Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Sonic Underground Reloaded ❯ The next day ( Chapter 5 )

Shadow woke up early and found Manic, in a tank top and sweatpants, fixing his backpack on the floor.

Shadow did a double take when he noticed a silver drum shaped medallion around Manic's neck. "The Royal medallions." He thought. "At least one of them is still alive. Unless Manic stole it."

Manic looked up and quickly hid the medallion in his shirt.

Shadow sat down beside Manic. "So what's the deal with the medallion?"

Manic pulled it out again. "I don't know. I've had it since I was a baby and was told to always keep it on me and hidden." He said. "Sonia and Sonic said they were told the same thing."

Shadow nodded. "It's a good thing you hid it."

"Why?" Manic asked.

"It's the royal family medallions." Shadow replied. "It has the hedgehog family crest on the back."

Manic's eyes widened. "We're royalty? So we really are siblings?"

"Yeah, you are." Shadow replied.

Manic looked over at Sonic and Sonia who were just waking up. "Hey, we are siblings." He said. "Our medallions are the royal family medallions."

Sonic and Sonia got up and moved closer to Manic and Shadow.

"Really?" Sonic asked.

Sonia looked at her medallion. "It has a family crest I've never seen before."

Sonic's eyes widened. "Wait… we're the Royal triplets."

Sonia hugged her brothers. "Now we can try to find our parents. Maybe they're still alive."

A faint metallic humming got the four hedgehogs' attention.

Shadow looked around. "What is that?"

The metallic humming grew louder.

Suddenly gas filled the house. The gas cloud was too thick to see anything, so Shadow couldn't find the gas masks he had stockpiled.

The four hedgehogs collapsed.

Shadow and the triplets, slightly dazed, woke up in a cell.

Sleet stood at the cell door.

"Why am I here?" Manic asked. "We had a deal."

"You sold us out?!" Sonic screamed.

"Deal's off since you're the son of Shadow and Aleena." Sleet said. "You'll go to the roboticizer with your family. I hear your mother should be here soon."

Sleet walked away.

"Wait. He said he'd de-roboticize Farrell!" Manic called. He slumped against the wall when his cry went unanswered.

Shadow looked at Manic. "So you sold us out for some thug?" He questioned.

Manic looked away. "He raised me."

"We're your family." Sonia said, crying. "How could you?!"

"You two are and I'm sorry." Manic replied. "But Ma just dumped us off. Dad probably never cared about us either. We're just around to be heirs to the throne."

"Oh?" Shadow asked. He narrowed his eyes. "Actually, I helped the guards hold off Robotnik's forces so your mother could escape. I only recently found out you're not dead. I haven't been able to find you before and I kept my distance from Uncle Chuck to keep him safe. I'm sure your mom didn't want to abandon you either, but I don't understand why she sent you to live with thieves."

"Wait. You're our dad?" Manic asked. "How long have you known that? Why didn't you say anything before?"

"I didn't know until I saw your medallion this morning and you mentioned Sonia and Sonic had one." Shadow said. "They've been in our family for centuries. Robotnik took over a few days before you were supposed to be born. The only name we had picked out was Sonia, which is a long story. We only knew we were having triplets."

"Why did everyone think we were dead?" Sonia asked.

"Because the guards were supposed to take your mom to a safe house." Shadow said. "By the time I reached it, the place was burned to the ground. I couldn't get any confirmation on it and since no one saw your mom again, I assumed you all were killed. I faked my death to stay off the radar until I could avenge you all."

"How'd you escape Robotnik's forces?" Sonic asked.

"His early robots were stupid." Shadow replied. "ED-209 dumb; even looked like that thing too."

Sonic and Sonia furrowed their brows while Manic laughed.

"RoboCop reference." Manic said, moving his hands out of the shackles.

"So you're gonna leave us here?" Sonic asked.

Manic walked over to them. "No, we're family." He said. He knelt down beside Sonia. "I can't betray you all again."

The four flinched back as the door slid halfway open.

Queen Aleena was shoved in.

As soon as Manic unlocked their shackles, Sonic and Sonia rushed over to her.

Queen Aleena hugged the two kids.

Manic unlocked Aleena's and Shadow's shackles before easing himself into a corner.

"Shadow?" Aleena asked. "I knew you were still alive somewhere. I've been trying to find you."

"I had tried to find you too. I thought all of you were dead." Shadow replied. "I just so happened to find the kids while I was in Mobotropolis."

The video intercom system crackled on.

