Sonic Chaos Underground (Season Four)

by sleepfiction

A thrilling revelation has been revealed to Sonic, forcing him to re-evaluate his life and journey outside of Station Square with Tails by his side. Thrust into the unknown to discover the secrets of their family's past, Sonic and Tails discover the location of not only their missing loved ones, but an entire community of Mobians hidden from the world.

7. Manic Underground

The night was still and silent, the only sound being the crickets somewhere in the distance. Besides the hedgehog sleeping in bed, the room was mostly empty. The dead of night outside meant that the hedgehog was as deeply asleep as the world was on the other side of the walls, but not so deeply asleep that any noise wouldn't disrupt the peaceful rest.

Light dimly illuminated the dark room as the door opened. The hallways were always dimly lit so people could navigate through them during the night, but the room was always pitch black when it came to sleep. The soft creak of the door opening, along with the light, caused the lump in the bed to stir.

Two sets of small footsteps walked in, closing the door behind them. These two small figures walked to the side of the bed, the side where the lump was closest. A small hand touched the lump and gently shook it. The sleeper didn't wake up at first, prompting the hand to shake harder.

Aleena jolted up, ready to unleash a seismic blast, but instead saw her boys standing together at the side of her bed through the darkness.

- SIX YEARS AGO -

Catching her breath from the abrupt waking, Aleena leaned over and turned on the oil lamp beside the bed, illuminating her bedroom. She rubbed an eye as she returned her gaze to the two boys at her bedside.

Fourteen-year-old Sonny was holding the hand of eight-year-old Miles as they stood together. Sonny was the one who had woken his mother, explaining that Miles had clearly woken him up earlier. The small fox was rubbing his eye with a fist and sniffling.

It had been only two days since little Miles was brought back to the compound by Sonny. Aleena was originally bewildered and amazed not only that her son had brought in someone new but also that the utterly vile Julian Robotnik was still experimenting on animals.

The fox had no known parents, no knowledge of the outside world, and nothing to protect him but the enhanced intelligence he claimed was a part of his experimentation. The sight of the little boy being so defenseless nearly shattered Aleena's heart, and she took him in as easily as she would another child of hers.

She knew what it was like to lose her children. Aleena didn't know who Miles' real mother was, but she wasn't going to dishonor that vixen by not taking care of the fox.

"What are you two doing in here?" she asked softly, still waking up. "What's wrong?"

"Miles can't sleep."

It had been like this the previous night too, but Aleena couldn't blame the boy. The memories of being trapped in that facility were so fresh that it would take a while for him to ease into sleep—some nights would be harder to fall asleep than others from then on. She knew that from experience.

Aleena sighed, tilting her head to look at Miles a bit better. "Is this true, Miles?"

The fox, still new to knowing her, was very shy. He sniffled again and slowly nodded his head.

"I tried doing everything I did last night, but it didn't work…" Sonny said softly to his mother, his voice cracking as he spoke. The night before, Sonny had set up a fun night to wear Miles down with exhaustion rather than trying to calm him down.

Propped up on one arm, Aleena gently patted her son's head, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh, kiddo," she murmured softly. "Thank you for trying."

"I didn't wanna wake you up."

"You can always wake me up, Sonny." She turned her attention to the fox boy next. "You too, Miles. I'm always here if you need something."

"…Okay," Miles replied in a mumble, hiding slightly behind Sonny. His two tails were turning idly behind him.

How to get two boys to sleep? It was a question for the ages, truly. Aleena had a few tactics she had used before, back when her son was growing up alongside other young boys (like Vector— that kid was hard to get down) but it varied day by day what would work.

She would probably need to stick to something simple, something to keep their minds off the stresses of… everything. Maybe a classic would work for tonight.

"Say," she leaned forward a bit, starting to smile. "How about a story? Do you want me to tell you two a bedtime story?"

"A story?" Miles asked, his voice still soft and distant.

Sonny was excited now. "Oh yeah! That sounds really cool… way past cool, actually!"

"You boys hop in and I'll spin you a tale."

Letting go of Miles' hand, Sonny gestured for him to follow with a nod of his head. Aleena scooted over to let the boys climb into her bed, watching Sonny roll over his legs to get on one side and gently encouraging the fox to get in next.

With an offered hand from Aleena, Miles climbed into her bed and laid down next to her, opposite Sonny.

"Can you tell the story about the knight and the dragon princess again?"

"Sonny! You're giving away the ending already!" Aleena chuckled.

"Ohh! Sorry…"

"Dragon?" Miles tilted his head, looking up at Aleena.

"It's a big, scary reptile monster that breathes fire and has massive wings!" The young hedgehog in bed explained to his foster brother. The fox cowered a little at the description.

"Don't worry, Miles, dragons aren't real."

"Oh… Okay, good."

"Now, how does this go again…?"

After a moment of thought to remember the story, she cleared her throat. Sonny leaned against his mother, cuddling at her side with a smile to listen to the story. Miles, wanting to be like Sonny, hesitantly followed suit and cuddled up against Aleena's other side.

"Once upon a time, there was a princess and a knight named Maurice. They were friends ever since they were young and lived very close to one another. By the time Maurice became a knight, the two knew each other better than anyone else knew them. When the princess was old enough to take the throne, it became clear that the two had fallen deeply in love with each other.

"However, one day, the princess disappeared. She had left her knight behind for something related to her family and never returned. Soon, a dragon made itself known at a tower on the very outskirts of the kingdom. It was speculated that the dragon had kidnapped the princess, and many daring adventurers went to the tower to save her… only to return defeated.

"Compelled by love to save his princess, Maurice eventually set out to find her himself. He reached the tower and scaled the treacherous ruins, getting to the top to discover the dragon roosting in the very top floor. He had readied himself, only to discover that the dragon did not attempt to harm him, and his princess was nowhere to be found in its hoard.

"The dragon seemed to be afraid of him. The knight looked at the dragon and saw eyes that he had stared into many times before, scales the color of hair he had seen in the sunlight many days before, and wings the color of a dress that was a royal purple. He made a realization that the adventurers from before couldn't: this dragon hadn't kidnapped the princess; it was the princess.

"Cursed by a witch when she was out of the castle, she had fled to the tower in fear of being killed. Maurice discarded his weapon when he realized who this dragon was and knew that the only thing that could counter dark magic was an act of true love. With this knowledge, Maurice embraced his princess, giving her a hug as he had many times before.

"The loving hug he gave her was enough to undo her curse, allowing her to return from her monstrous form to normal. Their love, unspoken but now tangible, led the two to return to the princess's kingdom and soon wed… and they lived happily ever after."

Thinking of her story as she spoke, Aleena had been staring at the wall ahead of her with a small smile as she told the tale. Once she was done, she blinked to return to the world from her trance, looking at the boys at her sides.

Miles had fallen asleep halfway through the story, but Sonny was asleep around the time of the last paragraph. They were both sleeping against Aleena's sides, her arms wrapped around them after she had put them around the boys thoughtlessly while she spoke.

Seeing the pair were sleeping soundly, Aleena's smile grew. She leaned in and kissed Miles' head between his ears, wanting to further comfort the fox boy even as he slept. Aleena also gave her older son a kiss on the head, not wanting him to feel left out in his sleep.

She pointed a finger gun at the oil lamp and fired a small blast of vibrational energy, extinguishing the flame instantly and shrouding her bedroom in darkness once again.

Nestling into bed, Aleena closed her eyes to sleep, happy and peaceful with her arms securely wrapped around her boys.

---

PRESENT DAY…

Every day was the same.

Manic laid in his bed, on his back, staring up at his ceiling. He was still in his bed, the room dim but slightly illuminated by a sliver of daylight creeping in through a crack at the end of his heavy curtains.

He had woken up in this position a few hours ago, before daylight had even crossed over South Island. Much like other nights, he had barely gotten a few hours of sleep, constantly tossing and turning.

Every night was the same.

Blinking slowly, blearily, he continued to stare at the ceiling above. He knew he would have to get up eventually, but… When that would be was anyone's guess; not like he had anything to do today. He never did.

Elsewhere in the house, the sound of moving and soft chattering clued Manic in that his family was up and about. He didn't really want to face them yet, but he knew it would only be a matter of time until Sonia started knocking in his door if he didn't make his daily appearance.

He should probably get up anyways. No use delaying the inevitable.

With a groan, he sat up, feeling his head quills rest back into their natural spot. His eyes were half lidded, his eyes already adjusted to the dark- if his room was dark, he wouldn't have any excuse to clean. Can't clean what you can't see.

Getting up from bed, Manic's first order of business was to put on underpants, then put on a pair of joggers. Other clothes can come later, he just needed to put something on to look presentable for his family.

He left his room, closing the door behind him to keep his privacy. Manic walked across the hall into the bathroom, feeling the tingle of others talking downstairs but not being particularly compelled to listen in right now.

Manic winced after turning on the light for himself. The bathroom was the only room without any outside lighting in it; though he hated the light, he appreciated the privacy as he did his morning routine.

He leaned onto the sink counter, looking down into the basin below for a moment to stare into the porcelain. After a moment he lifted his head to stare at his reflection, seeing something sad stare back at him. Without his quills spiked up, his head spikes were naturally identical to Sonic's, the only difference being one less quill spike than his brother. That and his quills were green, but that's a given.

"I love myself, and I am happy," Manic mumbled, only loud enough for himself to hear. "I am surrounded by love and support." He took a deep breath and repeated. "I love myself, and I am happy, I am surrounded by love and support. I love myself, and I am happy…"

During his many outings not really helping his family with their daily schedules, Manny had discovered a book that identified and encouraged the use of affirmations for daily life. It stated that anyone who was feeling down should add the use of positive mantras in order to help shift their perspectives.

But Manic's been using it for months now and it's barely had an effect.

He finally finished his mantra after the seventeenth time saying it. "…I am surrounded by love and support."

After he fell silent, Manic continued to stare at himself, looking at the dull blue eyes in his reflection. Years ago Chuck had told him that his eyes were the same color as his mother's. Part of him wondered if Aleena could see Manic through the eyes they shared. He wondered how disappointed she would be; how hard she worked to get out of that facility just for one of her sons to be a deadbeat.

With a sigh, Manic opened up the drawer on the sink's cabinet, retrieving what he needed for the day. He smeared black coloring on his top and bottom eyelid, darkening them. He didn't really wear makeup, he just wanted something extra to set himself apart, and certainly something to make him look more like a rocker.

Once he washed the black from his fingers, his quills were next; using flaxseed oil, he lathered and molded his quills, shortening his head spikes to pull his quills upright and shape it into a mohawk style. It was a fairly uncomfortable process, but like the saying goes: beauty is pain.

When he was finished, his hands washed of the oil, he flicked his earrings just to check if anything was going wrong in that area. He kept that area pretty clean to avoid any kind of infection around his piercing, he had that fear instilled deep in him when he got the piercings in Gigalopolis over a year ago.

He got matching piercings with somebody.

Manic rubbed his face, avoiding his painted eyes, as if rubbing away the thought. He sighed deeply, his eyes returning to their half-lidded and tired state from before as he looked upon his reflection.

There was a knock at the door. "Manic? Are you okay in there?"

Tails' soft question made Manic look at the door, his blood running cold. How long had his little brother been out there? Did he hear the affirmations, or did he just hear the sigh? Manny didn't want to burden his newfound brother(s) with his ongoing emotional issues.

He gave himself one more glance in the mirror. He was going to actually try and brush his teeth this morning, but no matter- he'll just keep his mouth shut today.

Manic opened the door, seeing Tails on the other side. As the door opened, the green hedgehog saw his little brother stuff something in the pocket of his aviator jacket. One of the hedgehog's eyebrows raised curiously, but he smiled a bit.

"Mint candies? This early in the morning?"

He could almost see his little brother's face go red through his fur, clearly caught in the act. The family swiftly learned that Sonic was telling the truth about Tails being a "mint maniac," especially when the fox leveraged his work at Mission Freedom to get himself dozens upon dozens of mint candy tins.

The hedgehog continued to tease. "Have you even had breakfast yet?"

"I can still eat breakfast! The candies are small, they'll be gone by the time I get downstairs…"

"You know Chuck doesn't like you eating those things all the time, Tails."

"You're not gonna snitch, are you?"

Manic snorted. "No, of course not. But I might change my mind unless I get a very good bribe…"

"Oh, brother. What do you want? You want the Cyclone or something?" The fox looked dreadful. "You can't have her. Best I can do is a hoverboard… when I finally get it down pat. I can't work out the kinks to make hoverboards work, the gear's too extreme for me."

"Hoverboards do sound cool, but… I just want a candy."

"Ah! Alright, sure. Small price to pay to avoid a Chuck lecture."

Tails brought the tin back out and took out a candy, putting it in Manic's offering palm.

"Pleasure doing business with you, little bro."

"Yeah, yeah. Just keep your mouth shut."

Snickering, Manic turned and walked away, tossing the candy up in the air to catch it in his mouth. Looks like his issue with not brushing his teeth was solved- or at least the bad breath part.

As he walked away, Tails paused in the doorway of the bathroom, his tails turning slowly in thought. Manic had been in there for a while, even before Tails came up. Mixed with him waking up late, that was fairly worrying.

Slowly, he stepped into the bathroom himself. He didn't want to pry, but… He'll keep an eye on his brother and see what he could find.

Returning to his room, Manic kept the door closed. He reluctantly pulled open the curtain to the outside world, letting his room be illuminated. Overall, his room was fairly tidy, with the only real mess being his ever growing pile of clothes in the corner.

Pulling on a random shirt from the pile, Manic went to the back of his door to slip on his vest, his fanny pack, and the pair of spiked bracelets he had. As the bands snapped into place around his wrists, he rubbed the black band with his thumb, thinking quietly to himself. Sonia bought him these… They were a gift to console him after… After…

Suddenly, the floor gently shook beneath him, making Manic snap out of his trance, his eyes only flashing blue for a moment before he collected himself. He had to get better at this… If he didn't get a grip he would only end up sending this building crashing down like a house of cards with his family in it. This was his burden to bear, not anyone else's.

With a deep breath, Manic opened the door and walked out of his room, closing his door back as he left to head downstairs for breakfast. As he trotted down to the dining room, he could hear his siblings chat to one another.

"I dunno, seeing this color on a nail, I think I'd rather just go with cyan instead."

"Nice choice. Can't go wrong with blue, sis."

Sitting at the dining room table, Sonic wiggled his fingers to see the different colors on his sharp nails. His sharp claws were a multitude of colors, a color for each finger, currently acting as a color tester for his older sister.

Sonia put the most recent color, a soft pink, away. "Thanks again for doing this, Sonic."

"No problem! I always love a new splash of color on me. Plus knowing before you paint it on means less things you have to touch in order to remove an unwanted color!"

"Yeah! You get it!" She smiled. "Manic never likes doing this with me. He complains because I never use black nail polish."

"That dude is punk, I can respect that." Sonic pointed a finger gun- this nail being orange- at his sister. "So you're going with cyan?"

"Yeah! Works with my quills the best. It's been a while since I used it anyway."

Manic passed by to reach the kitchen, which could be seen from the dining room from the large passageway connecting the two areas.

"Speak of the devil," the blue hedgehog chimed, his head rolling to follow as Manic walked behind him. "Good morning, Manic. You sleep well?"

"As good as I do every other night, dude." Manic replied with a chuckle- a forced one, but one at how accurate the statement was. He never slept well. "What about you two?"

"Slept like a baby."

"I dunno, I kept waking up with my eye mask off and on the floor," added Sonia. "So I had to keep sanitizing it. Meant I was up for longer than I should've been when I woke up in the middle of the night."

"Maybe you could get Tails to make you some kind of bionic sleeping mask, sis."

"Bionic sleeping mask? Like cold metal on my face? I don't think I'd be able to sleep like that, Sonic."

With his siblings distracted, Manic went to the fridge and poured himself some juice for the morning. He sipped it, though winced slightly at the mishmash of mint flavors and the juice's flavor. It would have to do for now, though.

As he sipped, he felt some vibrations nearby, his ears picking them up as he tuned in. His hearing was much better than others thought- he could feel the vibrations of vocal chords through the air, which allowed him to literally feel when others were talking around him.

It was just beyond the side door, on the side wall of the kitchen. The voices were Chuck and Longclaw.

"I do hope you enjoy your trip today, Charlie."

