Manic the Hedgehog hated going to hospitals. It wasn't the blood or the needles that bothered him rather it was the waiting. Everyone always had to wait when they went for even the tiniest of reasons, making a mere trip wasteful of valuable time. He knew tons of people that could do the same work any fancy-shmancy doctor could do and at the time he would have gone to them had it not been an emergency. Yet there he was, unsurprised that he had to wait in the lobby for fifteen minutes. No matter how hard he tried, Manic's impatience got the best of him and his feet automatically tapped on their own, his fingers drumming along with them, until he heard a voice speak to him.

"Hey, asshole."

Manic exhaled in relief. Finally. The nurse—a cute sky blue hedgehog by the name of Clear—glared at him expectantly just beyond the waiting area, gesturing for Manic to follow her.

He grinned. "Y'know I respond to my actual name too, right?"

Clear's face was void of any expression as she led Manic through the corridor. "Yeah, but I don't care."

Manic's grin only widened; THIS is how the pair got along. After paying her a compliment in a way that offended her on their last date, she's acted sourly towards him, but it didn't repel him like she (probably) hoped it would.

"It's been a while, are you still sensitive about—?" he teased her.

"Angry, yes. Sensitive, no." They reached a set of doors and she jerked one open with the intent to hit him. However, Manic quickly jumped back and chuckled to himself. They continued down the corridor until they reached their destination: a room behind a one-way window. On the other side of the window was the boy, a young raccoon no older than ten years old. Despite being wrapped in bandages with a tube going into his arm and genuinely looking better than the night before, Manic felt worried.

"How is he?" he asked.

"Dehydrated, starved, banged up pretty good. He's got a shit ton of bruises and burn marks. Looks like he was shocked by something. But on the bright side, we did a full diagnostic on him and he doesn't have any harmful substances in his system."

These days, children weren't spared from being claimed by the slums Robotnik's presence created. Kids younger than the raccoon have been found with high traces of drugs in their systems. They became hooked either voluntarily or by adults to forcefully make them dependent. The thought made Manic clench his jaw; circumstances like that were just another fucked up thing about this world.

The raccoon was awake, staring at the ceiling blankly.

"Can I go talk to him?"

"Only if you don't say anything stupid." Clear sounded like she said that with a hard roll of her eyes.

"But stupid is half my language," Manic smirked back at her as he left the room.

"Heyyy, kiddo. How are you feeling?"

The boy's shiny copper orbs remained trained on him while he took a seat in the chair next to his bed. He stayed silent, but he cocked his head slightly, cautiously regarding Manic. It made the hedgehog wonder what the kid was thinking about.

"Okay, let's start with names," he said with a friendly grin. "I'm Manic. Manic the Hedgehog. What's your name?"

That's when the boy started twiddling his fingers and he looked down at his hands. "Uh…Ridge."

His response prompted a genuine smile from the thief. "Ridge, awesome. You look like you're doing better, they treating you well here?"

Ridge nodded.

"It's not the first place I had in mind to take you to—" Manic looked around the room "—but it'll do."

"Mister—"

"You can just call me Manic, kiddo."

"Manic," Ridge started again. "Thank you for saving my life yesterday. I don't….I don't know what would have happened if you didn't…." The boy started to tear up, choking on the sentence.

Manic took Ridge's hand, smiling softly. "Hey, don't think about it. I found you and you're safe now, yeah? There's no need to start thinkin' about what would have happened otherwise."

"I..." Ridge sniffed. "I don't know if they can fix me, though."

This caused Manic to frown. "What do you mean? What's wrong?"

"I….The Bad Man did something to me and now I'm seeing weird things in my head."

Manic quickly jumped to the mentality of an alert fighter. "Ridge, what did this Bad Man do to you? Who is he?"

Ridge's breathing became more labored, his little chest rose and fell deeper, and he clasped Manic's hand with both of his. He closed his eyes, turning his head up toward the ceiling in concentration and—

"No! No!"

Manic heard screaming, but it was muted, as if he were in a pool of water. His vision was no better in fact, Manic was convinced he was having a hallucination of being underwater. He could barely make the tall figures looming over him as a shock of energy fried his body.

The screaming was different this time. He….also….felt it?! He FELT it! That scream, that pained scream was coming from HIS throat! His body moved without him wanting to move it and he felt a pair of restraints on his wrists. He pulled and pulled, but it only resulted in having the restraints dig into his skin.

Then he was surrounded in a dark room with bars—a cell. There were frightened whimpers and moans of pain resonating off the walls. He couldn't make out his surroundings properly and his feet became tangled up. It didn't help that his head POUNDED and he gasped, reaching up to touch his skull. He swore he could feel his brain throb and it hurt so much, it drove him to the ground with curled fists pounding against the floor.

"HELP!" came the young voice again. "Please! It HURTS—

Manic didn't know where he found the strength to yank his hand away from the boy, almost tipping his chair over completely. Small beads of sweat formed on his forehead and his breathing was heavy, as if he'd just finished sprinting.

He couldn't believe what was happening. As far as he knew, no one in this dimension had any Enhanced abilities. If there'd been just one person that did, the Rebellion would have been able to overpower Robotnik much sooner. Manic himself was the closest thing these people had to a super-powered being because of his Medallion.

"What did you—What did you do to me?"

His reaction made Ridge's breathing shallow and quick from fear. "I-I don't know. They did this to me. But I think maybe you can help me."

"Why?"

"Because I know you have powers too."

I've been working on this story for a loooong time now; nearly two years. The inspiration came from a short I wrote. I've always like Manic and I wanted to reinvent his image. I HOPE it works out as well as I'm imagining it will. ^-^()

The nurse is the original, original, version of one of my OCs. I've changed all of them these past years, for example, Ridge was supposed to be a girl! But it didn't always sit well with me for some reason. So there's that.

Let me know what you think!