Chapter 10. Well, here you go. There might be a character death, so read with caution.

Manic woke up in his room. He tried to get up and look around, but he was still weak. As he lay there, he could faintly hear two voices coming from outside his room. He could tell that it was Tails and Blaze.

"He has alot of power, but he just needs more time to let it come to light. I'm not even sure if he knew he could do that." Said Tails.

"Well why don't you come and ask me?" Yelled Manic.

The door slowly opened and they both walked in. He didn't understand why they were being so quiet, he obviously wasn't asleep.

Blaze spoke first, "How are you feeling?"

"Like hell."

Tails popped in, "Manic, do you know how you took down Eggman's ship?"

Manic thought for a moment, "I'm not exactly sure. I guess I decided that since it was made out of metal that I could pull it out of the sky."

"But why would you suspect that?"

"Well, I can control earth elements remember? And metal is made from earth material. It's a little complex, but it makes sence." He paused. "Was anyone hurt?"

Blaze looked down, "That's kinda what we wanted to talk to you about."

Manic started getting worried. He was capable of murder, just not to anyone that he knew or that lived in Knothole.

Tails slowly continued, "When you threw the ship, it didn't go as far as we anticipated. The two halves landed in different sections of Knothole. 32 civilians were killed."

Manic felt the world die around him. He knew the laws of Knothole, and the penalty of homocide, is death.

He stood up and stared out the window, "So, how much more time do I have?"

Tails shuffled his feet, "Untill tomarrow. 3:00PM."

"Perfect. That gives me a day to be hated right up to my death."

Blaze's voice was a little shakey, "Um, we've gotta go. We told Cream that we would help her bake a cake."

Manic directed his attention back to them, "How many people know?"

"Everybody except Cream."

"Okay. I'll be here if you need me."

Blaze and Tails left. Manic just sat on his bed for a while. He couldn't believe that he came all this way, just to be executed.

The rest of the day went by really slow. He just sat in the same spot looking back on his life. When night rolled around he noticed that no one ever really said goodbye. He was pretty convinced that no one honestly cared about him. He grabbed the picture of him, Sonic, and Sonia that he kept near his bed and just stared at it untill his eyes grew heavy. Then he rolled over and went to sleep.

The next day Manic got up, went out to the living room, and flipped on the t.v. He was disappointed when he saw that nothing good was on. Then there was that cursed voice.

Hello again.

What do want.

Just decided to drop in. You know Manic, I can't wait till you die. Because then, I'm going to take over.

What?

Oh yeah, you don't know. I'm not a parasite, I don't die when the host dies. In fact, I become the host. When you die, I'm becoming you.

Now that I know, I'm gonna do everything in my power to stay alive.

I'd like to see you try.

Manic felt frantic anger build up in him. He started thinking of possible ways he could stay alive, but he didn't know how he was going to die. If he was lucky, he was just going to be hung. But, he couldn't tell for sure.

Then he heard and knock on his door. Who would want to visit him now?

"Come in."

He was pretty happy when he saw Blaze come strolling in.

"Hi Manic."

"Hey."

"Umm, I really don't know what to say." She sat down next to him.

"How come they never took me into custody?"

"They blocked off all the exits instead." They sat there in silence for a few minutes.

Manic broke the silence, "I need to tell you something. But you can't tell anybody."

"What is it?"

"I'm gonna try and get out of Knothole. Now before you go and suspect that I'm a coward, I need you to listen to my reason."

"Go ahead."

"When Sonic made me go through the tests, the dark chaos energy released an evil spirit in my body. It keeps trying to kill anybody that I'm close to, he's the reason that I almost killed Sonic. A few minutes ago he contacted me. He said that when I die, he is going to become me."

Blaze was a little confused, "I guess it makes enough sense, but Manic, you can't break out of Knothole. All the exits have guards posted at them."

"Who said that we need to stay at ground level? The sky is the limit Blaze." With that, Manic got up and headed towards his backyard.

Blaze followed him, "Where are you going?"

"You'll see." Now I wonder if it's still back here. When he got outside he headed toward an object that was covered in a tarp. He pulled off the cloth which revealed a single-engine plane about the same size as the X-Tornado. In fact, it looked alot like the X-Tornado, except it was painted black.

Manic was filled with joy, "Oh yeah! I thought they would have taken this by now." He climbed inside and tested the engine. He pulled the keys out from the glove compartment and inserted them into the ignition. It started without a stutter.

Blaze yelled over the engine, "Where did you get this?"

"I built it."

"Really?"

Manic turned the plane off, "Well Tails helped me." He jumped down to the ground.

Blaze looked over to him, "Can I come with you?"

He never thought about that. He guessed that having Blaze around would keep him company.

"Sure."

"Great. When are we leaving?"

"Right now." He got back up in the ship.

Blaze jumped into the passenger seat, "That's fine with me, but there's only one problem."

"What's that?"

"We don't have enough room to take off."

"Don't worry about it." Manic pressed a button on the dashboard and the plane started moving upwards from two propellers that sprouted from the bottom of the wings. When they were high enough, Manic turned on the main propeller and they flew straight out of Knothole.

"Goodbye Knothole!" Yelled Manic.

I think this might be my longest chapter yet. Chapter 11 is coming soon!