Okay, so less building relations! IN FACT, we skip quite a few things in the whole 'building relations' department with Sonia and Manic. Part of the reason is just because it literally would take forever to map out and no one wants to read (or type) that. Another reason is just… it takes a long time.

Reviews! (which Halo will be covering this time)

Afterburngaming: Aw, you're sweet~

AreAllTheNamesTaken: The plot will be kicking in VERY soon, like in only a couple of chapters. (SPOILER ALERT)

Shapeshifter 14: It'll happen… Eventually. (hehehe)

ultimateCCC: Yep, they're pretty close… relatively. (HAHAHA)

Autumn: Um… that was a Sonia chapter...

StarlightSparks: Aw, thanks!

Onward!

*Suggested Listening: "I Bet My Life" by Imagine Dragons*

NOTE: THIS TAKES PLACE 2 DAYS BEFORE THEIR BIRTHDAY (Which would make this be on June 21)

Manic's POV:

Six Months Later

"MANIC, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"GET IN LINE!"

Sonia's death threats really weren't helping me concentrate as I steered our hijacked motorcycle between alleyways and hairpin turns, all the while dodging bullets. You'd think that after six whole months of learning to get along, she'd stop shouting so much. Then again, Sonia tend to get pretty shouty in high-stress situations, and you don't get much more high-stress than being chased on a stolen motorcycle while a trained assassin who tends to hold a grudge is out for your blood.

"I'm gonna make you pay for everything you stole, Hedgehog!" screamed Nack as he picked up speed. We'd probably be dead by now if Sonia hadn't been using her intuition thing to navigate us out of harm's way.

I twisted the handlebars and made an illegal U-turn at a light, Sonia's grip around my waist growing steadily tighter as she shouted directions. I swerved left and right, dodging entire barrages of bullets. Maybe coming back to Westopolis was a bad idea.

The only reason I suggested we come back at all was because in one of our "sensing sessions", as I'd come to call them, we saw Maurice on a street that I recognized from when the Strikers were based in Westopolis. We had come back to my old base so I could call in some favors, only to run into several people who wanted me dead- specifically Nack the Weasel (or "Fang the Sniper", as he's usually called. Not a nice guy, to tell you the truth).

Sonia yelled at me to make a hairpin turn at the next left; I did as she instructed, narrowly evading a slug aimed for my head. I pressed my foot down on the gas and accelerated forward, rocketing straight for a ramp.

In the blink of an eye, we were airborne, seeming almost in slow motion. We landed on the roof of a two-story deli; With no more road, I let up on the gas and skidded to a halt. We disembarked the motorcycle and abandoned on top of the roof, the wheels practically smoking.

I leapt to a fire escape and began to climb, Sonia right behind me. We scaled about three and a half stories before reaching the top of the next building over, when we began to run. A few of the buildings had plywood boards or scrap wood on top to create a makeshift bridge, but for the most part, we were jumping between the spaces.

It was exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. Mostly, it brought me back to my gang days when running for my life was a once a week event. Nice to know that I hadn't lost my touch.

Soon, both of us were panting for breath and needed to take a break. We crouched down behind a fuse box on a random roof, staying as low as possible.

"What… the heck… did… you steal from him?" she gasped.

"Yeesh, what didn't I steal from him?"

"You're exaggerating."

"Look sis, the guy's a douchebag. He cheated me on a deal once, and in a fit of insanity, I stole all the furniture in his house, his bike, his hat supply, his girlfriend-"

"His girlfriend?"

"And his sister."

Sonia facepalmed and began mumbling something into her hands that I couldn't make out. I didn't really see the problem- sure, Nic dumped me a week later, but at least I made Nack mad that I was dating his twin. Needless to say, I kind of regret that now.

"You know what…" she groaned. "I'm not even surprised at this point. I honestly don't wanna know anything else about this situation. Let's just... stick with the notion that he doesn't like you and he wants you dead."

"That works."

I peeked up over the fuse box; the coast was clear. I motioned to for Sonia to follow me as I darted across to the next building over. We kept hopping rooftops until we had pretty much made it out of the ghetto and closer to uptown, where we had stashed the van for safekeeping. We both jumped into the front seat and revved up the engine, heading towards the freeway out of town. Once we were safely out of the city borders, I was finally able to stop holding my breath. My heart was going a million miles an hour.

