A/N: 'Ello boys and girls! Here it is! And... err... I don't have much to say about this one. Except that nothing much happens and that is kinda long. You guys will like it tho', why? You will seee... Also that, after this one I'll start working on rewritting two or three chapters so the hiatus might be kinda long. I'm sorry guys, but for the story to make sense, I must do it.

But ok, to answer the newest reviews!

just a random guy: As I said to others, I indend on finishing this baby up (Wow, that sounded wrong), so don't worry about me not finishing it! :3

StormTR: I'm glad you like it! It really means a lot.

Well, that was kinda short. It must have been to many of the last reviews comming from signed reviewers. But oh well, on with the story. Hope you like, and please review!

Chapter X: Flight Test

Manic fell back on his back before the toilet, a trail of blood and vomit running from the edge of his mouth as he heavily panted.

"...Damnation." He scoffed between his ragged breathing, he sat with his back against the bathroom wall and rubbed his eyebrows. "This is not good, this thing is starting to hit at me back again, even with my medication and I can't fight it back." He thought for a second and wondered what would happen next; what now? He thought. Imagine what would his brother and sister say about this. "Goddamn it!" He punched the ground in a sudden bolt of anger, carelessly creaking a floor tile. He suddenly stepped up and examined the bathroom floor as he passed his right hand through his bangs with an expression of worriness on his face. "Shit." He looked around instinctively and perked his ears up to confirm that nobody was listening to him. He sighed and looked at the contents in the tiolet remaining pensative. "I'm running out of time." Finally, he proceeded to brush his teeth and get prepared for breakfast.

He walked down the stairs as he put on a dark brown t-shirt that he borrowed from one of the many closets in the house, surprisingly, nobody was at the table having breakfast then he suddenly heard a sound coming from the kitchen and stepped inside. There, he found an interesting scene: Several machines were doing chores, one was washing the dishes and others were cleaning everything around. He tilted his head a little bit and smiled at the curios scene before proceeding to grab a granola bar from the fridge. He walked to the nearest window as he chewed on his morning snack and noticed something as he glanced, a plane?

He left from Tails's house and walked to the plain hangar and the garage, which were not very far away. On the landing strip he saw Tails apparently talking to himself and making some gestures, he listened closely:

"You're doing great! Now steer at 11:00, ok?" Manic gestured at Tails to pay him attention, who only glanced back and nodded. "Great job, hey, Manic's here. Oh, you want to greet him? Just be careful with the trees as you land." Tails took his headphones off and shaked hands with Manic. "Hey Manic, how did you sleep?"

"Pretty well, thanks. Say, who were you talking to?"

"Oh, that was Mina."

Manic's eyes opened wide. "She was in that plane? I didn't know she could fly."

"Yeah, she still need a lil' polishing, but she has talent." Tails gestured to the plane as he walked back. "I think it would be better if you stepped aside." Manic did so as the plane finally touched ground, a liitle abruptly perhaps, but with no problems whatsoever. It slowly stopped when it entered the hangar and so did the engine, the cockpit slowly opened and Mina came out, dressed in flying gear and wearing a pair of goggles. "Great job Mina, a little forced in the end, put otherwise you're getting better."

"Thank you Tails." She kneeled and kissed Tails' cheek and then looked at Manic, who just stood there, pretty much attracted by how cute Mina looked in the flying gear. "Manny!" She bellowed as she hugged him. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm good, t- thanks." He looked at her and smiled, both said nothing for a second.

"Oh! Would you give me a second? I'll get on my normal clothes, I'll be right back here in a few minutes." She quickly ran to the house, leaving Tails and Manic alone.

"So... where are the others?"

"I think Sonic's running around, Knuckles usually meditates at this time, Sonia and Shadow... I dunno. Shadow just left 'to walk around' early in the morning, a typical thing of his, y' know."

"Yeah." Manic started looking around. "Well, this is really impressive."

"Thanks... Um, you wanna take a quick look?"

"Can I?" Manic asked and Tails nodded. "Gee, thanks!"

Tails opened the door of the garage by putting his finger on a nearby panel. Both walked in to see all sorts of machinery everywhere, as if in some sort of factory, Manic gave a low whistle.

"You like?"

"Yeah... man, are those extreme gears?" Manic pointed to a wall, where four boards hung.

"They are."

"God... they are fantastic."

"You wanna take a closer look?" Manic nodded and so Tails pushed a nearby button. The part of the wall where they hung actually unattached itself from the wall by a large mechanical arm, which moved the extreme gears where Manic could see them.

Manic walked forward and took one of the gears on his hands, examining it closely. "These are good, really good. You have talent kid."

"Thanks, I've been working with them for a few years now. Oh, hey Knuckles!"

