Chapter Four – The Underground

Sonic knew better then to argue with his brother, considering the size of him. He'd grown, significantly and was now several inches taller and significantly broader then Sonic and very muscular in stature. Sonic knew he meant well, but as his memories began to finally filter through of what happened in The Underworld, Sonic was extremely glad that his brother was with him. How could he have been so stupid? To cast that much. Questions would definitely be asked. Better to get as far away as possible. But what really got to Sonic was the Drain, or lack of it. He barely felt any. Teleporting knocked him out for three days, but this, there was hardly anything. This worried Sonic greatly, was his secret powers growing that much and that fast? He was struggling to keep control and at this rate, they wouldn't remain secret for much longer. He was very tired and extremely sleepy, but he could shake that off. He had a Grand Prix to get to. The Opening Ceremony was tonight.

He had to move, fast.

It had been a very long time, not since his early teens, had he'd moved so fast. Far beyond Mach One. Charlie's suspicions were correct. He had indeed, far more power then he'd let everyone assume. He had also carrying Manic, which was a feet in it's own right. His brother was so much heavier then him, that Sonic wouldn't have been able to carry him, without help. But Manic had a way with the Earth, unlike anyone Sonic had ever seen, including it's Magnetic Field and he was now using it, to support his own weight. This meant that on Sonic's back, despite his size, he was a light as a feather. Sonic was able to go, truly, all out without the fear of any repercussions from Manic. They had grown up together, his brother knew everything, like all families do. Also carrying Manic was also an absolute joy. His was able to move and lean in perfect harmony with Sonic's Super-Speed that he never dragged him down. This came with years of practice. Whenever Sonic wasn't fighting Eggman with Tails and company, he was spending time with Manic in Robotropolis. He did it so often that Tails stopped asking where Sonic would regularly disappear to. Sonic would spend as much time with Manic as he would with Tails and considered both as family. He didn't like keeping Tails in the dark, but he felt that he had no choice. Now he hoped that Tails and the others would forgive him as they raced towards the Grand Prix in record time. Literally, such was the urgency. It has taken just a third of the time to race from Robotropolis with Manic as it took to race there with Charlie.

They made it to the Grand Prix, just before the Open Ceremony started with a matter of minutes to spare. The was sun setting. Sonic was on his knees. Panting and so heavily out of breath, that he could barely stand. But he couldn't stop and rest. Manic dragged Sonic up off the ground just outside the very large white marquee. The ceremony was about to take place and pushed him inside. Manic promptly disappeared into the twilight, leaving Sonic very confused and everyone staring at him.

But he was panting heavily, still hunched over slightly. Trying to keep from passing out, he was so tired. He knew that was why he was being stared at. None of his friends had ever seen him out of breath. He looked up and his eyes fell on Knuckles and Tails. Expecting hell from them, he was surprised to get to total opposite reaction as they both ran to his side of him, keeping him on his feet. They were worried. Very worried. What had happened to their indestructible friend? Sonic smiled. He wasn't indestructible, just tired.

Knuckles had completely disregarded ordering Sonic to get to the Grand Prix on time. Which he did, but at what cost to the Hedgehog now? That was what was concerning the Echidna now. To hell to what he said before, what was going on now?

Sonic wished he could tell him. Sonic to fight to stop his friends from doing the Open Ceremony without him, to allow him to rest. Hell, no. He'd gone all out, literally, to get here on time, he wasn't to just leave. He was staying. Period. Besides, it was in the rules of the Grand Prix. The Open Ceremony was about all of the teams officially presenting themselves as competitors as group of three! You can't have Team Heroes without Sonic, no matter how bad he felt. They would disqualified if they did.

Team Babylon were laughing at him. Consisting of Jet, Wave and Storm, three birds that Sonic would have loved to throw every ounce of Magic he had at them. He hated them that much at they very moment. He resisted the urge, just.

As everyone calmed down, the ceremony began, and teams starting announcing themselves. The usual people were there.

