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Manic and Sonic shuffled behind Sonia as they made their way across the parking lot.

Manic pulled his beanie down further, pushing some of his spines over his eyes, in a poorly thought out attempt to keep from being recognized. His long spines were now in his eyes and he could barely see around them.

Sonia's old friend, Mindy LeTour, came out the Mall's doors as the three hedgehogs reached the door.

"Sonia, it's so good to see you." Mindy said, hugging Sonia.

"Good to see you too." Sonia replied. "How have you been?"

"Better now that Daddy let me go shopping today." Mindy replied. "As long as I didn't spend too much." She noticed Manic. "Don't you have another brother or am I crazy?"

"Oh, Manic is back at the base." Sonia said, rubbing her arm. "This is... our cousin... Mania. She could be Manic's twin."

Sonia and Sonic laughed nervously while Manic half grinned.

"Anyway, I'd love to catch up, but I do have to be going." Mindy said. "We should meet up for a spa day." She hugged Sonia one more time before leaving.

"Let's try that next month. See you around, Mindy." Sonia said. She looked at her brothers. "Alright, let's go."

The siblings walked inside, glancing around at the Christmas decorations as they walked through the Mall.

"Wow, I'm surprised that Robotnik allows decorations." Sonic said. "Or holidays."

Manic pointed at a Rudolph the red nosed reindeer decoration, where it was simply Rudolph's head mounted on the wall. "Look, someone hunted Rudolph down."

Some nearby children started crying.

Sonic was trying his best not to laugh while Sonia was covering her face with her hand.

"It was a joke, kids." Manic said, rubbing the back of his head. "It's just a decoration. Besides, Rudolph's not real anyway."

"Manic." Sonia scolded. She grabbed Manic and Sonic by their wrists and dragged them away.

"You're lucky those parents didn't beat you with their shopping bags, bro." Sonic said.


"I'd almost prefer it to being paraded around like this." Manic replied. "What's next? We're going to bump into Mom?"


Sonia eased behind her brothers. "Bartleby is here."

"Seriously, what did you see in that guy?" Manic muttered.

"Don't say anything." Sonia said. "Here he comes."

Manic took a step toward the photo booth and sighed when he saw someone was in it.

Bartleby looked down his nose at the siblings. "Sonic? I say, it's a very weird to date someone who looks like a female version of your brother."

Manic huffed. "I-"

"This is my cousin, Mania." Sonic said flatly. "She just resembles Manic."

Bartleby finally walked off.

Sonia came out of the photo booth.

"You were hiding in there?" Manic asked. "You have a lot of nerve."

Sonia giggled. "I'm sorry."

"That was awkward." Sonic said.

"Even if I wasn't related to him... I could do better." Manic said, smirking at Sonic.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Oh, please."

Sonia glanced at the shoe store. "Ooh. A shoe sale. I so need new boots."

Sonic started to follow Sonia, but noticed Manic just standing there.

"What's with you?" Sonic asked.

"Can't I just stay in the photo booth until she's done shopping?" Manic asked. "I don't want to run into anyone else we know."

"You know, we dressed up as belly dancers once to trick Sleet." Sonic said. "That was your idea, remember? Sonia said you were too good at it. Oh, and there was the time you tried to dress up as Mom to cause a distraction when Ro-butt-nik was going to adopt Sonia. The time we dressed up as Sonia at that debutante ball. All of that was your ideas."


"That's different; those were costumes." Manic muttered. He glanced off at his favorite store. "Well, I can get more button pins so today won't be a total waste."

"You mean, 'buy', I hope." Sonic said. "Don't you have enough of those? You already loaded down your backpack and your fanny pack with pins and keychains."

Manic pointed to the shoe store? "Do you want to follow Sonia around?" Manic asked.

"No way." Sonic replied. He glanced toward the food court. He grabbed Manic's arm and raced into the store.

Manic pulled away from Sonic as soon as he stopped. "What was that about?"

"I'm sure I saw Knuckles in the distance." Sonic said. "He knows we don't have a cousin."

Manic went over to a huge crate of pins and started digging in it.

"Of all the days to leave that stupid island, he picks today."

"Maybe he's Christmas shopping." Sonic said, leaning against the crate.

"For who?" Manic asked. "He only mentioned one relative and we went to his funeral two months ago."

"He might have at least one more relative around." Sonic replied. "Or he's shopping for Sonia."

After a few minutes, Sonic reluctantly joined Manic since he didn't have anything better to do.

"You're supposed to be buying clothes, you know." Sonic said. He pulled up a pin. "Oh, here's a good one for you."

Manic looked at it. "Little miss dangerous? Seriously, bro?"