I looked over at Sonia and saw that she was just as shaken as I was, if not more. Understandable. After all, it's not every day that you're forced to steal some random guy's bike in order to escape a man who's only goal at the moment is to pump you full of lead. I used to get stressed about that too, when this first started happening to me. Now? Pssh. Puh-leaze. It's all good.

Okay, so maybe I'm a little freaked out too.

Ever since we started helping each other survive last Christmas, I'll admit, I've come to appreciate Sonia's powers more. We've been in a lot of sticky situations since then, very few of which I probably would have survived if it hadn't been for her. And she'd probably be dead if it wasn't for me, to be honest.

The trail to finding Maurice has gone cold more than once since we started our search. The only reason we've even made it this far at all is because of our regular sensing sessions- when we mentally combine our powers to pinpoint a location of where Maurice might be. The problem is, we aren't always able to see the present. Sometimes, we'd see him at about age ten or eleven and fighting robots (I'm not questioning it), and more often than not, that same two-tailed fox kid would pop up. He and Maurice look like they're really close.

Every now and then, we'd get a definite clue of where Maurice might be, but half the time it turned out to be only a memory of his that we misread as being the present- such as today. We had both been so sure that he might've been in Westopolis, or even just passing through, but the most likely conclusion was that it was only a recent event. If he was there, we would've been able to sense him.

I looked over at Sonia and immediately felt the disappointment and confusion she was trying to hide. Once upon a time, I would've had to really concentrate to get any kind of reading on her (she's got some serious mental walls), but now… I could tell that she trusted me. Sonia's not the type to put her guard down for just anyone.

I remember that at the beginning of our search, I kinda-sorta-maybe-in-a-way hated her a little bit. She was pushy and bossy and way too condescending for my taste. I must have told her a million times how much of a jerk she was back then. Key words: "back then". Sonia's gotten a lot more relaxed ever since, thanks to yours truly. These days, she listens more and bosses less, and yeah, she'll still threaten to kill me when I'm being stupid, but she trusts me. And I trust her. After all, it's a little hard to go through all we have together without learning to trust your partner in crime.

"Hey Sonia," I said, trying to lift the mood. She looked up expectantly.

"What?"

"Remember that time we had to bust out of jail?"

Sonia froze and glared at me, gritting her teeth. "... Why in the world are you bringing that up now?"

I grinned. "Just pointing out that this wasn't the worst adventure we've ever had, was it?"

She looked like she was really trying hard to stay mad, but eventually she cracked a smile. "I guess not."

"That's the spirit. … Now please step on the gas, I want to get out of here as fast as possible."

We sped down the freeway at seventy miles per hour, and soon, Westopolis was only a few lights in the background. I could finally breathe easy.

XXX

Sonia's POV:

Manic and I have learned quite a bit over the past six months. Actually, we've learned a lot over the past six months. The top information is as follows:

One: Maurice has moved around A LOT. At one point, I thought I saw him in space. Manic and I both agreed that was highly impossible and dismissed that vision, but still. SPACE.

Two: Manic got in way more trouble than I've ever imagined, and after our first two or three life-endangering exploits, I decided to stop asking for the are just some things I'd rather not know about.

Three: Prison is some place I will never go again. End of story.

I'd been keeping up my new journaling hobby and wrote at least twice a week. It was actually rather fun and a little amusing to look at the trouble Manic and I got into. If we got rid of the run-ins with the law and the bullets whizzing past my head, I would have actually enjoyed most of our adventures.

My phone buzzed and I glanced down at the screen. Manic was getting lunch from a sub-sandwich shop and I was left to guard the van. My message screen flashed and I tried to ignore the name on the screen.

Knuckles hadn't texted me in over three months. It was actually rather surprising he did text me. After a few minutes my curiosity finally took over and I opened the message.

It didn't make any sense, just a bunch of letters and numbers. Knuckles must have dropped his phone or something…

Sadly, I deleted the message. The little hopeful part of me had really, really been wishing for another text from Knuckles. I don't blame him at all for stopping, though- I hadn't been able to bring myself to answer a single one.

I gulped down the lump in my throat and clicked off my phone. Manic glanced over at me, staring for a minute before a look of realization crossed his face.

"No way. He texted you?" he asked. I nodded. It was at times like these that I was really grateful for Manic's mind-reading thing; I didn't exactly feel like talking, but he understood anyway.