Team Babylon, Jet, Wave and Storm being their usual cocky selves, though quite nasty in Sonic's direction, to numerous complaints.

Team Rose, consisting of Amy, Cream the Rabbit and Cheese the Chao and Big the Cat. The most timid of all teams, they were also worried. Sonic knew why. They were worried about him. He tried to ease their concerns, but failed. He was really struggling. He could barely drag himself onto the stage to present himself as part of Team Heroes with Tails and Knuckles. Looking around the marquee from the stage, there was no sign of Manic. Where was he? Sonic didn't have time to enquire as he was very quickly dragged away as soon as his part was done, and moved well away from the stage. Team Dark followed them, Shadow and Rouge the Bat presenting themselves with some random robot they'd found, as the third team member. Sonic smirked, that wasn't the first time they had done that. It was well within the rules. Team Chaotix was next, Vector the Crocodile, Espio the Chameleon and Charmy Bee being their usual boisterous yet musical selves. Lifting the much needed spirits of everyone in the entire marquee. Sonic was pleased to see them there. Team Chaotix had competed in a Grand Prix only once before and it was nice to see them back. The Grand Prix officials had some trouble getting them off the stage for the next team.

The next team? What? As far as Sonic was concerned, that was everyone.

Team Underground! Consisting of Silver The Hedgehog, Blaze the Cat and...

Sonic swore very loudly, attracting stares.

"MANIC!"

So that was where his brother had disappeared off too. To look for a team to compete with. Sonic was fuming. His temper flared so badly that he completely forgot about how tired he was. Everyone was staring, but he just didn't care. Manic grinned inanely at him.

"Language, Bro!" He mocked. "I didn't think you were capable of such..." His grin broadened. "Expletives!" He was winding Sonic up, and the Blue Blur was totally falling for it.

He growled. Manic was a one to talk. When it came to bad language, he was far worse then Sonic ever was.

Sonic stormed towards the stage.

"You can't compete in the Grand Prix!" He spat.

Manic folded his arms. Silver and Blaze behind him, looking at each other. Then, all of a sudden, he walked straight off the front of the stage. He dropped nearly four feet and landed on the ground as if it was nothing. He made the ground and the marquee shake. Gasps came from all around them, but the only person was this did not phase, was Sonic. He'd seen it, way too many times before.

Manic was still grinning at Sonic, it broadening with the minute.

"Temper, temper!" He mocked again. Sonic growled in response. Manic would have normally have pushed his brother for everything he had. But in light of recent days, that may not have been a good idea. Who knew what Sonic would have instinctively thrown back at him, and Magic in the middle of this crowd, was unwise.

So Manic backed off, slightly.

"Well, you are!" He spat back. "And you can barely stand!" He pointed out. Sonic was just about to explode when someone came between them.

"Easy, guys!" He said calmly. "Lets keep the sibling rivalries to the courses. Ok!" He added.

It was Silver. An extremely powerful, very light grey (almost white) Hedgehog with white fur on his chest surrounding his neck with gold eyes and tanned skin. He has two large spines at the back of his head, while at the front of his forehead there are five distinct spines flared up and back, the two final ones covering up most of his ears. He was wearing white gloves with cyan circles with lines sticking out of the bottom leading to his golden bracelets, also accented in cyan. The tops of his boots are of a similar fashion with a red gem set in gold. The rest of his boots are navy blue, white and cyan. He was stood with his hands spread out between them. The term 'sibling rivalries' snapped them both out of their argument. They both looked at Silver. He smiled.

"It's kind of obvious!" He grinned. "You look very alike." He giggled. "I knew as soon as I saw him, when he asked to join us." He paused and turned to Sonic "I'd heard the rumours that you had a brother over this past week. I was surprised when he turned up here." He sighed. Then he added. "He's very..."

"Larger then life!" Sonic smirked, cutting across him. Silver nodded. Yes, indeed he was. Sonic didn't blame Silver or Blaze for allowing Manic to join them. After the rumours they had recently heard, they were just curious.

With the ceremony over, Manic made a beeline for the door. Before leaving, he turned back.

