"Man, what happened?" Manic asked, rubbing his head as he sat up, wearily regarding his surroundings.
"Manic! Your awake!" That was Sonic... Sonic was...here? Where was here?
"Sonic?" Manic looked around trying to spot his brother. There he was, sitting cross legged on the floor, behind him. "Where are we?" He asked, trying to get a good look at where they were.
"We're in the storage bay of one of Robutnik's hovercraft's."
Manic looked thoughtful for a moment. "That's not good." He finally stated.
"Nope." His brother agreed. "And check out the funky chains... or should I say... heck, I don't even know."
Manic looked down. His wrists were both engulfed in a wierd orange glow. "Great, this stuff again."
"So you've seen it before?"
"This is how Robutnik caught me the first time in that SWATbot factory, when he took my medallion."
"No kiddin'" Sonic said, leaning back against the wall.
"Sooo... any ideas?" Manic asked his brother.
Sonic opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by another voice coming from just outside the door.
"Claws off, buddy. Hey, watch the tails!" Suddenly a soft, furry shape flopped onto the floor between Manic and Sonic. "And you didn't need to throw me so hard either!" He called after the SWATbots as they turned to leave.
"Tails!" Manic called, and the fox turned around grinning. "Hey," Manic nudged his brother. "He has a knack for getting into trouble almost as much as you!"
"Eh? Fancy meeting you here." Tails grinned back. "Well, no worries." He pulled out a tiny blackish-purple box from one of his tails, and slid it through the energy beam around his wrists and ankles. He then stood up and walked over to Manic, doing the same for him. Manic stood and stretched out as the fox freed his brother too.
"Well, now that that's settled." Tails clapped his hands together. He grabbed a couple of gold wristbands out of his tails and handed them to the hedgehogs. "Cya guys." He put on his own silver wristband. "I'll keep the SWATbots busy while you two make your daring escape."
"How will you keep them busy, Tails? I am sorta the 'priority one hedgehog', you know?"
"Oh, I know all right." The fox said, grinning. He then held up his hand with the wristband on it, letting the silver catch and reflect the sun's light. "I know that we just did a little role-switching. Maybe you can tell the difference, but the 'bots can't!"
Manic and Sonic grinned, getting the idea. "You sure you'll be ok?" Manic asked the fox.
"Hmm? Oh, me? Of course. A walk in the park." He flashed them a thumbs up before jumping out the door, half flying with his tails to soften the landing. Manic hesitated for a moment, but Sonic quickly grabbed him and jumped out the door, brother in tow.
They landed directly in front of a SWATbot and tensed to fight, but to their surprise, it just turned away and continued walking. They both stood, surprised for a moment.
"It's like we're completely invisible." Manic said, eyeing the golden band on his wrist.
Sonic did the same, rolling around a bit with his other hand. "Well." He said, looking up, and slightly startling his brother, who did the same. "Come on. Let's have some fun with these."
_ _ _ _ _
"Find anything yet?" Sonic asked his brother impatiently.
"Wait a minute." Manic responded, typing away at the computer console. "Ugh. I think I'm losing my touch." He muttered. A 'ping' sound came from the computer right then. "Never mind." He said, grinning and sitting back up.
"I'm waaaiting." Sonic called, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Oookay, what's this?" Manic asked out loud, looking at the screen in confusion.
"What?" Asked Sonic, appearing by his brothers side at the computer console in a flash of blue, making Manic rock a bit in his seat.
"Dude, don't do that." He told his brother, looking a little dizzy, but still smiling.
"Oh, sorry." Sonic said a little meekly. "So what is it?"
"Robotnik already left-"
"Bummer majores."
"But there's more..."
"What?"
"Says here they caught a hedgehog. Well I'm right here, and Sonia already left." Manic said, pointing at the screen.
"And it's not yours truly." Sonic said. Suddenly he looked at Manic quizzically. "So then who'd they catch?"
"Tails." Manic said.
"...But he's a fox."
Manic rolled his eyes. "I know that. But that's what his wrist band did. It made them think he was you. Which means Robotnik obviously hasn't seen him yet, otherwise he would have known the difference."
_ _ _ _ _
Manic and Sonic were waiting outside, near the pier, where they had left the van. The van was gone, but they figured if they waited, Sonia would show up with it. They were right, and they didn't have to wait long. They could see the van coming in the distance, and their sister could obviously see them too, because the van pulled over to where the two were waited and screeched to a halt right in front of them.
The doors opened in the side almost before the van had stopped moving, and the two hedgehogs quickly jumped inside. "Thanks for that daring rescue sis." Manic said, giving Sonia a lopsided grin and a thumbs up.
"Ha ha, very funny." She said sarcasically. Looking around, she added, "where's Tails?"
"Well, uh, you see..." Sonic began, holding both of his hands behind his head.
"He got caught???" Their sister asked angrily.
"Well..." Manic spoke up, hoping not to direct his sisters wrath towards himself.
Sonic and Sonia both turned to look at their brother.
"Well," he continued, "he kinda meant to be caught."
"What?" Sonic looked at his brother confused.
"Why would he want to do that?" Sonia asked.
Manic sat behind the wheel and buckled his seatbelt, pulling out and beginning to drive away. "I'll explain as we go."
_ _ _ _ _
Sonic and Sonia were both watching their brother as he spoke to them. "See, he could have just left with us after he broke us out, but instead he gave us these bands." He held up his wrist, still wearing the wristband that Tails had given him. "So he knew we'd have to wait for you."
Sonia stared at her brother. "How do you get that?"
Manic sighed. "You said he sent you away, right?"
Sonia nodded.
"So he knew me and Sonic would have to wait for you to get back. And Robutnik was still at the pier, so he would have found us. Tails had to get Butnik to leave, and that would only happen if he caught one of us. So he got caught instead."
Sonia shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. Butnik can tell the difference between a fox and a hedgehog. He may be dumb, but even he's not that stupid."
Sonic nodded, starting to catch on. "Maybe Robutnik could tell the difference, but the SWATbots couldn't."
Sonia looked at her brother in confusion.
Holding up his wrist again, Sonic smiled. "Tails had one of his own to make the SWATbots programming think he was Sonic"
"But now we've lost Tails and your medallion." Sonia said.
Manic shook his head again. "He knew that the SWATbuts would lead him right to Robotnik, and, my medallion."
"But when Robutnik finds out he's not us, he'll robotisize him for sure!" Sonia cried.
Manic only smiled. "No, 'Butnik doesn't want him robotisized. He wanted Tails to help engineer for him last time we met."
"No wonder, that kids a genius." Sonic commented.
"But why would Tails agree to help Robotnik?" Sonia asked again.
"You'll see." Manic said, grinning again.
"I hate when he get's that look."
"Target locked." A female voice said.
"What?" Sonia asked, looking up, baffled.
"What the heck?" Sonic added, looking up wearing the same expression.
"He's wearing a tracker, guys." Manic said, holding up a little black box with a blinking light on the screen. "Now let's go get Tails back. And my medallion."