WE'RE BAAAAACKKKKK!

'Bout time.

AFTER AN ENTIRE SUMMER (okay, plus a month. Sorry 'bout that). Ugh! Do you know how hard it is to NOT type AN ENTIRE SUMMER.

SERIOUSLY, I ALMOST WENT INSANE. On the bright side, I got to step back and do other hobbies. Halloween Costume sewn and done! Yay!

And of course Halo is wonderful at character development and loves coming up with wonderful scenes-

-but when it comes to actually TYPING… Let's just say "Guess who types 95% of the story?" (minus Manic's chapters. That is ALL her.) Darn straight. So we literally had to type this entire chapter, AFTER school started. And that was a little difficult to finish because we only had… maybe a page? Hence the extra month (again, we're sorry about that. It is a very, very, very, long chapter.)

But we are back! Three Cheers! Celebrate with a bottle of Sparkling Water! Run out into the streets and yell, "ERA AND HALO ARE BACK!" over and over and over again until your throat is dry and scratchy. And the police come to talk to you about scaring the neighbors.

Okay, don't do that, but you get the picture. Review comments will be at the end because I am too excited to do all that at the moment.

I have been waiting all summer to say this…

ACTION!

Knuckles's POV:

As we ran further into the swarm of robots, I glanced behind me to watch Sofi and her brother pause for a minute, then run off behind a building and out of sight. I knew she was smart enough to listen to me and get the heck out of here before she got hurt. To Robotnik, she'd be just another civilian, a moving target for him to maim- No, shut up, don't think like that, focus.

I hated being the field leader. Strategy isn't exactly my thing. Usually, Sonic or Shadow take the lead, but with them missing, it was up to me for whatever reason. All I had to do was say the word and the rest of the team would follow me into the fray, no matter what we were up against.

Do I look like a hero to you? Sure, I've helped save the world a couple times, but do you really think I do it because I want to? Uh, heck no.

See, I happen to like my island. And literally every single time I let someone either on the island or off it, something bad happens. The Master Emerald is stolen, the Master Emerald is shattered, my father goes missing and never comes back. My ex-girlfriend passes out. I get duped over and over and over again into somehow losing the Master Emerald to Robotnik (in all honesty, though, that bit is mostly my fault). The only reason I even bother to help out Sonic and his team is because if I don't, I'll have a guilty conscience until I go fight off some robots or help save another city. If innocent people are dying because Team Sonic is understaffed, then I'll never have a good night's sleep again.

But there was no use overthinking it. Right now, it was time to smash some bots.

"Amy! Tails! Go for the left wave!" I shouted over the screams of panicked citizens and clanking of robots. "Try to make it to the ship and, um... take it out!" The two nodded and charged at the horde of robots, sending pieces of shrapnel flying in every direction.

"That leaves you and me, handsome," crooned Rouge, latching onto my arm and huddling up next to me. I did not need this right now. Scowling, I shook her off roughly.

"Not now, Rouge. Head over to the right and start on the aerial wave. I'll take care of the bots on the ground."

Rouge pouted and narrowed her eyes, but didn't object. Flapping her wings, she took off, glaring at me from above. Like I cared. She'd been nothing but trouble since that one time I panicked in front of Sofia and made up that stupid lie about her being my girlfriend. All I wanted to do was make Sofi a little jealous! And I don't think that even worked, judging from how keen she is for us to be "friends" (I hate that word).

But Rouge just will not leave me alone. Every opportunity she gets she tries to make out with me or get me alone or both. It was disgusting. And she doesn't stop! Ever!

I get it. It's pretty clear that she has a… what was it called… a crush for me? (Weird expression, but okay.) And it's totally ridiculous! You save her life one time and suddenly she won't leave you alone! (That is why she throws herself at me, right? I mean, what else is there besides that and getting closer to my emerald?)

I shook my head; I had to focus. Focus. No more wasting time thinking about things that didn't matter in the long run.

I curled my fists and began smashing through the horde of robots, dodging bits of debris along the way. Rouge was doing the same from the sky, taking out dozens of bots at a time and hardly breaking a sweat. She was annoying, but at least she knew how to do her job.

It was difficult to see how Tails and Amy were doing on their side of the battlefield, but knowing them, they had it covered. I was more worried that Tails would try to go after Robotnik himself; since Sonic disappeared, he's been a little… unstable. I wouldn't put much past him at this point.

Amy had been similar, but not quite as bad. I personally thought she was holding the worst of it back for Tails sake. And she had been especially jumpy since Sofi had shown up.

And Matt. Matt is there too. It isn't just Sofia.

Ugh! Focus!

"Hey, Red," Rouge fluttered down with a smirk, "Pretty clear in the air, thought you could use some help."

I gritted my teeth, but said nothing. I hate being in charge.

Sonia's POV:

Robots.

R, O, B, O, T, S.

Literally the worst thing ever known to man… according to me, at least.

But really, can you blame me? My parents were killed by them (as they were trying to kill me and my brothers), they were the cause of losing Maurice, my Uncle was obsessed with them because of his stupid junkyard, and now they were trying to kill me again.

I didn't know about Manic, but he seemed to have similar feelings about the situation, seeing as every time we heard anything that sounded even remotely mechanical he would yank me into an alleyway, telling me to hold my breath until the coast was clear.

People, both Mobians and Humans alike, were screaming and running for cover, whether it be inside a building or even just underneath a cardboard box. GUN trucks were pulling up every other minute with dozens of soldiers hopping out with guns and grenades, blasting away waves of robots. We avoided the scenes and stuck to the alleys. No offense to GUN, but I trusted Manic's street smarts and my instincts a smidge more than their, ah, "protection".

Then again, maybe we should have stuck around.

"Manic, this is the fifth dead end we've hit!" I hissed as we faced yet another brick wall. "Are you sure you know where we are?"

He rolled his eyes and pulled me in the opposite direction, "Sonia, trust me. I know this city like the back of my hand."

"You wear gloves."

"Shut up, you know what I mean," Manic rubbed his right hand, laughing a little nervously.

Great.

When Manic finally got his bearings, we headed towards what he claimed was downtown. "I know some old safe houses that the Strikers haven't used in years. We can hide out there till this all blows over."

I grimaced at the thought of Manic associating with his old gang, but desperate times called for desperate measures. We turned a corner and were waiting till the horde of robots thinned out a bit before we ran when I heard someone scream.

It wasn't a normal scream. It was high and shrill, almost like… a child's.