"I'm sure I will, as long as Sonny keeps his legs still. Though that might be asking for too much."

"You'll be out on the water, I'm sure he won't want to run anywhere."

"A joke about his aquaphobia?"

"…I honestly didn't know he was afraid of water, I was just saying." Longclaw cleared her throat. "Anyway, I trust that Sonia will be in charge while you're gone?"

Manic rolled his eyes at the statement. Of course Sonia was in charge.

"Yeah, she'll be in charge of her brothers, but… Would you mind checking in on them when you can? I trust them, I just wanna know I have an adult they trust to help them if they need it."

"Of course, Charlie. I would've done that anyway. Though you do know your triplets are nearly twenty years old, right?"

"If they're younger than me, they're still kids in my heart. Just keep an eye on them, Lonnie."

"I will, I will."

"Thank you. I'm about to juice and jam with Sonny in a moment, if you wanna come in and say hello."

"Always!"

The doorknob jiggled and turned, opening to let Uncle Chuck and Longclaw inside. Manic was still in the kitchen, nearly done with his juice.

"Good morning, Manny. Or I guess… evening. It's almost noon."

"Yeah, I know." Manic replied, putting his cup in the sink.

Chuck passed by, giving the green hedgehog's shoulder a loving squeeze. As Longclaw passed, she put a hand on Manic's arm and tapped behind his ear with her beak, almost like a kiss on his head.

"Good morning, Manic."

"Morning, LC."

The horned owl always had a soft spot for Manic, both when he was growing up and even now. Sonia got a lot of attention from Chuck due to her penchant for his job, and where his uncle would sometimes falter, Longclaw made sure to pick up the slack.

She was typically always around to babysit when Uncle Chuck was busy with working; before he became city manager, the old hedgehog worked himself to the bone to get enough rings to support his brother's kids. Manic once asked Longclaw why she, known by title as Green Hill's village administrator, took time out of her schedule to consistently assist Chuck out of everyone else in the village. Her response was that Chuck was the one and only person she, personally, had ever found on the beaches of Green Hill- and she felt a responsibility to assist where she could.

Clearly the Hedgehogs (in name only) were somehow likable enough to make her come back. That or the ever-helpful Longclaw liked a challenge.

The old hedgehog and the owl walked into the dining room. Manic followed, shoving his hands in his vest pocket now that he didn't have any juice to drink.

"Morning, kids." Uncle Chuck said, patting Sonic's head and putting a hand on Sonia's shoulder. "I see you two have been busy. Nice nails."

"Awww, Chuck, ya think so?" Sonic wiggled his colored claws at his uncle.

"Do you think cyan would look best on me, Uncle Chuck?"

"Probably! Magenta quills, cyan nails… All you'd need is something gold and you'd have the full set of subtractive colors."

"Oooh, color theming…" Sonia murmured to herself, eyebrows raised in interest.

The steps, close to the dining room, creaked as Tails walked down them. He was on his tablet, face buried in it and eyes reflecting the light that shined from the Miles Thunderbolt.

"Miles!" Chuck called out to him. "Have you been up all night playing on that thing?"

"I got a full eight hours! I just wanted to work when I woke up! And before I fell asleep…"

"That can't be healthy." Longclaw commented.

"Tails, dude," Sonic spoke up. "What was so important for you to sandwich eight hours of sleep between working?"

"Ironic you ask, because the scans finished while I slept! Look here."

Tails flipped over his tri-fold tablet at the other end of the table, making the others lean in to look. Manic stepped in to join, wanting to know what was so interesting that Tails was working through the night and the morning.

"I managed to snag one of Sonia's quills!"

"What?!" She was horrified. "How? I don't leave any, anywhere! Not in the drain, not on brushes…"

"Waiting until after breakfast to sanitize your silk bonnet was your downfall."

"Dang it! Well… At least you didn't just pluck it from my head, I guess."

"What did you find with her quill, little bro?" Manic asked.

"Well I wanted to scan it to see if there were any similarities with Sonic's powers," the fox replied. "What I found was super interesting! So look here, this is Sonic's scans."

"Whoa, you're gonna show them my biometrics? I don't even show people that on a first date…"

Tails scoffed and rolled his eyes, amused. "This is Sonic's body in relation to his super-speed. He's constantly exerting energy, creating a unique form of chaos energy directly tied to his body signature. It speeds him up, it steadily renews him after fatigue… if he's not really injured that is, because the energy even helps mend his injuries. But the most important thing is that it creates a barrier, almost like an aura, around his body that protects him from most damage."

"That explains how I've taken so many hits but still get back up." Sonic rubbed his head, remembering injuries of adventures past.

With a few taps and a swipe, Tails switched to another scan, showing a similar set of biometrics and a body diagram that almost reflected the first.

"Here's Sonia. See how it looks similar?" He said. "Her powers work similar to Sonic's, but the energy doesn't speed her up. In fact, the main similarity is the aura of chaos energy that Sonic and Sonia both have covering their bodies. Both of them have a barrier that extends a few inches from their bodies to defend against damage, but for Sonia… Well, it's just speculation, but I think her aura extends to other objects as a form of—"

"Tactile telekinesis?" Chuck finished.

"Yeah! How'd you know, Uncle Chuck?"

"Call it a hunch." The old hedgehog chuckled. "That's how Sonia's super-strength works, it's all tactile telekinesis. It makes sense, actually, because…"

A loud beeping came from Chuck, making him pull up the sleeve of his cardigan to look at his watch.

"Oh! Golly, look at the time. We gotta juice on outta here, sonny boy." He gently nudged Sonic.

"You're leaving?" Tails asked, clearly disappointed he couldn't discuss his findings further. "Where are you guys going?"

"Sonic and Uncle Chuck are going on a fishing trip." Sonia answered, starting to paint her nails cyan.

"Sonic? Fishing? Like sitting in a boat? Quietly? In one area? For a long time?"

Sonic chuckled at his little brother's shock. "I can sit in one spot for a while, Tails."

"I'll believe it when I see it. Or when Uncle Chuck confirms it."

"You sure you're going to be okay going to Blue Marine, Sonic?" Longclaw asked. "It's mostly water, and I recall you mentioning that you have aquaphobia."

"I've been making steps to get better over the last year or so- only helped by fighting a massive water god. I'm still really afraid of drowning, specifically, but water's okay. I had to go over water to even get here, y'know."

"Just wanted to be sure."

"You don't have to worry about anything, Lonnie. We're gonna be on a little lake that would just barely come up to our chests! Even if Sonic fell in, he could stand right back up!"

Sonic let out a breath, almost a sigh of relief. "That's extra reassurance."

"Everything's already packed, so we better scoot! We're gonna be gone for a few days, so you all stay out of trouble. Sonia, you're in charge of the house and the village manager duties while I'm gone."

"Naturally."

"Manny, Miles, you boys be good for your sister. Try not to get into any trouble."

"No promises!"

"Not like I do much anyways." Manic grumbled.

Sonic got up, giving his siblings and Longclaw some side hugs before he took his leave. Uncle Chuck kissed Sonia's head and hugged Tails before giving Manic a hug as well, squeezing him tightly.

"I love you, Manny."

Manic sighed. "I love you too, Uncle Chuck. Drive safe."

Uncle Chuck left soon after. Longclaw parted the curtain in the dining room to watch them drive off in a rental car, the Tempest, packed with a canoe and many bags on top of it.

Left in the dining room, the others were silent for a few moments. Sonia kept painting her nails and Tails was tapping on his tablet.

"So…" Manic took initiative. "You guys going to Mission Freedom?"

"Hm? Oh, we probably should!" Tails closed his tablet. "Sally's probably working herself to the bone on her next attempt at de-roboticization, she could use a little help."

"I should come too, just to be up to date on what they're doing. Sonia, are you coming too?"

"I'll be there in a bit, Longclaw. I'm gonna stop by city hall first, just to make sure Chuck didn't leave any assignments behind. Right after I finish my nails…"

"Well either way, thank you for the suggestion, Manic! What are you going to do today?"

Before his common sense got the better of him, the green hedgehog spoke. "I think I wanna go with you guys."

Everyone else immediately paused to look at Manic, surprised. Even Sonia stopped in the middle of applying another coat of polish to a nail.

"Really?" She asked.

"Manic, you haven't been to Mission Freedom in a year! Give or take."

Though he hesitated, Manic decided to continue. "I know, but… I think I wanna go back. At least for today." He replied to Longclaw. "It's easier without Uncle Chuck being there to parade me around. I want it to just be… casual. Cool. Collected."

"Well we're always starved for volunteers…" Tails murmured. "I say he should come! It sucks not being able to hang out with Manic whenever I have to work."

"Aww, little bro, how sweet of you."

"I think the suggestion is wonderful! I know everyone there will be happy to see you. Especially… Um…" Longclaw's face dropped, realizing she shouldn't finish her statement.

Manic knew who she was referring too, and replied quickly. "We should probably leave now before I change my mind."

Longclaw nodded, and quickly walked to leave the house. Tails walked too, nudging Manic as he passed by, almost trying to cheer him up slightly. Manic started to follow, but was stopped as Sonia called out to him.

"Manny, wait."

He sighed, and slowly turned around to look at her.

"What's up, sis?"

"Are you sure you can go back? You still seem kinda tender about… Y'know…"

"Hey, I lived when we ran into each other during that stuff with Robotnik's robot, right? It was awkward, but… I didn't die or anything. I don't want to keep living in the dark forever."

"Okay. But just be careful, okay? You know how getting emotional makes you go all… Vibrate-y."

Though his eyes were hesitant, Manic slowly nodded and gave his sister a thumbs up. Sonia looked like she wanted to get up, but relaxed after a second and nodded back. In another world, she probably would've given her brother a hug… but who knows what kind of germs and dirt was on his clothes with a room like his. She rarely ever gave hugs anyway.

With that finished, he left the house, knowing that his sister was watching him walk out. Besides the feeling of eyes on his head, he was aware of the deep pit of anticipation that was forming in his stomach. This was probably a really bad idea.

Manic walked out, seeing Longclaw and Tails in the front yard. Too late to turn back now.

"We headed up?"

"Yeah! Need a lift, Manic?"

"Sounds like a plan, little bro."

Spinning his tails rapidly, Tails lifted up into the air, holding his hands out for Manic to grab. The fox flew upwards, up to the eponymous green hill, followed by Longclaw soaring around them.

"The fact you can carry me all the way up there is really impressive, Tails."

"I've carried Sonic, Knuckles, Amy… It's all a factor of that chaos type stuff I studied! Creating a circuit between myself and other lifeforms that allows me, or anyone who can fly aided by chaos energy, to carry people easier than they usually can."

"I read your work," said Longclaw from below. "You did an excellent job."

"I've been studying it on and off for the last five years or so. Glad I can help!"

"I'm not sure what exactly the whole 'chaos type' thing is about, but it sounds really cool little bro."

"You can get time to read about it now that you're back at Mission Freedom!" The owl replied. "Unless… This is simply a one-time thing."

"I dunno. I mean, it's… weird. But I do like Mission Freedom, I liked working there. It's hard not to be there."

"It's hard to stay away from what you love."

Manic felt a sharp pain in his chest, thinking about more than just Mission Freedom when Longclaw said that. He stared at the world below him, the ground getting further away.

Tails nodded. "I know what you mean. One time, Sonic thought he suddenly hated chilidogs, so he joined a super-intense exercise group and became very briefly evil."

It was quiet for a moment after that. Longclaw slowly turned her head completely to look up at Tails.

"…what?"

"Yeah, not for too long though. Barely a week."

"Is he gonna turn evil again since we don't got chilidogs down here?" Manic asked.

"Nah, he should be fine," replied Tails. "…probably. Maybe. Most likely." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, Manic, why did you stop working at Mission Freedom?"

The hedgehog sighed. "I… Have history with Mission Freedom. Nothing I can share, but, it's the reason why I've been so iffy about it. But I want to try and get back into it instead of wallowing in solitude every day."

"Well I'm glad you're making the steps to try and get back into it, Manic."

"Thanks, dude. I just hope it'll stick… Just as long as nothing too crazy happens."

They rose up to the top of the massive hill, passing through the opening of the loop-the-loop and heading into the grounds of Mission Freedom HQ. Just as the three landed, the doors to the building bust open due to a rooster and a mole being thrown through it.

Scratch and Grounder screamed in shock and fear as they were tossed through the door. Walking into the opened double-doorway was Bunnie, who clapped her hands of anything left on them from physically throwing the delinquents out.

"And don't come back 'til tomorrow, ya idiots!" She yelled after them, watching the pair scurry off. As the others approach, she quickly noticed them and collected herself. "Howdy Tails, evening Miss Longclaw," she gasped lightly. "Sugar-rock! I didn't expect to see you back 'round here today!"

"Yeah, hi Bunnie—"

Manic could barely finish before Bunnie pulled him into a nearly crushing hug, lifting him off the ground. The green hedgehog wheezed until he was finally set back down on solid earth.

"You had us all worried there for a while, honey. You doin' alright?"

"I'm… Fine," replied Manic as he caught his breath. "What'd you kick Tweedledee and Tweedledum out of the labs for?"

"Sally caught 'em fiddling around with her whatchamacallit that'll apparently help undo the Roboticizer's transmorgification process. Or at least that's what I caught while her and Nicole were explaining it, there might be more this ol' noggin couldn't catch."

Longclaw stepped in to speak. "Well, how about we go in and see it all for ourselves?"

"Shoot, that's a great idea! I'm sure she'll be happy to see Manny's back around here."

"She's in the testing labs again isn't she?"

"Yes ma'am she is. Lemme get the door for y'all."

Not moving, Bunnie extended her robot arm out and held one of the doors open to let the three pass through. When they did, the rabbit walked up, retracting her arm in time so it clicked back into place just as she walked through the doorway herself.

As they passed down into the lower levels, Manic continued to feel the steady anxious unease of returning to this place. It hadn't been too long since he visited Mission Freedom, but the reason he stayed away was overwhelming enough to last… probably forever, if it wasn't for right now.

They stepped into the testing labs, where Sally was fiddling with Nicole's handheld. There was some sort of device was resting in a chair; it was large enough that someone would have to hold it with two hands, with one end clearly being the side that something would fire out of. Antoine was present in the corner of the room, hand on the handle of his sword in preparation for any sudden attack on the princess. Whether he would actually fight, or run away like he did in the robot debacle, was anyone's guess.

"Hey Sally-girl, I got some visitors for ya."

Sally looked up from the handheld when prompted by Bunnie, seeing the entering Mobians.

"Oh, hello." She said. "Tails, Madame Sophocles, it's nice to see you."

"Hi Sally!"

"Sally, I've told you before, you can just call me Longclaw! I've certainly known you long enough for you to do so."

The princess grunted noncommittally to that. Her eyes traveled to Manic. "…Hello, Manny."

Manic shivered slightly from the ice on her voice. He knew why she was so cold but he couldn't really comment on why that was the case. "Hey, princess." He managed to mumble out.

After narrowing her eyes at the green hedgehog for a second, Sally turned her handheld to the others.

"Say hi, Nicole."

The handheld chirped. "Hello, everyone."

"It's nice to see you, Nicole." Longclaw's eyes went to the corner. "And it's nice to see you as well, Antoine."

Though he would typically be a bit aggravated at being put on the spot, the presence of an authority figure such as Longclaw made Antoine pause before speaking. "…Bonjour, Madame Sophocles. Please pardon my lack of greeting. I was, as you say, in my own head."

"No hard feelings, Antoine." The attention was back on the princess. "What are you working on, Sally?"

"More de-roboticization efforts," replied Sally, patting the device she had. "Well, right now I'm focused on heavily sanitizing this thing after I caught Scratch and Grounder messing with it."

"They didn't break anything, did they?" Tails asked. "I can help if they did."

"Thanks Tails, but it's fine. I just caught them aiming this thing like a gun and playing pretend. Typical of them to misuse something very intricate."

The fox's tails fluttered as he hovered over to stand before the device with Sally, his head tilting curiously.

"This looks like part of a bigger device."

"Good eye. Nicole?"

Holding the handheld with the screen upwards, when prompted Nicole created a hologram. The device being worked on was part of a larger contraption, one that used a pod to transform one Mobian at a time.

"Oh wow. Did you create these schematics yourself?"

"With input from Nicole. Is something wrong with it?"

