Sonia and Manic on a Tomb Raid… and Halo and I had so much fun plugging in some Sonic references. I guarantee you will either cringe or laugh at the insanity of the situation.

But first, reviews:

ultamiteCCC: Halo and I scream right along with you.

StarlightSparks: Actually, what happens is [SPOILER ALERT-CENSORED-SPOILER ALERT-CENSORED] And that's the whole plot right there. Thanks for asking! Thank you Halo… Um… before or after he sees them…? Well, that depends on your perspective. And yeah, there's a few different ways they can meet. I can probably guarantee that you won't figure it out.

sonicforlife: Reasons why you shouldn't burn our souls OR our computers:

1. The soul-burning ceremony is a very complicated and tedious process that requires a ridiculous amount of time, gasoline, formaldehyde, and gummi bears. Plus, the amount of demons that will later infest your home and work area become quite annoying after a while. I know this from experience.

2. If you burn our computers, you'll never know the ending.

3. Actually, it might be better to burn our computers. Those demons aren't leaving anytime soon.

4. If you ever find out where we live, I will personally congratulate you with a pat on the head and a cookie, you clever child, you.

5. If you want to destroy us for killing any characters, then you may want to get your matches ready. Just kidding!... Or are we? You're right, we are! Or are we? No we're not kidding. All main characters will have died at least once before the end of this story... Just kidding! OR ARE WE?

Autumn: We won't leave you hanging, promise.

MeowthKitty: I agree with you. That chapter was great, but… really shouldn't have enjoyed typing it as much as I did.

SonicBoomFan4000: *passes note to Sonic* Yeah, they almost die a lot…

Guest: That review made my day. Here's your update!

gabiola652: Hi! Um… Who? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL That is my new favorite random comment in a review! GOAL! Glad your wi-fi got worked out. Honestly, I sometimes want to kill the internet. Sonia and Manic have a strange relationship. Okay, the giant time gap. We did this for three reasons. 1. Manic and Sonia tracking their brother to a dead end and getting chased by crazy cops, robbers, gangsters, and all other occupations would get old quick. 2. Halo and I couldn't come up with enough Sonic chapters to shove in between all that without getting redundant. 3. Long stories are fun, but sometimes you just want to get them done and we needed this time gap so the story didn't feel super rushed from the really, really, really, annoyed authors. Aw… thanks! Hope you continued to enjoy. Here's the next one!

Sonia's POV:

"We should go."

Those were the first words out of Manic's mouth after we found the shrine.

My sudden desire to leave vanished from my mind. While I had originally been a little surprised at the sudden turn of events, I decided that nothing was too strange to investigate anymore, including this.

I rolled my eyes, "Manic, it's just a gem."

"I. Hate. Gems." he said bitterly, gritting his teeth.

"How can you hate a gem?" I spread out my senses, searching for any more deathtraps that might be hidden, but there were none to be found. What a relief.

Manic mumbled something under his breath that I couldn't quite catch, but I didn't push it. At this point, I suspected that just about everything he had a problem with had something to do with his time as a gangster. And I really didn't want another one of those horror stories.

I marched into the room and got a closer look at the gem. It looked similar to the Master Emerald, but smaller. And black, apparently. I had assumed that all emeralds would be green, but black works too.

The gem was beautiful, a work of art- its texture was both glossy and matte at the same time, which I didn't know was even possible. It was the darkest shade of black I had ever seen, so black it seemed to suck me in. It was… hypnotic. But while I felt entranced by its beauty, I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach; This wasn't natural. This wasn't right.

But I wanted it. More than I had ever wanted anything.

"I don't like this." Manic said quietly, his eyes skirting around nervously, as if we were about to get caught doing something wrong.

"You keep saying that."

"Look, I don't like the gem because it's… well, it's a gem. Don't like 'em. But…" He faltered, refusing to meet my eyes. "I'm getting some seriously bad vibes off this. We really shouldn't touch it."

"Well, duh." I reached into my backpack and pulled out some gloves, "Have you ever read a book on ancient relics? These objects can be pretty dangerous if not handled correctly."

"Woah, woah, woah!" Manic held up a time-out sign. "What the heck are you doing?"

"I believe the question is, what the heck are you doing?"

"That's what I just sa- Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no!" His face had completely drained of color.

I smiled. "That's right, Manic." I handed him the gloves. He jumped back as though they were poisonous.

"Are you insane? I ain't touching that thing, gloves or not!"

"Oh, come on!" I pleaded. "This could help us find Maurice!... somehow!" He raised an eyebrow."Okay, maybe not. But we had to have been drawn to it for a reason! And you've gotta admit, this is really, really cool!"