I didn't really think about it. It made sense that kids would be scared of a swarm of killer robots, screams were to be expected; in hindsight, I really shouldn't have spent too much time dwelling on it. But... maybe it was all the robots around bringing back old memories. Or maybe I just have a soft spot for little kids. But I couldn't seem to stop myself from turning around and following the sound of screams.

"What are you doing?" Manic demanded, grabbing at my wrist and trying to pull me back in the other direction. I shook him off and sprinted in the opposite direction. Manic was clearly not pleased as I ran away, shouting something about me having a death wish. I ignored him.

Another scream and I picked up the pace.

The scene I found was… unexpected. There is really no other way of describing it.

A small rabbit, who looked to be about 10 in a cute orange dress with a light blue tie, was holding the handlebars of a bike and whacking a robot senseless. The bot in question was covered in dents and looked too confused (can they be confused?) to respond to the tiny rabbit.

Meanwhile, a guy was sitting off to the side on the ground yelling something about her ruining his bike, as he waved a broken pedal in the air.

And the child was screaming… but it was not a cry for help. "YOU BIG, STUPID MEANIE! GIVE ME BACK CHEESE THIS INSTANT! IF YOU HURT HIM, I WILL DESTROY YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU LOVE, YOU-"

I will not repeat the threat, but it was terrifying enough to make me hesitate in stepping in. Manic, however, had just arrived and was staring with a mix of awe and interest. He began to clap quietly, and I had to stop myself from joining him.

I pulled out my gun, took aim, and fired a bullet straight through the robot's mainframe. It shorted out immediately and dropped to the ground, dead- or at least as dead as a robot could be. It wasn't moving, anyway.

Manic leaped ten feet in the air and practically screamed, "Geez, Sonia, warn me when you do that!"

The tiny rabbit threw the handlebars back at the guy, hitting him in the stomach and not caring at all. She ran over to the pile of metal rubble and began digging through it furiously; a small cry was coming from the lifeless hand and she pried it open, snatching a tiny blue blob of- wait, was that a Chao?

"Cheese! Are you alright?" cried the little rabbit frantically. "Cheese! Cheese!"

"Chao! Chao, chao, chao!"

The tiny girl smiled and hugged the Chao, apparently named Cheese, tightly. "It's alright. I have you, now. Did that big meanie hurt you? Are your wings okay? How many fingers am I holding up?" Cheese responded back to every question with short "chao's", eventually squirming out of his "momma's" grasp.

Manic scratched his head, slightly confused. "Do you understand a word that thing in her hand is saying?"

I shrugged, "No. But she obviously does."

After the rabbit checked her pet over, her attention turned towards me and Manic. In one of the sweetest and most polite voice she said, "Thank you for helping me get Cheese away from that mean robot." She gave a little curtsy and her Chao gave a bow. Manic raised an eyebrow and mumbled something about brainwashing children under his breath, but I ignored him.

I stepped forward and gave a small curtsy back, "My pleasure. I don't like robots much either."

"No one does," Manic rolled his eyes before joining me. "Where did you learn to beat up a giant metal bot with a bike handlebar?"

The rabbit gave a shy smile, "My friends have been training me to fight since big mean Robotnik tried to kidnap me."

All right, strange child rabbit who beat up robots and was kidnapped by evil men. I suppose it wasn't the strangest thing I had come across…

"I'm Sonia, this is my brother Manic. Do you need help getting to the safe zone?" I gave a small smile.

The small rabbit tilted her head at me ever so slightly, her eyes showing her hesitation.

Manic gave one of his grins, "Don't worry kid. We're in the same boat. Let's get out of this crazy place, alright?"

"I… I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." she said quietly.

"Well," I smiled, "We helped you get your pet. I think that makes us friends, right?"

The rabbit pursed her lips in thought before getting a large smile on her face, "Okay! I'm Cream and this is my Chao-friend, Cheese."

Before I could make a comment, my instincts tingled in warning. I grabbed Manic and shoved him towards Cream before diving forward. A large chunk of metal crashed where we had previously been standing.

Manic opened his mouth and growled, "Holy s-"

"Language!" I grabbed Cream's arm and we began to run through the allies, again.

Manic got up and ran after us, uttering substitutes each step of the way as I called out commands.

"Left!"

"FRIKKIN' ,THE FRACKIN' ,THE FRICK- CRUD MONKEYS!"

"Duck!"

"SNICKERDOODLE, DADGUMMED THE HE- MERLIN'S PANTS!"

"Run!"

"JIMINY CRICKETS- Sonia, I SWEAR TO CHAOS, I'm gonna kill you!" Manic sprinted as fast as he could as an especially large robot fell to the earth sparking and glitching right behind him.

Cream seemed rather calm about the whole situation, clutching Cheese tightly in her hands. At one point I grabbed her by the waist and flung her forward about three feet before back-flipping about five to avoid some random laser fire.. The rabbit gave out a squeak, but rolled into a somersault and came back into a full sprint, her Chao still safe in her arms.

Five minutes later, we finally reached the edge of the GUN barricade (or the edge of the war zone) without so much a scratch on any of us. Cream was panting slightly, but appeared fine. I shared a grin with her as Manic finally caught up, gasping for air.

"I… am out… out of practice… or... something…"

"Or you are just slow." I winked at him, a cheeky grin on my face. Manic stuck out his tongue at me, but didn't respond.

Cream laughed softly, her smile wide, "Miss Sonia, you are amazing! Could you teach me how to do that?"

"Sorry, Cream." I gently rubbed her head, "It doesn't work that way."

"Oh…" Cream frowned sadly, "Do you have superpowers like Mr. Shadow, too?"

My blood froze and I took a few steps back. "What do you mean?"

Manic actually choked on the name, "Sh-Shadow? You… know… Shadow? Like, 'Shadow the freakin' Hedgehog?'"

Cream smiled at the name, "Of course! He is my favorite babysitter!"

Manic's mouth dropped open and he physically fell on the ground because he was laughing so hard. I didn't see what was so funny, but was glad the subject had been changed. "Alright, Cream, where is-"

"Mother!" Suddenly, Cream gave another curtsy and Cheese, a bow. "Thank you for your help, Miss Sonia, Mister Manic." She turned around and sprinted into the crowd out of sight.

Manic recovered from his short bout of insanity and gave a salute. "See you around, kid."

I frowned and turned back to Manic, "Do you think we should take her home?"

"Nah," Manic gave a wave of his hand as if to say the situation was handled. "If she's babysat by Shadow then whoever looks at her the wrong way will die a painful death." He said it in such a matter-of-fact way I couldn't help but believe him.

My attention shifted from the rabbit and began to look around for a GUN agent. My priorities to ask about the Black Emerald were still high and if I wanted to see Knuckles after the battle then I would need to find him. And that required a little help from GUN.

