FicWad

Sonia and Mindy sat down at a table in the middle of the mall’s food court.
“So have you heard from Manic?” Mindy asked.
Sonia stirred her tea with her straw. “It’s been a while.” She replied. “I suppose he’s okay. I haven’t heard that he’s been arrested in months. He’s made some vague mentions of having a girlfriend, but he never mentioned wanting us to meet her.”
“Why?” Mindy asked.
“He might think our family will disapprove of her since he started mentioning her around the time he started getting into legal trouble.” Sonia replied.
Mindy sadly shook her head.
“He shuts me down when I try to reason with him.” Sonia said, slumping over the table. “Sonic was the only one that could talk sense into him. We all used to joke that they had that identical twin connection.”
“You’d think he’d try to be a hero in honor of Sonic.” Mindy replied.
“I guess he couldn’t bring himself to do it without him.” Sonia said, shrugging weakly. “They were a team.”
Mindy leaned across the table. “Does your family know that you’re Miyu?”
“Oh, no.” Sonia replied. “Mother would have a heart attack. Remember when I wanted to join GUN like Shadow and she freaked out?”
Mindy nodded. “I still can’t believe that Shadow would join them.”
“He only did it for the training.” Sonia said. “Once his contract is up, he’s out.”
Sonia’s watch beeped.
Sonia checked her watch. “I better get home.” She replied. “I have a lot of work to do.”
“So do I.” Mindy said, gathering her trash onto her tray.
*
Sonia arrived at home and laid down on her couch. She put on her noise canceling headphones and laid down to rest and listen to music for a few minutes before she got to work on some posters for the new theater in town.
An hour later, she jolted awake to her phone ringing.
She answered it. “Hey, Shadow.”
“Turn on YouTube.” Shadow said. “Everyone has gone crazy or is in a stupor.”
Sonia got up and turned her tv on. “Okay.” She replied. She put it on YouTube.
Several videos showed riots with some people and Mobians wandering around like zombies and some fighting each other.
“What is going on?” Sonia asked.
“I don’t know.” Shadow replied. “But I noticed something odd.”
“What is it?” Sonia asked.
Her phone started beeping.
“Hold on.” Sonia said. “Tails and Mindy are calling me.”
Sonia put her phone on a business call. “Okay. Tails, Mindy, and Shadow; you’re all on the call.”
“I guess you all saw the news.” Tails said. “I don’t know if your mom is affected by whatever it is, but she left without a word.”
“Daddy walked out too.” Mindy replied. “I was listening to music on my headphones and he suddenly got up and left. I was looking right at him, he never said a word.”
“I had my headphones on too.” Tails said.
“So did I.” Sonia replied.
“I didn’t have headphones on either, but I noticed the ones who did weren’t affected by whatever it is.” Shadow said.
“There must be some reason that you’re immune to whatever it is.” Tails replied. “I’ll get on with the research. Sonia, Mindy, can you come by?”
“Sure.” Sonia and Mindy said.
“I’ll come when I can.” Shadow replied. “I gotta deal with GUN’s mess.”
“What?” Sonia asked.
“It’s confidential.” Shadow replied.
“Be careful, Shadow.” Sonia said.
“No promises.” Shadow replied. He hung up.
“Keep your headphones on, girls.” Tails said. “Be careful.”
*
Sonia ran to her room and quickly changed into a red tank top, carefully avoiding her headphones. She put on her black leggings, red cargo skirt, and black boots as she called her mom.
No answer.
Sonia grabbed her medallion (which was made from a Chaos Emerald through some process that Tails tried to describe to her) and put it around her neck.
She stepped outside and found her neighbors dragging out valuable items (such as money, and safes). She did a double take as Rouge hauled out a load of jewelry with Knuckles’ help.
“Rouge?” Sonia asked. “You okay?”
Rouge ignored her.
Sonia tapped Knuckles’ shoulder. “Knux?”
Knuckles tried to punch Sonia.
Sonia caught Knuckles’ wrist. “Sorry, Knux. Go about your business.” She said, “I don’t want any trouble.”
Knuckles continued on his way.
Sonia hurried out of her apartment building.
*
Sonia and Mindy arrived at Tails’ workshop.
Tails tapped a few commands on his keyboard. “Okay, I have accessed the mics in your headphones and have it where it only connects to my computer and to our headsets.”
“Great.” Sonia replied. “So what is going on?”
“It’s some sort of frequency embedded in what seems to be music.” Tails said. “It creates a hypnotic effect. You can reverse it by playing a different song. I’ve preloaded a tune that can counteract the effects into your medallions.”
“Can you track the signal?” Mindy asked.
“I’m working on it.” Tails replied. “But I noticed that there’s this dark hooded figure that has been lurking around the outbreaks in all of the videos. It’s either a hologram or someone who has abilities similar to Shadow.”
Tails played the videos.
“At least some of them are holograms.” Mindy said. “There’s no way this thing is everywhere at once.”
Sonia shrugged. “Maybe it’s demons.”
Tails sighed. “Scientific explanations, please, Sonia.”
“What about that weird thing that happened in your lab two years ago?” Sonia asked.
“Let’s rule out non supernatural reasons before we start buying gallons of holy water.” Tails replied.
“Fine with me.” Sonia said.
“Okay, so- wait, that's a live feed.” Mindy said, pointing at the screen. “It’s downtown. Let’s go.”