"Why do I have to do it?"

"Because someone has to focus on any incoming issues, which can require some crazy concentration."

Manic buried his face in his hands, shaking his head. "Sonia, Sonia, Sonia…" he groaned. "I believe you've gotten to know me enough by now that you know that when I- of all people, ever- become the voice of reason, we are in a very, very, very bad situation. I need you to recognize that." Manic sighed, trying to compose himself but not doing a very good job of it. "Think about it this way. I am your Jiminy Cricket. And what Jiminy is saying right now is that we need to get out of here. Please, please, please don't squash Jiminy."

"Quit being such a drama queen."

"Sonia, we just went spelunking through the fun house of death, and now you want me to swipe you a creepy black jewel-thingie that was probably crafted by the devil himself! I'd say this is an adequate amount of drama!"

This was getting frustrating. "Okay, y'know what?" I said, exasperated. "If you're too scared to do your favorite thing ever, then I'll just take it." I slipped on the gloves and turned back to the gem. Why did I want this stupid gem so much? I felt sicker and sicker the closer my hand reached towards it; I hated it. I hated this gem and everything about it. But in some twisted way, that only made me want it more.

Just as my fingers were about to brush over the emerald's surface, I felt Manic's hand grab my shoulder. I looked at him with a grim expression.

"You're not going to stop me, you know." I said firmly, tightening my hands into fists at my sides.

"Y-yeah… I can see that." he said uncertainly.

"Then why are you even trying to stop me?"

"Because…" he faltered, choking out the words. "I wanna do it."

"Why the change of heart?"

"You've never stolen a thing in your life. You don't know what you're doing- Or more importantly, how to get away with it. Gimme the gloves, and let's get this over with."

I smiled, happily peeling off the gloves and handing them to my very disgruntled brother. Shakily, he pulled them on, staring into the inky blackness of the gem with a mixture of fear and hatred. He walked closer and closer to the altar until he was almost touching it. He took a deep breath, unable to stabilize his breathing.

In the blink of an eye, he grasped the emerald with only the tips of his fingers and lifted it off its stone pedestal. He yelped as though it had hurt him, flinging it across the chamber. He fell to his knees, clutching his right hand and swearing loudly.

"What, what's wrong?" I asked, the bad feeling in my stomach replaced by a worse one.

"Holy, frikkin', sonuva- It burned me! That stupid hunk of rock burned me!" This was followed by a very long, very colorful string of curse words. It was both impressive and repulsive.

I scouted around for where the gem might have landed, finding it in a corner of the chamber. Careful not to let it touch me, I scooped it into my bag and slung it over my shoulder. Even through the material of the bag and my clothes, there was something radiating from the gem- but it didn't feel exactly like heat.

Eventually, Manic stopped swearing long enough to start acting like a normal person again, although he did still look like he was in a lot of pain. My insatiable need for that gem was gone now; I considered putting it back in its place, but I didn't want to be burned, and Manic had already been hurt enough. What's done is done.

"Come on, let's get out of here," I said to Manic, gesturing for us to leave.

"Uh… how?"

That was a good question. How were we going to get out? It would take hours to go back the way we came. There had to be another way out. I began to examine the runes a little more closely, brushing them slightly to clear the dust. The entire wall was covered in dust and more then have the writing was hidden. At one point, I blew into the cracks and began to cough like a maniac. Note to self: no blowing on dust.

After a few minutes, my hand brushed off something different then the rest of the wall. It felt cold and smooth. I rubbed a little harder and found it was a small piece of metal embedded into the wall about the size of my palm. But before I could get a closer look, a strange screeching sound erupted from out of nowhere, making me step back and cover my ears.

Manic looked a little disturbed, "Is that… music?"

I had heard a lot of different types of music in my life, and this… this was not what I'd call music. It certainly sounded like musical instruments carrying a melody, but the song itself was absolutely horrid- an offensively bad mixture of rap and something that was trying to to mimic and Egyptian sound. The voices were so screechy and high-pitched that I hesitated to even call it singing.

"UGH! MAKE IT STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT'S GOOD AND PURE, MAKE IT STOP!" shouted Manic, covering his ears in agony. The music only grew louder and more cringe-inducing, until finally, it reached its end.

Rolling my eyes, I started my translation of the runes. The words were rough and I couldn't make out several lines, but I got the main point. "Um… good news, bad news time. The good news is that I know another way out."

"I don't wanna hear the bad news."

"The bad news is that we have to listen to three songs."