I had just located a man who looked to be some high rank when Manic suddenly grabbed my arm and tried to yank me back.

Of course I sensed this before it happened so I just pulled back and looked back at him, a little annoyed, "What is wrong now…" My voice died in my throat.

Manic's eyes were wide and filled to the brim with fear. He yanked me back from the crowd and led me to a nearby park bench before pushing me down behind it. After he joined me on the ground, he stared at his hands.

They were shaking.

"Manic… what's wrong?"

"I… I'm not sure."

That made me frown, "Then why…?"

"I don't know. I just feel… like we're in danger."

My frown grew. "Manic, that's my thing. Not yours."

"I know, I know!" He rubbed his hands together, eyes darting back and forth. "But… it's not a situation. It's a person."

"... A person."

"Yes!"

"Manic, you're not making any sense."

Manic closed his eyes and tried to calm his breathing. "All I know is that something- someone- is nearby. And that someone is bad news. It's… it's hard to explain, but I feel like… like if we're found by them… we're not gonna like it."

My mind was whirling, trying to make sense of any of this. Nothing clicked. Manic was either getting overwhelmed by the number of cops and GUN agents running around, or his brain was stressed. I was about to tell him so when my instincts kicked into high gear.

So instead of a lecture slipping out, I cursed.

Manic stared at me, his fear momentarily fading into shock. "Did you just say...?"

I sprung to my feet and screamed as loud as I could, "EVERYONE, GET DOWN!"

Chaos must have been in a good mood that day, because any GUN agent in earshot repeated the order without question of who said it or why. Most civilians dropped to the ground with little hesitation and the wave seemed to spread. I didn't stay up to watch, however, instead ducking down under the bench and shoving Manic on his stomach face down.

Then the world exploded.

XXX

Manic's POV:

What did I do to deserve this?

Seriously. My day was actually going relatively okay before the robot attack, all things considered. It looked for a while that me and Sonia were actually getting somewhere with the Maurice manhunt- Sonia was right in the middle of manipulating emerald boy into spilling some really valuable information when frikkin' robots from the sky started knocking folks into next week. And that included me and Sonia.

But seriously, all sarcasm aside- who exactly is out to get me? If TV has told me anything, it's that having your city get invaded by hordes of metal terrorists is not your average weekday event. Just sayin'.

"Manic! Get up!" shouted Sonia, shaking me out of my stupor. I was lying face-down on the sidewalk, making no noise and pretending that I didn't exist. It was kinda nice.

"Go away, Sonia," I mumbled. "I welcome death with open arms."

Sonia cursed again and yanked me up, pushing me into a sprint. "We don't have time for this!"

For possibly the first time since the start of the invasion, I took a good look around me- not just for a path to safety, but at the people we'd have to go through to get there. There sure were a lot of them; urban crowds have never been the most courteous people, but when they were in this state of panic? Yeesh. Good luck.

I couldn't even tell what street we were on anymore; if the robots hadn't destroyed any of the city's defining features, the crowds had. I grimaced in frustration- just how were me and Sonia supposed to find the safe house now?

I hopped onto my Extreme Gear board and grabbed Sonia's hand, pulling her onto it with me as we took to the skies. What I realized too late was that whoever had sent these robots had built ones that could fly too. And shoot lasers.

This was just getting ridiculous.

"Sonia, you mind?" I asked, irritated. She nodded, pulling out her gun and opening fire on the bots closest to us, clearing enough of a path so that we could at least see where we were going… for about two minutes.

At this point, I was ninety-nine percent sure that these thing's inventor, besides being clearly insane, must also be some kind of super genius, because these killing machines have got to have some unusually advanced AI to be able to figure out that me and Sonia were a threat, and then gang up on us. We were only able to fight them off for about ten minutes before getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of them.

"Manic, bring us down!" shouted Sonia over the din. "This is getting out of control!"

"Really? I hadn't noticed!"

"We'll get more leverage if we blend in! Bring us down!"

I bashed in one last robot, then descended the board down in one fell swoop. Thankfully, the bots weren't able to follow us for long- kinda hard to focus on a target when it's just another body in the crowd.

We slipped through the screaming, panicked civilians and jumped over the ones that weren't moving anymore. I tried not to look at them for too long; just keep moving. It'll be easier to forget about it when this all blows over.

I ducked behind the remains of a fire escape and motioned for Sonia to do the same, neither of us even daring to breathe. We stood still for who knows how long, my chest beating so hard I thought I was gonna have a heart attack.

"O-okay…" I stuttered, trying to collect myself. Keep it together, man. You can handle this. Dying is not an option. "I'm still not sure how far the safe house is from here, but maybe if we break a window, we hide in someone's basement- Sonia, are you listening to me?"

Sonia was staring at an unusually large robot, wielding buzzsaws and ambling towards a corner. Her face was pale.

"What?" I asked. "Sonia, wassamatter?"

She didn't say a word, only pointing a shaking finger at who the robot was cornering; a young woman, clutching a baby and screaming for mercy. I couldn't make out what she was saying, but then again, I didn't really want to.

"Sonia, focus!" I shouted, shaking off my brief flash of guilt. "Look, it's not like I don't feel sorry for these people, I swear I do, but we can't help them right now!"

Her expression hardened, and immediately I knew what she was thinking of.

"Geez, sis, don't bring that up…" I groaned, burying my face in my hands.

"Manic, we couldn't do anything back then. Nobody could do anything back then," she said coldly, beginning to stand up and reload her handgun.

"Sonia, no. We've got to think about ourselves right now- Where are you going? Sis!" I grabbed at her arm, but missed as usual. Sonia ran a few feet ahead before ducking behind a park bench for cover. I gritted my teeth and followed after her.

"Sonia, just for once, listen to me! There's nothing we can do! We're just a bunch of seventeen-year-old idiots who are in serious danger, and-"

"Manic!" Sonia turned and glared at me, her eyes sharp and cold, "Think for just two seconds about what's going on. We ran all those years ago, and look what happened! We lost our home, our parents, our brother-"

"Maurice is still alive, remember?"

"But what if he wasn't?" she hissed. "We thought for years that he was dead in the ground." Sonia took my hand and smiled sadly, "Manic, I don't care what you think about that night, but there must be some memory, some person, something you wanted to save and couldn't." she said, her brow furrowing and her voice cracking slightly. "You were in a gang, for goodness sake! Didn't you know anyone that died? Didn't you feel sad, or… or guilty- did you even feel anything?"

I froze. Yeah, people died in the gang. I'd lost friends. That was part of the job, and I rolled with it. But in my mind, I saw a red Echidna protecting me and that stupid emerald. Locke had saved my life at the cost of his.