The family quickly hid their wrists and ankles to hide the fact they were no longer shackled.

Robotnik's face appeared on the screen.

"Ah, it's so nice to see the royal family reunited… to be roboticized." Robotnik said. He looked over at Manic, who was still huddled in a corner behind Shadow. "Oh, Manic, don't feel left out. You'll join your family in the roboticizer. Sleet was supposed to inform you. If he didn't, then rest assured he was punished severely. Oh, and by the way. Farrell never survived the robotization process. You agreed to sell your family out for a hologram."

The screen shut off as Robotnik laughed maniacally.

Sonic and Sonia glared at their younger brother, who was now curled into a ball.

"He probably didn't know you were related." Aleena said.

"We figured we were related because of the medallions." Sonic said, holding up his medallion.

"I'm sorry." Manic said. "I was desperate. Farrell was like a dad to me. You would've done the same for Uncle Chuck, Sonic. Sonia, you would've done the same for Lady Windermere."

Sonic shook his head. "Ro-butt-nik never gives deals."

Sonia slumped her shoulders. "I probably would've. You know more about this resistance stuff than we do, Sonic."

"It's just common sense." Sonic protested. "He's a tyrant. I kinda expect that from Sonia because she's so sheltered, but Manic- well, you're a thief, so you probably get used to backstabbing and using others."

Manic didn't answer.

"Look, Sonic, he's not off the hook." Shadow said, standing up. "But you're wasting time yelling at him. We do need him at the moment. I have an idea. Follow along."

Everyone nodded.

Shadow pulled a pocket knife out of his boot. "If you don't have one, find something with a sharp point."

Sonia was the only one who didn't have a pocket knife hidden in her shoes.

Manic handed Sonia his pocket knife. "I have a box cutter anyway."

"When I nod, rush the bots." Shadow said. "There's a weak spot in the back of their heads. You can short circuit them. They don't react as quickly as the Swatbots."

As soon as the guard bots came to lead the hedgehog family out of their cells, Shadow nodded.

They all rushed the bots and quickly climbed up them to short out the bots.

Manic tried to jam his box cutter into the weak spot. "Ugh, it's not-"

The guard bot grabbed Manic by his shirt and threw him against the metal wall.

Manic let out the most unnerving scream his family had ever heard.

"You check on him." Shadow said to Aleena. "We'll deal with Robotnik."

Aleena rushed over to her injured son.

Shadow, Sonic, and Sonia rushed into Robotnik's chambers.

Robotnik did a double take at the hedgehogs. "I should've known you'd escape."

Cat and Rotor entered the room.

"You made my dad's mistake." Shadow said. "You trusted the wrong one."

"We used the codes to shut down the robots." Rotor said. "I was made a guard for my hacking skills."

"No robots to save you." Cat added.

"Dingo quickly gave up." Shadow said. "I guess even he didn't want to cross Terios and the Blue Blur."

Robotnik couldn't have looked more horrified if he tried.

Shadow looked at Sonic and Sonia. "Go, you don't want to see this."

Sonic and Sonia walked out with Rotor.

Shadow took Robotnik out with one good laser shot to the head. He looked at Cat. "I warned him before this all started."

Cat nodded.

Shadow and Cat walked out and joined Sonic, Sonia, and Rotor.

"Manic's being rushed to the hospital." Rotor said. "I think his back is broken."

Shadow grabbed Sonic's and Sonia's arms and raced off.

"Now I know where my speed comes from." Sonic said.

Sonia cried as they waited for the doctor to give them any updates on Manic.

"He sold us out, sis." Sonic said. "He had it coming."

Shadow didn't say anything. He halfway agreed with Sonic; the other half was concerned about Manic regardless.

"I don't completely trust him now either." Sonia said. "But I don't want him to die. I can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing. I'm sure it was hard for him like it would be very difficult for me to make that decision."

Sonic slumped in his seat. "I guess you're right."

An hour later, Aleena finally came into the waiting room.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think to tell you all to come upstairs to wait." Aleena said.

Shadow got up. "How is he?"

"He has a concussion and an incomplete spinal cord injury in one of his vertebrae." Aleena replied.

"What does that mean in English?" Sonic asked.

"It means he might be able to walk again, but he'll need a lot of physical therapy." Aleena replied. "He'll have to start therapy as soon as he recovers from the concussion. He'll have to stay overnight, so which one of us is staying with him, Shadow?"

"I'll stay with him, you take Sonia and Sonic home." Shadow said.