The Gang's All Here

11: Sonia

~A Few Hours Before~

Sonic squealed, hugging a hedgehog girl with magenta quills and pink hair.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were still in that investigator school!"

The girl laughed. "I finished most of that, already. I just thought I'd check on my three-minute-older brother before I go looking for some jobs. So, how's saving the world been?"

Sonic caught the girl up on his biggest escapades, her even having a few of her own to share.

As they continued talking s, Scourge walked in. "Morning, Sonic. Who's your friend?"

After Sonic briefly explained that the girl was sister, Scourge began feeling awful. He thought about his own big brother, and how much he missed him.

Scourge had to excuse himself before he began tearing up.

Wanting to go and comfort Scourge, Sonic quickly thought of something to get some alone time. He turned to Sonia, "Oh, hey, did you know Manic lived near here?"

~Back to Normal Time~

The magenta girl hugged Manic back. "I missed you too, Baby Brother."

Manic was so happy that he couldn't speak for a moment. He kept his face buried in the girl's jacket, holding her tight.

Silver and Shadow were confused. They'd never seen this girl before.

"Uh... who's that?" Shadow asked Silver.

Since Manic was unable to answer, the girl spoke up: "My name is Sonia. I'm Manic's sister. I'm older than him by only two minutes, but I still like calling him my Baby Brother."

Silver was surprised. "Oh, hey! We were just talking about you!"

Sonia made a questioning face.

Realizing that Sonia didn't know exactly what was said about her, Silver quickly said, "All good things, all good things."

Finally, Manic lifted away from the hug. Sonia rubbed behind his ears and took a good look at him. Manic wasn't showing it, but Sonia could tell that something was wrong. She decided to ask about it when his friends weren't around. For now, she asked, "Who're your friends?"

Manic put on his cheerful facade and introduced his friends, "That's Silver and Shadow. I met them when I first moved in. They helped me unpack."

Sonia was confused. "What about Sonic? I figured he would've been first to help you."

Manic got a bad feeling in his stomach, but didn't speak on it. "Yeah, he helped. He... Just..."

Luckily for Manic, his medication alarm went off.

"Oh, man. Sonia, could you give us a second?" Manic asked, turning the alarm off.

Sonia nodded, and Manic had Shadow and Silver follow him as he went to his room.

Silver closed the door behind them and asked, "Why'd you want us to follow you? Did you need something?"

Shaking his head no, Manic grabbed his pill bottle. "I just didn't want to leave Sonia alone with you two."

Shadow and Silver were a bit taken aback. "You've been alone with us, before, and nothing happened." Shadow replied. "On the first day we met, actually. Did you think either of us would do something wrong to her?"

"No, not really." Manic answered. "But it's not exactly safe leaving someone alone with people they don't know. Even if it's not an unsafe situation, it's kinda rude to do."