"No, no! Nothing like that. It's just… Maybe if you created more than one output point of the energy it could disperse evenly and prevent too much feedback in the primary energy bank."

"I accounted for that with an overflow energy disposal system. Like exhaust from a vehicle."

"That's a good idea, but you won't know if it needs maintenance until it goes wrong…"

"Why not have both?"

After a pause, Sally and Tails turned to look at Manic, perplexed by his suggestion.

"Both?" The fox asked his brother.

"Well… yeah. What if you have even dispersal like Tails wants but Sally's overflow system with each little doohickey that generates energy? That way, even if one goes wrong, you guys can repair it and reinforce the others at the same time."

"…that's actually a really good idea," Sally tapped her cheek with a finger. "Nicole, can you run diagnostics on this proposed redesign?"

"Way ahead of you, Sally. Generating simulated schematics for best possible execution of concept."

The schematics reformed into a new design- while mainly similar with the one-pod, one-person approach, the machinery was visibly different. After a moment, Sally retracted the hologram and looked over the screen of the device.

"Ninety percent accuracy. That's incredible." She said. After a second, she looked at Manic- she was still icy, but not as much as before. "…nice suggestion, Manny. Thank you."

Manic couldn't help but feel a small swell of pride for that. One of his best features was his ability to think outside the box… he'd like to think that was a reason he worked well in Mission Freedom as a research technician in the first place.

"I'm sure with some work I can get this puppy to a great spot." Tails said, patting the side of the contraption.

"I'll go over it with Rotor when he comes back in a minute— WHOA!"

The patting jostled the upright device enough to knock it over, making Sally dive in and grab it before it could hit the ground. Everyone was on high alert.

"Princesse!"

"Gah!" Tails rushed forwards and grabbed the contraption too. "Sally, I'm sorry!"

"It's fine! Just don't let it hit the ground!"

"We gotcha, honey!"

Bunnie and Longclaw came in and grabbed the tilting contraption too, helping to get it back up again. Antoine didn't help, though his hands were out as if he was ready just in case. Slowly, the four picked up the mechanism and put it right side up again.

"There… We go." Sally grunted after making it still again.

"Looks like that was a close one!"

The group turned to see Rotor in the doorway, holding a bag that was certainly lunch for the group. His eyebrows raised as he saw the lab's newest guests.

"Miss Longclaw! Hey!" He said. "It's been a while."

"Rotor, hello!" The owl noticed they were missing someone. "Wait, where's…?"

Down the hall of the lab, standing on the steps going down to level B3, Manic leaned against the wall with a hand on his chest as he tried to calm himself. His head was still spinning from hearing Sally mention that Rotor would be back in the testing labs, and he was nearly seen by the walrus when he slid into the stairway heading down.

It's been 427 days since he last spoke to Rotor. Ironically the same amount of time he's been absent from Mission Freedom. Everyone in the lab knew these two factoids were very heavily connected.

Manic came back on a whim, wanting a fresh start, but hearing that Rotor would be in the same room… The idea of having to talk to him again, having to bring up old wounds… Having to talk about their last conversation…

The world slowly rocked beneath him. Manic gripped the wall and focused, forcing the quakes to subside.

He swallowed thickly, slowing his breathing and trying to will the pit in his stomach from getting any deeper. One step forward, two steps back. At least today wasn't like the last 427 days though, so that was a plus.

The others were bound to realize he wasn't in the room and start looking for him. He had to find a way out… If he remembered correctly, there was a fire escape out on the side of the building that could be accessed in level B3. If he went all the way down, he could probably leave from there.

Though his breathing was eased, Manic was still anxious as he rushed down the steps to reach the bottom level laboratory, bursting through the doors and heading in.

The doctor at the only table in the lab tensed and turned, one hand behind his back. Starline's beak curled in a displeased snarl as he saw Manic walking in.

"Oh. It's you."

"Yeah, whatever, Starline. Do you know where the door to the fire escape is?"

"…over there." Replied the platypus, pointing to a wall with a glower.

"Cool, thanks."

The less he talked to Dr. Starline, the better. Manic walked away and headed towards the area that allegedly had the door to the fire escape. He pushed past a few things and looked over the wall, but didn't find any kind of door that was clearly marked to head outside.

As he did that, Starline pulled his hand from behind his back. His Tricore Gauntlet was still in beta, and still needed energy signatures from people in order to do its intended purpose… but there was no harm in doing some testing on the gauntlet's unintended side effect while in the presence of the weaker hedgehog sibling.

"You need those glasses checked, Starline. The door isn't over here."

Manic turned back around to face the doctor- as he did, he saw Starline hold out his gauntlet-covered hand, showing the green hedgehog a massive flash of colors emitting from the palm.

It was nearly blinding, but quickly caught him in a trance. Manic could feel himself sinking further into his mind, as if caught behind a screen and watching himself work while nestled within the recesses of his head. He felt himself become buried in his memories.

This was a bad time, though, because his memories was the last place he wanted to be. He winced as he forcibly recalled his past regrets.

"You can't keep burying your feelings and expecting them to just be fine, Manny!"

"What, like you're any better? The whole reason you're screaming at me right now is because you're overwhelmed at Mission Freedom and can't handle all the stress!"

"Oh screw you, Manny!"

"Screw YOU, Rotor!"

When they finally opened again, Manic's eyes had irises glowing blue. His quills rippled, his body slowly rising from the ground and making his feet dangle down. Starline's eyes bulged larger than his glasses, the hand with his tricore gauntlet lowering slowly as he was frozen in shock.

His entire body shaking, Manic stared blankly forwards as he was lifted from the ground, eventually coming to a stop a foot or so from the floor. As quickly as it started, a massive burst of vibrational energy (tinted green) erupted from Manic in all directions. The seismic blast was enough to knock items over, scoot larger supply boxes away, and fling Starline clear across the room. The doctor slammed into a wall and landed on the ground, unconscious.

Manic dropped to the floor, landing on his stomach. He slowly picked himself up.

"N-No… No, I can't do this again... I can't go through this again!"

He looked around, panicked. Luckily, after emitting that massive blast, the items that were moved from it now revealed the glowing "emergency exit" sign that pointed down to the fire escape door. They should probably have that seen at all times instead of being covered with supply boxes…

Scrambling forwards, nearly slipping from jelly legs after what he did, Manic got to the door and quickly left.

He reached the top floor from the fire escape, sprinting out of the front door without even checking if anyone was looking for him up there. As Manic ran out of the front door, he passed by Dulcy, who was enjoying a whole pizza, folded on itself to eat it as if it was a sandwich- she was the one who took Rotor to get that lunch, after all.

"Hey Manic!" The dragon said. "…Manic?"

Manic didn't reply. He sprinted away, headed down the massive hill, but going down to the side opposite of the town square. He was headed towards the residential district, which was present right before the industrial district at the very northern part of Green Hill.

He was breathing heavily by the time he got down the massive hill, but pressed on and kept running.

It's been a long time since he did something like that. Sure, he made a few quakes here and there, but he tried to keep away from any real emotional stuff in order to keep himself from doing even that. Creating a full seismic blast was something he thought he had under control.

Ever since he was little, Manic's had these weird vibrational powers. He couldn't control them, but he knew a shortcut: if he just kept himself from feeling sad or upset, he wouldn't cause any quakes anywhere. It was especially dangerous when he was overwhelmed, because then he could unleash a massive vibrational blast like he did just a minute ago. Because of all this, he had to navigate his younger life with the self-imposed restriction of never getting upset.

He stole stuff to cope. Then he nearly got Chuck fired from all the stealing, so the next method was a little something he called "bottle up literally everything and hope for the best". It was working well for him. (Not really)

The only people who knew about these weird powers were Chuck, Sonia… and Rotor. Starline might now know about them after what just happened, but he could easily just wave it away as a dream or thinking it was something entirely different- the latter was especially possible since the doctor never liked having to admit he underestimated anyone, and everyone underestimated Manic.

Reaching the end of the residential district, Manic was only stopped when his foot hit the root of a nearby tree, making him fall flat on his face.

"Ugh…" he groaned, picking himself up. "Bummer majores..."

"Need a hand?"

Looking up from the ground, Manic saw a hand stretched out to him. He took it, helped up to his feet. The helper was a squirrel, one with a big fluffy tail and a guitar strapped on his back.

"Thanks." Manic mumbled.

"Don't mention it," the mystery guy replied. He pointed a finger gun at the hedgehog. "You're the nephew of the city manager, aren't you?"

"Uh… yeah."

"Huh. Interesting. What's a fella like you sprinting at full speeds away from the commercial district?"

"I'm just trying to clear my head. Get away from all my stress."

"Get away from it all, eh? Wanna come to my band practice?"

"Band practice?"

"Yeah, I got a rock band. Judging from your vibe…" The squirrel looked him over. "I think you're gonna fit in just fine. You in?"

"Anything's better than being back there. Deal." Manic sighed, walking with him. "I'm Manic, by the way."

"I thought your name was Manny."

"Manic's a nickname."

"Huh. Well it's definitely more hardcore. I'm Ricky. Nice to meet you, Manic."

"Nice to meet you too."

Ricky gestured for Manic to follow, leading him further away from the big green hill. After one last glance back to Mission Freedom HQ, the green hedgehog hustled away to keep up.

They passed through the residential district, cutting through yards to head further north.

"So what's your band's name?"

"Deep Underground. We mostly do some rock songs, original stuff and covers. We're kinda experimental with our stuff too."

"Got a lotta fans?"

"Eh, a few people have stuck with us through the years. We're hoping to catch our big break at this mini-concert back in town in a few days."

"There's a concert in town and I haven't heard of it? That's crazy."

"It's in that old abandoned warehouse towards the west end, the one that was shut down because it only had one exit door?"

"Oh yeah, right. That's a safety hazard though, isn't it?"

"Nothing more metal than the possibility of danger and death at any second. Thats what I like about it."

"Well… fair enough, I guess."

"It's just for one afternoon." Ricky rolled his eyes "What're you, your uncle?"

"No, absolutely not."

"Then ease up. You're not with your family right? Just keep it chill."

Manic felt a little flustered at the accusation he was like his uncle. He wasn't even that pressed about the issue… maybe Ricky was right though. The last thing Manic wanted was to be neurotic like his uncle.

They walked beyond the suburbs of Green Hill, entering the industrial side of the district. The streets were sectioned off, giving many different manufacturing companies room for their factories and warehouses.

Manic could see the smoke stacks of the different factories emitting white clouds of steam, generated from their pollution-conscious means of creating supplies. They were all contained within one pocket dimension, after all, and even if they did want to risk being completely smogged by using the ways one would see back on Earth, there weren't any fossils within South Island anyway.

After letting an electric freightliner truck pass by with a bunch of wooden building supplies, Ricky continued to lead Manic towards an abandoned part of the industrial district, with only one warehouse and a closed off factory.

"Whoaaa…" Manic was surprised. "Where did this come from? I never heard of any of the businesses over here shutting down…"

"This has been here for a year or two. This warehouse and the factory used to belong to Krebs Metals Incorporated- the guys who make the precious metals around town? Apparently there was a serious accident that caused them to up and leave. Nobody knows what they're up to nowadays."

"Krebs? Why does that name sound familiar…?"

"The crab couple? Their daughter Chelsea still lives in Green Hill, in the upper west side."

"Ohhh, Crabmeat!" The green hedgehog snapped his fingers and nodded as he put two and two together. "I always forget she has that other name…"

"Crabmeat?" Ricky looked perplexed. "Why Crabmeat?"

"Because that spoiled brat used to bully my sister. I like pissing her off."

"And all you could come up with is Crabmeat?"

"Sometimes the simplest options are the best."

"The simplest option would be to not hold a grudge against someone rich. You never thought to put the mack on that Chelsea girl and get a few bucks?"

Manic winced. "Ugh, no. Why would I betray my sister like that?"

"To get some cash off of a rich girl's trust fund. Your sister would understand- if not, hey, it's her problem."

Though the flippant attitude of Ricky was starting to turn Manic off a little, it was quickly changed as the squirrel pulled open the doors to the factory, shedding light to the inside.

Within the massive warehouse, there were only two things: a drumset, and another Mobian standing alone. This Mobian was a rat, with black fur, wearing red overalls that had dulled over gold buttons on them. His gloved hands were plucking at a bass guitar in his hands.

"I knew you'd be in here." Ricky grinned, gesturing Manic in. "Manic, this is Mick. Micky, say hi to our newest groupie."

Mick plucked a string on his bass pointedly, his red eyes flicking up to look at Manic. The hedgehog's eyebrows raised in surprise from the cold vibe he got from the rat.

"How long's this one gonna last, Rick?"

"Oh come on, don't be so pessimistic."

"How long am I… gonna last?" Manic looked at Ricky, confused.

"Every other week, Ricky brings in another sucker he convinced to join Deep Underground. They're here for a week, they get fed up with Ricky, they leave."

"I can't help if I'm striving for the best drummer for our band."

"Nobody wants to be in a band with you. That should say a lot."

"Everyone except you. You're still in this band."

"I don't have a choice. Nobody else wants me in their band."

As the two bickered, Manic strolled over to the drumkit nearby. It was in perfect condition… the amount of new dummers they've had must've meant anyone who's played on this thing were being gentle with it.

The drumsticks rested on the low tom. Manic picked them up, instinctively twirling one between his fingers. The drums was one of his favorite instruments, mostly because of his simplicity. It was hard to mess up playing the drums, and he liked that.

"You wanna play?"

Manic's attention went back to Ricky, who was looking directly at him- so was Mick, as their conversation had died. Though the squirrel looked eager, the rat looked very hesitant, probably due to the aforementioned revolving door of drummers they had.

It was tempting, but Manic was trying to get away from creating vibrations.

"…I dunno."

"C'mon, give it a shot."

"Eh…"

"Don't you like rock bands? They need a beat."

The hedgehog paused. He put both drumsticks in one hand, clearly intending to put them back on one of the toms for someone else. When he did that, Ricky scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"Right, I forgot. City manager's nephew… can't have too much fun, can you?"

"Rick, ease up on the guy."

"Yeah, you're right, he might go crying back to his uncle and get us shut down."

The vitriol made Manic pause, his brow furrowed. Clearly this Ricky guy had issues, no wonder people kept leaving his band. But at the same time, Manic felt an urge to really make this guy put his foot in his mouth.

Manic separated the drumsticks again, scooting over to sit in the drum stool. He glanced at Ricky again, now instead seeing a smug look of satisfaction on the squirrel's face.

After another twirl of the stick in his fingers, Manic started to play. He gave a simple beat, his foot tapping the bass drum's pedal as he gently tapped the toms and cymbal.

His eyes were closed for it, keeping up with the beat in his head, but they opened again when he heard Ricky yelling over the drums.

"Lemme know when you're ready to play something good, Manic!"

The hedgehog's jaw locked. His arms moved, evolving his beat, playing something more expressive. From his peripherals, Manic could see the bassist shake his head in disappointment, resigning himself to the scenario.

Manic kept playing. He looked up at Ricky, but only saw the squirrel tuning his guitar. Clearly, what the hedgehog was playing wasn't enough for him.

Not enough. That seemed to be two words that enveloped Manic's entire life up to this point. From having uncontrollable powers, to being a kleptomaniac, to… Rotor…

His eyes closed again, his hands moving subconsciously across the drums as he returned into the recesses of his memories. Things he kept locked away behind doors of rotting wood, ready to expose themselves at any time, eating away at those binds like termites… in order to eat away at Manic's mind.

"Do you really think I'd look good with this, Manny?"

Manic's environment changed as he began to dissociate. He "opened his eyes" again to find himself in a piercing shop in Gigalopolis. This scenario was very familiar, it happened recently; he snuck out of Green Hill without Chuck to spend the day in South Island's capital.

He was watching from afar, as if it was a scene on television. The hedgehog tried stepping forwards, but found an invisible wall directly in front of him. He pressed his hands against that barrier to watch the scene unfold.

"Yeah! C'mon, Boomer, you'd look awesome with that piercing." The past Manic, Manny, said excitedly. "We came to this shop for you to get it in the first place! Don't tell me you're getting cold feet."

"It's different actually being in the shop compared to planning it out." Rotor chuckled nervously. "I think it would look cool, it's just… really daunting to think about. This is a really big step…"

Manny put his hand on Rotor's back, smiling softly at him. "You'll look good, I promise. This is for your mom, yeah?"

