Shadow of a Doubt

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Maria spent the rest of the day wandering around town to clear her head. Considering the guys' reactions, it seemed no one had watched the video before her, so her secret was safe.

Tomorrow morning is a sparring day. I just have to be myself without giving myself away.

~!~

Everyone came out the next morning to practice fight like usual. When Maria stepped out back at 10am, there was a decent sized group hanging around the backyard.

After some small talk, they began pairing off to spar. Maria stood by the side of the house watching them.

"Maria! You have any fighting experience?" Sonic asked, joining her after a short wrestling match with Silver.

"Not really. I used to avoid conflict as much as possible."

"And now?"

"I'm more fiery. Got a lot of repressed emotions to fuel me."

"Does that mean you want to learn?"

"Well, it might be a little unfair." Maria commented.

"Oh, no. We'll pair you up with someone on the less powerful side."

"I didn't mean for me."

"A little cocky, aren't we?" Sonic smirked.

"I guess you guys have worn off on me." She shrugged.

"Okay, snarky, why don't we pair you with someone and see how far up the power list you get." Sonic made a little gesture to the paper taped to the glass door.

Maria had seen it earlier. It was a list of everyone in vague order of least to most powerful in a fight. They used it to organize practice between more evenly matched individuals. You know; to avoid someone like Shadow fighting someone like Cream.

Blaze had told Maria that on the rare occasion they made a new (crime fighting) friend, they put them through a little face-off championship to rank their abilities among the list.

"Since you seem to be some sort of speedster, I expect you'll do decently."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Maria said sarcastically, rolling her eyes but smiling.

"Hey, guys!" Sonic waved everyone over. "We're gonna initiate Maria!"

A couple people whooped, others chuckled and high-fived, and Amy cheered, "Yeah, Maria!"

"Cream! You down to scope her out?"

"You know I resent that I'm always the first to fight newbies." The teen grumbled.

"Hey, we gotta test her out on some skilled fighters before putting her up against people with powers." Sonic gave Cream a playful shoulder punch.

"Yeah, yeah." Cream rolled her eyes.

The two girls walked into the centre of the clearing and Maria asked, "You want me to make this quick 'n painless or put up a fight?"

"Honestly, the faster we're done, the better." Cream shrugged, getting in a fighting position.

Maria didn't even bother to mirror her, just standing there smirking playfully.

"First one to get the other to the ground wins. 3, 2, 1, GO!" Sonic yelled.

Cream hadn't even made it a foot towards Maria when the blonde hedgehog brought her hand up in front of her. A wall of water materialized from the ground and enveloped the rabbit, knocking her to the ground.

"Holy shit!" Vector exclaimed.

Everyone stood there agape.

Maria let the water disappear back into the ground and gave Cream a hand back up. She turned back to the group of onlookers and shrugged, "No one bothered to ask if I had powers of my own."

"Damn, Maria!" Blaze gave her a high-five. "Elementals for the win!"

"I guess we'll have to skip to challengers with abilities." Sonic said, face still portraying his shock. "Espio? You wanna give it a go?"

From there Maria wiped the floor with every new opponent.

Espio went invisible at "GO", which didn't faze her at all. Maria could sense Espio through the water in his body despite his expert sneaking and easily followed his movements. She hit him with a wall of water mid air as he swung an invisible roundhouse kick toward her face.

Then Blaze gave it a go. This went about how you'd expect considering fire vs water. Maria easily extinguished Blaze's attacks and knocked her down with another wall of water.

Sonic outright refused to fight her, face going pale at the prospect of battling water itself.

Finally Maria faced off with Silver. He was initially able to resist the wall of water that came straight at him using his telekinesis. However, the right hook of water that joined it sent him flying, as his focus was in front.

"That just leaves Shadow." Sonic was not looking too good. He was a little green with the idea that there was now a super powerful person with water abilities around.

"This can not end well." Tails muttered to Cream.

"Let's make it interesting. How about this," Maria proposed. "I promise to only fight defensively and we'll see how long we can go for."

"I don't need your charity." Shadow countered, defensively, arms crossed.

"Then call it a challenge. You have to pin me. I won't even attempt to get you down." Maria smirked, hip cocked and arms crossed. "How about it, Ultimate Lifeform? Or are you a coward?"

A chorus of oooooohs rose up.

"Fine. But I won't apologize for hurting you." Shadow walked into the clearing.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"Maria, you sure about this?" Silver asked.

"Sure as the Afterlife." Maria gave him a wink.

"God damn it." Silver, exasperated, ran his hands through his quills.

"On your mark, get set, have at it!" Amy yelled.

What followed was 30 minutes of the most tense, yet equally relaxed, fight many of them had ever seen. Shadow attacked, increasingly more viciously with time, at Maria, yet she just deflected him with her powers and dodged with her incredible speed. Her laid back attitude towards the fight only further infuriated Shadow. She would just casually walk around the space, arms behind her back as every kick and chaos attack was deflected or absorbed by her water. At one point she even made a protective dome around herself against a barrage of chaos spears, still looking unfazed.

"Maria! Just finish him already! It's been nearly half an hour!" Blaze yelled.

"Oh alright." Maria gave Shadow a sweet smile from across the grass.

Shadow was then enveloped in a giant sphere of water, lifting him nearly ten feet in the air.

"It's been fun, Shadow." She said, before slamming the ball of water into the ground, leaving Shadow laying there, wet, on his back.

The others cheered and Amy scribbled Maria onto the list above Shadow.

Maria walked over to him, offering her hand. Shadow looked up at her for a moment, then took her hand with a small smirk of admiration. She easily pulled him to his feet.

"With powers like that, how have we not come across you before?" Shadow asked.

"Let's just say I'm not really from around here." She shrugged, ignoring the jump in heart rate at having to be vague to avoid lying.

"Still not going to tell us about yourself then?" He lifted an eyebrow.

"Not today, anyway."