Maybe it was time for me to pay that forward.

Sonia must have seen something in my expression that set her off. She gave a small nod and crouched down again. "I'll draw their fire. You start to disable them."

"Okay, and just how do you expect me to do that?"

"How should I know? You're the mechanic here!"

"Oh. Right."

I bit my lip, trying to keep from panicking as I looked at the all the bots crowding us, ready to strike at any time. I felt the sudden urge to run and hide like I used to.

Sonia nodded again before springing out into the battlefield. She shot straight for the mother and baby, shooting Chain-Saw Maniac through its interface. Without a word, she helped the woman to her feet and pushed her towards the now forming line of GUN defense.

I turned my attention to the robots. This would be a bloodbath.

Our hero grabbed his board and shot off into the laserfire, a sly grin slowly spreading across his face. He flicked out his trusty switchblade and readied himself for the fight of his life, only one thought crossing his adrenaline-pumped brain:

"Let's dance."

Narrator's POV:

General Towers was cursing Robotnik to the worst afterlife possible when the two hedgehogs showed up. At first, all he saw was two grave-eager civilians putting themselves in the thick of the danger, albeit the young lady was an adequate shot.

The General's eyes widened as he watched the same exact girl dodge an entire wave of laser fire before leaping up on the arm of an especially large bot, somehow getting to the back and shooting a sweet spot that shut the robot down.

And then there was the dirty green kid. Towers watched in amazement as he leapt into the sky, riding an Extreme Gear board through a maze of fire and started popping open control panels with a knife and yanking out wires, zooming off as the lifeless machines clattered to the ground.

A thought entered his mind.

"Lieutenant Martin…" General Towers turned to the ginger-haired man who was ducking behind a shield, "I was not informed that Team Sonic took on some new recruits."

Martin tilted his head in confusion as he tried to recall any reports or updates that would have mentioned such a thing, but couldn't remember anything of the sort. "Neither was I, sir," he replied. "I don't think we received any paperwork on the matter."

Towers rolled his eyes; Team Sonic had never been the most diligent when it came to official protocol. But that wasn't important at the moment; He needed to focus on the disaster at hand, and the new recruits seemed to be handling their end of the situation well enough. It was obvious that they were new to the game- the green one had no form whatsoever, and the girl never really moved from her position unless she had to. But they definitely had potential, and at the moment, Towers would take what he could get.

He grabbed a radio, about to call the rest of the Mobian teams for back up and order an evacuation for the area when a particularly large SWATbot landed directly in front of him. General Towers grabbed his gun and began to fire it as Lieutenant Martin ordered all men to follow the General's lead.

Robotnik must have upgraded the armor's durability, because the bot didn't even seem fazed. Its arm panels opened up to allow twin guns to pop out, the bot taking aim. General Towers growled and grabbed Martin by the arm, shoving him behind a barricade as the bullets began to fly.

Martin glanced at Towers, cocking his gun, "What should we do, sir?"

"Help with the evacuation. We need to get all civilians out of here and to safety!"

"Yes, sir!" Martin pulled out his radio to relay the order as General Towers glanced around the corner at the still shooting SWATbot. Robots were mindless, but the man who drove them wasn't.

Towers almost wished Agent Shadow would suddenly appear out of thin air and tear the thing apart, but the General had not been in contact with him since Sonic vanished. He silently cursed both hedgehogs for running off before standing up and letting off a few shots. The robot, detecting an attack, turned towards him and lifted its blaster to fire.

Something grabbed him and practically threw him around the barrier and behind another one. Towers hit the ground, too confused to respond as the pink hedgehog glared at him, pulled out her gun and let out a single bullet. It struck the bot straight in the forehead, and another three bullets brought it down all the way.

The swatbot fizzed and sparked before dropping useless to the ground. Pink glared at the General and practically hissed, "Stay here! It's dangerous out here, can't you see that?"

Before he could respond, she sprinted back into the danger zone.

Towers desperately needed to talk to Sonic, or Knuckles or… or whoever was in charge right now- about informing him their recruits' actions. Just who did they think they were? Did they even know he was?

Towers pulled out his communicator, dialing Agent Rouge. With Agent Shadow gone and Sonic unavailable, it seemed logical that she'd be next in command. The sound of static faded away into unintelligible screams and crashes from the other end of the city.

"What's up, General? Something important, I hope?" There was a certain hardness in her voice- tempers were obviously running high at the moment.

"Give me a report on your situation, Agent." Towers ordered.

"Little busy here, can I get back to you lat-"

"Report!"

"Sheesh, touchy. Fine. Teams Dark (me) and Sonic are engaged in combat with Eggman's forces. They seem to be thinning out, though, so there's a plus."

The barest hint of a smile tugged at Towers' lips. A nearby explosion quickly wiped off any trace of it. "The minute your teams secure the area," he barked, "We need all hands on deck in the East Side's secondary business district, have I made myself clear?

"Sorry, 'teams'?"

"Yes! Team Dark and Team Sonic! You are the senior agent at the moment, are you not?"

"Uh… yeah, let's go with that. We'll be there in a jiff, General."

Rouge's end of the radio cut off, nothing but static filing the General's ears. He switched off his communicator and turned to Martin. "Lieutenant, get moving!"

"Yes sir!"

Towers made a comment to absolutely no one about the adequacy of his men. This was not a good day…

Sonia's POV:

I learned something that day. One: Bullets do not do a lot of damage on a metal robot. Two: They run out. Very fast. We still had a small army of robots when I ran out of bullets. So I found an abandoned assault rifle and used it until it ran out- then the process started all over again.

I never realized how many guns there were in the world. You had your basic handgun (which was my personal favorite), long guns, and machine guns. Then under all of those categories there are dozens of types and models such as, muskets, rifles, shotguns, pistol, revolver, etc.

That night, I fired for the first time a machine gun, shotgun, and sniping rifle. Let me just say, machine guns? Not as fun as they look in the movies.

Of course, Manic got ticked off every time I showed up with a new firearm, yelling something that I couldn't quite hear over the battlefield noises. I chose to ignore him and continued onward.

We had finished off most of the robots when this giant metal dog fell from the sky. It was probably about ten feet long and ten feet high, with glowing red eyes. And Manic didn't seem to like it one bit, based off the especially colorful swear words he was stringing together when he pulled up next to me. "What the kriff are we supposed to do with that?"

I hopped up on the board and grabbed his shoulders, "Get me on top, I'll see if I can find a weak point."

"And what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know! Distract it! Annoy it! Do whatever it takes!"