"It's supposed to be. It's the same piercing she had… I just worry that people will think I'm weird for doing this."

"You're not weird. It's for your mom!"

"People can be cruel. Just look at my dad, he named me Rotor."

Manic smiled a little, reminiscent of the memory. He watched his younger self snort and chuckle.

"…hey, how about this," replied Manny, clearly getting an idea. "I can get a piercing too!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! That way if anyone asks, if you feel like they'd judge you because it's in honor of your mom, you can just say it matches me! Plus you can just say I forced you to get it."

"…alright. But you have to get it done at the same time as me."

"I will, I will. I'll hold your hand too if you want, Boomer."

"I'd like that, Manny."

Rotor and Manny smiled at one another. Facing each other, they did their special handshake- bumping their fists on top of one another, they pushed their index fingers together to point to the sky and hooked their pinkies together after, keeping them linked after.

The world rumbled around Manic, making him step back and keel over, his hands on the side of his head. He let out a struggled groan, becoming acutely aware of the sweat on his brow and how much his arms hurt.

His eyes opened again, for real this time, just in time to pause his hand from hitting another drum. His hearing kicked back in, hearing the echoes of the drum solo he just played. Manic could hear the windows rattling from the performance, slowly dying down.

Looking up from the drums, Manic saw Ricky and Mick still in front of him, both of them absolutely astonished from how Manic played. After a second, a big grin came across Ricky's face.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" The squirrel said, his yelling reverberating off the walls with the drum solo. "How did you do that? It's like you became an entirely different person!"

"I… I dunno." Manic looked at the drums, seeing marks left from his dissociated drumming. "It kinda just happened."

"Well however you did that, it was amazing. You're exactly what I'm looking for!"

Those words were something Manic hasn't heard in a long time. The hedgehog perked up, looking at Ricky with surprise and interest. It was nice to feel like he was someone's first choice for once.

"Really?"

"Hell yeah! I want you in Deep Underground, I want you to play with us at that concert in a few days. We're gonna absolutely kill it out there with you on the drums!"

Manic smiled at that. The ability to use this pain he's been put through towards something not only productive, but something that will gain him notoriety? That sounded like a done deal.

Part of him felt hesitant, knowing he should probably go back to Mission Freedom and actively work on helping them like he used to… but there was a much louder voice telling him to use all these negative memories for something good. Hey, he was letting out all his bottled emotions, wasn't that a good thing?

"I'm in."

"I knew you would be."

Though Ricky was happy, Mick sighed, shaking his head again and returning to his bass. Manic stood up, stuffing his drumsticks in his fanny pack.

"What's next? You gonna show me the songs you have lined up?"

"We'll get there, Manic. But first… You need a new getup to match the band."

---

It took a day for Sonic and Chuck to reach Lake Rocky in Blue Marine. Between the drive, immediately sleeping when they got to the lake late at night, and immediately getting up to go off on the water for fishing… Sonic was barely containing himself from the lack of movement he did.

The lake was secluded, almost sunken down as the shore was surrounded with hills. They had parked their vehicle, the Tempest, close to the base of one of these peaks, and set up their tent right next to the car.

Right now, they were in a canoe. Uncle Chuck was right about the water being shallow- Sonic could see the floor of the lake through the clear blue water, along with the fish that were swimming by. His uncle mentioned that the lake was connected with the shores of South Island, allowing the strange fish from the indigo waters around the island to slip into the lake.

The factoids were interesting, but they weren't enough to satiate Sonic's longing to do anything except sit still in silence.

It had been a few hours since they got on the water, and Chuck had told Sonic to keep quiet for a while in order to allow the fish to get used to their canoe being in the water.

Uncle Chuck had helped Sonic set up a line. Sonic mentioned that he went fishing on the surface before, specifically with Tails and Team Rose, telling him about Big and Cream. Though the old hedgehog seemed intrigued, he was clearly focused on fishing.

A lingering feeling of unease was present in Sonic's gut. He recalled their conversation a while ago when Dulcy was brought to Green Hill… Sonic not only disobeyed Chuck (in a manner of speaking) but he affirmed that he, Sonic, would not hesitate to get involved in a dangerous situation if the moment called for it.

Like Longclaw told Sonic, he just needed time. But it was hard waiting, as always.

They hadn't gotten any real bites since they got out on the water- Sonic thought he did, but just pulled up some weeds from the lake's floor, causing him to recast.

The stillness was unbearable. Sonic's knee was bouncing slightly.

"…so…" the supersonic hedgehog said, speaking at a normal volume. "Anything new with you?"

"…hmph," Chuck shrugged. The two of them were facing away from each other on the canoe, so Sonic couldn't see his face. "Mission Freedom's no closer to finding a cure for de-roboticization."

"Why does it have to? On the surface, people use prosthetics all the time."

"If your leg got cut off, would you settle for a prosthetic, or would you want your leg back?"

"…okay, fair point."

"We haven't opened up the Organic Transmutator," Chuck said, pointedly using the device's true name. "To the public because we can't change limbs back. Some people like prosthetics, especially robot parts, but we want the option available to turn the parts back to organic limbs."

"Speaking of people using it, how many people have gotten their parts roboticized anyway? I've only ever seen Bunnie."

"Three. Bunnie was the first."

"Really? Where's the other two?"

"They… Didn't get what they wanted. I explained to them what the process was, yet they were still angry at the result. They both disappeared, and… I haven't seen them since." The older hedgehog reeled in and recast his line. "That's why I'm so hesitant to open it up to the public. There are some people out there who are willing to do anything to preserve what they feel is normal… But are shocked of the consequences."

"How did you even make that thing? Tails is still fawning over it."

The uncle chuckled. "I'm sure he is. I harvested energy present within the island, one that could naturally transmutate objects if put in a concentrated beam- particularly, it turned organic flesh into metal and circuitry. After some experiments, I had a working prototype ready, just in time for Longclaw to tell me about a young woman who got involved in a pumpjack incident."

"Bunnie."

Chuck nodded. "She was running from the Yellow Desert Baronies... Longclaw knew the Wolf Pack would be indifferent towards her plight, and she wanted to help. Bunnie's injuries were too severe for standard medical procedures to save the limbs, so…"

"You decided for her?"

"No, of course not. She gave us permission after we explained."

"…what was she running from?"

"That's her story, Sonny. She'll tell you in due time. She does like you, after all."

Sonic huffed a chuckle, shaking his head. Bunnie was nice, he liked spending time with her at Mission Freedom. Though she got into her head sometimes- like when Chuck showed her off to Sonic and Tails that first time, almost as if she was an attraction of some kind- she was always kind and a total fireball. Sonic really liked that.

"She's not the only one. I hear Sally's really warmed up to you, too."

"Really? That's news to me."

"Oh come on, don't act like you two weren't acting buddy-buddy with one another after that debacle with Knothole's robot."

The blue hedgehog hesitated, remembering the situation- and how he never told Chuck that the robot was a Robotnik creation. He carried on: "How'd you know about that?"

"You'll learn that I have eyes everywhere, sonny boy."

"Yeah, yeah. Speaking of the ladies… what about you and Longclaw?"

Chuck scoffed. "Oh golly, not you too. Don't I get enough of this from Sonia and Manny?"

"You two are very close! I mean, she's usually involved with everything we do as a family unit when she's not busy. From what Manic and Sonia said, she's been helping you since you got here."

"That's true, I'll give you that. But Longclaw is a very trusted friend of mine. She's reliable, she's hardworking, and she genuinely cares about Manny and Sonia." The old hedgehog sounded wistful. "You have to have someone like that, right? Besides just Miles, because he's your brother. Someone you trust deeply, someone who's been with you for a long time."

"…I do. I really do."

A hand gripped on Sonic's elbow, making him turn. Uncle Chuck had turned in his seat, now looking at his nephew with a heavy brow, his expression serious.

"Then don't let 'em go." He said simply.

Sonic paused, but smiled, nodding at him. He turned in his seat as well, letting the two of them face the same direction.

"Has Longclaw really been taking care of the sibs since you got here?"

"Not all the time. Just whenever I had to work, mostly. Most of the time it was her, other times it was her father if she got too busy. They were always happy to help."

"What jobs did you have when you got here?"

"Golly, you want me to list all of them? It feels like I had a hundred of them."

"Oh, what? You're telling me revered village figure Charles Hedgehog was fired from jobs while he was here? Unc, here I thought more of you."

"Ah, hush." Chuck shook his head, amused. "The only jobs I could really get were factory jobs, and I wasn't getting any younger. I left jobs to pursue higher paying ones so I could keep supporting your siblings."

"When did you get to become part of the village council?"

"When I made a name for myself, fixing things up around town. Machines for factories, devices for businesses. I became the go-to technology guy, enough that I was offered a seat not too long after I became known as that. From there, I became city manager."

"And Mission Freedom?"

"I used my new position as city manager to get that going, with council and royal approval. Green Hill's just the main headquarters, we got other Mission Freedom facilities across South Island, one for every district."

"I knew I saw something that looked like that when we were driving here… What do the others do?"

"Depends on the area. The one here in Blue Marine focuses on purifying and distributing water, studying and helping aquatic life. It's all relative."

"Wow… That's way past cool, unc."

"Thanks, sonny boy. I think so too."

Sonic paused. He had another question on his mind, but didn't know if it was his place to ask.

"…you wanna know if I've worked on trying to get South Island outta the Underground, don't you?"

"…am I really that predictable?"

"It's one of Mission Freedom's top objectives, and I've seen how you keep looking over the statistics in the labs," Chuck wasn't upset, a small smile on his face. "I've studied the possibilities for a while, everyone at Mission Freedom has. But all the calculations say it'll take—"

"Ten trillion electronvolts of energy, yeah." Sonic sighed. "There's gotta be a way to make that amount of energy. Maybe Tails would know."

"All in due time, Sonny. Let's just focus on fishing for now."

The silence overtook them again, making the pair return to their fishing poles.

Chuck's words weighed on Sonic's mind. The old hedgehog had given everything he had to try and help Green Hill- to the point that it landed him a spot as a public figure. Uncle Chuck wanted to help people so badly, but he wanted to do it his way. He was scared of himself, Sonic and the siblings, all being thrown into chaos.

Sonic remembered how he felt when he left Aleena's compound, not even a decade ago. It felt like a lifetime ago… He was practically a completely different person now. The death of his mother was so overwhelming that Sonic had completely ignored… everything involving where he came from.

It took years for him to find Vector and Rouge again, and they both grew up with him. Tails wasn't his "brother" by title until recently. It finally felt like his walls were being broken down, but he didn't know if he could handle all of that coming out. He had let his fury out on Shadow, sure, but this was different- this was sadness.

Uncle Chuck had to deal with that same thing, then go through it again when Sonic and Tails fell in.

He'd never even sat down and cried over his mother being gone. Not once in the last five or six years did Sonic ever cry for his mother, there was always something more important to run towards… was it the same for Chuck, too?

Suddenly, Sonic's fishing pole started jiggling, snapping out of his trance. Before he could react, the line was pulled, curving the pole and making Sonic's arms stick out to keep it from flying out of his hands.

"Whoa now!" Chuck said, noticing. "Grab the reel, sonny boy, before it gets away!"

The reel's handle was spinning out of control, and at his uncle's prompt, Sonic grabbed the handle to bring it to a stop. The fish was very strong, and Sonic grunted as he started pulling it back.

There was a shift in the canoe as Uncle Chuck left his pole behind, stepping behind Sonic and leaning in to grab the handle and the reel with his nephew. Together, they started to slowly crank the reel, working against the force of the fish.

With the fish nearly pulling the line off the pole, Sonic and Chuck gave each other a glance, knowing it would take more than simple force to reel it in.

Working together, they continued to turn the reel, gathering up speed slowly but surely. After a minute, their hands became a blur of blue and teal as they both pushed their arms to working at supersonic speed.

Because of this, when they finally got the fish in, it flew from the water and slammed into both of them, knocking the pair back into the canoe with yells of shock from both of them. The fish was big, with red and purple scales.

Though it flopped around on top of them, Sonic and Chuck managed to turn the fish over, getting up to their feet. After they did, the old hedgehog chuckled and clapped Sonic on the back. The pair looked at each other, equally happy from this development.

After getting the barbless fish snare from its mouth, Sonic and Chuck both worked together again to toss the massive fish back into the water. They watched it swim away in the clear blue water, off to lurk elsewhere.

Sonic, though wet and now smelling like fish, was ecstatic. Maybe fishing wasn't that bad after all. He felt Chuck pat his back again, also pleased.

"Well, I think we should end it here on a high note. Let's get back to shore, sonny boy- we should make sure the tent's secure, it looks like it's gonna storm soon."

---

Landing on the front porch, Longclaw entered the Hedgehog residence freely, worry on her face and her feathers ruffled. The sky was darkening, the nebula-like appearance beginning to ripple, indicating an incoming storm.

"I checked Great Turquoise, nothing. He's not in Gigalopolis, or anywhere in the Silver Plains for that matter." She said.

Sitting at the dining room table were Sonia and Tails, both of them worried- the latter was still in his pajamas, even. Both of them were thinking of the same thing: where their brother was.

After rushing out of Mission Freedom HQ the previous day, Manic didn't come back to the house. They originally thought that Manic would be back at the house in the afternoon, but he never showed back up.

Sonia sighed, rubbing her head. "Where could he be? What was he wearing last?"

"Sonia, he wears the same thing every day," Tails replied. "Actually, we all do, which is kinda weird now that I think about it…"

"We should call your uncle. Chuck would be able to tell us Manny's typical spots."

"No!" Sonia said, nearly interrupting Longclaw. "No, it's fine. We have it under control. We don't need to worry Uncle Chuck any more than we all usually do. He's getting a break, let's let him enjoy it."

Though it was clear Tails and Longclaw were both about to debate her on this, but they were kept from it by the sound of the front door opening, and Manic walking in.

Manic looked… different. His clothes were dark, his fanny pack missing, his orange vest now hooked on one of his fingers as he carried it over his back. Though his eyelids were usually painted with dark paint, it was now more pronounced, with streaks going down his face.

"Manny!" Longclaw fluttered over, grabbing his arms. "Are you alright? Where were you?! We were worried sick!"

"I'm fine, LC. Way past fine."

He pulled away from Longclaw, going to the fridge and getting himself some juice. The horned owl, still worried and now confused, looked over at Sonia and Tails for assistance.

Sonia cleared her throat. "Manic, where did you go last night? You ran away from Mission Freedom HQ, and you come back looking like you fell into a goth kid's laundry pile."

"It's giving a full caps lock 'OW THE EDGE,' dude. Where'd you even get that stuff?" Tails added. "Oh man, maybe Shadow fell in here with us too… Nobody tell Sonic."

After taking a full sip of juice, Manic spoke. "I'm fine. I met some new friends last night after I left Mission Freedom, we had a crazy time last night."

"Are you okay though, Manny?"

"Never better, LC. In fact, I got news," he chugged the rest of his juice. "Your least favorite sibling's joined a band!"

"A band?"

"Least favorite sibling?" Sonia glanced at Tails, who met her gaze.

"Deep Underground, it's a rock band. We spent the night playing the songs we're gonna play at this concert going on at the rundown warehouse towards the edge of the commercial district."

"Rundown…? You mean the one that was shut down because it only has one exit?"

"The one exit with doors that only open inwards?" Sonia added to Longclaw's question.

"That's the one! The concert's tomorrow. You guys could probably come, but you're gonna have to procure your own tickets." Manic tossed his empty glass in the sink carelessly. "Anyways, we gonna head to Mission Freedom? I got some time to kill before the band wants to practice again."

"Mission Freedom? Manny, are you serious? You just got back after being gone all night!" Longclaw was bewildered. "You going missing is serious business."

"I know, LC. But… I just needed to sort my emotions," the hedgehog went to Longclaw and put a hand on her arm. "I didn't mean to scare you guys. I won't do it again, I promise."

The owl was clearly swayed by Manic's supposed sincerity. Sonia wasn't, however, her eyebrows furrowing as she felt something… off. Something was wrong with Manic, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

"…okay, we can go." Longclaw ultimately said. "But no running off unless you tell us."

"Deal."

"I'll go wait outside. I need some fresh air after this morning."

Longclaw patted Manic on the head before turning and leaving. Tails, also clearly feeling something was off, slowly got up from his chair and stood up.

