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"Hand me the explosives." Manic whispered.
Double D carefully handed Manic the small device. Manic placed it on the air vent, pushed a few buttons, and ducked back before it blew up.
"Let's move!" Sonic said and crawled into the ventilation system.
"Oh dear, I'm going to need to take another shower after this." Double D whimpered.
"Come on!" Shelby said as she passed him.
"I'm coming." Double D said and followed suit.
Everyone followed the blue hedgehog through the ventilation. Nova used her ability over fire so they wouldn't end up crawling totally blind.
"What do the glasses say?" Manic asked Sonia.
She looked around before turning to her brother.
"They say that Ferral is close by." Sonia said.
"Then let's move!" Manic said.
"Hold on, Manic. Lady Windemere is also close by, I say we go after her first." Sonia said.
"I say we find my Uncle Chuck, he might be able to lead us to the others!" Sonic protested.
"I have an idea." Eddy said.
"What's that Eddy?" Double D asked.
Eddy placed his hand over his eyes, and flailed his arm around, pointing it at Manic, then Sonia, and finally Sonic.
"That's the order we'll do it in." Eddy said, removing his hand from his eyes.
"So you just chose us randomly?" Sonic asked.
"When in doubt, choose blindly." Eddy said.
"Okay, first we'll get Ferral, then Windemere, then Chuck." Manic said.
"Oh, I hope they'll be alright." Sonia said.
"We'll never know unless we investigate. Now let's move!" Sonic ordered tearing a vent from its screws and jumping down.
"Normally I wouldn't charge head first without a plan, but I'll make an exception for this." Sonia said, following him.
"Yeah, let's rock and roll! Ha, ha, ha, ha!" Manic laughed, took out his drumsticks, and followed his older siblings.
"Oh dear." Double D whispered and followed behind.
"C'mon, let's party!" Eddy said, nose diving into the base.
"BELLY FLOP!" Ed cried and fell out of the air vent.
Nova carefully slipped out, and landed right in Double D's arms, making both of them blush.
'Young love, they say it never lasts, but we'll see.' Shelby chuckled to herself in her mind and slipped down.
Shadow jumped down, with Jimmy holding onto his shoulders. Sarah and Nazz landed hard next to them, with Rolf, Kevin, and Johnny following.
"So where do we go?" Sarah demanded.
"According to the glasses, Ferral is that way!" Manic said, pointing down a hall.
"Okay let's go!" Sonic said.
As the others ran off, Manic stayed behind, there were some things he had spotted on a table nearby.
"Oh, I could one of these!" He said. "And this one is even better! Oh, we'll so need these!"
"Manic!" Sonic called. "C'mon! You can steel stuff later!"
"Aw man." Manic moaned, and ran to catch up.
(Flashback)
"Manic, I have some bad news."
The small green hedgehog looked at her, confused.
"What's wrong Crystal?' He asked.
"…Papa says we have to move." The silver blue hedgehog said.
"WHAT!? But why?" Manic demanded.
"He says you're a bad influence for me. He thinks I'll start steeling if I play with you anymore." She said in her young voice.
"But he knows you better then that!" Manic said in his young voice.
"Yes, but Robotnik found out about our friendship, he'll ro-robo-"
"Roboticize?" Manic asked, helping the young female.
"That's it!" She said.
"But that's wrong! So what if we're friends? Robotnik stinks anyway!"
"Manic! He's our ruler! How could you say that?"
"He overthrew the Royal Hedgehog Family! He placed bounties on their heads! And have you ever seen a roboticization process? He doesn't deserve to be called a living being!"
"Have YOU ever seen what roboticing a person does to their family? They can go crazy! I don't want that to happen to my family, Manic!"
The young hedgehog was speechless. He had never seen his childhood best friend like this before.
"I'm sorry, Manic. There's nothing I can do." The silver blue hedgehog started crying slightly.
"Crystal…when are you leaving?" Manic asked.
"Next week, why?"
"Just wondering. I've gotta go."
With that Manic ran back home. He had a week to do what he had in mind. Days slowly passed, as Manic confound himself to his room, working on lyrics for his new songs. If Crystal were leaving, he'd want to let her have something to remember him by. Before he knew it, the day had come.
"I'm going out, Ferral!" Manic called as he ran out the door.
