The Gang's All Here

3: Caught Red-Handed (and Armed)

Silver walked to Sonic's...

Sorry, I mean, he hovered to Sonic's house. Sonic had called him and told him about his brother (whom he'd never heard of), and how he needed help moving into his new place.

"I don't believe this 'brother' exists. Personally, I think Faker's planning something stupid," Shadow said, stating Silver's thoughts.

Sonic had also invited Shadow along. Now, don't get the wrong idea, Shadow didn't want to go. In fact, he couldn't care less about Sonic or his 'imaginary' brother. But since Silver was goi-

Uh, I mean, his therapist told him that he needed to try at making more friends. Yep. It had nothing to do with Silver.

Anyhow, they soon arrived at Sonic's house, where Sonic was ready and waiting. After a few minutes of walking and trying to convince Silver and Shadow that Manic was indeed real, they arrived at Manic's house.

"Well, aren't you going to call him so he knows we're here?" Silver asked, trying to hide his skeptical tone.

"No need. He gave me a key," Sonic answered. He unlocked the door, and was surprised to see that a good bit of the work had already been done.

"Considering that he's related to you, I figured that this place would be messy," Shadow said, walking around.

Silver heard footsteps above his head. The house was a two-story, so someone must've been upstairs.

'Huh. Maybe Sonic wasn't lying,' Silver thought.

Silver turned and saw a mirror propped against the wall. He thought nothing of it, until he saw the reflection of someone about to come down the stairs.

The guy was a green hedgehog, and he looked around Sonic's age. He had really, really long quills, and wild-looking bangs. There were two piercings in one of his ears, his nails were painted black, and he was wrapping up his arm.

Silver wasn't sure if his eyes were deceiving him, but it looked like there was blood on the guy's arm, underneath the bandage.

That fact alone caused Silver some concern. But then, Silver saw the hedgehog take something small from the pocket of his hoodie and put it underneath a vase, which was on a small table beside the stairs.

"Manic, we're here! Where are you?" Sonic called from the living room.

The hedgehog quickly finished up wrapping his arms around and pulled up his sleeve. "Just a second, I'm coming down!"

Silver joined the other two in the living room, just as the hedgehog came downstairs.

"There he is!" Sonic said apon seeing his brother walk in. He turned to Silver and Shadow. "Guys, this is my brother, Manic."

Whispering (not knowing that he wasn't being that quiet), Sonic added, "Please don't make sudden moves. He's really nervous."

Silver, despite being suspicious of Manic, was eager to meet him. He put out his hand, but unknowingly did it a bit too fast, and Manic jumped about four feet backward.

Everyone was surprised at Manic's reaction to something that seemed so not-scary.

"Uh... You okay?" Shadow asked.

'NO! NO, I'M NOT OKAY! I HAVEN'T BEEN FOR OVER A YEAR, NOW!' is what Manic wanted to say.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm not feeling too... calm right now. I need to lay off the horror movies," Manic lied.

Silver could easily see through Manic's upbeat mask. Instead of saying anything about it, he said, "Well, sorry for spooking you. But if you honestly don't want to shake my hand, that's fine."