"I'm… gonna go get dressed." He said. After giving a look to Sonia, the fox retreated upstairs.

Sonia got up, walking over to stand in front of Manic, her face a mix of worried and upset, crossing her arms.

"Manic, what the heck happened yesterday?" She asked. "You disappear on us and didn't even give us confirmation that you're alright. You had Longclaw pulling her feathers out, Tails and I were terrified!"

"I'm here though, aren't I?" Manic replied, flippantly. "C'mon, it's fine. I promise I won't wuss out and run away from Mission Freedom this time."

"Wuss out? Manic, be serious."

"I am, can't you tell?"

"Manny, this isn't a joke. You disappear, then come back looking like… this! And you've joined a band?"

"Yeah. I mean, you said music is what you'd rather me be doing, right?"

"I said that to Sonic, and it was about you possibly stealing again! This is far from what I meant, and you know it. I'm close to calling Chuck on you."

"Sonia, c'mon. It's like you said, we don't need to worry Chuck any more than we usually do, especially about me. He's worried enough about me already."

Sonia sputtered a bit at that. "What are you…? You know he worries about you all the time."

"Yeah, about the next time I'm gonna mess up."

Her face softened at that. She nearly looked like she was going to reach out, but stopped herself before she could even start, not knowing where Manic's clothes have been. Mentally, Manic felt annoyed that she would "pretend" to even try.

"Is this about Rotor?" She asked, softly to keep Tails from possibly hearing. "You ran out when he was mentioned yesterday. I thought I felt some shakes after that… Is this what it's about?"

"It's fine."

"Not if you're gonna go all seismic, Manic! You just ran off and dealt with it yourself, you should at least talk to me or someone about it!"

"Like who? You were home, Longclaw doesn't know about my powers, Chuck is away."

"You could tell Tails."

"And burden my little brother with that?"

"Then text Sonic!" Sonia was getting aggravated with Manic's insistence. "You don't know their own experiences. You don't have to… tell them about that side of you, but at least let them know you're having a tough time!"

"…They're not used to all of this. Not used to me. They don't need to know their brother's nothing but a depressed weirdo."

"Who's weird?"

Sonia and Manic turned, seeing Tails come to the bottom of the steps. With his arrival, the magenta hedgehog turned back to her younger twin, looking at Manic expectantly.

Manic didn't face her. "Nobody. Just an inside joke. Nothing you know about."

"Oh… Alright." The teenager was still put off from the vibes. "…are we heading out?"

"Yes, let's."

Knowing his sister wouldn't reach out to stop him even if she wanted, Manic turned and walked away. Sonia, her face changed to one of pure worry, watched her brother leave the room, her arms falling to her sides.

Tails came up beside her.

"What's… Going on?"

"Manic is… Going through some things right now."

"I kinda figured. What should we do?"

"The only thing we can do. Be there for him."

The remaining two siblings joined Manic on the porch, where Longclaw stood before on the lawn. Not wanting to be carried up, Sonia chose to take her motorcycle- she was clearly very conflicted to leave Manic, but had to pick the "familiar germs" over whatever could be on Longclaw and Tails.

Once they left, the flight was very quiet. Tails carried Manic by his arms again, letting him swing his legs slowly below him.

Though he didn't know what Sonia and Manic talked about, Tails knew something was much worse with Manic than both he and their sister were letting on. The fox wasn't stupid- far from that, actually- this shift in behavior and demeanor was clearly led on from a metaphorical dam bursting; this was a long time coming for Manic.

Once again, even in a same position as the day before, Tails thought back to when Sonic became a jerk during that anti-chilidog, pro-QuickFit phase he briefly had back when they had Bud. Tails had wondered how Sonic became so bad, so quickly, and the lead hypothesis from the fox was that the negative emotions of Aleena's death were still lingering. Chilidogs were a comfort food, and suddenly they didn't comfort him anymore.

It's been a while since then, and Sonic's learned to actively talk about and express his feelings rather than just put it all into one thing… but did Manic ever learn that? Has he talked to Chuck and Sonia about his feelings, would he talk to Sonic and Tails about it?

As soon as they landed at the headquarters of Mission Freedom, Sonia ripped in on her motorcycle, clearly not wanting to miss out on meeting her siblings and Longclaw.

"You sure you don't need to go to the city council building, Sonia?"

"It'll be fine," she replied to Longclaw. "I told Muttski to call me if something went wrong."

"Yeah, yeah, c'mon." Manic said, waving his hand. "Let's do it to it people, the labs await."

Though the others were still hesitant, they followed Manic into the Mission Freedom building. The other assorted volunteers helping out were pretty warm towards Manic as the hedgehog passed through the top floor, but he didn't even acknowledge them.

"Miss Longclaw," the owl was approached by Cat, the older worker on the project. "I'm glad you're here."

"Hello, Cat! How are you?"

"I'm well. I was hoping to go over some things that would need city approval. I know Chuck deals with this kinda stuff, but I need higher clearance for some of these things so the royal family isn't on my tail."

"Sure! Um…" Longclaw glanced back at the siblings. "Will this take long?"

"Thirty minutes tops."

"Okay, let's get to it. Go on ahead, I'll meet you in your office."

Cat nodded and parted. Longclaw turned to speak with the siblings, only to find that Manic was already gone. The owl frowned, looking at Tails and Sonia.

"Please keep an eye on him."

"We will, Longclaw, don't worry."

Sonia's reassurance clearly didn't help Longclaw, as she still looked hesitant to leave. Regardless, she turned and walked away to follow Cat into the offices.

The siblings left the top floor and headed down into the lower levels. They stopped at the first basement level, looking in but not seeing anybody there- the others must be down in level B2.

"Sonia," Tails said as they walked downstairs. "This was probably a mistake."

"I'm starting to feel that the longer we're in here."

"Do you think it'll get really bad like yesterday? Why did he even run yesterday?"

Stopping at the door for level B2, Sonia sighed. She took her time spritzing the knob with sanitizer this time, looking over at Tails.

"Manic hasn't been here in a while because… He has history."

"With the project?"

"No. With Rotor. I don't… want to tell you everything, because that's his job. But I'm worred with this new attitude, he's going to act out when Rotor's near him."

"You think he will?"

"It's a strong possibility."

The door opened, letting them pass through. There was a utility cart nearby with a large amount of metal parts stacked on it. A sticky note was attached to the handle.

"Someone please move this to the lab. - Sally"

Seeing it, Sonia sighed. She sprayed the handles of the cart before pushing it forwards with a grunt. Tails followed along, tails spinning slowly with anticipation of what could happen next with Manic.

"You certainly look… different."

Sally's voice is what Sonia and Tails heard when they entered the testing lab. Within the lab was Sally, Antoine and Bunnie, standing around the same prototype de-roboticizer part from yesterday (though a little modified) and speaking with Manic.

"I'm trying something new. Wearing something different." Manic glanced over the princess. "You ever try that for once? Something new? I think you've worn that vest every day for the last twenty years."

The princess' eyebrows went up, but not in surprise, rather in a 'you really want to do this?' kind of way.

"Hey!" Sonia said, feigning happiness, wanting the attention on her. "Here's the cart!"

"Hey there, strong-girl." Bunnie greeted her. "Aw, thanks for moving that. Rotor would've, but he got busy focusing on work before he could."

"Shocker." Manic grumbled.

"Where do you want me to put the stuff?"

"Just set it down anywhere in the room." Sally said. "They're parts that'll help us with the working prototype."

"Interesting stuff," replied Manic, though his tone said otherwise. "Anyway, I'm gonna be part of this concert going on tomorrow night, you all should totally come out and support me. It's in that abandoned building near the edge of the commercial district."

"The rundown business building?" Bunnie asked.

"The one that had been shutting down because of the many safety violations within it?" Antoine added.

"Because it only had one exit whose doors opened inwards?" Sally finished the question.

"Yup, that's the one. You guys should totally come. We're gonna be playing some real good rock music."

"That sounds killer, sugar-rock, but I don't think I'm ready for public appearances yet."

"Is that why you came to Knothole during the business with the robot?" Manic asked her blandly.

"I mean public appearances where I'll be hassled and questioned about my robot parts all night. I don't want to get overwhelmed."

"Should probably get used to it since you're most likely going to look like that for a long, long time. Just saying."

Manic's words made Bunnie frown.

"What about you, 'twan?"

"I am to remain at the princess' side, as requested by your royal majesty." The guard replied "I will not be attending this, as you call it, 'rock concert' as such."

"The loud noise might scare you anyways. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be hassled carrying around an extra set of pants."

Antoine was clearly offended by this. Nearby, Tails looked at Sonia, who met his gaze with a similar look of shock and worry.

"Sally, it's your turn. You coming tonight?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to." Sally replied nonchalantly, scanning the prototype parts with the Nicole device "Nicole, give me an estimate of the parts I can use from this metal for the new prototype de-Roboticizer."

"On it, Sally."

"Hey, you think that thing could help make better music? Maybe Nicole wants to go…"

Sally snatched her handheld away from Manic when he reached for it, looking at him with a stone cold glower.

"No." She said simply. "Nicole is not some 'instant groupy' for your band. If we don't want to go, find other people, Manic."

Though surprised for a moment, Manic scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, princess killjoy."

Just at that moment, someone else joined the room: Rotor. Carrying a clipboard, he was flipping over the data on the sheets, not looking up for the moment.

"Hey, Rotor…"

"Hey, Tails," the walrus kept turning through his data. "Sally, I got the latest energy readings from the Roboticizer for your latest prototype. You would most likely need to match or exceed this energy output for your de-Roboticizer."

When it was handed to her, Sally took the clipboard. The princess didn't reply directly, instead loudly clearing her throat to make sure Rotor was paying attention. She tilted her head towards the nearby Manic, who was idly clipping and unclipping his spiked wristbands.

Rotor noticed him when directed, his back straightening to perk up at the newest guest. "Manny!"

Tails slowly walked over to where Sonia was, who was nearly finished unloading the utility cart; both where watching the scene unfold before them.

"Yeah, hi, Rotor."

The use of his name made Rotor pause, as if not expecting that, but he continued. "It's… Been a while. How are you?"

"Better. Mondo better, actually." Manic replied. In tandem with his already cold attitude, the green hedgehog wasn't even looking at Rotor as he replied. "Still doing nothing with your time but working?"

"I'm trying to help Mission Freedom as best I can, yeah." Rotor's face was slowly falling. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh no, no. Being in the middle of a cumbersome conversation is exactly the kind of thing I needed today."

The sarcastic reply immediately made the others look at Manic with different levels of disdain. The worst of all with Rotor, whose face completely fell at that.

"I just want to know what you're up to, man."

"Alright, fine. If you really have to know, I'm in a band. A rock band," Manic replied. "We're playing tomorrow. I'd say you could come, but… I know how it can be 'too much' for you."

Those words had more ice than anything Tails had ever heard from Manic, making the fox's tail fur stand on end. He turned his head as he heard his sister put the last piece of metal on the cart down on the floor, her eyes staring hard at her twin brother.

Rotor was taken aback from that. He frowned, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I probably wouldn't be able to make it anyway," he replied stoically. "I have a job to get back to. Do you remember what that's like, Manny? Actually contributing to something? Positively?"

Manic's jaw stiffened, firmly clicking his wristband closed. He turned to face Rotor completely, but was stopped with a robot hand on his shoulder. Sally and Bunnie were beside Rotor now, the latter having extended her robot arm to halt Manic in his tracks.

"Boy," the rabbit warned, eyes narrowing. "You better back off or I'm gonna make you see stars while it's daytime."

Before Manic could reply, he was hit in the side by Sonia pushing the (now empty) utility cart. She smiled- forcefully, almost sheepishly- as she shuffled her brother away from the area and out of the room.

"I'm gonna go look at something with Manic real quick."

"Good idea." Sally deadpanned.

The siblings disappeared. Once they were gone, Rotor sighed, slouching forwards and taking off his hat. Tails hovered over, putting his hand on one of his arms- Sally put her hand on his other arm.

"That boy's cornbread ain't done in the middle." Bunnie growled, hands on her hips.

"I am agreeing with Bunnie. Manic is acting, as you say, like a total flab-biscuit."

"I don't think nobody says that, sugar-twan."

"You mean 'don't think anybody,' Bunnie, what you said is a double negative." Tails corrected her.

"Y'all get what I mean- and what Antoine means, too. That hog was acting like a real 'see ya next tuesday'. What's gotten into sugar-rock all of a sudden?"

"It's my fault," Rotor said, solemnly. "I should've just left when I saw him in here."

"You didn't know he was going to act like that, Rote." Sally said, rubbing his arm. "It's not on you to prevent his bad behavior."

"He's just sad, Sally. So am I. I just…" Rotor sighed. "I was hoping we could talk. Actually, really talk, after a year of just… silence. I want to talk to him again, I want to be friends like we used to be. But I guess he's still not ready."

"Aww, darlin'…"

Bunnie walked up and gave Rotor a hug, joined by Sally a moment later. Though Tails was about to step away, Bunnie put her right hand (the organic one) on the fox's back, pushing him against the walrus to help comfort him.

"You too, sugar-twan."

"I would rather not—"

Before Antoine could fully reject, Bunnie's robot arm extended out and grabbed him by the collar, forcing him in for a big group hug around Rotor.

In the other room, Sonia shoved the cart in and tossed it aside, making it fall over. Manic stumbled off the cart but caught himself on his feet, dusting himself off.

He mumbled. "Rude."

"Rude? RUDE?! Manny, what the everloving Chaos is wrong with you?" Sonia scolded him. "You just insulted your friends!"

"Friends? Is that what they are?" Manic scoffed. "Some friends. They didn't check up on me once while I was gone from Mission Freedom."

"They did! Time and time again they did. But they can only get turned away from the door so many times before they stop showing up."

"Start abandoning me, more like. I'm here aren't I? Shouldn't they be happy I'm here?"

"Not when you're acting like a mondo jerkwad! You nearly made Rotor cry!"

"He's already made me cry. I'm just returning the favor to him."

"Eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," his sister replied sternly, arms crossed. "Manny, seriously, you can't just burn bridges with Rotor because you two—"

"Burn bridges? What, am I supposed to forget what he did? Let's not forget you've been giving him the cold shoulder since then."

"You're my BROTHER! What am I supposed to do, set him up with somebody else? You wouldn't care anyway, since you seem to hate him!"

"I don't… hate him."

"So making him upset… What's the point? Do you want him to feel upset about what happened? Do you want to open that wound again?"

Manic turned around, putting his hands over his face and taking a deep breath.

"Manny, I'm not trying to be rude, but… what you're doing isn't going to make you feel better about what happened. Let's not forget that you, yourself, admitted that you had a part in what happened. Both of you hurt each other." Sonia stepped closer to him. "Doing this? Lashing out, changing your clothes, pushing people away… it's not going to change what happened and it's not going to make you feel better."

Manic sighed, leaning on a nearby counter with both hands, eyes shut.

"I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to be like this but I don't know what to do. I've tried ignoring and I've tried calming myself."

"What you're doing now isn't the solution. If you're going to be hurting people to feel better you might as well just start stealing stuff again."

That stung Manic a little. Every time he felt like he had some kind of way to cope, he only ended up hurting other people.

"I don't know what to do, Sonia."

"Talk to me," she replied softly. "I'm here for you. I will always do whatever I can to help you, no matter what."

There was a moment's pause before a loud beeping came from Sonia's jumpsuit. She pulled out a device from her pocket: a two-way pager.

Flipping it open, she saw a harrowing text about paperwork from Muttski, still at city hall.

"Muttski…"

"You gonna get that?"

The sound of Manic's voice was tired, but almost… in anticipation. They were having a moment together, Manic was really opening up, but the job Sonia was set up to take over was ever the priority.

From the look on Manic's face, it was like he knew it. He was ready to be disappointed. He wasn't anybody's first choice, not even Sonia's.

"Just… hang on a second."

Sonia stepped to the side, flipping open the pager and texting. They didn't exactly have satellite communications, so they had to rely on low-range stuff like this.

She got the message out, and a second message out to inform Muttski of how to settle the issue. When she was done, she flipped her pager closed, and turned around to look at her brother again.

"Manny, I…"

He was gone.

Manic walked up the stairs to the lobby, wiping his cheek with his sleeve and sniffling, his face returned to bitter indifference. At least the smeared black makeup would look cooler.

