Manic was sitting in the back of the van with Tails, while Sonic and Sonia argued upfront about something or other. He had his arms crossed, and was scowling at the floor while he scuffed he shoes back and forth across it. "Hmph."
"Oh come on Manic, come off it." Tails said.
"Yeah, Sonia's supposed to be the moody one!"
"Hey!"
"It's true!"
"Sorry," Manic snapped back as his siblings went back to arguing. "I'm just a little moody, because 'Butnik just happens to have my hoverboard and my medallion!"
"No sweat bro." Sonic called back. "We'll get your stuff back."
"We'd better." Manic growled.
"Yeesh, seriously Manic, what's up with you lately? This just isn't like you." Sonic asked.
Manic sighed. "Yeah, I know." He sat up again now. "I suppose you're right, I just want my stuff back."
"Not so good when you're the one getting your stuff taken, is it?"
"Hey!" Manic glared at his brother, but he wasn't as angry any more, and Tails could tell they were just joking around with each other. Suddenly Manic sat up straight. "Let's go get it tonight!"
"What?"Sonia called. "We can't! We don't even know where he's keeping it!"
"Sure we do!" Manic was grinning now, an idea forming in his head. "Ok, come on guys, this is my medallion we're talking about, ok? You don't seriously think 'Butnik would trust Sleet or Dingo with it, do you?"
This received two head-shakes from his siblings.
"So then all we have to do is find 'Butnik and we find my stuff. He's gotta have it himself."
"He's got a point." Sonic agreed.
"So now we're going to go looking for Robotnik?" Sonia asked.
"Yup!" The two hedgehog brothers said in unison.
"Greeeaat." She moaned sarcastically.
_ _ _ _ _
"Alright guys, I think I got something here." Tails called from where he was fiddling with the radio. He began scribbling something down on a piece of paper.
"Ok." He addressed the three hedgehogs surrounding him now. "We've got four hours. Robotnik's going to be down at Port Mobius, to get a new shipment of parts from Southern Mobius. So if we're going to do something, now would be the time.
"Port Mobius?" Sonic asked Tails with an awkward smile. "And you're sure about that?"
"Uh... yeah." Tails answered, slightly confused. He turned to face Manic and Sonia. "What's up with him?" He asked, jerking his thumb towards Sonic.
Manic and Sonia were both laughing. Manic grinned and put a hand over Tails' shoulder. "Well, big guy." He pointed at Sonic, glaring a them. "Sonic here has a thing for water. He isn't very fond of it." He grinned again, when Sonic crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at his brother.
"You're... afraid of water?" Tails asked slowly.
"I am not." Sonic said defensively. "I just prefer to stay dry."
"Oh..." Tails smiled and scratched his head as he watched the siblings continue to argue amongst each other. "Ok then..." He slowly turned himself around and went back to fiddling with the radio, trying to intercept more transmissions.
_ _ _ _ _
"Ok kids, here's the plan." Sonic sat on the floor of the van with Sonia, Manic, and Tails. "You and Tails watch the van, while me and Manic run in, grab the medallion, and come back out. We'll be there and back before 'Butnik even notices it's missing."
"Sonic, that plan's not going to work. It's not even a plan!" Sonia argued, waving her hand for emphasis.
"Well, at least if it's not a plan we don't have to worry about it not working." Sonic shot back.
"Calm down children!" Manic laughed.
"Sonic Hedgehog-"
"Outa here!" Sonic grabbed his brother's wrist and leaped out of the van. They hit the ground running, leaving their sister behind in the van with Tails.
"Boys!" She yelled to no one in particular, and Tails was still sitting on the floor of the van, looking utterly confused at the hedgehogs' behaviour. "Hehe... sorry." He said, rubbing his head. "Guess I'm not really used to company."
_ _ _ _ _
"You ready bro?" Asked Manic.
"You know it." Sonic grinned.
"Then let's do it to it!" They said together and high-fived each other. Sonic grabbed Manic again and they sped down the deserted hallway together. They entered a big, empty, dark theatre. Sonic was about to start running again when Manic said "Stop! Wait bro, something's seriously wrong here."
"What'ch ya' talkin' 'bout bro?"
"It's too quiet. The whole place is empty. It should be crawling with SWATbots."
"Maybe we got the wrong place." Sonic suggested. "Or the wrong day." He added, grinning. "Guess we'll just have to go."