Manic turned around to see Knuckles at the door and he didn't look happy, as if he had been told something worrysome.

"What's up?" Tails asked as Knuckles came across the garage. Manic hanged the table back at the machine.

"I'm fine." The echidna answered blankly, staring strangely at Manic, who just raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure?" The hedgehog asked.

Knuckles gave him a forced smile. "I'm fine. Thanks."

In that same moment, Mina appeared, panting loudly. "I'm sorry, I had some trouble finding my stuff. You wanna go take a walk with me Manic?"

"Sure."

"OK, let's go... come on!"

Manic followed Mina slowly, but not before giving Knuckles a frown. What was happening to him now? Oh well.

Meanwhile, Sonia walked through the woods as she mumbled:

"Sonic, for Aurora's sake, don't make me follow you up all this way..." She finally reached a plain and walked across until she saw a blue igre standing next to a cliff and ran to reach her brother. "Gosh Sonic," She panted. "You make following you so hard."

"I'm sorry." Sonic said in a rather monotonous tone. "This is a beautiful view, isn't it.

"Brother," She looked to the very bottom of the cliff and quickly turned her gaze to him, trying to push away the feelings of uneasyness as she stood to close to the edge. "We need to talk."

"What about?"

"Manic. He's... kind of... uncommunicative."

"It has been just a day since he's been here. If you're hoping for him to actually open himself to us as if nothing happened, then I'm so sorry to say that you're hoping for too much."

"So what? We're gonna remain as if nothing happened?"

"I never said that sis." Sonic stared at her with both his eyebrows raised.

"Then what did you exactly mean?"

"I'm just saying that what you're hoping for may not happen, at least, not for now." He sighed and sat on the ground, Sonia did so as well. "Do you remember how he used to be before?"

"What?"

"Well, as far as I remember, Manic never, and I say, never spoke about his past before the Underground. He would give some small details, but never a full story. Is the same here, he likes his privacy, and won't really want to put it on the table in fear of something bad happening to him."

"Oh come on!" Sonia said exhasperated. "What could possibly happen?"

"I don't know." Sonic finally said. Sonia sighed and curled herself up.

"I'm so sad." She spoke softly. "If I had handled the situation with mom better then nothing would have happened."

"Remember is my fault too, he was confused and afraid and I should have been more comprehensive."

"We all were confused and afraid. We were kids."

Sonic and Sonia then sat silently, trying to vanish the feeling of sorrow away.

"I love this place." Mina said spinning around with her arms spread. "I love it, I love it!"

Manic smiled. "Yeah, is pretty nice, not my kind of thing tho'."

"No? Then what is your kind of thing?"

"I dunno." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm more of a city guy."

"I thought Sonic been in Knothole pretty much his whole life."

"Err, no, not really. But still, Sonic, Sonia and I were not together our first years."

"What do you mean?"

"Is kinda hard to explain, but I think it was after Robotnik became dictator, the three of us were separated and didn't meet until we were sixteen. Farrel raised me on the streets of the city."

"Farrel...oh, the roboticized man at Eggman's base?"

"Yeah."

"Oh Manic... I'm so sorry, I- I was the reason for you to miss that you met with him, twice! I owe you so much..."

Manic snorted. "Is no big deal."

"No, I mean it." She took his hand and looked at him. "I really owe you one, I promise I'll give it back to you."

"Err, you don't really have to-"

"Is too late! I've made up my mind." She stared at him with a wide smile on her face and he huffed.

"Okay cool, if you insist."

"I knew you couldn't resist." She said thriumphantly. "Let's sit here for a while." She let herself rest her head o the grass so her gaze would be upon the blue sky. Manic sat next to her and said nothing for a moment as his gaze did not lock on the sky, but on Mina's frame. His eyes carefully scrutined her figure, and he noticed how thin she was, how small her waist seemed to him and her hips delicately drawn in a beautiful guitar-like shape. Her breasts weren't very big, but he didn't care, they were still so enchanting, and so were her legs, which were obviously tonified because of her linking to run just like his brother. He didn't take an order to look at every detail of her, he just did, as if it were some wild instinct that took over him, however he had to cut his instinct short, as his face stared on her and she gave him a rather sensual tone that told him that he had been busted doing something bad. "Looking for something?"

He quickly retired his gaze to the right, blushing heavily. Mina laughed and poked him playfully.

"Goddamn you Mina." He said grumpily as she kept laughing a little bit harder, he stratched the back of his ear in embarrassent, an obvious sign he always gave that he was horribly embarrassed. He looked at her again and saw her trying to repress the laughs and couldn't help but laugh too, Mina followed him shortly as she patted him on the back once.

"Is okay Manic!" She said playfully. "I know you haven't seen much girls in your life and stuff..."

