"What?" Nobody knew about what his Medallion could do, how could he? Manic instinctively reached up his ear to finger his piercing, made from the same metal as the original Medallion. "How did you know about it?"
"I think what I see are memories. I-I don't know how it works too much, but I can see them. Like with you. I've seen you move the ground, I've seen you fight with a blue and pink hedgehog."
Manic's heart stopped.
His blood froze.
And someone may as well have kicked Manic in the stomach because when he spoke, he had to force the words out. "How did you know about them?"
Ridge reached for his hand again.
Manic liked the sound of crashing waves; it wasn't something he had access to growing up in the city. He never imagined he ever would either, but to be fair he never thought of a future outside the streets. More so than the waves, Manic liked the sand on the beach. It was so soft, the first time he felt it he thought it tickled. Every time he and the siblings went to a beach, he removed his gloves just to be able to feel it. On this particular trip, he purposefully dug his hands deep into the ground as he piled sand onto Sonic, who was relaxing with his hands crossed behind his head.
If the blue hedgehog ever felt annoyed with randomly being buried under a heap of sand, he never said anything—never even opened his eyes—and he smirked. "I hope you know how to build a decent sand castle."
Manic glanced to the shoreline and grinned mischievously, retrieving a fistful of wet sand.
"Nope, just mud pies and sandballs," he said, smearing it across Sonic's face.
Sonic immediately jumped out of the sand pile and began to spit, wiping his muzzle with the back of his hand. His reaction had Manic dying of laughter, he almost missed him say: "Think fast!"
A sandball whizzed past him and hit the van, shattering and sending moist sand everywhere. The scream that followed was so high-pitched, Manic's eardrums felt like they shattered. Sonia had leapt up from her lawn chair, wiping away at her skin frantically, and although Manic knew it would get him in even more trouble, he couldn't help but to point and laugh. Sonic took the opportunity to hit him in the back of the head with another sandball and he laughed so hard, he had to bend over.
"I told you to think fast!"
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU TWO IDIOTS?!" Sonia's shrill voice caused the two brothers to wince. "Just because we're animals doesn't mean we need to ACT LIKE IT. Oh what am I saying, you two just ENJOY IT, DON'T YOU—
The emerald thief may as well have been paralyzed. He hadn't seen his siblings in so long, his heart sank when he realized his memories of them seemed to be fading. He didn't remember Sonic's eyes being so bright, they resembled emeralds! And Sonia…Manic swore that his actual ears were ringing from the sound of her yelling.
One second longer, that's all he wanted to ask for was just one. Second. Longer. But once the unknown hands started to pull him out of the chair, he was forced to snap out of his trance to shove off whoever the hell was doing that. There was no way was he about to be dragged out of a damn medical room like a crazy person; his pride wouldn't allow it.
Just as he was about to tell them to back off, there was a tremor, a small earthquake that made the lights flicker on and off. Everyone froze and looked around in terrified confusion. There had never been a tremor in this area before. One of the nurses immediately went to check on Ridge's machine and told the other to go do the same to another patient.
Manic took the opportunity to quickly stride out of the room and leave the hospital to have some time alone. He wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, the only things he saw was the most royal shade of blue and the strongest color of pink he'd ever seen.
And he didn't want them to fade into watercolors again.