"Hey, Bro! Hedgehog Party at The Underground, NOW!" He laughed, and then he added, as if just remembering. "Oh, and bring the Guitar!"

What!

"Manic!" Sonic gasped. Completely dumbfounded, he could answer with only one thing.

"But I didn't bring the Guitar. It's back home. I'd have to go back and get it." He sighed. But Manic giggled.

"Oh, like that's a hardship!" He grinned.

The Grand Prix was not very far from Tails' House, an easy distance for someone like him. Silver stared at him.

"I didn't know you could play." He asked. Sonic was about the answer him but Manic beat him to it.

"Oh, yeah." He said proudly. "You turned professional, what was it, last year or two years ago?" He asked. Sonic sighed and smiled.

"Two years ago." He answered. Silver raised an eyebrow.

"Oh. Now that I've got to hear." He said excitedly. Manic laughed.

"Oh yeah, he's that good. Along with the Flute, Violin and Piano!" He giggled.

"MANIC!" Sonic shouted, frustrated.

Would Manic stop revealing the in-depth details of his life to everyone! Sonic had no reason to hide such information from his friends, it was just they had never asked. Sonic had never volunteered it. Manic was indeed speaking the truth, however. Sonic was as music-mad as he was speed-mad and could play the flute, violin and piano as well as he could the guitar, and turning professional in all four. With Manic being a professional Drummer, as well, they regularly toured as one of the most popular bands on the planet, The Underground. But because they both wore so much make-up when on stage, nobody made the connection that the world-famous Blue Blur and the lead singer of the bans were one and the same person. Sonic was forever grateful, he was already famous enough, thank you very much.

Manic looked like he was going to be his usual annoying self, Sonic felt that he had to shut him down.

{Manic, please, enough!} He said, pleadingly, over the ether.

Manic stared at him. He knew that by using the ether to communicate, he was serious. The last thing Manic wanted was to do was to upset his brother. He backed right down.

"Ok, fine." He said. "But please come to the party." He asked.

Sonic sighed, the tiredness was coming back now, since his temper eased and was very undecided. Manic could read that fact on his face.

"Come on, bro." He encouraged. "We have Tequila!" He grinned. Well, that did it!

Manic mentioned the very dangerous 'T' word!

Sonic absolutely loved Tequila. It was his favourite drink in the entire world. He may not have been legally old enough to drink alcohol. But with a Master Thief for a brother, absolutely anything can and often did, happen. But how? He'd been missing for no more then an hour at most, and he'd managed to join a Grand Prix team, and organise an illegal party with alcohol. Sonic was seriously impressed.

Upon successfully convincing his brother to come, Manic, very full of himself, added to anyone who would care to listen.

"Oh, and we also have Greenfinch for Captain Awesome, over there!" Manic smiled, indicating to someone behind them, and with that, he finally left. Silver frowned.

"What's Glenfiddich?" He asked.

"A very fine, and very expensive, Single-malt Scotch Whiskey!" A cold voice answered. It was Shadow. He was smirking. He had silently moved to join in the conversation. He had been somewhat taken aback at being called 'Captain Awesome'. It was an unusual complement, and along with the Glenfiddich, his favourite drink, his interest has definitely be sparked. Silver looked from Shadow to Sonic, who was on his way out.

"Wait, is this thing even legal?" He asked, sounding panicked. Sonic laughed.

"No!" He said simply. He was still trying to figure out where the hell Manic got the alcohol from, but thought better not to ask. Several of his friends in the background were incredibly shocked that Sonic would do such a thing, but he just laughed at them. He didn't know him as well as they thought they did. But Sonic didn't care, there was Tequila on offer, and that was enough for him. Shadow's smirk broadened, he was definitely liking what he was seeing.

"Where?" He asked. Good question!

Manic had said 'The Underground'. He must have meant the tent belonging to Team Underground. All of the teams competing in a Grand Prix, sleep in tents on site. Sonic looked out the door of the marquee. He looked into the twilight darkness to see where Manic would have put The Underground's tent.