A wide grin spread slowly over Manic's face, and a shiver ran down my spine.

"I take that back," I said quickly. "Do whatever it takes, within reason."

"You ruin everything."

"We'll discuss this later! Now hurry up and destroy it!"

"Okay, geez, keep your shirt on."

As soon as Manic flew us up above the bot, I leapt off the board, landing on both feet and ignoring the stinging pain in my ankles. I had to hold on for dear life as the robot dog attempted to blast Manic out of the sky with flamethrowers; We were moving around so much that I started to think the stars were spinning.

Shaking that thought out of my head, I managed to get to the main control panel and shot through the screws (well I didn't exactly have a wrench or pry-bar…) and threw it off to the side. Inside was five wires: blue, white, black, red, and another black. Manic was the mechanic, true, but I didn't need mechanical skills to see how to shut this bad boy down. Spider-man had his "spidey-sense", I had my "instincts". Blue was the winner and a few tugs snapped it right out. The robot blinked and I heard a very loud, very annoying siren start to blare.

Okay… so maybe I shouldn't have pulled the self-destruct button. But it was either that or the electrical system and if I pulled that out then I probably would have died from the voltage.

I hurried down the back of the now "panicking" doggy, running, rolling and flipping when necessary. When I got to the tail I jumped up as high as I could and found myself landing on Manic's board perfectly. He grinned, "Thank you for flying Maniac Airlines, we hope you enjoy the ride! Would you like a complimentary bag of peanuts?"

I blinked a few times before shaking my head, "I think I'm good."

Manic went to say something, but was interrupted by the giant explosion and shockwave that knocked us to the ground.

My ears were ringing and the dust made it difficult to see and breath, but I could have sworn I heard someone yelling my name. And by my name I mean "Sofi!"

Someone grabbed me by the shoulders and started shaking me. I groaned and moaned something about my head hurting and the shaking got worse.

"HOLY CHAOS! AMY, GET OVER HERE, SHE NEEDS A MEDIC!"

My eyes finally came open and I stared at a very, very concerned Knuckles. Over to my right, Manic was laying on the ground, hands under his head and staring at the sky mumbling under his breath, "No really, I'm fine too. Your concern is really touching."

Rouge stood off on the side glaring, "Oh, man up you big baby."

Manic stared in shock. "You spoke to me!"

"Yeah…" she turned her attention away to Knuckles, "Sweetie pie!" I winced slightly.

"Are you alright? Did that mean robot hurt you?" she crooned, latching onto Knuckle's arm and shooting a look of contempt my way

Knuckles gave her a death glare and turned attention to me, "How many fingers am I holding up?" He held up his hand and I frowned.

"Knuckles… your gloves don't have fingers."

"Oh…" he looked at the mit and frowned, "Right. ...How many gloves am I holding up?"

"One, and really, I'm fine. Please let me go." I pushed him away, even though I was kinda liking the attention. "Matt, are you okay?"

Manic rolled his eyes and got to his feet, "Oh, I'm fine. Dancing on rainbows! Sunshine and lollipops, etcetera! I am one with the unicorns and now reign as their King!"

I rolled my eyes, "Matt, cut the sarcasm for two seconds."

"My head hurts. Really bad."

"Great, so you'll live," I turned my attention to the smoking pile of rubble we just demolished. "Giant robot dog… not so much."

The small yellow fox from before raised a timid hand, "Yeah, while we're on that subject… I knew it! You work for GUN! Are you undercover?"

Manic and I exchanged a look. "No," I said

"Yes!" Manic grinned. I shook my head. Why me?

The fox tilted his head, "Which is it?"

"We are not agents." I rolled my eyes. "My brother just wishes he was." So he could work with a certain someone, no doubt.

Knuckles frowned, "Then how in Chaos did you do," he pointed at the still smoking pile of metal, "that?"

"Uh…" I gave a sheepish smile. "Well, um, you see… the thing is-"

Suddenly, a giant robot mech dropped from the sky.

A really high shriek of, "Oh, come on!" was heard from a very annoyed Manic and I had to agree with him. I was about to pull out my gun when the top popped open and revealed an overweight man with a red mustache laughing like a maniac.

In front of me, Knuckles, Rouge, and the other two (I felt kinda bad for not knowing or caring what their names were) tensed and dropped into fighting positions.

The robot man finished laughing and began to speak, "Ah, Team Sonic. Or should I call you Team minus Sonic? I see you have yet again held off my-"

"OH-KAY! THAT'S IT! I'M DONE! MOVE, KID!" Manic stomped forward, picked up the fox and moved him to the side, a furious expression on his face; I had never seen him that angry before. He hopped on his board and flew up to the madman, getting right up in his face. He jabbed his finger at the stranger and began to rant. "Alright, fat man, I've got a bone to pick with you!"

The man looked very confused. "I'm sorry, wha-?"

"Uh-uh-uh, I'm talking!" he interrupted, his eyes wild. "Are you the douchebag psychopath who built these rust buckets?"

"As a matter of fact, I am-"

"All I needed to know," Manic hissed through his teeth. "Y'know something, chubs? I had very low expectations for today. All that was on my to-do list was to find my stupid brother and maybe eat a corndog. And y'know why I didn't get to do that today?" He went on without even waiting for the man to open his mouth to answer.

"Because SOMEONE decided to leave his toys lying around the city!"

Knuckles's jaw dropped; looking around at the others, I could see that he wasn't alone: The yellow fox's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and Rouge had to cover her mouth to muffle her growing amusement. Clearly, Knuckles's team and the strange man Manic was yelling at knew each other. It was weird seeing my usually easygoing, if overly excitable brother chew out at a perfect stranger, who looked just as confused as the rest of us.

"... And another thing!" Manic continued, his face bright pink and his knuckles clenched. "What's up with the whole ridiculously huge robot dog thing? Are you really such a massive nerd that you actually took time out of your day to build that? Just so that you could make these idiots tear it apart?" He pointed down at the team, who looked rather put off by that last remark. "But no! You failed! They didn't destroy it! I did! Me and my sister! And we had no idea what we were doing! If you're gonna waste your life building dumb-looking dog bots, at least do us the courtesy of building them right! Maybe then you could patent them and y'know, not have to attack cities to get a paycheck! Or is this just a hobby?"

I facepalmed. It was better just to let him get it out of his system now to keep him from doing anything really stupid later. Then again he might be doing something stupid right now, based on everyone else's expressions.

"But that's beside the point!" Manic shouted. "I've done a lot of weird stuff in my life, but fighting off an army of evil scrap metal takes the cake. You are one seriously messed up dude, and you are going to pay for putting me through the ringer like this! You're HISTOR-eeeee…" Manic's voice trailed off; he stared at the man as if seeing him for the first time, the color steadily draining from his face.

