After the tray of brown mush with black and orange sprinkles disappeared into the oven, Sonic ran for the door.
"I'll beat you this time, slo-mo," he taunted, running out the door.
"I'll beatcha there! :O" shouted Manic, close behind.
"Don't mess up your costumes before you have a chance to use them!" called out Jules.
Manic sure hoped that wasn't Sonic's plan. If it turned into another wrestling match out here, he was going straight back home.
He followed his twin into the forest nearby. It didn't take a genius to figure out where he was heading since it led to one spot and one spot only: their favorite hiding place. The one place in the world they could go to and no one would bug them, much less find them. Sometimes they'd go there to play hide and seek, other times they'd go there to hide if they had a bad day, but they always went together. In fact, it seemed like they did everything together, to the point where everyone joked about their minds being linked, or something.
This time, however, was different. This time, they were going to settle a score with eachother.
Sonic raced through the forest, trying to beat Manic to the summit of Mt Awesome, as they called it- it was a hill inside the forest with a tree and a tire swing on top- but when he looked behind himself, the green spike ball was nowhere to be seen.
Yosh! I'm finally getting faster! thought Sonic, a cocky smirk on his face.
He continued running to the top of the hill until he could see the big tree. The only thing wrong with that picture was the miniature green furred police officer swinging around on the tire swing attached to it.
":O How'd you get here so fast?" shouted Sonic.
"I took a shortcut, Rambo," replied Manic, sarcastically referencing Sonic's army costume.
At least that explained why he hadn't been able to outrun him this time around.
"Did you also take a shortcut across the hall to the bathroom, back home?" asked Sonic, just as sarcastically.
"Nope, I'm just way more awesome than you, :)" replied Manic, posing proudly like Sonic had back home.
"Let's see whose costume looks better after it gets ground into the dirt," said Sonic, approaching Manic.
"NOT THE UNIFORM! :O" shouted Manic, taking off down the hill.
Sonic watched him flee like a chao finding out it was bath time.
"THAT is why I'm way past cooler than you, X3" laughed Sonic, watching the whole thing.
(...)
A half hour later, the brownies had finished baking and the twins begged and pleaded to have just one square of the delicious brown goo, but were promptly reminded that they were for the party. Fortunately, Jules had picked up a couple of snacks at a gas station on the way home for this kind of situation and had kept them hidden in his jacket until now. The first was a Butterfinger, Sonic's favorite candy bar. The second was a bag of cheetos, Manic's favorite munchies. They thanked their dad profusely and then ran into the family room to watch the halloween episode of spongebob on TV.
They turned on the flatscreen just in time to see the nickelodeon announcer say that Spongebob was "up next" but then had to watch several more commercials go by before the familiar portrait of a pirate with a scary mouth appeared onscreen.
"Arh ya ready kids?" arh'd the painting.
"No," replied Sonic and Manic.
"I can't heeeaaar you," continued the pirate.
"NO!" barked everyone in the house.
It was a game they all played together whenever spongebob came on. Even those who weren't watching would respond negatively to the "pirate-with-the-scary-mouth" as everyone called him.
Then Spongebob went through the whole pointless intro with his name being repeated 500 times. Little Sonia got caught up in blurting out said sponge's name everytime the TV did it while Sonic and Manic just rolled their eyes and shook their heads.
They both agreed that while Spongebob was awesome (at this point in time :P), it did need a new intro. Just one more example of how they thought alike, as their mom had constantly reminded them.
The scaredy pants episode came on and they watched Mr Krabs tell Spongebob a scary story about the Pirate Ghost known as the Flying Dutchman, who would steal people's souls. Actually, he failed epicly at telling a scary story, but the slightly retarded sponge got spooked anyway, and went through the roof (literally) when Squidward snuck up behind him in a Dutchman costume. Sonia laughed while Sonic and Manic poked fun at the episode as they munched on their snacks.
"Dad tells way scarier stories," whispered Manic.
"Is it just me or are the episodes getting kinda flat these days?" whispered back Sonic.
"I hope not. I'll wait till the end of the episode to judge," whispered Manic, crunching on his beloved cheetos.
"Mind if I have some?" asked Sonic.
"Yeah sure," replied Manic, handing him a few cheetos while Sonic handed him back a small piece of his butterfinger, in return.
He popped the chocolate/peanut butter candy into his mouth and was pleasantly surprised by the sudden change in taste, losing himself in the whirlwind of chocolatey cheesiness.
SO GOOD! he thought, vowing to save up some change for moar butterfingers and cheetos next time they stopped at a gas station.
For the rest of the episode, they watched Patrick help Spongebob customize his own head to fit his ghost costume, and even then he still failed epicly at scaring anyone...that is, until the Dutchman got jealous of his costume and tore it off. It seemed that his ghost costume was more of a mask to hide disfigurement than it was a costume since he'd taken off his entire body, leaving only his brain, face, and skeleton to fit the costume, which actually creeped the siblings out a bit, especially Sonia who just stared blankly at the TV for a bit before another episode came on. Thankfully, this one was a bit more entertaining than the halloween one, though it was equally scary in a different way.
