The Robotic Endgame

XIX. Mega Man

I frowned, wondering what was wrong. Then I remembered the Chaos Energy. I nodded, "Yeah, take your time."

He walked back a few steps, then leaned against the wall and slid down. He put his head on his knees and wrapped his arm around them. Knowing Sonic, he didn't want any of us to even acknowledge something was wrong. He wanted to suffer alone.

Sally, Tails and I walked away a little ways, then sat down against a wall as well. I tried not to look at Sonic, who was trembling in pain. Tails and Sally often looked at him, but tried to keep their eyes on the ground. "Can you tell how bad it is, Dr. Linde?" I whispered.

"Not really," she replied. "I've never seen energy signatures like these before. It was just all of sudden that they went crazy."

"How long?" I asked. It occurred to me that Sonic hadn't spoken since we had first gotten into the ruins.

She didn't say anything for a moment. "About twenty minutes. He's been miserable. I told him to stop, but..."

"But he's so stubborn. And it's lasting a lot longer than the one we saw before."

"He probably thought it would go away soon," Dr. Linde said. "But the energy signatures keep getting more and more wild. If they get much worse, I would guess that Sonic would be in danger. But I can't really say for sure."

"I'm sure it will be fine..." I muttered.

We waited for a while, but there was no change. Sonic stayed as he was, and I just wished there was some way that I could help him. He would do the same if it was me suffering. I was glad to have a moment to rest, though. Even robots could get tired, though they had more stamina than most others beings.

Then, all of a sudden, there was this massive rumbling that violently shook the floor. Sonic looked at us, a questioning frown on his face. Sally tried to stand up, but only managed to fall back down on her side. It went by quickly, but before any of us could see what was happening, the floor below Sally fell away. I reached down for her, but missed. She screamed as she fell, and I was about to go through my arsenal of copied robots to see if there was something I could use to help her when Sonic leaped off the cliff, managing to grab Sally and the edge of the remaining ground. I watched for a moment, stunned as Sonic's fingers started to lose their grip.

"Mega Man!" Sonic shouted. I slid forward and grabbed his wrist just as his fingers slipped off. I changed to Guts Man's power and pulled them up. As soon as he could reach, Tails grabbed Sally's arms and pulled her up onto solid ground.

"Are you okay?" Sonic asked Sally, panting with the exertion of running and feeling sick.

"I'm fine," Sally nodded. She sat up and peered over the pit in the ground. "I don't think this place wants us hanging around here."

"That's fine," Sonic said, shakily getting to his feet. "I'm better now. Let's get out of here."

"He's lying," I heard Dr. Linde say. "But Sally is right; you guys shouldn't stay in one place for long."

"Do you guys think we should just go backwards?" I asked. "It hasn't failed us yet."

"It looks like it's a long way across," Tails added.

"We might as well," Sally said. I started off, Sally walking next to Sonic. He didn't look like he felt better, but tried not to look so miserable.

The corridor had changed from the last time we had walked through it, curving around instead of a forming a zigzag pattern. I kept on my toes, ready to shoot my blaster at any moment. But we just kept walking and walking, nothing trying to stop us.