"Or…" he started, slowly backing away. "You would be, if I didn't take all that back! Now, um, if you'll excuse me, I… uh… have to go get that corn dog I was talking about! Yeah! Um… see ya!" he zoomed down to me and grabbed my arm.

"Sonia, we have to get out of here right now." he hissed through gritted teeth. Droplets of sweat were forming on his forehead; he had gone totally pale.

"Um…" I looked back at the man who still had a very puzzled expression on his face, "Manic, what are you doing? You literally just exploded at some random guy, and now you want to run away?"

"That's what we're good at!" Manic got really close to my face and lowered his voice. "Look, do you remember the night our parents died?"

My blood froze, "Manic, we are not bringing-"

"What kind of robots attacked us? What did they look like?"

"Manic, now is not the time to-"

"Bees. Sonia, they looked like bees."

"What in the world does that have to do with-"

Manic probably would have continued along but the stranger suddenly spoke a single word. You wouldn't think it would freeze me in place.

"Julian…"

My eyes flew up to the man, wide and suddenly terrified. Manic whirled around, instinctively putting a protective arm out in front of me even though he was shaking so hard I thought he was gonna fall over.

The man tilted his head and frowned slightly, "You are Julian's children… but I thought…" He shook his head, as if trying to clear his thoughts.

My mind suddenly clicked the gears together. This guy was… Holy Chaos.

Note to Self: Stop attracting attention. It can result in you meeting people who are hazardous to your health.

I grabbed Manic's arm and squeezed it tightly to get his attention. He must have noticed the fear in my eyes or was just reading my emotions, because his face paled even more.

"I killed you…" the murderer seemed puzzled by the fact, frowning and tapping his chin thoughtfully. "I killed you," he pointed at Manic, "And you," pointing at me. "Along with your uncle, your father, your mother… and your brother." The last one seemed like an afterthought, more than a statement.

Manic glared fiercely back at him, although his hands were still trembling. "We know he's alive, thank you very much, mister 'I kill innocent people just for kicks and giggles'."

He chuckled maliciously at this. "Oh, my, my, my, my, my… You mobians never do know when to quit. Where are my manners?" The stranger nodded his head curtly, "I'm Doctor Robotnik, future ruler of this world. And you-" his eyes flashed with anger, "have no place in it."

I felt something in me snap; Manic grabbed my arm just in time to prevent me from ending that sick monster. "Sonia, don't even think about it!" he said, digging his heels in but still being dragged forward

"Get your hands off of me, Manic! Don't you dare try to keep me from-"

"Sonia, stop!" he shouted, struggling to hold me back. I kicked him in the shin, but he still held on.

"Let-!"

"No!"

"Me-!"

"SIS!"

"GO!"

"Sonia! SNAP OUT OF IT!" Manic whirled me around and slapped me across the face. The impact startled me; slowly, I brought a hand up to where Manic had struck my cheek. It stung, but at least the pain had replaced the burning rage. He looked me right in the eye. "You are not giving him an excuse to do you in, too," he said quietly. I felt a pang of guilt in the pit of my stomach, and gave a little nod.

"I- I'm sorry, it's just-"

"I know."

Robotnik, the little murderer, seemed amused by the interaction, chuckling softly.

Of course, the fox had to snap the three of us back to the situation. "Wait, you know each other?"

Robotnik let out a cruel, mirthless laugh. "Oh, yes. Although not long. The first and last time I saw them, they were locking themselves in a cabin… right before I burned it down."

I growled and tried to escape Manic's grasp again, but his grip was too tight. "You killed our parents!" I screamed, angry tears streaming down my cheeks.

He shrugged, "Not my fault your father played the hero one too many times and tried to stop me from taking control of a village or two. After he was gone, it became so much easier to clear out your kind and build my factories. It became tiresome… so my sights looked north, to the real challenge." He scowled, "Of course, you all showed up to slow me down…" Robotnik turned his gaze back to me and Manic. "Are you going to play hero too? Or should I dispose of you, like your parents? I haven't burned anyone alive in years…"

I felt Manic's grip on me release, and watched Knuckles try to hold him back as Manic starting screaming the worst swears I had ever heard from him before. Team Sonic didn't seem to notice this, or even care; they were still too disgusted and shocked by Robotnik's confession of exactly how our parents died.

Knuckles motioned for me to take hold onto my brother before ordering an attack on Robotnik. The fox pulled out a screwdriver and- wait, was he flying?

The team rushed the mech suit and began doing as much damage as possible, Robotnik happily returning the favor. Even with the entire team fighting as hard as they could, he could easily keep up, his robot's attacks beating them off to a standstill. Clearly, Robotnik spent a little more time on this one when he built it.

I couldn't take my mind off of it; That was the same guy who murdered our parents. The guy who's been literally haunting my nightmares for the past eleven years. A small part of me wanted to run away, to get out of here before he could hurt me or Manic ever again. A bigger part wanted to destroy him so that he could never hurt anyone ever again.

I had an idea.

"Manic," I said.

"What?"

"I'm going to throw you."

"... What?"

"Just trust me, okay?"

Manic stared at me for a few long moments, and I felt the familiar yet still uncomfortable sensation of my mind being invaded. His eyes widened.

"And just what makes you think that I'm even capable of doing that?" he asked skeptically.

"Just believe in yourself or something. You can do it."

"You don't sound convinced."

I didn't answer, but simply picked up and Manic and held him over my head, trying to aim while ignoring his protests. The robot ambled into my line of sight; its back was turned towards me. Perfect.

I hurled Manic into the air, sending him flying headfirst onto the bot's shoulders. Thankfully, he didn't fall off, but even from twenty feet away I could tell he was scared out of his wits.

Praying that he could get his act together, I pulled out my handgun and took careful aim at the surrounding bee-robots. I. Hate. These. Stupid. Bugs.

I didn't have to wait too long for Manic to do his thing, because he suddenly showed up and grabbed me from behind, pushing me to the ground.

For the second time today, an explosion rocked the ground beneath my feet and my ears rang for several minutes. When the dust cleared the robot, along with all of it's little friends, was just a heap of flaming metal. Robotnik was gone without a trace and I felt my blood boil at that thought, but quickly pushed it aside.

Team Sonic pulled themselves out of the rubble before slowly approaching Manic and me. I gave a sheepish smile, "Uh… sorry?"

Knuckles pinched his nose. "I think we need to talk." He paused and squinted his eyes at Manic, who began to back away.