That's the thing about Manic- he is quite literally the most understanding person ever. I had never met another guy who was so in touch with emotions. It's nice, not having to talk, but having him get it anyway. Then again… it is really annoying when you realize the reason why is because he can read your mind. No private thoughts to myself anymore.

Come to think of it, that is probably why he hasn't tried to read my journal. He just cuts out the middleman and reads my mind. Great…

"Sorry, I can't help it!"

"I know you can't! But please try to!"

"I am trying! Not looking at you helps a little, but…" He shrugged casually, "Look, I've got no idea how to control my powers. You oughta know that by now."

Had to give Manic that point. I didn't know how to control my powers either. Dodge bullets? Easy. Control my visions? Not in a million years.

"Maybe we should take a class…"

I rolled my eyes, "Oh sure, Manic! Great idea! I'll sign us up for 'How to Control Your Freakish Powers 101' right away!"

"Geez, you've gotten sarcastic."

"And you've gotten weirder."

"I can live with that."

We both grinned at each other. It was strange; we hadn't stopped bickering, but we had stopped fighting. It's hard to explain- it was like our constant ribbing each other was how we communicated.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" he asked, twirling a drumstick between his fingers.

"Well, since Westopolis didn't work out the way you said it would, I thought we could…" I trailed off. No, that was stupid.

"What?"

"Well… I thought we could go back to our old house again." I said quietly.

"We already looked there, remember?" he said, puzzled. "Last Christmas? Our house was just a pile of moldy scrap wood."

"Yeah, I know…" I said. "It's just… I had a dream."

He perked up. "What? What'd you see?"

"It was pretty… blurry… but I'm pretty sure I saw the remains of our house, and… some sort of cave. I've got a feeling we need to go there."

He shrugged, smiling. "Hey, you're the fortune teller. Direct us to our destiny!"

I grinned and changed gears, steering towards the highway behind us. Having a brother was kind of nice.

XXX

It took a lot less time to drive to our home again. Part of the reason might have been that there was no more annoying snow. The other part may have been that I was allowing Manic to drive- as long as he wasn't doing anything too stupid.

When we did arrive, we avoided the lake (that was a mistake neither of us wanted to repeat), and headed straight for our home's remain.

It was a rather sorry and painful sight. The remains had long been overrun by plants and the wood was charred beyond being called "wood". Charcoal was a more accurate description. Manic and I exchanged looks before getting out of the van. We wandered over to the wreckage and just stared at it for several minutes, each in our own thoughts.

A silent tear managed to escape and I quickly wiped it away. Manic must have noticed or "sensed" it because he put his arm around me and gently squeezed it.

"I miss them too." he said, almost too quiet to hear.

That's all that was said, but I didn't care about anything else. All that mattered is that Manic was right next to me. I didn't know if I could have gotten this far without him.

"Manic… Do you-?"

He suddenly tensed up, "Did you hear that?"

I frowned and strained my ears. Wind rustling through the trees, light waves from the water from any wildlife swimming or drinking, and some song birds deep in the woods talking with one another. "No…"

"There." Manic whirled around and stared in the direction of the lake, leaving me utterly perplexed.

"Manic, what exactly are you hearing?"

He shrugged. "I can't really explain it. But it-" he cut himself off and glared in the direction. "Would you shut up?"

Great… my brother is hearing voices. "Manic, there is nothing- WOAH!"

Manic grabbed my arm and took off in a dead sprint around the lake. I would say that I sensed that he'd do that but… can't say that I did. That alone told me something was wrong. "Manic! Where are we going?"

"Wherever that sound is telling me to go!"

"Manic! Stop!" I yanked my arm away and stopped by the lakeside. The green hedgehog screeched to a halt and looked back at me a bit confused.

"We need to think this through." I rubbed my arm. Chaos, this boy had a tight grip.

Manic rolled his eyes, "Sonia, this thing isn't going to leave me alone until we investigate it."

"But what is it! Manic, it could be some crazy thing that want to kill us!"

I think Manic paused for a moment before snapping his head back around with a growl. "Sonia, I'm sorry. But something tells me we're supposed to find where it's coming from."

Ugh… I hate mystic abilities. With that fact now firmly planted in my mind I waved Manic to lead the way, "Okay… But can we please be careful?"

"Course! When am I not careful?... Don't answer that."

"That isn't reassuring."