Graveyard Shift, read the title as some spooky music played through the speakers. This episode actually was funny and scary. First, Squidward got run over by a stampede of customers after Mr. Krabs announced plans for the Krusty Krab staying open later, then Spongebob went on and on about how awesome it was to work at night before burning his hand and saying that he burned it...at night, then Squidward scared Spongebob with a scary story about some weirdo who cut off his hand, replaced it with a spatula, and now haunts the Krusty Krab. It was so stupid that it made all three Hedgehogs laugh. But then Sonia got scared at the part where the lights started flickering and the phone rang with no response and some creepy guy entered the store with a spatula, and Manic had to hold her to calm her down, but then she laughed when it turned out to be a nerdy guy and some wannabe vampire named Nosferatu that no one cared about.
"Sonic, Manic, your dad wants you outside," called Aleena from the foyer.
Both boys groaned as they got up and headed toward the front door. Princess Sonia waved goodbye as she watched them leave. They exited the house and were greeted by the cool, crisp autumn air. The first thing that crossed Manic's mind was how difficult trick-or-treating would be when the time came since it had gotten chilly even before the sun had gone down, but at least that would make the bonfire worth it.
Their attention was soon focused on Jules who was pulling the strings on a pumpkin like trash bag to close it up, near the driveway. He then brought it over to them and without warning, dumped its contents all over the unsuspecting Twins.
"Aaaaahhhh!" they shouted as they were showered in dead leaves.
Jules let out a hearty laugh and set the now empty trash bag on the grass.
"Mr. Sterin asked everyone attending the party to bring as many dry leaves as they could to keep the bonfire going. I need you guys to help me fill these trash bags up," said Jules, handing rakes to Sonic and Manic.
"I already filled that other bag up, so just fill up the bags beside it, and the one in front of you," continued Jules, heading back into the house.
"Oh we'll rake them, :)" smirked Manic, raking the leaves on the grass into a pile, "but first, I'm gonna have fun with them. X3"
(...)
After raking all the leaves they could find into one big mountain in the middle of the yard, the twins wasted no time diving in.
"Bury me!" ordered Sonic, his face the only thing sticking out.
He soon regretted saying that as his brother picked up an arm load of leaves and dropped them over Sonic's eyes and mouth. The sounds of rasberry spitting could be heard coming from the leaf pile.
Manic tried to think of a clever remark, but heard a car coming and decided to hide in case it was Uncle Chuck. He burrowed down inside the leaves, easily burying himself since he had more skill with that than Sonic did, and watched through tiny openings in the pile to see a car slowly pull up to the house, except this car looked nothing like the squad car they'd seen their Uncle driving. It was an average looking yellow car with four dours, completely unfamiliar. It stopped in front of the driveway and a masked figure got out of the car, clutching a butcher knife.
Alarm bells went off inside both Twins as they watched the figure creep along their yard toward their house, more specifically toward the leaf pile. He was probably planning to hide inside the pile and wait to ambush Mom or Dad when they came out.
"When I say now, we both jump out and tackle him," whispered Manic.
"Gotcha," replied Sonic.
The figure crept closer and closer to the leaf pile, the knife still in his hand. Manic couldn't tell what his face looked like since it was hidden under a Jamaican wig, adding to the creep's creepiness. He was right in front of the leaf pile, ready to get down inside of it when he heard someone shouting "NOW!" and was tackled by two midgets who jumped out of the pile and pinned him to the ground. Manic did his best to keep the guy pinned while Sonic wrestled the knife from his hand, but upon closer inspection, he realized the knife was plastic. He held the knife in front of Manic's face and the green hedgehog stopped moving as he stared at what turned out to be a toy. Then the cloaked figure started laughing, and the two Hedges instantly recognized that cackle.
"Uncle Chuck?" they asked in unison.
The figure removed the heavy wig to reveal the face of the Cop Uncle they had looked up to for so long.
"I was going to wait for ya in the leaf pile, but I can see ya beat me to it. You didn't think I'd come in through the front door, didja?" asked the older hedgehog.
Both twins knew he meant arriving on time in an expected manner.
"I guess not. These leaves are out here because our dad wanted us to rake them," replied Manic.
"And a dandy job you've done, too," congratulated their Uncle.
"Sooo...didja bring us anything? O_O" asked Sonic, eagerness etched on the young Commando's face.
"As a matter of fact, I did," began Chuck, sitting up, "Your dad told me what costumes you guys were going in, and I thought yours could use a real badge. I'll let you borrow mine for tonight."
Chuck pinned his own badge on Manic, who had the OO look on his face.
"What about me?" asked Sonic.
"I figured you'd look more intimidating with a bigger knife strapped to your army costume, so I got you that plastic one you wrestled out of my hand," replied Chuck.
Sonic stared at the knife again, realizing that he'd gotten his own present before he even asked for it.
Both Hedgehogs pounced on their Uncle a second time and hugged him really tight while thanking him profusely. Chuck laughed again at how the twins had gone from ambushing him to hugging him in 10 seconds, but then he remembered something else.
"By the way, where is Sonia?" he asked.
"She's inside with mom and dad, watching Spongebob. She didn't know you were going to be here this early, either," replied Manic.
"Well I got a real Tiara Crown she might like with her costume," said Chuck, pulling yet another surprise out of his pocket as they all walked back to the house.