FicWad

Sonic laid awake since he couldn’t sleep anymore.
For the past hour, he had been fighting the programming from the robotic side, which was slowly taking over.
His memories of his old life were becoming vague and blurry.
Sonic sighed. “Now I know how….” He thought. He glanced at Manic, who was asleep in a sleeping bag on the floor. “What’s his name feels with his intrusive thoughts. What is his name? Wait… what was my name again?”
Sonic groaned.
Manic woke up. “Bro?” He asked groggily. He got up and sat down beside Sonic. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s my… my name?” Sonic asked. “It… it’s… uh, it’s Sonic, right? Or am I Manic?”
“It’s Sonic, bro.” Manic said. “I’m Manic.”
“Thanks….” Sonic replied. He screamed, his voice was a mixture of his natural voice and an auto tuned robotic voice.
Manic put his hand on Sonic’s shoulder. “Sonic?”
“I don’t remember you.” Sonic said, his voice wavering between the natural and robotic tone. “I barely remember anything now.”
Sonia and Aleena came in with bags of supplies.
“Oh, you’re up early, boys.” Sonia said.
Manic got up.“Sonia, can I talk to you for a minute?”
Sonia set the bags down. “Sure.”
“We’ll be back in a minute, Ma.” Manic said. He walked Sonia out of the van.
“What?” Sonia asked.
“The Ro-butt-nik programming is slowly taking over.” Manic said. “Sonic couldn’t remember my name. He said he doesn’t remember me. He could barely remember his own name. His voice… he’s starting to sound like a robot.”
Sonia wiped her eyes. “What do we do if he turns on us?”
Manic sighed. “Maybe hitting him with some blasts from the medallions like we did Argus.”
“The effects don’t last long.” Sonia replied.
Manic clenched his fists. “We have to try, Sonia!”
Sonia nodded. “Okay, yes, we are going to do everything we can to keep him normal.” She replied. “I’m just saying it doesn’t last long. What do we do when it fails?”
Manic looked away, holding his arms. “I guess he’ll kill me because I can’t kill Sonic.”
Sonia hung her head. “Manic… we may-”
“Then you do it if it comes to that.” Manic said. “I can’t do it.”
“None of us want to.” Sonia replied.
Manic finally turned to face Sonia. Tears formed in his eyes. “I know.”
Sonia stepped over and hugged Manic, rubbing his back as he cried on her shoulder.
Aleena stepped outside. “Manic, Sonia?”
Sonia looked at Aleena.
Aleena closed the door behind her, then walked over to Sonia and Manic. “I noticed Sonic’s slipping into the programming.” She said, “I heard you had counteracted the effects before with the medallions. Where’s his medallion?”
Manic let go of Sonia and pulled the medallion out of his vest pocket. “I don’t know if anyone else could activate it.”
Aleena took the medallion from Manic and looked it over. “It won’t work.” She said, handing it back to Manic. “It’s activated by his fingerprints. To reprogram it to mine or anyone’s fingerprints, we’d have to get the designer to do a reset on it.”
“So where’s the designer?” Manic asked.
“He was roboticized when the coup started.” Aleena replied.
Manic and Sonia groaned.
“I knew it.” Manic said, tossing his hands in the air. “I told you that stupid Oracle was full of-”
Sonia grabbed Manic by his shoulders and gently shook him. “Calm down, bro.” She replied. “We can try to make do with our medallions.”
Manic kicked the ground. “We could barely keep Argus normal with all three of our medallions.”
“It’s either that or kill him.” Sonia said, folding her arms. “We have to try something.”
The van’s door blew open.
Aleena, Sonia, and Manic jumped.
Sonic stepped out of the van.
Manic and Sonia activated their medallions and fired laser blasts at Sonic.
Sonic groaned. “Why am I outside?”
“You must’ve started following the programming.” Manic said. “Your medallion is not going to work.”
“What medallion?” Sonic asked.
Manic held up the medallion. “Your medallion that turns into a guitar, bro.”
“Very funny.” Sonic replied.
Manic sighed and activated his medallion.
Sonic looked at the drums. “How’d you do that?”
“They just work is all I can tell you.” Manic said, deactivating the medallion. “I haven’t worked up the nerve to take mine apart to see how it works.”
Sonic didn’t answer.
“Bro?” Manic asked.
“I’m fine.” Sonic said.
“Let’s go back inside and discuss what to do.” Aleena said. “Your dad may call soon, but he said no promises.”
Aleena led the way inside.
Sonia followed Aleena.
Sonic grabbed Manic’s arm as he tried to walk by. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“We’ll catch up to you in a minute.” Manic said. He closed what was left of the door, then turned to face Sonic. “Yeah, bro?”
“I kinda remember trying to help you all restore someone’s personality.” Sonic said. “It’s not as effective with me.
“You can fight it though, Sonic.” Manic replied. “You don’t let anyone control you, so why start now? You have to keep fighting, bro.”
“I don’t know if I can.” Sonic said softly.
Manic looked Sonic in the eye. “You can.” He replied. “We can’t let that psycho win, right?”
Sonic nodded. “Right, uh….”
Manic smiled weakly. “I’m Manic; your little brother.”
“Manic… if I start to fall under Robotnik’s control, take me out.” Sonic said. “I don’t want you or anyone to die trying to reason with me.”
Manic shook his head. “Bro, I can’t-”
“Promise me, bro.” Sonic said. “Even if you could reason with me and still got killed, I couldn’t live with the thought of being made to kill anyone.”
Manic looked away. “I can’t live with that either.”
“If that happens, then the real me has already died.” Sonic said. “You’d just be stopping a shell.”
Manic slumped his shoulders. “You’re not a shell to me, bro.”
Sonic slowly nodded. “Okay.” He said. He got ready to run.
“Where are you going?” Manic asked.
“I may not be able to self-terminate while I'm under the program, but I can fight it long enough to do it with my own free will.” Sonic said. “Don’t follow me.”
Sonic raced off.
“Sonic, no!” Manic screamed.
The van door swung open, breaking off.
Sonia stepped out. “Manic, are you okay?”
“Sonic ran off to self-terminate.” Manic said.
“Come on, we’ll find him.”