Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Second Chances ❯ The experiment ( Chapter 2 )

Manic sat in the shower, crying. He was now seventeen years old and still living in the military base.

At least he lived to grow up, his sister certainly didn't have that chance.

Someone started banging on the bathroom door.

"Manic?" Sonic called. "Come on. You've been in there for almost an hour."

Manic sighed.

"You okay, bro?" Sonic asked. "If you don't answer in-"

Manic turned the water off. "I'm fine, Sonic." He replied. "I promised I wouldn't do that again. I'll be out in a minute."

"Oh, Tails has something to show us when you get out." Sonic said.

Manic got out and dried himself off. "What is it this time?"

"I don't know." Sonic said. "He said it was a surprise."

Manic huffed. "I better not be his guinea pig again."

Manic put on his bathrobe and headed out.

Sonic rushed into the bathroom and slammed the door.

Manic glanced back at the bathroom door, then walked to Tails' room.

Tails took his headset off and looked over his shoulder. "Oh, Manic. Don't worry, this won't be like last time."

"I hope not." Manic said.

Tails spun around in his computer chair so he could face Manic. "So how would you like to tour Mobius where the war never happened?"

Manic sighed. "This is exactly like last time." He said. "Remember when you merged me with a mosquito with your last time travel project?"

Tails sighed. "That was a very elaborate prank that Sonic convinced me to go along with."

Manic scoffed. "Sure it was."

"I have proof." Tails said flatly. "Sonic and I did the make-up effects while you were asleep. I just made a video to give you the illusion of a working program on my computer. Sonic knocked you out and we washed the makeup off."

Manic sat on the desk. "Sonic did say he'd get me back for tricking him into walking into an in-ground pool while he was blindfolded."

Sonic finally came back into the room.

Manic looked at Sonic. "Very funny. Tails told me the truth about the whole mosquito thing."

"Sorry, bro, we may have taken that idea way too far." Sonic said, rubbing the back of his head.

"We?" Tails said to himself. He got up. "Okay, guys, follow me."

Tails walked Sonic and Manic into a huge, metal chamber.

"This is the Augmented reality chamber." Tails said.

Manic furrowed his brow. "Why does this remind me of Quantum Leap?"

"The design is inspired by the show." Tails added. "Anyway-"

"No." Manic said sternly. "I'm not doing this. I watched enough of that show to know I don't want to be in a few weird, body swaps."

Sonic snickered. "Like the one we saw last night?"

"Yes, and it's not funny." Manic snapped.

Tails sighed. "This will just… to put it where you'll understand it, zap you to this dimension as a kind of hologram." He said. "You'll be able to somewhat interact with your environment. I'm still working on the dimensional travel machine and we'll have to do a few controlled tests before I use a live test subject."

Manic and Sonic nodded.

"Okay, so when do we begin?" Sonic asked.

"As soon as we have a meeting." Tails replied. "I have a bit of a mission for you two. I wanna know why the great Mobian war never happened there, but happened here. Maybe we could use that information to prevent it from ever happening here whenever I can perfect a time machine. I also made you these medallions to help you two interact with the environment to some degree."

Manic rubbed his chin. "Won't that create the butterfly effect or whatever?" Manic asked.

"Would it hurt to try to stop the war?" Tails asked. "What do we have to lose?"

"He's got a point, bro." Sonic said.