All of a sudden, the ground shock and with a loud rumble, what looked like a mountain appeared to, literally, poped up out of the ground, directly in front of them, in amongst the tree.

Both Shadow and Silver jumped. Silver out of his skin. But Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Wow, Manic, that's subtle. Now Eggman will definitely know your here." He said to himself. Shadow heard him and stared, but Silver went mad, having never seen such power before.

"What the hell is that?" He stammered, pointing at the newly appeared mountain.

"A Tent!" Sonic said, obviously. Well, an 'Earth' tent, a cavernous space made entirely of rock and earth. They both stared in silence. Sonic rolled his eyes again. Did he have to spell it out for them! Apparently so.

"Thats the tent for Team Underground." He said, but got nothing in reply. "It's where the party is!" He spat. Silver wasn't really believing what he was hearing.

"He's crazy!" He said without thinking. He meant Manic. Sonic laughed again.

"Oh yeah. Officially certified as so by the Mobian Authorities five years ago." He said grinning. And with that he left, leaving them both dumbfounded.

What a Party!

Sonic did indeed go home and fetch the Guitar. He also decided last minute, to bring the Flute as well. By the time he got back to the party, Silver and Shadow had finally decided to join them. Amy and Blaze were already there. When Amy heard Sonic play, she permanently latched onto him all night. Also turns out Shadow likes a good party as much as the next hedgehog. The Glenfiddich going down extremely well. The music was very loud and absolutely pronominal, with Sonic and Manic singing many of their Underground hits. Sonic got very drunk on Tequila, with more then twenty bottles in the tent. It was easy. The salt, lemon and the shot, straight down the throat really appealed to him. As it happens, to Silver's taste as well, who tried to match him, shot for shot. Bad idea. Sonic has such a high metabolism, that it left him with a very high alcohol tolerance to go with it. Silver was out cold on the floor by the end of the night. The party did indeed go on all night. It was long after dawn before any of the Hedgehogs showed their faces at the Grand Prix, the following morning. The officials had drawn at random who would be racing that day. The first race of the morning was Team Heroes verses Team Underground, aka, Sonic vs. Manic.

Typical! Neither Hedgehog was there. Manic did show up, a few minutes late, massively yawning, and stretching.

"Where is he?" He was immediately asked, by an official.

"Who?" Manic asked, not really a hundred percent with it. The official was unimpressed.

"Sonic, of Team Heroes, he's your first opponent. Your the first race of the morning!" He declared. Manic laughed, he had no idea about this and it was just too good. He knew what state Sonic was in, which meant he might actually have a chance of beating him. That is, if he turned up. The green Hedgehog looked around.

"Fashionably Late!" He smirked.

"That's fine." Said the official. "We'll wait. I have this to give him." He declared again, waving a piece of paper. This was extremely unusual. If you didn't turn up for your race, you were immediately disqualified, and the next race goes ahead. To wait was really unusual. This left Manic somewhat worried.

Sonic was not good. Having a hangover was one thing, but having a hangover while still being drunk was something else entirely. His ears were also ringing from the loud music. He was alone in The Underground's mountain 'tent'. All of the others had moved on. Silver, still asleep, had been moved to somewhere more comfortable then the floor. Sonic grabbed his head. The pain was excruciating. He'd never felt pain like it. Truthfully, he'd never drank this much Tequila before either. Suddenly, he heard that he was due to race. Now! He had to get rid of the pain and quickly. He just couldn't race with it.

Desperate, he felt the Chaos build up inside of him, and as he felt the silvery mist whirl around him. Suddenly, he pushed the extremely painful headache out of his head.

Boom!

The resulting explosive blast of silvery mist, fatally crippled Manic's mountain 'tent' surrounding him. It began collapsing in on itself. Realising he was now pain-free and somehow, no longer drunk or tired, Sonic was pleased greatly. But he couldn't stand there and enjoy the feeling. Boulders were falling all around him, forcing him to run from the exit. He barely cleared the building before it turned to rumble. Sonic looked back at the mess and swore, very loudly, again. Everything from the party was still in there, his guitar and flute, Manic's drum kit, the left over alcohol, the Team Underground's sleeping quarters.