"Where ya goin' my boy?" Ferral asked.
"I've got to deliver something to Crystal before she moves!" Manic said and kept moving.
Manic ran as fast as he possibly could, and he didn't care where he was going, or who saw him, just as long as he got to Crystal's place before it was too late! Then, he finally made to Robo-Road.
"Finally!" He cried as he turned onto Crystal's driveway, only to stop short.
There was a "For Sale" sign in the yard, and the usually brightly lit house was totally dark.
"No. No. NO!" Manic cried, and ran as fast as he possibly could to the front door. "CRYSTAL! CRYSTAL! OPEN THE DOOR!" He cried, pounding the door wildly. "Please. Please don't let me be too late." He started crying.
"Hey kid, what are you doing there?" A neighbor called.
"You wouldn't happen to know where Crystal and her folks are, would you?" Manic asked the old cat.
"Why, they moved a week ago." She said.
"WHAT? But Crystal told me that they were leaving today!" Manic cried.
"Well, according to her parents, Crystal was starting to hang out with a trouble maker so they lied and told her that they were moving a week later then they really were. She made such a scene when they dragged her out of the house, she kept calling out for someone named Manic." The old lady said.
Manic was speechless. He WAS too late.
"Do you know where they went?" Manic asked. "I need to get a hold of her!"
"I'm sorry, no." The cat said, shaking her head sadly.
Manic was on the verge of tears. He sniffled a little and ran. He ran all the way back home, again not caring where he was going or who saw him.
"Ferral!" He cried as he ran into their current hideout.
"What is it?" Ferral asked, surprised by the sudden yell.
"I-I-I wa…was g-g-going to C-C-C-Crystal's…b-b-but…" Manic couldn't get it out but Ferral knew what he was trying to say.
"Come here." Ferral said softly.
The tiny green hedgehog wasted no time, and jumped into his foster father's arms and continued crying.
"There, there, it's going to be alright." Ferral said, stroking his spines.
Little did the hedgehog's father know, everything was NOT going to be just fine…
(End flashback)
Ferral mentally sighed, another day of being forced to work for Robotnik. He hadn't even seen Manic once in the last three years. He sometimes wondered if he was even still alive.
"Ferral!" Manic gasped quietly.
Ferral wasn't aware that the very hedgehog he was thinking about was in earshot.
The group was hiding behind a wall, watching Ferral. Manic was spell bound, watching the only parent he had ever known as a child like this. Now being able to see him more clearly, Double D could see that he was some sort of bug like creature wearing a long brown coat and a sort of sweatband around his forehead.
"Ferral." Manic said again, letting his tears show.
"Get ready, bro." Sonic said, taking one of the Power Rings from his backpack.
Manic fingered the ring carefully, thinking back. Back in the day, back in his childhood, if you gave him this, he'd steel it without a second thought. Had he really changed so much?
"Now!" Sonic cried, and jumped from his hiding shot, with Sonia following close behind.
"Hey, big guy! Wanna play Tag?" Sonic taunted, before running up and tapping Ferral lightly. "You're "it"!"
Despite Ferral's surprise, he couldn't stop his robot body from moving.
"Hey, 'bot! Over here!" Sonia called, running in the opposite direction.
Ferral turned quickly. He never had the chance to run after Sonia, because Manic was in his way. Before Ferral could make another move, Ed grabbed him from behind.
"You shall not escape, robot-slave!" Ed cried, holding him tightly.
Manic slowly walked towards him, holding out the ring.
"Forgive me if this hurts, Ferral." Manic said, and held out the ring.
He pressed the ring against Ferral's chest, right where his heart would be. There was a blinding flash of light, that didn't seem to die. If any of them had been able to see, they would have seen two other lights, both coming from Manic: one from his medallion the other from his heart.
Finally, the light died down, the ring was gone, and everyone stared at the robot.
"Did it work?" Sonia asked.
"Manic, wha-what's going on?" The robot asked, in a real voice.
"Ferral, is that you?" Manic asked, tears slowly building up.
"Manic, I…I actually broke free!" Ferral cried.
"FERRAL!" Manic cried and jumped into his foster father's arms.
After three years apart, Manic and his foster father had been reunited.
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Again, sorry about the delay, you wouldn't believe how hard it is to write this with school in my way. R&R please.