Manic stared at me incredulously, "What? Why?"

"The hieroglyphics say that there's three magical sensors on each of the four walls. You touch them in the right order and- presto!- the exit opens up. But here's the catch: You have to listen to the music along with it, or it won't work. I think it's some kind of musical lock."

"I would rather die!"

"Manic!"

He pointed at the now glowing blue hunk of metal with the utmost disgust. "Why- why does this exist?"

"Maybe we can just plug our ears and pretend it isn't there?" I suggested weakly.

He buried his face in his hands. "Just please tell me we picked the right metal-thingie the first time?"

"Actually, I think it's some sort of medallion…" I said thoughtfully, examining the metal.

"I don't care! Did we pick the right one?"

"Yes."

"Good! Great! Fantastic! Which death song do we want now?"

"It should look like a drum set… the medallion, I mean."

Manic found it on the opposite wall and pressed it tentatively, bracing himself for impact. A loud drum solo followed by electric guitar followed, nearly blowing out my eardrums. And then the screeching started. Later in my life, I would thank Chaos that the songs were only about a minute long. The third song was neither rock or rap. It was something a little more similar to country.

"Of course they would save the worst for last…" muttered Manic. "Why country? Of all the many, many types of music in this world, why country?"

"I love country!" I protested.

"You would."

I tried to find something to enjoy about that song. I really did. But once again, the screeching ruined the experience. "Sweet Chaos, who sings these songs?"

"I don't know, and I don't care! Just make them shut up!" Manic hunkered down, trying to shield himself from the ear-shatteringly terrible song. I couldn't help but do the same.

When it finally finished, one of the walls opened up to reveal a staircase leading up to the top. I squinted as hard as I could and was able to make out a small dot of light at the top; how far down were we?

"Well, what are we waiting for?" demanded Manic, making a beeline for the stairs.

I rolled my eyes and ran after him, only to screech to a halt when I found more ruins on the walls. "Oooh!"

"Sis, look. I'm gonna try to put this nicely," he said slowly, rubbing his forehead. "If you're going to geek out about another chaos-cursed rune, I will lose my mind."

"But I can actually read most of these! And… I have no idea what to make of them."

"JUST LIKE EVERYTHING IN THIS CURSED CAVE. Let's go…"

"But-"

"Sonia, I'm really trying to be calm here, but I swear-"

"Manic!" I interrupted. "I promise to not take any pictures."

He scowled. "...Fine. But make it quick. I'd like to leave and never come back."

The translation was really strange… and appeared to rhyme. "Triplets born... the throne awaits... a seer warns of... a deadly... fate…" I looked around for a second, "I think the rest of this is on the walls going up the stairs."

I think Manic finally lost his patience because he grabbed my arm and began to drag me up the staircase, "Nope! I'll tell you their fate!"

"Manic, you can't even read the runes!"

"It's called imagination! You said they rhyme? I'll make 'em rhyme!" He hummed something to himself for a second that sounded like a tune.

"Give up your children, separate!" he belted out. I hadn't realized how bad of a singer he was. "Bide your time, um… lie in wait!"

"Manic, stop being-" I glanced at the runes and my jaw dropped.

"You're… right," I stuttered. "Completely right. How… how did you do that?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. What's the rest of it say?"

"Um… a bunch of repeating lines about some kind of underground. Maybe that's the chorus."

As we continued our climb up the stairs, Manic kept making up new lyrics that absolutely no sense, producing one of the worst ideas for a story that I have ever heard (he also came up with a really bad idea for a video game that involved the princess of Soleanna and some crazy flames with time confusion thrown into the mix. But it was so bad that I told him to just forget it ever happened). I couldn't read the hieroglyphics to see if Manic was getting it right because he never slowed down long enough for me to translate. The light at the top grew larger with every step, and it wasn't long before we had made it back to the surface. The musty smell of dust and cobwebs was replaced by the sharp scent of pine and oak.

Manic leaped out of the hole, spinning into a happy cartwheel.

"Free! Free at last!" he shouted gleefully. "I have never been so happy to see a tree!" He ran up and hugged the trunk of a maple, grinning. "Never again… never, ever again…"

I sighed. "Okay, fine. You were right. That was a bad idea. We were stupid for going through with it. Happy?"

"Uh, we?"

"Fine, I was stupid for making you go through with it," I admitted.

"That's better. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go put some ice on my hand, because it kind of feels like it's going to fall off or shatter or something. It hurts. Care to join me?" He smiled weakly.

I took this as a sign of forgiveness. We were pretty much silent as we walked back to the van, but that was fine with me. We survived that ordeal with limbs to spare, and at this point, that was good enough for me.