What a mess!

Sonic knew that Manic wouldn't be happy. Manic had come running up upon hearing the sound of the explosion, and was throughly unimpressed. Some of the others were there, wondering how Sonic had managed to do this.

"Nice one, Bro!" He spat sarcastically, growling under his breath. He loomed over Sonic like a menacing monster.

"Look!" Sonic stammered. "I can fix it!" He added, but Manic quickly halted him.

He quite easily believed that Sonic had the power to fix the situation. It was Magic that caused it, so using Magic to repair the damage was entirely plausible, but now was not the time.

"Don't bother." Manic spat. "I'll do it!" He hissed and proceed to clear the mess and retrieve all the items of worth. While he was doing this, a Grand Prix official marched up to Sonic and thrust the piece of paper into his hand.

"What's this?" He asked, frowning. Manic shrugged. He had no idea. They opened it. It was an official letter from The Extreme Gear Association, in charge of all the Grand Prix's held on Mobius. The letter itself was relatively short and said the following:

'Dear Sonic The Hedgehog.

We regret to inform you that you have been disqualified from all ongoing and future Grand Prix's due to an advantage. We deem this to be unfair to all other competitors and ask that you no longer race, as you well be no longer welcome.

Regards,

The Extreme Gear Association Committee.'

What the actually hell? An unfair advantage. What did that mean? Sonic's temper really flared. Were they talking about his secret powers? His Magic? If so, how would they have known? The letter was dated more then a month ago. There was no way they would have known. Sonic had complete control of it back then. Nobody knew. He was sure of it. His troubles had been really recent. Within the last week. He rounded on the official, who claimed that he had no knowledge of what unfair advantage was being talked about. Sonic was dumbfounded, but getting angrier by the second. Manic was worried, he had to do something, and quickly. He didn't want a repeat of what happened at The Underworld. Not here. The whole world was watching, there were cameras everywhere. Casting Magic here would certainly meaning the end for them both.

Then Manic had an idea.

"Hey." He said, calling over the official, who'd began to walk away. "If us, the competitors." He said, looking around, pointing at the other teams, who had by now caught them up. "Accept that Sonic may or may not have an unfair advantage, but don't care, and want him to race anyway. Can he still do it?"

It was a carefully phased question that got a lot of people intrigued. It snapped Sonic out of his temper. They all stared at each other, confused. The official was dumbfounded, he had no idea how to reply. Manic helped him along.

"For this Grand Prix, anyway." He said. "If we all agree!" He added, looking around, specifically at Jet. He knew how much that Hawk wanted to beat Sonic, whatever the situation, and quickly took the bait.

"Yeah." He spat, arrogantly. "I take him on any day, whatever advantage he has." He smirked. The hawk brushed his emerald green and dark emerald green feathers arrogantly. They covered his whole body, with white feathers on his front torso. He had blue eyes and a golden beak. His hair is styled like a mohawk with dark green tips. He also has two tail feathers. He wore a pair of white gloves with red and black cuffs, red, black and white boots with grey soles, and yellow and white goggles with grey strapping.

That was enough. Once Jet agreed, they all did. Leaving the official no choice but to allow Sonic to race For this Grand Prix, only.

Sonic sighed, extremely relieved. He looked up at his brother.

{Nice one!} He said, over the ether, as he realised what he came very close to doing. {Thank you.} He added. Manic nodded in reply, acknowledging the message. Manic truly had got his back. Sonic had wondered sometimes, but he ever should have doubted.

{So now what?} he asked, over the ether, partially to himself. Manic laughed.

"Now we race!" He grinned.

"What!" Sonic replied, speaking properly.

"It's you and me up first, Bro!" He grinned. "And your butt is mine." He added.

Sonic was very surprised at this, he had no idea who he was supposed to be racing, but took on Manic's retort. Manic beating him.

No!

That was not going to happen.