Manic lead us all the way around the lake to the small waterfall that Uncle Chuck always warned us to stay away from when we were kids. Although, he never did give a reason why, come to think of it…

I was jolted out of my thoughts as Manic halted on the shore of the lake, near the cascading water. I looked around a little confused on why we stopped. "What?"

"It stopped."

"See? It was probably just your imagine-"

Okay… so here's where everything got really weird. You know that feeling you get when someone is watching you? Well take that emotion and add some sort of 'magnetic pull' towards the person. I looked around the area but no one was there.

"Uh… Sonia?" Manic waved his hand infront of my face, trying to get my attention. "You up there?"

"Shh!"

"Oh, now you're hearing it, aren't you?"

"Manic, what is that?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

I grabbed my head and tried to ignore the feelings. "Do you think it's Maurice?"

Manic hesitated before shaking his head, "It didn't feel like him… but it kind of did at the same time."

I gave him one of my "that-isn't-helpful" looks; he shrugged in return.

My mind was having difficulty focusing at this point. And… I can't really explain why. All of these emotions were a little hectic and very difficult to explain.

I felt a sort of vibration and, almost involuntarily, I felt an urge to move forward. It was too strong to resist. I walked with my arms outstretched, desperately searching for the source of the buzz. As I drew closer and closer to the falls, I could hear Manic behind me asking what the heck I was doing, but I couldn't answer. This was too important.

I walked until I felt that I should stop; in the blurred light reflecting from outside the wall of water, I could make out a stone pillar. I wanted to touch it. My arm seemed to have gained a mind of its own as it lifted itself to the pillar; Slowly, I pressed my palm against the smooth, moist rock, feeling the overwhelming tremors pulse through my body like an electric charge. I saw the stone glow a deep magenta, and my fingers buzzed with energy. Too much energy. I felt ready to pass out.

But as quickly as it came, the feeling passed. I stepped backward, feeling woozy. I glanced over to where the pillar had been; the front had dissolved into an opening. The cave from my dream.

The feeling was gone now, but I felt an insatiable curiosity overcame me; what was in there? There had to be a reason why I had dreamt about this cave… or what was inside it.

"Come on!" I called out to Manic, gesturing to follow me. He peeked in the cave and his eyes widened.

"Uh… no." he said bluntly.

"You were the one who led us to here!"

"No, you were. I just did the first half."

"Same difference. Let's go."

"No!"

"Why not?"

He facepalmed, groaning. "You've seen the Montana badger movies, right?... Why am I asking you this, of course you have. Anyways, does this not look like the opening to some ancient native death trap to you?"

"Not really, no." I took one step into the cave and immediately jumped back as a spear shot by my head. Thank goodness my instincts were working again.

"You were saying?" he said flatly, crossing his arms.

"Oh, come on! You love danger!"

"No, I really don't! Not loving danger is what keeps me alive, sis! I am not going in there!"

I sighed, pressing my thumb and forefinger against the bridge of my nose. "Look, Manic…" I started. "Think about it this way: You've dragged me to nearly every city in the nation so far to look for Maurice. Some of them were just us following leads, but some were because you thought you had a feeling. I have a feeling that we need to look in there. I don't know why, I just… do. Can you please trust me on this?"

He looked like he might want to run in the opposite direction, but he finally relented, "You go first. And warn me when there's a trap!"

I smiled and started in. "Well, duh. I'm not going to let you get skewered- duck- in the head."

Manic yelped and dropped down on his stomach as a spear shot over his head, piercing the wall opposite of him. "Okay! Question! Why didn't that activate for you?"

"Because I didn't step on the tile that activated it." Manic groaned and started to watch where I stepped after that.

To be completely honest, I was so excited. I'd always wanted to go on a dangerous archeological dig because, why not? Yeah, it's not quite the same as the movies, but the entire time I took pictures of the runes on the wall, determined to translate them. I rambled for about five minutes about how amazing this was, Manic giving his "Uh-huh's" and "Yeahs" half-heartedly.

But as we got deeper, I had to stop jabbering because most of my words became directions of warnings. "Duck, jump, left, right, stop, go," became my main vocabulary, with Manic cursing behind me as he complied.

Ancient traps can be really strange… Some are closer to vague superstitions, but others are more like "giant drop of doom into complete and utter death". I think I had to jump at least three times over some sort of hole, either into sharp spikes or just a bottomless pit. We had a few poisoned arrows that were avoided by sprinting and diving. And of course there was the fun boulder that almost crushed us. I think it was starting to get to Manic, though- I'd never seen him this on edge before.

