Manic's First Symptoms

It was another three days before Manic woke, crying in pain. He had spiked a fever the night before and it was the ice cold water they used to try and lower his temperature that woke him. Even then, with the fever, it was a state of delirious semi-consciousness.

"But Mommy, don't leave me again. I want to go with you this time."

"Manic, honey, I'm not your Mom I'm your sister. It's Sonia remember?" The pink sow pleaded. "I'm your sister."

"Mommy..." Sonia cried then; not just because her baby brother was so suddenly ill he was delirious but the heartbroken almost betrayed tone the pleas were said in.

"We have to get help, Sonic. We can't handle this on our own." She said to the blue boar as he came within earshot carrying a fresh pitcher of cold water. "Professional help."

"Who would admit us?" Sonic asked bitterly, laying a new cloth on Manic's forehead. "Anyone who has the proper training is either robotised or under constant supervision from Robotnik."

"We need someone! Isn't there a healer in Sanctuary?"

"Sanctuary is miles from here."

"Cyrus, then, or the Oracle."

"Too far Sonia, who knows what would happen on the way."

"Bartleby!" Sonia exclaimed. Sonic gave her a deadpanned glare. "Don't give me that, he's perfect. Only a little way from here and he studied at a medical university for three years."

"Bartleby got into university?"

"Sonic, be serious for once! He's smarter than you think, and he's the only one we can go to." The blue boar growled and shook his head, standing to get fresh water. He was stopped, however, by his brother's hand on his wrist.

"Mommy please..."

Sonic stared at the hedgehoglet in astonishment and sat gently on the side of the bed. "No Manic, we're not going anywhere. All three of us..." He gave Sonia a heavy look. "We're going to see someone who can help."

--

The van pulled up to Sonia's fiancée's large fancy manor and Sonia leaned over her older brother to press the intercom button. "Hey, is anybody home?"



"Oh, Sonia darling, it's so nice to hear from you."

"Bartleby sweetie, we need your help. Manic's dreadfully ill and you're the closest person who we can go to with any medical training."

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is that he thinks I'm his mother! Now would you just let us in you pompous ass?"

"Sonic!"

"What? 'Be nice' was not part of the agreement. My little brother is dying!"

"Yes, but if you're not a bit nicer to Bartleby, we're never going to get any help. He's my little brother too in case you've forgotten!"

"You know, if you're done bickering you can come in." The noble said over the intercom as his ornate gold gates slid open to admit their van. He ushered them into a made up guest room. "I'll get started on some herbs." Sonic stayed with Manic, not trusting his distressed brother alone, while Sonia followed her fiancée around his apartment.

"What do you think is wrong with him?"

"I don't know, he's only been here a couple minutes. Though he hasn't stolen anything yet which is very unusual and a little frightening." He was looking through a plain wooden cupboard that was so unadorned that Sonia couldn't believe it had been allowed in the house. "I think the important thing is to bring that fever down."

"We tried that." She said, as he pulled handfuls of herb leaves into a mortar to grind them together.

"Would you put a kettle on the stove?"

"You're going to use hot water? Won't that make things worse?"

"For one thing, the best way to get rid of a fever is to sweat it out, and secondly I'm making a medicinal tea for him and I need hot water to boil the herbs." Sonia stared at him curiously; she had never seen him so serious before. For as long as she had known him Bartleby had been a spacey artistic type of person. She had originally laughed at his idea to go to medical school, and this new sudden seriousness scared her, for Manic's sake.

"Is he going to be alright?"

Bartleby looked up at her with clouded sky blue eyes. "Sonia, it's best not to ask questions I can't answer."



"Hey, I'm home. They had those purple carrots you like at the market today so I got you some and your mother would like me to tell you that she's had to cancel your dinner tonight, again." A boar with green grey-flecked quills and greying yellow fur came bustling into the kitchen then, holding a paper grocery bag in one paw and taking his coat off with the other, yet to notice the pink hedgehog sitting stiffly beside Bartleby.

"S-Simon! What are you doing here? I thought you were doing that welfare meeting thing today."

"Postponed, indefinitely, if the pompous windbag has anything to say about it. And I already told you I..." The hedgehog looked up and the bag fell from a limp paw. Bartleby started making a series of unintelligible noises, to try and explain why one of the leaders of the Freedom Fighters was sitting in his kitchen. "Oh, Sonia, you look so much like your father." She stared at him in astonishment as he came to kneel in front of her.

"You knew my father?"

"Of course. I can't have my best friend get married and not at least meet the groom." Simon laughed in a friendly, matter-of-fact way, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Best friends with the queen. You never told me that. So does that make you their godfather or something?" Bartleby asked, coming to sit beside them.

"Their?"

"Okay, he's back to sleep, still thinks I'm Ma but he's asleep. How's that cure coming Bartle-but?" Simon whirled around as Sonic walked into the room.

"Oh, and Sonic too." The words were barely whispered, coming out in a tearful sigh. "You're the spitting image of your mother." Sonia started to cry then, running into Simon and hugging him tightly, Sonic followed a moment later. Simon looked up to find his surrogate child staring at them thoughtfully. "Penny for your thoughts."

"It's just...oh!" The hare jumped from his seat and bolted to his herb cupboard to add a few more herbs into his mixture. They watched him work for a couple of minutes, expecting him to finish the statement.

"Just what?"

"Bartleby, we've discussed this; not finishing trails of thought is okay in art and in poetry but not in conversations."

"You didn't marry the queen. Why?" asked Bartleby.

"They were just friends?"

"Because she loved our dad?"



"Because I'm a carrier." Bartleby stood with his a bright knowing smirk on his face, pointing his pestle at Simon.

"Exactly, and so is Queen Aleena. (Carrier of WHAT!?) You love her; I can see it when you talk about her. But you couldn't be wed because the heir to the throne can't inherit it. I think that you are Manic's father and that's what's wrong with him."