He gave her a derisive snort. "Oh really? I've been with more chicks in a year than you have been with guys in your whole life."

"Yeah whatever." She said, her laugh vanishing suddenly. "Is kinda true though."

"Huh?"

"The only time I've been with a guy was with your brother(1)." She turned so her back would be facing Manic. "If you can call that 'being with someone', that is."

"Mina..." Manic tried to confort her, but she kept going.

"But you know what? Is alright, because it was my fault." She turned around again to face the clouds. "If I hadn't been so childish nothing would have happened. Sonic was with Sally! And I was so selfish to think that I could convince him out of it so I could get him to be with me."

"You weren't selfish, you were just confused. And if it helps, Sonic's like that with everybody, so is no big deal."

"Does that apply to you?"

"To me?" Manic asked.

"I mean... to this whole problem between you and Sonic." Manic looked away while Mina talked: "Sonia told me." He said nothing but grabbed both his legs and sunk his head in the gap between his arms and legs, Mina inmediately felt guilty. "Manic, I-"

"I'm fine, I'm fine..." He said waving his hand. "But... I don't know." He sighed. "The only thing I know is that Sonic made a mistake."

"What mistake?"

"He shouldn't have let something like you go away."

"Something?" Mina was puzzled. "I'm afraid that the words you're looking for are 'a girl like me'."

"No, not a girl." He smiled. "A woman."

Mina remained silent as she gazed into Manic's blue eyes and a smile carefuly crept in her face as well. An idea then came into her head: "You wanna see Angel Island from above?"

"What?"

"Come on, I'll show you how I fly." She said, pulling him up.

"But-"

"Come on!"

Somewhere else, Shadow was looking at the horizon from a distant tree, thinking of the recent events that had ocurred these past weeks. He knew something was comming, and it was his duty to remain alert at the same time he remained neutral and silent about all that would come. He started to feel rather bored though, sitting in a tree was atarting to become more of a habit than anything else.

"Oh Rouge." He thought. "If you could see this right now, you would probably be laughing at me." He reminded himself of a bat woman laughing at him and rubbed his head in embarrassment.

All of a sudden, a strange sound invaded the atmosphere, making Shadow's thoughts diverge from his head.

"What the hell?" He asked himself until he saw a plane flying around and his feelings rested. "Meh, is just Tails... is it me or he's flying more irregular than he usually does?"

"Mina!" Manic yelled panicked. "I don't feel good about this!"

"I understand you! Don't worry, you will get used to it!"

"Shouldn't you fly under Tails' supervision?"

"Oh come on Manic." She said mockingly. "Are you afraid?"

Manic said nothing and sunk on his seat, Mina laughed. "It will be alright Manic, trust me." She steered, perhaps too abruptly, making the hedgehog's heart skip a beat for a second. Mina fled around for a while and then pointed to the cockpit glass "Look!"

Manic looked through the glass and saw a view from Angel Island from above and was surprised to see how big it was in reality. There were several mountains and rivers, but one place called his attention, a gigantic crater filled with water. "What is that?"

"Hm? Oh. That's Mt. Fate.(2)" Mina answered. "Or was actually, now is nothing more than a big hole since Enerjak destroyed it."

Manic then spoke after a few moments of silence. "I wanna go down."

"What? But, we just started!"

"I need to go down now, Mina." He demanded, feeling somewhat sorry for being so harsh. Mina nodded and proceeded to turn back to the track and land the plane.

After that, Manic left for his room, making sure that nobody talked to him. What was he doing? He had no time to be playing stupid! Farrel was god-knows-where and he was feeling worse every day; but at the same time, he felt like he didn't want to go just yet. It would hurt his siblings so much if he left again and Mina...

Wait. Mina? Why was he thinking about her? Was he...? No. He knew he possibly couldn't fall in love with her. He just couldn't, because, what if something happened to him? She would be alone, again.

What is more, what would happen to everybody else if he died? Again, he thought about hurting his siblings. Sonia would obviously cry, Sonic...

"Sonic's like that with everybody, so is no big deal."

"Does that apply to you?"

"To me?" Manic asked.

"I mean... to this whole problem between you and Sonic."

"Yeah, I think it does Mina." He thought. Maybe Sonic just doesn't want to show his feelings, he maybe doesn't like looking back. Maybe that's why he didn't come with him to look for their mother.

"Pfft." Manic retored. "Is too late now, and I don't have time to figure that out, Farrel is in danger." He let himself fall on the bed. Tomorrow, he would leave to find Farrel.

1) In this universe of

prison, now is nothing more than a crater.

That was kinda sexy, huh? You know what would be sehier? Reviews, lots of them.

You know you wanna.