"First question: is that my board?"

XXX

Tails' workshop was quite comfy, albeit covered in spare parts and tools. The fox was running around trying to tidy up a little more, mumbling apologies under his breath. He claimed, however, the shop was neater than the house. I was a little afraid of what his house might look like.

Manic was playing with a few pieces of wire, trying to make a helicopter or something. Knuckles and Rouge were having a hushed argument in the corner leaving me with Amy Rose, the pink hedgehog.

"So…" Amy rubbed the back of her neck, "How did you break up with Knuckles?"

Wow. Just… wow. Let's start on this subject, shall we? I glared at her with slightly narrowed eyes, "I don't see how that is any of your business."

"Well, he is my friend…" said Amy, casually twirling her hair, "And I saw him after the break-up and he looked awful. He cried. Knuckles doesn't cry, like, ever. He just punches stuff."

I rubbed my forehead; I did not need this today. "Look, I didn't want to break up, okay?"

"Well, then why did you?"

First impression of Amy Rose- very intrusive.

Thank Chaos Knuckles finally finished with Rouge (who did not look happy at all, by the way) and made his way back over. He crossed his arms and stared at me. "Alright, I'm only gonna say this once: Talk."

"Um…" I stuttered, looking anywhere but at him. "About what?"

"Let's start with how you two are somehow capable of fighting off huge killer robots?

I ran through my options. Option one: Lie. Lie through your teeth, fake a smile, and lie like there was no tomorrow. Option two: Make excuses and try and get out of this situation without exposing ourselves as utter freaks, but manipulate Knuckles to tell me what I want to know. In other words, partially lie. Option three: tell the truth and possibly be arrested and/ or sent to the looney bin.

Call it a hunch, but I think I've been spending too much time with Manic if two out of three options involved lying. And so far, lying had made this situation so much worse than it should have been. Time to spill.

"Okay…" I started slowly. "It's probably better that we start at the beginning… first of all, my name isn't Sofia." Manic stared at me like I was crazy, but I kept going. "It's Sonia. Sonia Aleena Hedgehog."

Knuckles didn't move an inch.

"That," I pointed at my brother, "is Manic Charles Hedgehog," Manic winced at the name. "When we were six years old, Robotnik attacked our home, killing our parents and separating us from our brother, who we thought was dead until about a year ago when Tikal told me otherwise." Knuckles raised an eyebrow.

I smoothed down my skirt nervously, "Manic and I have been traveling in and out of the country the entire time trying to find our brother."

"Have you?" he asked skeptically.

"Um… no. There's been a lot of… let's say, complications. We've done a lot of weird and crazy and illegal stuff, and, uh... we actually ended up in prison once. We almost died trying to escape, actually, so yeah… that happened."

This time, it was Rouge's turn to raise an eyebrow.

Now came the really weird part, "And, um… How do I even put this?… I'm a psychic."

Across the room, Tails rolled his eyes. "Nice try. There's no such thing."

"Well, okay, I'm not an actual psychic but…" I trailed off slightly. Chaos, this was getting awkward. "I have these… powers that let me see glimpses of the past, present, or future. Sometimes all at once. And I have this weird… thing when I know what's gonna happen right before it does, which is why I can dodge bullets and lasers and stuff like that. And I can move a little faster than most people, and I think I have bursts of super-strength but I haven't really tested that much."

Knuckles didn't appear to believe me. He raised an eyebrow and glared, "Sofi- Sonia, if that is your real name- do you seriously expect me to believe that?"

I shrugged, "Well… yes."

He shook his head, turning away in disgust. "And what can you do?" Knuckles glared at Manic, "Breathe underwater? Read minds?"

Manic gave a nervous laugh. "Um… yeah, actually."

Another eyeroll from Tails, "Oh, pu-leez-"

"Okay! That's it!" Manic dropped his wire and got this annoyed look on his face. "What is wrong with you people? You've got a teammate who pulls a hammer out of thin air, a ten-year-old who flies, and a hedgehog who can teleport and create magic spears of death! You people have literally seen aliens falling from the sky, and you can't believe that we have superpowers?"

" 'Superpowers' is stretching a little far..." I said tentatively, but Manic wasn't having any of it. He ignored my comment and continued his rant.

"No. Nuh uh. These are superpowers, sis. They're not 'talents'. They're not freaky sideshow attractions. They are superpowers, dang it! Accept it already!"

Tails tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Chaotic abilities are just an ancient science, which is what our friends have. Aliens… well, the jury is still out on them. I have a genetic mutation that allows me to fly- and I'm twelve, thank you. So unless you have some serious evidence-"

Manic whirled around, pointing an accusing finger at the fox. I could already tell this was going to get very messy and braced for the train wreck of disbelief. "You want evidence, kid? I'll give you evidence!" His gaze narrowed and his expression softened slightly, "You… you've got some serious daddy issues. Family issues, really. I mean... wow. Get a councillor. No one should see their sister kill herself. And no, no matter how much you try to convince yourself, you're definitely not over what your dad did to you."

Tails' mouth dropped open and he stared wide-eyed in shock.

Manic whirled around and pointed at Amy, "You!" Amy stiffened slightly, looking apprehensive.

"You're not insane," Manic said simply, crossing his arms. "I know that. Don't panic." He rubbed his wrist for no apparent reason, and Amy's eyes widened, her arms snapping in position behind her back. "You have a… mentor, let's call her. She's cool. Pretty old. But what's weird is that you always seem to hear her voice, in your head."

Amy turned a shade paler, backing up a few steps. "I don't know what you're talking about!" she squeaked, clearly knowing exactly what he was talking about.

Manic turned towards Rouge; she smirked, as if daring him to come up with any dirt on her. He took a deep breath, "Look, I'm gonna be honest here, you've got some serious mental shields. I've tried reading you, but you're like, really good at keeping secrets. All I got is something about a grandmother and the circus. Don't know what that's supposed to mean, but whatever, not really my business anyway."

He finally turned to Knuckles, seemingly on a roll. "And you-!"

Knuckles glared, as if challenging the hedgehog to try. Manic opened his mouth, then immediately closed it, his face turning slightly pale. He was silent for a moment before shoving his hands in his pockets, looking away. "Locke wanted to come home. Don't blame him for disappearing. It... it wasn't his fault."

Knuckles didn't move, but his eyes grew slightly wider, filled with shock and confusion. Manic put up his hand, refusing to look him in the eye. "We'll talk about it later."

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, exasperated. "Anyone else want a demonstration? I could have Manic throw a knife at me, I can dodge it-"

Immediately, Knuckles waved the suggestion aside. "I think we've seen enough. You're telling the truth… for once."