He got into the lobby. Longclaw was just parting with Cat, and noticed Manic walking out of the stairwell.

"Manic? Where are you going? We just got here."

"I know, but I really wanna get practice in with the band. It was nice seeing everyone though."

Manic started walking past her, but Longclaw grabbed his arm to make him stop.

"Manny," she said, worried. "Are you okay? You've been acting so out of character recently."

"I'm fine."

"Would you tell me if you weren't?"

The question gave Manic pause. He felt his heart wrench as she asked that, realizing that in his situation, he couldn't win for himself. The best he could do was reassure her.

"Yes." He lied. "I'm okay, LC. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay. Please… be careful, Manny."

Manic pulled away from Longclaw's grip, the owl's hand still reaching out a bit as she watched him leave the building. Slowly, she put her arm back down, still looking at the door after he left.

Walking out onto the lawn, Manic's jaw locked again. He needed to beat this feeling out of him. He just had to find a way to get to Ricky's meeting spot.

His eyes trailed over to Sonia's motorcycle sitting in the grass ahead of him. A sinking feeling, mixed with annoyance, stirred within him.

"Might as well be stealing stuff," eh sis? Fine. I'll do just that.

Manic hopped onto the bike, popping open the ignition switch contraption and pulling out the wires. After licking his fingers, pulling two wires out and twisting them together, his sister's bike came to life.

He revved the engine and sped out of the area, hitting the loop-de-loop completely before heading down the Green Hill. Just as he did, Sonia stepped out to watch Manic leave.

"MY BIKE!" She yelled.

The yelling went ignored. Manic drove away from the massive hill, tearing rubber through the residential district without a care in the world- or without a helmet for that matter.

After reaching the industrial district, Manic eventually skidded to a stop in front of the abandoned warehouse he was looking for.

That was thrilling. Manic had stolen plenty of things, but they were usually minor. Grand theft auto had an extra dash of danger that reminded Manic why he was a kleptomaniac in the first place.

Stepping off his sister's hotwired bike, Manic let it fall to the side instead of putting a kickstand up, as if it was a toy bike. Sonia would get over it.

He pulled open the door of the warehouse and walked on in.

"Hey hey, if it isn't Hypomanic!"

Ricky's words made Manic smile a bit. The squirrel was with Mick, still plucking idly at that bass guitar. The hedgehog strolled in with a smile.

"How's things coming along with the concert, Rick?"

"It's going killer. Mick and I were just going over our super cool stage pyrotechnics for tonight! Watch this!"

Ricky stomped on a red pedal near his foot. Suddenly, five cannons around them fired off with an incredible blaring horn, making Manic jump and cover his ears. After a moment, the sound died off.

"Jeez," Manic said, slowly lowering his hands. "Don't you think that's a little much?"

"What are you, a cop? Don't be such a killjoy, Chuck Junior." The squirrel said while chuckling, acting as if Manic was the one being crazy. "I just don't know how we're gonna get all of our supplies from here to that building. I got a trailer we can haul the drumset on, but I don't wanna pull it…"

"Well lucky for you, I snagged a vehicle. We can use my sister's motorcycle."

Ricky was surprised before chuckling. Mick continued to strum his bass guitar blankly.

"Your sister has a motorcycle?"

"Yeah! She got it as a gift."

"So you just freely admit your sister got a vehicle before you? Here I thought you were some kinda bigshot." The squirrel continued to chuckle at Manic, making the hedgehog's cheeks flush. "It's alright though, Manic. I know that's the best you could do, so I'm not gonna hold it against you."

"Thanks?"

"You're welcome. Now are we gonna play?"

"Sure, sure. I just need a minute."

Manic walked over to the drumkit and sat on the stool, sighing. Ricky pulled his guitar's strap on, starting to tune it.

"Busy day being a deadbeat, huh?"

"Nah, it's not that," Manic replied, ignoring the question. "I just… ran into Rotor today. For real."

"That walrus guy you told me about?"

"Yeah, him. I was such an idiot."

"What idiot things did you do?"

"I insulted him. I poured salt in the wound… I was just hurting so much. Everything happened a year ago, but…"

"A year ago? And you're still not over it?" Ricky rolled his eyes. "So instead of moving on you decided to ruin your chances with him forever? Smooth move, ex-lax."

"I didn't mean to!" The hedgehog said defensively. "I should've just talked to him. I should've…"

"Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Your screw-ups are in the past, so you should just move on and focus on the present. Like the band," Ricky replied. "That Rutter guy never really let you be yourself. I let you be the 'real you' here, didn't I?"

"Well, I…"

"I did." The squirrel pointed a finger at him, as if correcting him. "You told me playing those drums helped you get your aggression out. I mean, let's be serious, if you didn't here, you'd probably screw up your relationships with everyone, not just Rooster."

"Rotor."

"See? You're still talking about him. You're like obsessed." Ricky spoke with an elated voice as if he was making fun of Manic, twisting the hedgehog's gut.

"What do you want me to do, then?"

"Play it out. Preferably sometime within the week, we have to practice for our band, remember? We've been waiting for your daily soap opera to stop playing out to do so."

"Right, right. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, Manny. Be a drummer."

The sinking feeling in his stomach hadn't subsided any more than it was before. Ricky was right, he was better off just drumming these feelings out before he hassled someone else with them.

He already hurt Rotor. He didn't want to hurt Sonia, Tails, Sonic, Uncle Chuck… Especially not Longclaw. This band was his safest option to get his emotions out without hurting anybody.

It was tranquil, being able to just dissociate and drum. Manic didn't need to think, or control his body…. He just needed to keep drumming his feelings- nothing else mattered.

His shoulders slouched, ready to face another long night, Manic dissociated and started drumming.

---

It was storming without clouds.

Sonic was amazed, watching from the tent he and Chuck were in, as light flashed and thunder echoed throughout the small valley Lake Rocky was in.

"How is this possible again?"

"We think it's some kind of naturally occurring dimensional disruption. I feel like it's obvious, but South Island ain't supposed to be in the pocket zone known as the Underground." Chuck replied, sitting next to him in the tent. "Because of… whatever happened, a long time ago, this pocket dimension has to keep adapting to us being in here. That presents itself as flashes of light and the audible feedback of the dimension adapting, which sounds like thunder."

"Does it rain?"

"Sometimes ocean water leaks into the Underground and makes rain, yeah. That's not exactly the funnest to experience."

The blue hedgehog chuckled. His uncle grinned, looking up through the tent's sheer roof up at he swirling and storming sky.

"Sound's gonna scare the fish, so we might as well just chill for today. I think after that big fish from yesterday, we don't need any more at all."

"I hear that."

"…can you tell me about my father?"

The question took Chuck by surprise. His white eyebrows furrowed after, a bit confused.

"…mom never… really talked about him," continued Sonic. "It hurt for her to talk about, I get that. She meant well, but… I never got to learn anything really about him before she died. I just want to know anything about him…"

Chuck looked at his downtrodden nephew, his eyebrows and face softening.

"His name was Maurice."

Sonic turned his head to look at Chuck head-on.

"…he was a hedgehog, obviously. Kinda green like Manny," the old hedgehog continued. "He was made after your mother, but they were both the same age- all of us were. He was my brother before we were mutated, so we're blood related."

"How did him and mom…?"

"Maurice was made for Aleena. Them falling in love… happened during their experiments. By chance. Robotnik only saw it as an opportunity to breed more of his living weapons."

Uncle Chuck looked away from his nephew, starting to mess with his hands idly as he talked.

"Him and your mom, they used to bicker like an old married couple, right down to baby names. The only one they could agree on was, of course, Sonny. Your mother really wanted the name 'Tania' for a girl."

"Tania?" Sonic chuckled a little.

"Oh yeah. You kids weren't even named when you… left," Chuck turned sober again. "When I got to South Island… I named Sonia as a portmanteau of 'Sonny' and 'Tania'. Manny was 'Maurice' and 'Sonny' put together."

Sonic slowly nodded as that question was answered.

"You remind me of Maurice, Sonny. So much like him. He used to make dumb jokes to the others in Robotnik's facility whenever they felt down to cheer them up, and taunt Robotnik right to his face. Being here… Being with you, Sonny… it's like I'm with him again."

Sonic watched his uncle look down at his fiddling hands. The moment was nice, but he had a question that would be the toughest for someone like Chuck to answer.

"What… What happened to him, Uncle Chuck?"

Chuck's eyes closed, as if he knew that question was next, but was hoping it wasn't. His hands stopped moving, dropping down to his lap.

"…Miles saying Sonia's powers were tactile telekinesis wasn't random. Your father's powers, like I said, were created for Aleena. Where she could generate powerful blasts of seismic energy, Maurice had a powerful aura that could spread to other objects. This let him carry heavy things, but more importantly… contain your mother's out of control seismic waves.

"All he would have to do is wrap his arms around your mother, and his aura would cover her, containing the seismic blast until she could calm herself down and stop. His telekinetic barrier was one of the strongest ones Robotnik could create before destroying Maurice himself."

There was a pause. Chuck was dreading having to talk more.

"…you, Sonia and Manny were born not too long before we left that facility." He carried on. "Robotnik… that bastard biologist… During one of the experiments put on Aleena, he was angry he wasn't getting the results he wanted. He threatened your mother that he would test on one of you kids if she didn't start using her power, and that sent her into a frenzy. Despair, anger, deep emotions was one of the major triggers of her power- and Robotnik pushed that button.

"She unleashed a seismic blast more powerful than anything she'd ever created before. It was at risk of bringing the entire facility down. Your father was sent out to stop her, but…" Chuck paused. "She was too powerful. He didn't even make it close to her before…" He paused again, his voice cracking. "Robotnik got what he wanted, and Aleena stopped. But my brother didn't even get to touch her one last time."

"Chuck…"

"There was a lot of things that made us want to escape, but what happened to your father was the catalyst that made us all leave. We made our escape the next day." The old hedgehog continued blankly. "Then I got separated. I lost my brother and your mother… In just two days."

Sonic was watching Chuck, taken aback from the story. It was heavy, the old hedgehog weary and drained for just having to retell it, having to relive it.

Longclaw's words about understanding his uncle were echoing in his mind. Chuck really did lose everything in two days. Not just that, but the universe decided to play a sick joke and let him stay hopeful that Aleena was out there.

All Sonic could think about was losing Tails, then Amy, all in two days. Being stuck having to live without two of the most important people in his entire life, people who he trusted and loved as if they were his closest family- in Tails' case, he was.

He also thought of his mother. Aleena had to carry the weight of what happened to Maurice on her, all the way until the end. She was so traumatized that she rarely mentioned Sonic's father day to day, and it was easy to say why.

But she still used his name in that old fairytale. Aleena never really spoke about Maurice- with good reason, apparently- but she always made sure that he was a hero in their eyes.

Sonic had blamed himself for so long about what happened to his mother. If Aleena was still around, he knew she wouldn't want that on his shoulders until he perished, just like it was for her. Aleena also wouldn't want that for Chuck.

Maybe getting rid of that guilt and pain was easier said than done. But it was better managed when you had people you love to help you, and Sonic knew that.

The blue hedgehog shuffled over, wrapping his arms around his uncle in a hug to comfort him. Chuck was surprised, but after a second, turned to return the hug.

Together, uncle and nephew hugged under the rumble of thunder.

---

"I still can't believe he stole your bike."

A storm was brewing over South Island, and something was stirring deep within Sonia's gut. It had been an entire day since they last saw Manic, and currently, Sonia was standing with Longclaw and Tails in line for the concert they were told about; the one in that building that was shut down for only having one exit, whose doors only open inwards.

"This behavior from Manny is horrifying. I should've stopped him yesterday…" Longclaw murmured. "Are you sure we won't call Chuck about this?"

"Uncle Chuck is having a nice time with Sonic, I don't want to interrupt that. We can handle this. I can handle this." Sonia replied. "We get inside, we try to talk to him."

"This is a ticketed event, right? How'd you get tickets, Sonia?" Tails asked.

"I got them from Soar over in Gigalopolis."

"That eagle journalist guy?"

Sonia nodded at Longclaw. "Yeah. He was able to use some contacts to get a few tickets for me since we're both in Germaphobes Anonymous. Which, now that I think about it, us knowing each other negates the 'Anonymous' part of that group, but still."

They passed through the line, reaching the front and presenting the ticket to the guy at the door. They walked through the entrance/exit, the only in the building, shuffling into the main event room.

It was clearly set up specifically for this event. It was one large room, mainly empty except the stage set up at the end of the room, opposite to the door. On the stage, acting as pre-show entertainment, were two Mobians performing a slam poetry session together, with the use of a tambourine and triangle.

"Triplets born…"

"They were born."

"The throne awaits…"

"Like a DMV."

"A seer warns…"

"Forebodement."

"…of a deadly fate…"

"It's oh so deadly."

Ignoring this, the three shoved through the crowd to try and find any sign of Manic anywhere.

Sonia wasn't even mad about the motorcycle being stolen. Okay, she was pretty mad, but she knew Manic was just acting out. She knew that Manic, deep down, had to know that his current behavior was very unbecoming.

She had to get her brother out of this situation. Even if he really wanted to be a part of this band, Manic had to work through his issues with Rotor first. Running away and lashing out wasn't the way to go, and Sonia knew she had to get that through to him.

Scanning across the crowd, she saw a few windows on the wall, but soon saw a door slightly hidden by the stage that led further into the building, being blocked by a tall gorilla.

"There, backstage." She pointed it out. "If we can get by, we can get to Manic."

"How are we gonna get past that guy? He's like three times my height alone." Tails replied to her.

"I have an idea, Tails." Longclaw patted his shoulder. "The two of us can make a distraction. Sonia, you rush back and get your brother."

The bodyguard at the door stood with her arms crossed, the large gorilla keeping a stern face to ward off anyone who tried to get past her without clearance. Her eyes flicked over to follow the appearance of two people approaching her: a large horned owl and a small fox boy.

"Miss Longclaw," the gorilla greeted her. "Sorry ma'am, no access."

"It's not a problem. I just wanted to show you something. Watch this."

Longclaw spread her massive wings out completely, which had feathers that were long enough to nearly reach the ground at their full size. With her foot, she gently nudged Tails to move backwards. She lifted both wings upwards and then back down, covering Tails with one of her wings.

After a second, and an imaginary drumroll, she lifted her wings to reveal that Tails wasn't there anymore. Longclaw even turned her body to show that he wasn't behind her, allowing Sonia to sneak past in the small pathway obscured by her wings, leading right past the gorilla.

Amazed, the gorilla bodyguard whispered. "Holy crap."

Sonia gave a thumbs up to Tails, who was hovering up above the gorilla, before she used a handkerchief to open the door and sneak into the back.

In the hallway leading to the back, Sonia was put in her worst nightmare. The hall was decrepit from the building being abandoned, giving it the grunge appearance at the cost of cleanliness and sanitation. With wide eyes, Sonia took a handkerchief (a backup she had, not the one that touched the door) and put it over her mouth and nose.

The things she does for her siblings…

Quickly trotting down the hallway, she looked around for anyone that looked remotely like her brother. She passed by a guy sitting in the hallway, back to the wall, crying into his hands.

Sonia dropped the handkerchief she used on the door into his lap. "Here. Keep it." Her voice was muffled by the handkerchief she was holding to her face. She passed by and heard the guy blow his nose into the handkerchief.

This place was awful. Sonia couldn't stand being somewhere like this any longer than she had to be. Part of her was reassured about that "tactile telekinesis aura" or whatever Tails said she had. Technically, she wasn't touching anything in her surroundings at all… At least she hopes that's how it works.

"Are you really sure those horns are gonna get the crowd going, Ricky? They might just make the crowd go into some kind of frenzy."

"These things are always at rock concerts. Stop being such a little baby, Manic."

Hearing her brother's name, Sonia quickly scurried further down the hall to the source of the voice, a cracked door with light peeking out from it.

After a spritz to the door's surface, she gently pushed it open with her shoulder to get inside. It was a changing room, with a vanity across from the door that had lights all around the mirror, clearly set up for this event much like the stage.

Manic was there, dressed similarly to yesterday, though the bags under his eyes were much more pronounced. He was with a squirrel- named Ricky, apparently- dressed in a similar punk outfit with heavy eyeliner.