We finally came to a halt outside a large stone slab, covered in hundreds of tiny runes. "Oh my gosh... This is so cool!"

"Ugh…" Manic pulled two arrows out from his backpack from a deathtrap about fifty feet back and grimaced, "I wouldn't call it 'cool', per say. Terrifying, yes. Potentially fatal, definitely. Cool? Uh-uh. Nope. Not a chance."

"Aw, where's your sense of adventure?" I pulled out my camera again and began to snap several photos of the door. "I've never seen these ruins before… They appear to be a mix of Guardian Runes and Ancient Mobian."

"Sonia, wake up and smell the poison! We've almost died like, twelve times so far! And you're fangirling over runes?"

I ignored him. We had been shot at by thugs, thrown in prison, and almost died from hypothermia. A few little arrows and spears was nothing compared to those "adventures".

After a few dozen snaps, I started to examine the carvings a little closer. "Do you think Uncle Chuck knew about this place?"

Manic shrugged and shuffled his feet slightly, "Why would he? He's an old, grouchy, Chaos-cursed-"

"Manic."

"What? You know exactly how I feel about him, sis."

"I was asking if you think he knew about this place. I mean, if I recall correctly, Uncle Chuck always talked about how our family have lived in this area for generations. Do you remember those long talks he'd give us?"

"Ugh…" Manic ran his fingers through his hair, "A little bit… this was before our parents died, right?"

I nodded slowly, smiling at the memory, "Uncle Chuck had whole books of family history that he'd flip through every Sunday with us, telling us stories about our ancestors and pointing out names and stuff."

"I wouldn't know. I always fell asleep during those things."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Of course you did… Well, anyway, it was really interesting."

"If you say so."

We continued on our trek, dodging poisoned spears and jumping over booby-trapped floor tiles. I noticed that, the farther we went, the scarcer each major trap got. Soon, both of us were able to relax some and my warnings were virtually nonexistent. Manic even stopped flinching at every sound. I'm not sure exactly how long we traveled through the ancient tunnels, but it seemed like hours. I was glad that Manic had brought supplies in his backpack; who knew how long it would take for us to get back?

Of course, every trail has its end. After a few more twists and turns, Manic and came face to face with… a wall. A huge stone wall.

"A dead end? Seriously?" said Manic. "Great. Just great. Told you this was a waste of time." He turned around in disgust, ready to leave. "Sonia? You coming?"

I was about to follow him, disappointed that our hours of cheating death had only led us to another impasse in our search. And I really thought this would've led to something…

Suddenly, an odd marking on the wall caught my eye. I examined it closer, recognizing as another rune. Other small notches in the wall, once analyzed a bit further, were also various ancient symbols. A bubble of excitement rose in my chest.

"Manic, wait!" I called. I heard him stop walking.

"What?" he replied.

"I think I've found something!" I brushed the dust away from the cuts in the rock to try and read them.

Manic sighed behind me before crouching next to me. "More runes. Whoopee"

I groaned. "Manic, please try and be a little more excited."

"It's a dead end. You're expecting me to be excited about staring at a wall." He turned to the wall, scooting up so close, his nose was almost touching it. "Oh, wow, Sonia, you were right. This is a lot of fun. Weee…"

I mentally sighed. Knuckles would have been much more excited about this. I mentally scolded myself for that thought, and turned my attention back to the wall. "It's covered in ancient writings left by a past civilization! It's like a treasure hunt!"

"Oh, give me a break!" Manic banged his head against the wall. I opened my mouth to make a comeback but was interrupted by the runes suddenly glowing green and pink. We both jumped back, and the wall seemed to just fall away.

When the dust cleared, Manic and I stared into a large room. The walls were covered in paintings and hieroglyphics that seemed to tell a story, but unfortunately I was unable to make any sense of them. The floor was simple stone and very plain. In the center of the room was a small stone altar. Resting on top, right in the center, was a black gem.

I had the sudden urge to run.

XXX

YAY, CLIFFHANGERS!

Don't you love Cliffhangers? Good news! Spring Break! More good news! Lots of typing has been done. Even more good news! Only one more month until AP Tests and then my homework load is pretty much lightened by half, so more time for typing! Last good news: y'all are amazing!

Review, please!