"I'm sorry, but you can't say this isn't a little funny." Sonic replied.

"Speak for yourself." Manic replied. "I'll get it anyway. Maybe Sonia will like it."

Manic finally picked up several pins and stood in line beside Sonic.

Sonic stepped around Manic to keep his brother between himself and a display rack so he wouldn't try to walk out without paying for anything.

Manic fidgeted with his trenchcoat sleeve.

"I know it's a hard habit to break, but you can talk instead of nervous fidgeting." Sonic said.

"It's not that." Manic replied. "This stupid bra strap is digging into my shoulder and it's too tight or something."

Sonic nodded. "Uh-huh."

Manic kept fidgeting with the bra and the corset straps on the dress. "Seriously, how do they wear these?"

"Ask Sonia." Sonic said. "And stop adjusting your clothes in public. It's awkward."

"Sorry." Manic replied.

"Okay, so we've been to the food court and the arcade." Sonic said, checking his watch. "It's been two hours and she's not at the door. Please tell me she's not still in the shoe store."

"No, she's in that soap store now." Manic replied. He motioned to the store where Sonia was looking at a rack of gingerbread scented soaps. He walked over to a VR rollercoaster ride. "May as well have some fun."


Sonic and Manic climbed into the ride and put on the headsets.

Manic scrolled through the location options.

"Don't select apocalyptic wasteland." Sonic said. "I see that every day."

"Mobodoon or carnival?" Manic asked.

"Either one is fine." Sonic replied.

Manic selected Mobodoon.

"Well, the effects are kinda cool." Sonic said as the ride took them through the streets of Mobodoon. "I still think the real rollercoasters were probably more fun."
*
Manic took the headset off. "The first thing we're doing when we're in charge is setting up the Midway again."

Sonia was standing beside the ride, holding a bunch of bags.

"What?" Manic asked.

Sonic took his headset off. "You haven't been standing there that long."

Sonia handed the bags to Sonic and Manic. "Make yourselves useful."

Sonic and Manic took the bags.

"Now let's go." Sonia said. She started to walk away. "We have to -"

"Wait. Weren't we here to get clothes for Manic?" Sonic asked.

"I really did use that as an excuse to shop since I knew I couldn't get you two to agree to come along otherwise." Sonia replied. "But I sent a message to Cyrus to look into it and he just finished."

"I should've known better." Manic said. "I bought you a lot of clothes for your birthdays and Christmases that you never wore that I could wear now."


Sonic looked at Manic and folded his arms. "Then why didn't you say anything before we left?"

"I don't know." Manic replied. "Give me a break, bro, this hasn't been my day."

"You start the van, I'm getting some more chilli dogs." Sonic said, handing Manic the bags. He raced off to the food court.
*
To neither Sonia's nor Manic's surprise, Sonic made it to the van with a bag of chili dogs and a drink before they got there.

Sonic smirked at them. "I'm waiting."

"You could've started the van, smart aleck." Sonia replied.

Sonic handed Manic a cup. "I got you lemonade."

"Thanks." Manic replied.

"You didn't get me anything?" Sonia asked.

"I thought you got yourself enough stuff." Sonic replied. "No, I got you a couple of gingerbread cookies in the bag."

They got in their van and headed back to resistance headquarters.

Manic drummed his fingers on the dashboard. "Did you tell him what happened?"

"I said it mutated you." Sonia replied. "He'll see you when we get there. You may as well accept it."

"I don't want to accept it." Manic said, folded his arms. "Especially if I have to be cousin Mania for the rest of my life."

"We'll come clean if we have too." Sonia replied. "Let's cross that bridge when we get to it."

"If this permanent, you can't lock yourself away or worse, bro." Sonic replied.

"Easy for you to say." Manic mumbled under his breath.

"You're still our little brother, Manic." Sonia said. "No matter what."

Manic huffed.

"Hey, it's not our fault." Sonic said. "Don't give us an attitude."

Manic held his stomach. "Oh, it's not that. My stomach is cramping really bad for some reason."

Sonia gave a nervous laugh. "I hate to tell you this, but-"

"Oh, no." Manic muttered. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Maybe." Sonia replied.

Sonic got out of his seat and walked to his bed with a thousand yard stare.

Manic glanced over his shoulder. "What's with you?" He asked. "Bro?"

"I'm leaving you two to your girl talk." Sonic said. He climbed onto his bed and put in his earbuds. "It doesn't concern me."

"If I have to suffer through that, you should too." Manic replied.

"Why should I?" Sonia asked. "Talking about this with you is bad enough."

"Sorry, sis." Manic said.