From how Ricky talked to Manic a second ago, Sonia was already on edge from this guy. She was immediately noticed as the door opened, seen reflected from the mirror, even with Manic and Ricky's back to the door.

"Sonia." Manic said begrudgingly after turning around.

"What're you doing here? Manic doesn't want you here, lady."

"I'm his sister."

"Did I stutter? Manic, tell this chick to leave."

Put in a tough spot, Manic choked immediately, only letting out a "uhhhh…"

Ricky rolled his eyes. "Ugh, figures. Can never handle your own messes."

"Don't talk to him that way."

"I'm sorry, who was talking to you?" The squirrel asked her. "Speak when spoken to."

"I'll speak when I want to."

"Who asked, though?"

"Ohhh, oooh, great reply. I'll tell the boys back in Pre-K you used their class-voted zinger."

Though his lip curled into a snarl for a second, Ricky's lips soon turned into a smirk.

"Nice handkerchief. But you know it doesn't cover up everything," he said, walking up towards Sonia. "Would be a shame if someone…"

He fake coughed into his fist, before making the move to open his hand and blow like he was blowing a kiss. However, as Ricky started uncurling his fist, Sonia's free hand reached out and grabbed his wrist super tightly- tight enough you could almost feel the bone about to break. The smirk was wiped from Ricky's face then, looking at Sonia with shock as she stared at him.

"Sonia, stop," sighed Manic. "Ricky, just… Give us a moment alone."

After a second, Sonia threw Ricky's wrist away, letting him go. The squirrel scoffed, rubbing his wrist, retreating to another door in the room.

"Whatever. Your funeral," he said to Manic as he passed the hedgehog. "I'll be in the bathroom. Let me know when this smushy lovefest is done so you can do something useful."

He walked into the other door, into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Sonia dropped the handkerchief to spray her free hand with sanitizer after touching Ricky.

Manic turned to the vanity, leaning on it and sighing.

"You shouldn't be here, Sonia."

"I came here to bring something home."

"Your bike is in the back."

Sonia was taken aback for a second, but continued. "I mean you, Manic. You're freaking everyone out."

"Sorry my mental state isn't aesthetically pleasing."

"Oh no, you don't get to play the mental illness card after you stole my damn bike." Sonia said, walking to him. "If you feel bad, you need to talk to someone- you need to talk to us. You're scaring Longclaw and Tails, and I don't even know what Chuck is gonna say when he gets back. Sonic, too."

"You're all always busy."

"Is this about Muttski? Manic, I'm sorry that happened. I'm sorry there are times where it seems like I'm busy. But I'm never too busy for you." She said firmly. "I have a job and other things in my life, sometimes they get in the way. But if you need something, I promise I'll give it to you. I'll make time. Believe that."

Sonia put her free hand up, almost like she was going to reach for Manic's shoulder, but stopped herself before doing so. Manic watched this in the reflection of the mirror, before his eyes trailed over to look at his sister directly.

"…why'd you touch Ricky?"

"What?"

"Why did you touch him?"

"Because he was going to blow germs on me." Sonia said, as if it was obvious.

"So you're willing to touch someone when it's about you."

"Manic, what are you talking about?"

"You always say you'll give me anything, but you don't give me everything." Manic replied, turning around. "How am I supposed to know you love me when you barely trust me enough to touch me? A handshake, a high five, a damn hug! For once I'd like something other than a wave when I see my sister."

"I get it, but… The germs…"

"You seem fine with the germs when it's for Sonic, moving those boulders for Dulcy's mom. Or helping Tails lift that rubble and debris to save the people in Knothole during the stuff with that robot. But when it comes to Manic, oh no, don't touch the guy who doesn't deep clean his clothes every day." The green hedgehog was getting upset. "We used to be close, but you suddenly became a narc, uncle's pet. I'm sure you were so happy to find out we had two more brothers that weren't complete screw-ups."

"Manny, that is not fair." Sonia said, pointing a finger at him. "You know I don't feel that way."

"How would I know? You only like the me that doesn't get in the way of you and your government business. The quiet Manic, the Manic who plays a guitar on the street. No stealing, no depression, no seismic powers." The room started gently vibrating. "I'm doing something I like now. I'm doing something I can do without having to be afraid that I'm good enough for you, or Uncle Chuck, or Longclaw or anyone! I'm not going to let you take this away from me!"

Sonia looked around as everything in the room was beginning to rattle. "Manic…!"

"Get out. Get the hell out and stop smothering me!"

"Manic—"

"I SAID GET OUT!"

Out of pure adrenaline and instinct, Manic's powers amplified his yelling into a powerful roar, sending a wave of vibrational energy into his sister. Unprepared, Sonia was launched backwards and out of the door behind her, which slammed close from the power of the blast as well. Left behind, Sonia's handkerchief fluttered down to the carpet.

The room stopped shaking, becoming eerily silent as Manic's eyes stopped glowing. He closed his eyes, only feeling more fatigued from doing that, letting out a struggled breath. He hadn't slept last night at all practicing for this gig, and now this…

He heard Ricky open and close the bathroom door. The squirrel pointedly stepped on the handkerchief left behind to stand in front of Manic.

"You done now? Get that out of your system?" He asked, almost like a parent to an angry child.

"I can't believe I did that…"

"Yeah, I know. I'd be surprised if she ever wanted to talk to you again after that. You screamed so loud the walls shook. Maybe you should take up screamo next," the squirrel mused. "You didn't need her anyway. She was bound to slow you down."

"No, I know… I know she cares, but…"

"No, she only cares about what you can do for her." Ricky replied, totally not projecting. "She doesn't see your potential. She only sees a little trophy brother she can parade around town as a success to prove how she can make people 'normal'. Well normal people scare me, Manic, and they should scare you too."

"You really think she's like that?"

Ricky shuffled forwards, taking Manic's face in both of his hands to tilt it upwards, so they could make eye contact. The squirrel looked at him and spoke with incredible seriousness.

"Nobody will ever appreciate and understand you like I do. You said it yourself- your family only likes the you that's quiet and out of the way. I get you though, Manic. I promise I that'll pick up their slack. I like you for how you are." Ricky said. "Now let's get out there and give them a show to remember. Once we get popular from this gig, I'll take you outta this town and you'll never have to see those scumbags you call a family again."

Letting go of Manic, Ricky walked away. Though hesitant, still feeling exhausted and even slightly dizzy, Manic eventually stumbled after him to go out onstage.

Outside, the pre-show entertainment was finally gone. Sonia had managed to push past the bodyguard (who was surprised, but didn't pursue) with her hands over her mouth to prevent her from breathing in strange germs.

Finding a familiar tall owl in the audience, Sonia pushed through to stand with her and Tails.

"Sonia, where's Manny?"

"He's not coming," she replied to Longclaw. "He's really messed up, Longclaw. I think he's not handling everything well, and there's this guy, Ricky."

"Ricky?" Tails asked.

"I don't know who he is, but he's a real jerk, and he seems to be attached to Manic. I think maybe he's trying to manipulate Manic into still being angry and sad for this band he's a part of."

"He's using Manic's emotional state for his own personal reasons," Longclaw concurred, frumious. "I know the type. Where's this 'Ricky' person at? I'd like to have a chat with him."

Light flashed outside, thunder rumbling through the air. Tails jumped and huddled against Longclaw instinctively, the horned owl surprised but putting her wing around the fox protectively to help him through his astraphobia.

"Ladies and gentlemen… Presenting our first act of the night… Deep Underground!"

Cannons were placed down in front of the stage by security. After a second, Ricky walked onstage, the crowd starting to chatter idly and whistle at him.

"Hey what's up," the squirrel said into the mic emotionlessly. "I'm Ricky, and this is my band, Deep Underground. Hope you like us, or whatever."

Bassist Mick came out onstage. From behind, Manic walked out to the drumset and sat down on the stool, the lights up above still illuminating his face, letting everyone get a clear sight of it. Sonia didn't really realize how rough Manic looked until he had this much lighting on him.

Sonia heard a sharp gasp come from behind her. She turned her head and saw Longclaw, staring at the stage with a face of pure horror, one of her wings over her mouth.

"Gaia below…" She mumbled, her voice cracking. "Manny… He looks miserable!"

Manic picked up his drumsticks with empty eyes, twirling one in his hand like it was second nature.

"I'm not doing this." Longclaw said to Sonia, her voice cracking again. "The time for waiting is over, Sonia Hedgehog. I'm calling Chuck, right now."

Though her pride wanted her to keep trying herself, Sonia knew some things were better left to someone that Manic would really listen to. "Go," Sonia said, nodding. "Get him here if you can."

"I'll go outside to get some signal."

"Longclaw, can I go with you? I uh" Tails cleared his throat. "It'll get crazy in here. And I don't like lightning. Or, rather, thunder, and you're… Very large, while I'm still short..."

"Of course you can come, Tails. You don't even have to ask. Sonia?"

"You two go and try to get a hold of Chuck. I'm getting Manic off of that stage one way or another."

Longclaw nodded before turning and ushering Tails out. Sonia turned towards the stage, glowering directly at Ricky even if he couldn't see her. She sprayed sanitizer to make people clear out of the way, apparently okay with being so close to one another but not being sprayed with something.

"This is our first song, it's called… 'whatever'."

After that, Ricky started playing the guitar, joined by Mick on the bass. Manic quickly fell in line, starting to drum with a thousand yard stare as he dissociated once more. He slipped away, into the darkness of his mind. He heard Ricky's voice echo out.

"I'll take you outta this town."

The voice echoed. Again, and again, and again, until… It changed into another voice. A familiar voice. Manic's voice.

"No…" Manic said internally. "No. No no no. Not this one. No!"

Suddenly, he found himself stuck outside an invisible wall, looking in on the testing lab at Mission Freedom. He saw himself, still young with the piercing in his ear mostly fresh, alongside Rotor.

"I'll take you outta this town."

"Manny…" Rotor sighed. "We talked about this."

"I'm just trying to help you out. You seem so stressed about working here, we should go somewhere else. Live off the grid, where society can't catch us. Where you can be alone with me." Manny leaned on Rotor's back, draping his arms over the walrus' shoulders.

Rotor shrugged him off. "No."

"Come on, why not?"

"I have responsibilities here. Ever since Gadget left, I've been doing the work of five engineers at once, and I'm just one guy."

"All the more reason to leave!"

"I'm not abandoning Mission Freedom. They help people. Why don't you understand that?" The walrus sighed. "Please just leave me alone. You're not helping me at all right now, and that's supposed to be your job."

Manny was taken aback. "Rude much? My suggestion was helpful."

"It was asinine."

"I don't care if it was ten of them, it was something to help you being so stressed. You look so angry all the time, sue me for trying to help you actually smile once in a while."

"Running away from my job isn't help. What are we gonna do in this scenario if we need rings?"

"I'm sure there's another lake around here that makes them."

"Manny…" Rotor sighed again. "I get it. I know you're still upset about Chuck nearly being fired. You think running away is going to make things better, but it won't."

Manny opened and closed his mouth, shocked from the statement. "I'm doing this for you!"

"I know you're trying to do this for me, but I don't want it! I don't want to run away with you!"

Still watching from the inside, Manic closed his eyes, trying to keep himself calm.

"So, what, you'd rather run away with a robot instead?"

"For the love of Gaia, Manny, don't get defensive."

"Don't treat me like a child."

"I'm not trying to!" The walrus snapped. "You're not getting through your head that this is a bad idea! So you thought about rings. What about where we'll live? What about professions? How are we going to get past the motion triggers when we leave? How are we gonna evade Longclaw, Sonia, Chuck, Sally, Bunnie, Antoine…?"

The overwhelming questions made Manny start to breathe heavier, his eyes suddenly widening. The room gently shook beneath them as he started feeling too many emotions at once. When the room stopped moving, Rotor gestured him.

"And what about that?" He asked. "Your powers. You can't even control them!"

"Don't." Manny hissed back. "You know I can't."

"You don't even try."

"You don't get to say anything about trying something when you won't even try my idea. Why did you even invite me to come into here in the first place?"

"I didn't! You came in here and started bugging me while I'm working on important stuff!" Rotor replied angrily. "I have enough to deal with being the only engineer, having to meet expectations. My mom died not too long ago and I'm the only one paying rent in our old place. My dad pretends I don't even exist! Don't you care about that? You haven't asked me at all about if your plan is a good idea."

"We can keep your place."

"With the one-ring-a-day plan you have?"

Manny was getting angry now. "Right, because what you make here is plenty for it."

"It's enough! I work hard, and I get money. Do you remember how that works?"

"Oh please, you barely make what Sally makes. Why don't you ask her for some change to help with your place?"

"That's embarrassing!"

"What's embarrassing is you putting yourself in a feedback loop of pain!"

"Oh I'm doing that?" The walrus asked, feigning shock. "What about you? You're about to have another outburst right here, right now and bring the whole damn building down because you can't handle negativity! You can't keep burying your feelings and expecting them to just be fine, Manny!"

"What, like you're any better? The whole reason you're screaming at me right now is because you're overwhelmed at Mission Freedom and can't handle all the stress!"

"Oh screw you, Manny!"

"Screw YOU, Rotor!"

Silence overtook them. Manic, leaning on that invisible barrier with his hands pressed against it, still had his eyes closed. He knew what was going to happen next.

Rotor sighed. He took off his work goggles and put them aside, leaning on a table.

"I can't do this, Manny." He said. "I can't handle all of this right now. Between mom, and work, and the responsibility… You're not helping. You're too much, Manny."

"What are you saying?" Manny's demeanor changed completely, asking his question quietly.

"I'm saying… We should see other people." Rotor said. "I need a break- this isn't working out. I'm sorry, Manny, but… I can't be your boyfriend right now. Not when it's like this."

Manic continued to listen with his eyes closed. A year later, and this still hurt- it hurt bad. There was a sense of calm within him though. He'd thought of this scenario time and time again, and he knew it was just a crummy situation all around.

The room slowly started rattling again. Frozen in place, Manny was breathing heavily, his eyes wide and glowing. Rotor turned around and looked at the hedgehog, surprised that this was the reaction.

"Manny?" He called out. Rotor walked over to him, gripping his arms and shaking the hedgehog. "Manny, stop. You're freaking out, just calm down before you break something important!"

"Let him help you." Manic murmured to his past self, hoping he could hear. "Let him help. He wants to help. Just calm down and talk to him."

To no avail.

After a moment of making the entire room shake violently, Manny snapped out of it, blinking wildly. He saw Rotor holding his arms and thrashed out of his grip, wildly slapping his hands against his ex-boyfriend.

"Get off of me, you big jerk!" He spat, his eyes misty.

Rotor took a step back, looking at Manny with a face of shock and… caution. It was a look that told Manny everything- the hedgehog was just a ticking timebomb, and Rotor was weary of what this guy would do to hurt him next.

With tears running down his cheeks, Manny ran from the testing room, leaving Rotor alone in the fallout of their relationship.

Manic felt a surge of pain flow through him, making him stumble back from the invisible barrier and keel over again. He let out a struggled groan, gasping for afterwards like something was gripping his neck. His hands grabbed the sides of his pounding head.

Everything Rotor said was right. He couldn't handle his emotions, he wanted to run away. He should've just run away when he had the chance. Everyone would've just been better off that way.

His head was spinning. Whatever was happening was a long time coming, spurred on by everything that had been happening the last two days. Thunder rumbled outside, bringing Manic back to the present, blinking as he remembered he was onstage.

"Stop." He begged himself in his mind. "Just stop. Please stop."

And fortunately, stop he did. With this only happening within a few seconds, Sonia was barely through the crowd when Manic slowly stopped playing, staring downwards.

The notable lack of a beat made the crowd start murmuring. Sonia looked at her brother. "Manic?"

Hearing the drums stop, Ricky turned around to glower at Manic, before scooting back to stand besdie him.

"Manic! Get back on drums, you idiot!" He hissed. "Hello? Earth to stupid, do the only thing you're good for and play those drums before I feed you to this crowd!"

Manic's hands were shaking, slowly putting the drumsticks down. His body started slowly shaking, feeling the overwhelming amount of emotion from everything fill every quill on his body. His eyes started glowing, facing downwards.

Slowly, Manic started to lift up off of the stool he was sitting on. He was rising so much, in fact, he started to float off of the ground, his hands down at his sides with his palm facing the crowd, his head hanging down.