"Oh no, hedgehogs, this is quite the right place"
"Robutnik?" Sonic spun around to face a large monitor screen that they had failed to notice before because it was off. It was on now, and showed the smiling face of Robotnik.
"Uh, Sonic." Manic pointed behind them. They were surrounded by SWATbots.
"Is this better, Manic?" Sonic asked his brother sarcastically.
"Oh yes, most definitely."
"Looking for this, hedgehogs?" Robutnik asked, holding up Manic's medallion.
"Hey!" Manic shouted to the monitor. "Gimme that!"
"You want it? Come and get it." He smiled again as the screen flashed off, leaving Manic and Sonic in the dark.
Sonic felt cold metal hand grab him from behind, and he quickly spun out of the grip, destroying three SWATbots in the tornado he caused. He tried to look through the darkness to see how his brother was doing, but couldn't make out any shapes. He grabbed for his own medallion, and in the blue glow it caused, he could see his brother sitting on top of a SWATbot, pounding it with his drumsticks.
Deciding that he would be fine on his own, Sonic began firing his guitar's laser at the advancing SWATbots. He was able to take out tons of them, but it seemed that no matter how many he took down, there were more to replace them.
Manic was jumping from bot to bot, mostly pounding away with his drumsticks, but landing a few kicks as well. As he pushed himself feet first off of a SWATbots chest, leaving it to fall onto one of it's 'brothers', he saw another two coming up behind him. Knowing he would have time to turn and land a kick, he curled into a ball midair. He couldn't do a spin attack like Sonic, but it would still protect him from smacking head on into a large metal body.
He sat up and rubbed his head as he made contact and was knocked to the floor, when he felt something grab his wrist and pick him off from the floor. "Aww, shoot." He muttered. He swung around to kick his captor, but his legs were promptly grabbed by yet another 'bot. "Aww shoot." He repeated.
Sonic recalled his medallion when he finished off the last of the SWATbots that he could see. He turned to where his brother should have been, to see him struggling with two more SWATbots. He then noticed a couple of bots still coming in from the stage entrance. "Drat." Sonic muttered, reaching for his medallion once again, but before he could call out his instrument, he felt something hard smack him across the back of his head.
"Ouch!" He yelled as he was flung to the floor. "Watch it!" He growled as he turned to face what had hit him. He found himself face to face with the barrel of a very large, very deadly, laser rifle. "Hehe, or, you know, don't. It's up to you."
_ _ _ _ _
"They're taking too long Tails." Sonia fretted. "Something must have gone wrong."
Tails nodded. "I'm worried too." Suddenly he stopped and looked thoughtful. "Hmm" He muttered some stuff to himself. "Oh no..." He quickly crossed the van to check on his equipment. "Uh oh. Sonia! I think I may have sent your brothers into a trap!"
"What?" She yelled, suddenly standing up and walking over to him. "What are you talking about, Tails?"
"Come look!" Tails called back, over his shoulder, adjusting some knobs on his radio and frantically writing down a couple of codes. He began pulling out random papers and equipment. "Look. Most of Robotnik's radio transmissions are embedded with an IH2 code, and I have to decode each individual incoming message. This one was broadcast by one of Robotnik's 02fL locations on an open-wave frequency."
"Meaning?"
"He meant for me to find it! He knew we would come to get Manic's medallion back! It must have been a setup!"
"We have to go save them!"
"No." Tails stopped Sonia from running out of the van. "No point walking right into what we already know is a trap. You'll have to take the van back, get some equipment... And make sure you let Cyrus and the other freedom fighters know where you're going. If you get caught and no one knows where you are, they can't help."
"I guess that makes sense." She agreed. "But what about you?"
"Aw, don't worry 'bout it. I'm expendable."
"Tails!"
He held up his hands. "Just kidding, Sonia!" He lowered his arms and took another pace towards the doors. "Seriously though, I need to go in there and see what's going on. You can't come, promise me, you will go tell Cyrus what's going on and come straight back."
Sonia nodded hesitantly, then called back after him. "But Tails, wai--" She stopped and shook her head in defeat when she realized that Tails had already left the van, and closed the door.
She rolled her eyes and went back to the front of the van, strapped herself in, and sped back to Robotropolis, and Cyrus, and quickly as she could.