Ouch. But… he had a point. I buried my face in my hands, embarrassed. "I am so sorry… I just wanted to find my brothers. I didn't mean to…it was just that… I… I'm sorry. I should have just told you the truth."

Knuckles didn't answer, but his expression softened just a little. Manic sat down next to me and squeezed my shoulder reassuringly; for just a moment, I smiled.

"Heh," he laughed, that familiar nervous grin I knew too well appearing on his face. "Don't give her too much grief, Knuxsy- she had one heckuva time trying to track me down. And finding Maurice hasn't been any easier-"

A large metallic noise clashed into my ears. Everyone turned around to Tails, who was standing, facing away from us. On the ground was an open toolbox, its contents spilled and scattered across the floor. His hands were trembling and he slowly turned around, his eyes wide and filled with an emotion that I couldn't quite read.

Tails looked at Manic, then me, then back at Manic. In a whisper so soft that I had to strain to hear it, he spoke. "What… what did you say?"

Manic looked confused. "Um… Sonia had a heckuva time trying to find me?"

"No… after that…" Something felt wrong. Really wrong.

"Uh…" I frowned and tried to recall Manic's words, "It hasn't been any easier with Maurice?"

Tails stared at me, swallowing hard, "Who… who's Maurice?"

It was Manic's turn to look confused, "Um, our brother. Who else would it be?"

Tails didn't answer, but his hands couldn't stop shaking.

CUT!

Yeah, we're mean but the chapter is LITERALLY 24 PAGES LONG SO YEAH.

Comments on reviews (since July 20th… oh boy. Buckling up for the ride of my life...):

StarlightSparks: Thanks for your patience and support. I really hope the update was worth the wait. Nope. No loop-hole. Just waiting.

Caisha12: Long reviews are fun. Manic is one of my favorites to read, too. Halo does a great job at writing him. Dern strait. Sonia's darkside is like mine: terrifying, but short lived. Headcannons can be the most random things that pop in my head and yet people love them…. I don't understand it, but whatever floats your boat! Everyone died when Manic was out of sort. It was hilarious. Fan art: I enjoy some of it. Others...not so much. Halo enjoys it much more than I do, and actually does some of it. She has a tumblr account. Share it to her and then she can share it with me ( haloessence111 and tooniphile-art-blog). Oh my goodness! Season 3! WHAT DID THEY DO TO MY SHIRO? Give me the 4th season.

IcyPinkFlower: Aw, thanks! I enjoy the whole Sonic incident as well. Very fun to brainstorm. Manic doesn't follow pop culture outside of comic books, cartoons/ anime, and movies. He really doesn't care about celebrities all that much. Sonia lived in the South, where you could just imagine it as one of those back road towns where the only TV set is in the local diner and they only turn it on during large major events (and Sonic would never hold still on camera for long enough to get a good look anyway.) LOL. You were pretty close on your first theory. I'd say about 75% was right. The last theory, not so much. *bowing down to the Queen* Well, with a name with pink and flower in it I would assume you're a girl. And update complete! And yes, that qualified as support.

ultimateCCC: Amy Rose is literally the most amazing person ever. Eeehh… I'm more of a Sally fan, myself. But Amy is definitely in my top five.

Autumn: Aw… I don't have any nieces or nephews yet. But I can't wait to get them! I'm going to be that fun aunt who they think is insane… We enjoyed our summer. How was yours? *hugs back* Aw, you're sweet.

MeowthKitty: It just got worse on the intensity level.

Hawkfeather: We all laughed. Very hard. And honestly, Havoc showed up once. The fact anyone actually read the author's notes and remembers him is shocking. SONIC! *waits* Nope, not quite his que yet. But we're getting there. Ish. Now we have some good communication. Sort of. It gets better.

MelGamingPlays: Well, he does! I mean, "I'm the fastest thing alive and so cool." Honestly, here is a slice of humble pie, Sonic. We are getting close. Ish. And yes, it will be a VERY BIG SURPRISE. I missed this story too. Update away!

Afterburngaming: You're welcome!

Luna Hedgefox: It got worse and we are back!

MazzyBooks: She was more concerned about the time I was spending on it… and the fact that I 'talk' to strangers. Hi my name is _, from _, and I am _. Seriously. I don't do that. Thanks for your patience. It was very appreciated.

Dimenian: … I'm sorry, what? Sonic is going to turn into Robotnik…? How is that even possible? He can't even work a microwave!

That Speedhunter: *picks up one of the pitchers and the lemons* Sheesh, I'll go grab the sugar. Who want's lemonade? (I love lemonade. Almost as much as I love Hot Chocolate.) You missed quite a bit, apparently. Nah, it wasn't super personal. More like, "I need to evaluate my time better." Thanks and yes. Robotnik's timing STINKS. *stops and smells a metaphorical flower* I love roses! Dang, no cat posters. And if we had a stand-by screen then it has been rolling longer than Sonic '06. Geez, let's get to the actual game, please. *cuts elevator music* LOLOLOL. WAIT! COME BACK! WE HAVE A CHAPTER! (that last review made me just laugh and facepalm at the same time… Sorry 'bout the wait)

Koren: I sorry. I am so glad you enjoyed it that much. Hope you still read it and liked the update. And I really want Halo to draw the look on Knuckles face. Let's see if I can convince her.

Guest #1: Here is your continuation.

Shadowkitten99: Here is your update!

Guest #2: We're back!

What's my name: That is what Halo and I have been aiming for. Keeping the story close to the games and the Sonic Underground TV show and a few other things, like the comics, but add a new twist. That, in my opinion, is the perfect AU. Sonic X… Oh boy. Where do we start on that? I enjoyed that show because it was part of my childhood, but it had it's moments of, "SONIC! KNOCK IT OFF!" SatAM will forever be the best Sonic show, in my not-so-humble opinion. Yay! Shadow is coming out good! Chow!

Guest #3: I am sorry you don't like the ship. It is just what we decided to do in this story. I personally prefer Rouge and Knuckles (when Sonia is not around) but whatever floats your ship. ((KNUXAMY FOREVER)) That ship… I really don't understand it. Halo, don't even try and explain to me again. ((BUT I LOVE IT))

Guest #4: Here you are!

OH CHAOS, I NEVER WANT TO DO THAT AGAIN. MY FINGERS HURT.

NEXT UP: THE MOMENT WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR…

No, it isn't the sibling reunion. And no, it isn't everyone finding out Maurice and Sonic are the same person.

Speculate all you like. Let's see how long it takes Halo and I to type (it is kind of long). Hope you enjoyed the update! (Review, please!)