The crowd started murmuring in interest and fear. Sonia's eyes widened in shock. The music was now forgotten as even Mick stopped playing to watch what was happening.

Suddenly, Manic's head flicked backwards, looking up at the ceiling with eyes that shined above. In fear and confusion, Ricky stepped back, inadvertently stepping on the red pedal to activate his cannons far too early.

Just as the cannons fired, Manic unleashed a massive shockwave of seismic energy from his body. Everybody screamed as they were sent flying backwards, even Ricky and Mick, the only things spared being the drumset directly below Manic, and Sonia, who caught herself on her feet and resisted the blast with her strength.

This wasn't just a single shockwave, either. Manic was beginning to unleash a massive steady output of vibrational shockwaves, just wave after wave of force that was now pinning the crowd (amongst others) to the inside walls of the room. It also immediately kept any doors of the room closed.

As such, the doors leading into the hall slammed, immediately alerting Longclaw and Tails as they stood outside. Hearing the screams of terror, they both abandoned their attempts to reach Chuck and started trying to open the door.

Tails grunted. "Oh no! The doors only open inwards! They're stuck shut from the crowd pushing up against it!"

"That's the only entrance, too! Oh Gaia, who could've foreseen this happening?!"

"What's happening in there? Is it Manic?!"

Unknown to Tails and Longclaw, that assumption was dead on. Manic continued to float off the surface of the stage, uncontrollably letting out the massive outpour of energy onto the crowd, nearly crushing them against the walls. Even Mick and Ricky were caught against the walls to either side of the stage, unable to move.

The entire building started to shake from the waves of energy coming off of Manic, threatening to bring the entire abandoned building crashing down.

Sonia resisted the waves of force pushing against her, powering through it with her strength. She had to get to Manic- if not for her brother, than for everyone here caught in the crossfire.

"MANNY!" She screamed out to her brother, but her voice was drowned out by the screams of the people, and the warping sound of seismic waves rippling through the air.

With him unable to hear her, Sonia started to push through the overwhelming force pressing back against her. Her jumpsuit and quills rippled as she charged forwards, one slow step at a time. The resistance of her telekinetic aura against the vibrational blasts caused the aura to start to show, a sheen of bright magenta covering her entire form.

On the outside, Longclaw slammed her shoulder into the door to try and get it open. Another strike of thunder struck through the air, making Tails grip onto her robes, his tails puffing up from fright.

Eventually reaching the stage, Sonia slammed her hands down onto the raised surface, gripping onto it, her newly painted cyan nails breaking through her gloves as the force became great enough to start tattering them and her sleeves. Her claws scraped against the wood, giving her an anchor to pull up onto the stage.

Though she had to crawl at first, Sonia soon pulled herself up to her feet by grabbing onto the remaining drumset, right underneath Manic.

"Manny!" She yelled. "Manny, stop!"

He didn't. Above her, Manic continued to look up at the ceiling, his body frozen in place. His eyes were wide, almost in overwhelming fear, his face neutral. Tears fell from his eyes but were instantly evaporated as they dripped from his cheeks and hit the waves of energy coming off his body.

Manic was paralyzed through this panic attack, Sonia knew it, but this kind of this had never happened before. Whenever Manic would get panicked and overstimulated, typically Chuck was there to calm him- Rotor did that too when he and Manic were still together.

All that was left was Sonia.

Though floating, Manic was only high enough that Sonia's head was on the same level as his feet. Though without gloves, and sanitizing currently inaccessible, Sonia grabbed her brother's ankle without hesitation.

Using her super-strength, Sonia pulled Manic down to her level and wrapped her arms around him. Her telekinetic aura surrounded her brother on instinct, surrounding Manic and blocking the steady blast of energy from affecting the room.

Sonia didn't know that though. She was just hugging her brother.

After the aura surrounded Manic completely, the room was silent for a moment before everything fell back into place. The crowd toppled back down to the ground- as did Mick, who was unconscious, and Ricky, who landed on his face.

Once he was back down to reality, Manic's arms wrapped around Sonia, reciprocating the hug as he started to calm down. He gripped her jumpsuit, his face twisting into a wince. His body shook again, but this time it was the heaving of his body as he started to sob softly.

"I'm sorry…" He whimpered. "I'm so sorry…"

"I know." His sister replied softly, still holding him.

There were a few more slams against the door before it finally flew open with the force of both Longclaw and Tails hitting it, knocking a few crowd members away.

"Manny!" The owl spotted them onstage. She shoved some people in her way. "Move!"

Tails' tails spun quickly, flying over the crowd and reaching his siblings. Seeing Manic in such a state, and Sonia holding him, Tails paused for a moment before moving in and hugging them too, keeping Manic in the middle.

After flying over the crowd as well, Longclaw landed behind them. She spread her wings, wrapping them around all three of the siblings to join in the group hug.

Though the crowd was mainly focused on shuffling out now that their only exit was opened, not everybody was trying to get out from there. Longclaw's eyes opened as she heard someone open the nearby window. She turned her head around completely, spotting a squirrel weaseling his way out of the window.

Longclaw's eyes narrowed.

Flopping down into the alleyway outside, Ricky grunted as he tumbled from the window. He walked away, breathing heavily out of shock from what just happened. The squirrel eventually slouched over, hands on his knees to catch his breath.

Light flashed and thunder rumbled. Ricky saw a larger shadow in the light enveloping him, making him turn to see his visitor.

"M-Madame Sophocles!"

Though typically neutral or even compassionate, Longclaw looked at Ricky with a face of scorn, standing straight to tower over the squirrel, she looked very much like a normal owl ready to capture her prey.

"Ricky."

"You know my name."

"I do."

"You're here… Is this about Manic?" He tried chuckling to make it seem light. "Look, I didn't know he'd do that…"

"Do you know the origins of the Sophocles Clan?"

Ricky paused and swallowed. "No?"

"Allow me to enlighten you," replied Longclaw, her voice sharp. "Many millennia ago, the earliest Mobians were created from the Chaos Emeralds laying amongst the Earth. As they gained consciousness, believed to be the chosen guardians of the emeralds by Gaia, they assembled a faction known as 'the Chosen'.

"There were many clans involved in the faction: the Knuckles Tribe, the Nocturnus Clan… But there was also a group of avians dedicated to science, technology and taking what they believed to be theirs. The Babylonians."

"Miss Longclaw—"

Longclaw started walking, making Ricky start backing up to try and keep away from her, the squirrel starting to breathe heavily.

"The Chosen eventually fell apart due to one of their own betraying them," Longclaw interrupted him. "The clans in the faction split into their respective groups and secluded themselves. The Babylonians used the power of the Chaos Emeralds they harnessed to carry their home- the Babylon Garden- away from the Earth forever. But some Babylonians stayed.

"These Babylonians would go onto find South Island with the remaining unaffiliated Mobians. These Babylonians were my family, my ancestors, the Sophocles Clan. Though my father remains, due to his age, I am the last remaining Babylonian on Earth. And much like my family, the Babylonians don't take well to actions against their clan. Our talons are sharp for a reason."

Eventually, Ricky stopped as he backed into a dumpster, looking behind him for a second before turning back to the horned owl towering above him, eyes wide with fright.

"Miss…?"

"Leave." The owl growled, thunder clapping after she spoke.

"Wh-What?"

"Leave Green Hill and never return." She said, leaning in, forcing him to lean away from fear. "And if I ever see your face in this village again, I will send every Mobian on this island to bring me your head."

There was a moment's pause as the threat sank in, before Ricky darted away, starting to cry as he ran out of the alleyway, intending to leave the village under threat of imminent death.

Longclaw watched him leave, her face unchanging.

"Nice."

She turned her head to see Mick, now awake, watching from the alleyway. He gave her a thumbs up before walking away and disappearing in the rushing crowd.

After a moment, she saw three familiar faces. Sonia and Tails were helping Manic walk out, the arms of their brother over their shoulders to help carry him out of the hall.

"Longclaw." Sonia called out to her.

The horned owl's face softened. She fluttered over, putting a wing around Sonia to help shuffle them away.

"Come," Longclaw said softly. "Let's go home."

---

"I still don't get why we're doing this."

Manic was back in his vest, in brighter clothes, fanny pack on and no grunge makeup in sight on his body. He stood between Sonic and Tails, with Chuck and Longclaw nearby, all of them watching Sonia.

She was pulling a trailer, one carrying that same green drumkit that Manic had used when he was in Deep Underground. Sonia was hauling it into one of the containment cells down in level B3 of the Mission Freedom HQ.

It had been a few days since the incident at the concert hall. Chuck and Sonic had come back from the trip, they were informed of what happened, and naturally they were there for Manic. After a day or two staying in the house, Manic decided to take a trip back to Mission Freedom HQ. Sonia decided to enact a plan she had during such a visit.

"Look, the whole band thing might have been the cause of chaos down at that concert," she said. "But I know you still like the drums- you said you did. So your drums can stay here! It's a third party spot, so it's not around to remind you of what happened, but it's easily accessible to you so you can get back to them when you're ready!"

Sonia pressed her Mission Freedom ID to the scanner next to the cell's opening, causing the energy barrier on the edge to activate and block the drums in.

"I still can't believe that craziness was happening when Sonny and I were on our fishing trip." Chuck said. "You all could've called."

"To be fair, we were going to." Tails replied. "I'm just amazed that the crowd went so crazy over that Ricky guy's loud cannons. And if everyone was going nuts, how did Manic stay onstage?"

Manic and Sonia eyed each other. That was just the cover story they told the others about what happened at that concert. Nobody else knew about what Manic could do- even the concert-goers were unsure about what exactly happened. The secret was safe for now.

"Don't worry your big brain about it, Miles." Chuck, in on the cover story as well, patted his nephew's head. "What matters is that Manny's doing a-okay."

"Are you, Manic?" Sonic asked, turning to his brother. "I heard you had a lot going on there. Are you really okay, Manic?"

"…for now." The green hedgehog replied. "But I want to get better. I've been bottling how I feel for so long, it was bound to put me into trouble. I want to learn how to live with myself, not just stuff everything in a duffel bag at the back of my head."

"And I'm so proud of you for wanting to do that, Manic." Sonia said, coming over to her brother. "Even if you did have to steal my bike to get to this point."

"Sorry again about that…"

"It's fine. I'll just get you back when you least expect it."

Manic chuckled, making Sonia smile. After a moment, she stepped forwards and gave him a hug. Manic hugged her back, patting his sister's back, happy they could share one without an intense situation forcing their hands.

"…you can stop now, Sonia."

"Oh thank Gaia." She sighed, pulling away.

"Thanks, though. You're a good sister." Manic said with a smile. He turned to Sonic and Tails. "And you're good brothers too. Even if you've only been here for a few months."

"Aww, Manic, I'm touched." Sonic put his hand to his chest.

"I know I haven't been sharing stuff about myself. I want to work on that." The green hedgehog continued. "That starts with… the truth. The reason I've been away from Mission Freedom and acting weird around it is… I used to date Rotor. But we broke up a year ago."

"Used to date Rotor?" Tails blinked a few times. "Oh! Oh, that actually makes a lot of sense! Everything's checking out now! That's why Sally was so crabby towards you, too!"

"To be honest, the way she was treating you, Manic, I thought you and Sally were bitter exes. Not you and Rotor." Sonic added.

"Is there a problem with it being Rotor and not Sally?" Sonia asked frigidly, staring at Sonic from behind her youngest triplet.

"Wh-What? No, no of course not! I mean me personally— I just— I have friends— No, no it's cool!" Sonic replied, flustered. "It's fine, of course it's fine."

"Sonia…" Manic sighed.

"Sorry, sorry, you know I just get protective." She replied, walking over to join Sonic and Tails.

"I know, and I respect it. But look, I don't want you changing the way you treat people just because I have history with them. That goes for you two, too." Manic gestured Sonic and Tails. "Rotor's my ex, yeah, but… He doesn't deserve that, he's got enough on his plate. So can we all just chill and let him live?"

"I'm game."

"I have to work with Rotor anyway, that would be awkward."

Sonic and Tails turned to Sonia, looking at her expectantly. After a second, she sighed and nodded.

"Okay. I'll stop. But if he says anything…"

As if on cue, the door to the stairway opened, and Rotor was there with a box. His eyebrows raised as he saw the Hedgehogs (in name only) standing there together, but he quickly and awkwardly shuffled further in, facing away from the group after the events that transpired earlier that week.

Manic sighed.

"I should go over there."

"Are you sure, Manny?" Longclaw asked, walking over to stand behind him. "You're not obligated."

"I should say something. I need to say something."

"…okay, Manic." The owl leaned in, pecking behind his ear with her beak. "I'm gonna head out. Call my pager if you need anything, alright?"

"I will."

"I'm headed back upstairs too." Chuck gave Manic a side hug, smiling. "Love you, Manny. See you later."

After Chuck and Longclaw left, Manic took a deep breath. His siblings watched him walk across the room to where Rotor was, who was re-organizing a stack of boxes to add his own in them.

"…hey." The hedgehog spoke first.

"…hey." Rotor replied awkwardly, only momentarily pausing his organizing.

It was silent for a moment. Manic unclipped and clipped his wristbands idly in the silence.

"How did your concert go?"

The question snapped Manic out of it. "Oh, uh… it was a bust. The lead singer was a total toolbag anyways, so I left it."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. I was just in a bad headspace anyway. I was all week," Manic said. "That also brings me to… Yeah. I'm sorry for being such a jerk when I last saw you. It's not an excuse, but, I was neglecting to work out a lot of personal stuff that was happening to me."

"…I know the feeling. I don't hold it against you." Rotor turned around to face him now, his hands free. "I didn't mean to snap back like I did."

"Hey, I deserved it. I mean, did you see what I was wearing?"

The two of them chuckled, which eventually died, leading them back into silence.

"…can we be friends again?" The walrus asked, his voice soft and genuine.

"…I want to be. I want to work to be that again." The hedgehog replied. "But I'm still working to be the version of Manic that Rotor Boomhauer deserves. I need time, but… I want to be close again. You can be sure about that, Boomer."

Though the answer wasn't exactly what Rotor wanted, it was still a good start, making him slowly smile. The two of them reached out, doing their special handshake, though unlinking their pinkies as they stepped away from each other.

Rotor walked away from the boxes, heading to the door to the stairway. A lot was on his mind, enough that he didn't even wave to the other siblings as he left. Manic strolled back to the others.

"Way to go, Manic." Sonic gave him a thumbs up. "I'm happy you're going to be working on yourself. Speaking of work, though, are you officially coming back to Mission Freedom?"

"Yeah. I miss being a lab tech. It was fun." Manic nodded, but sighed. "But that means I have a lot of apologizing to do."

"You'll get through it. I mean hey, the others here didn't really hold a grudge." Tails replied. "You got this in the bag!"

"It'll be hard, but you won't have to do it alone." Sonia concluded.

Manic smiled. He still smiled as his siblings moved in, all of them giving him another group hug.

"We love you, Manic."

"Yeah, yeah. I love you guys too."

"Are we done with the hugging and the loving?"

The question ended the hug, and everyone turned to find another visitor in the doorway to the stairs: Starline, who was holding an ice pack to his head.

"This is a place of science. Can you deal with your own messed up family ideals in whatever backwoods rickety shack you people grew up in?" The doctor sneered. "Get out of my lab!"

"Well, at least I know there's one person here I don't owe an apology to." Manic said. "Get well soon, Starline. I hope you didn't damage that ugly little brain of yours."

"You would know something about little brains, Manny."

The siblings all left the lab, walking to the door, parting only as Starline walked further into the bottom basement level. Once the doors closed, he was finally alone.

He made sure he was alone- Scratch and Grounder were still hiding from Princess Sally's wrath- before Starline reached into a box to retrieve his damaged Tricore gauntlet.

His test on Manic had failed. It seemed that his attempt to hypnotize the weaker sibling sent Manic in a frenzy where he knocked Starline out. The doctor actually had a dream that Manic's eyes glowed and he unleashed an energy blast into him- clearly his mind trying to repress what happened.

It was that broken mind of Manic's that sent him into that frenzy. If he was going to bend the minds of the simpletons on this island, Starline would have to find a method that could work for everyone. He needed a better way to do hypnotize.

With a throbbing head, Starline started to work on his gauntlet again, his mind trying to think of ways to execute his master plan.

UP NEXT: Sonia's Choice!