In my backpack, I could still feel the gem pulsing and throbbing; I didn't like it, and I sort of wanted to throw it away, but after all we went through to get it, there was no way I was losing it now.

XXX

When we got back to the van, both us were so exhausted, we both just flopped on our beds without a word. I hadn't realized just how tired our little adventure had made me. "Ugh… Alright, Manic. Let's never do that again."

"For once, I'm in total agreement with you." My brother rolled over onto his stomach, holding the pack of ice on his hand and wincing slightly.

"How's your hand?"

"It's fine now. I'm more worried about what we're going to do with that emerald."

I frowned and opened up my bag, looking inside at the gem, "What makes you say it's an emerald? I mean, emeralds are supposed to be green, right?"

Manic tensed up slightly. "Oh… um, well… you see… uh-"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Don't tell me." At this point, whenever Manic became hesitant in his words, I knew he was trying to come up with a lie. When we first began our trip, Manic could lie to me easily (although I often caught him in his little tall tales), but as time went on, I started to notice that it was harder for him to lie to me. That, or I just started to guess when he wasn't being straight with me. Either way, I'd rather him keep a secret then make one up.

Manic looked a little relieved at that comment, "So now what do we do? Are we selling that thing, or…?" He trailed off in thought. I had a suspicion that he was plotting how to get rid of the jewel and fast.

The gears in my head started to turn as I tried to figure out what to do with this thing. It obviously was dangerous. I mean, what kind of rock burns things it touches? But at the same time, it was rather fascinating and I wanted to learn more about it. Manic had called it an emerald… and now that I thought about it, it kind of did look like the Master Emerald. Just black, and smaller.

That was when I got my idea. And I already hated it. "I… I think we need to go talk to Knuckles."

Manic literally fell off his bunk and hit the ground with a thud. He stared up at me with a flabbergasted expression. "What? Have you lost it? Sis, he isn't gonna wanna see you! Not to put it bluntly or anything, but you kinda broke his heart into a million pieces and threw it in the garbage disposal. I've got the feeling he may never want to see you again. … Okay, that was a little too blunt."

I winced at the words and looked at the floor, knowing everything he said was true. "Knuckles knows a lot about magical gems. We can talk to him about it, okay? Or would you rather go see Uncle Chuck?"

Manic mumbled something vulgar and I smacked him on the back of the head.

"Ow! What'd I do?"

"He's still our uncle. Live with it."

He groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Fine. Let's go talk to your ex. But for the record: this is a bad idea."

Oh, don't I know it. I dropped the bag with the gem under the passenger seat and climbed into the driver's seat. I started the ignition and buckled in. "We should get there in about… two days? Maybe less."

"So, on our birthday?"

Mentally, I smacked myself. "Chaos, it's that in two days?"

Manic grinned. "Yep. Seventeen! Now we're old enough to not feel like complete kids, but still not old enough to be an adult!"

I rolled my eyes. "That's the highlight of being seventeen?"

"Well, we can also donate blood and be interviewed by the cops without an adult present."

"... How do you know that?"

"I get around," Manic plopped down next to me, grinning broadly.

I smiled at him before the date sunk in. That smile turned upside down. "Wait… two days before our birthday… June twenty-first." I paused, my hands beginning to shake. "Manic…. that's the anniversary of when… when..." I covered my mouth, feeling like I was going to throw up; I couldn't bring myself to say the last part out loud. But he knew what I meant. It was the anniversary of when we lost our parents and brother.

Manic looked down at his lap, "Yeah. I guess it is."

We sat in silence for a moment before I shook away the rolling emotions. You never knew what would happen once we got back to Station Square. Maybe we'd find Maurice as a sort of birthday gift- and that would be the best present ever, hands down.

SONIC UNDERGROUND REFERENCES! (and one Sonic '06 rip- find it!) Halo and I pretty much tore apart the entire show and made fun of it one chapter. Don't get us wrong, we like the show (most of the time) but… the songs… and Sonia's voice… NO. JUST NO.

In case you want to experience the cringe for yourself, the songs we referenced (in order of appearance) are as follows:

-"Mummy Wrap"

-"Mobius Stomp"

-"Never Easy"

-"Sonic Underground Theme"

WARNING: These songs will give you the unhealthy urge to rip off your ears and burn them. And if you watch the music videos along with the songs, well… you may question your desire to live. I know I did.

Little over dramatic, Halo, but I think most people will agree with you. Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed. Review please and we'll see you next time!

OR WILL WE?

HALO!