scream or cry out, as one might have expected her to do. She calmly looked at the reflection on the floor, making numerous faces, waving her arms and legs, and doing whatever else she could to make sure that the image she was seeing was really hers. Once she confirmed that the blonde female hedgehog she saw in the floor was herself, she let out the bloodcurdling scream that was inevitably going to happen. As Maria screamed, a video monitor on the other side of the room came to life. The monitor was easily the size of the entire wall. It got Maria's attention and calmed her screaming. The actual monitor, however, wasn't what ceased her screaming. It was what, or rather who, was being displayed on the monitor. "Grandfather!" Maria exclaimed. The man shown on the monitor screen was most definitely Gerald Robotnik, her loving grandfather. "Hello, Maria," said Gerald Robotnik, though it was obviously only a recording of the great scientist. "If you are hearing this message, then my plan to cure you of your disease has worked. Unfortunately, my dear granddaughter, as you have no doubt discovered already, it was at the cost of your humanity." "I'm cured?" Maria said outloud, though it was mostly a question to herself. She knew the video image of her grandfather couldn't respond back. "You are, as you can most likely see, a hedgehog. Long into my research on how to cure you of NIDS, Maria, I realized that your human body would never be strong enough to fight off the disease, no matter what treatments were administered to you. I theorized that you would need the body of an animal to successfully be cured of NIDS. Since I had already created Shadow as a means of curing you, considering his DNA, I reasoned that a hedgehog would be the first logical choice." Maria slowly took in the information the recording of her grandfather was giving her. It all sounded a bit too fantastic to be real, but then again, her grandfather was the greatest scientist of his age and probably of any age. There was, however, a nagging question in the back of her mind that she wanted to be answered. "You are probably wondering when you were placed inside of that pod," Gerald Robotnik said. The elderly man on the screen sighed sadly and took a deep breath before he began to speak again. "You were shot, Maria. It was an accident, as the soldier who fired the gun was merely trying to destroy the Artificial Chaos behind you, but you were caught in the crossfire. Even though it was only for a little while, you were clinically dead." "So I did die," Maria said to herself. That didn't surprise her. She felt as if she had been dead and she even remembered dying. "Before GUN took me, Maria, they gave me a few moments alone to grieve for you. I realized that the only way to save your life was to place you inside of this pod and begin the procedure immediately. If this message is playing, then the procedure did indeed work. I'm glad I could do this for you, my precious granddaughter. However, since I could not properly monitor you myself, I had to initiate a process that would likely take over fifty years to complete. For the most part, you would not age, though I did allow for some physical and mental development, putting you at around the age of sixteen or so. I am sorry to say Maria, I am most likely no longer among the living." The image of Gerald Robotnik smiled and a tear could be seen trailing down from his eye. That made Maria cry herself. The intense sadness she felt from knowing her grandfather was gone was almost too much to handle. "Do not worry about me, Maria. I wish I could have been there to see you come back into the world as your new self, but that cannot be. I do have some more good news. For just a moment, she stopped crying and waited for what her grandfather had to say. "As you well know, Maria, Shadow is the Ultimate Lifeform. Among his many abilities, Shadow possesses a genetic trait that does not allow his body to age past a certain point. Most likely, the last time you saw Shadow was when he was at his full physical maturity. Maria, what I'm trying to tell you is that you're not alone. Out there, somewhere, Shadow is alive." It took several moments for that to sink in, but when it finally did, Maria jumped for joy. Her best friend in the whole world was alive.

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