Mega Man was so slow and boring. His steps seemed to drag along the floor more and more as we went on and on. I, on the other hand, was pumped with adrenaline. We were on an exciting new adventure unlike any I had been on before. There was no way I was going to slow down for something like this!

"Can't you go any faster?" I complained. The two of them, Rush and Mega Man together, looked exhausted. It was as if we had been walking for days without any rest. Then why was I so hyper and excited, with thoughts racing through my mind at a million miles per hour? Oh, hey, what's that fly doing here...?

It wasn't dark, for the gems lit the way superbly. With nothing shining on them, I wondered what made them emit the light. It was as if each had a light bulb behind it. And the ground was covered with black gravel. Why didn't it have gems paved into it as the walls did?

Why did Mega Man's dog fly? I mean, it was just a dog. Why didn't Mega Man fly? He was a robot, after all. Then again, so was his dog. And was that a robot ahead of us...?

"Glad you were able to make it, Mega Man and Friend." The robot said. That took me by surprise. It was obviously a girl's voice, and her voice made my ears feel weird. I couldn't see what the girl looked like, because she was just a bit too far away. Was she trying to pull us into a trance as the gems had before?

"Yo, Mega Man, let's teach her a lesson, 'eh?" I nudged him with my elbow, but he looked at the robot as if he were terrified. No part of him moved, but he didn't seem to be stuck in his thoughts. There was something about the robot that moved him somehow.

"Hey, kid," I said again, expecting him to do something. "It's just another ol' robot."

"I..." He spoke without pulling his gun up or anything. "I would rather surrender than fight her."

"Then you shall perish by my word!" She shouted, and she started doing something to the high ceiling. I noticed that her hand was really a drill, and the ceiling was just in her reach. However, the part of the cave that was above us was much higher. Rocks started to tumble from it, and I watched in horror as Mega Man got trapped down by a heavier one, his foot stuck between the rock and the wall. It took me a long amount of seconds to push it away, it was so heavy.

"Sonic, we can't hurt her!" Mega Man shouted. "She's my best friend."

Well, that would certainly make sense. "Then we won't. C'mon, let's just get past her."

As we ran, Mega Man continued, "You don't understand. She's going to crash this place. And she'll take herself down with it!"

I became angry. I didn't want to have to deal with it all. "Well, I don't know what to do!" I snapped. "You figure it out!"

Mega Man suddenly snapped his fingers. "Time Man!" He said. Instantly, I became frozen in place, my legs and arms failing to move. I couldn't run and I couldn't talk. Either Time Man was back, or Mega Man had used the power he had absorbed from him.

Mega Man moved quickly, pulling some wires out of the robot or something. She, too, was frozen in place, as were the rocks that were about to kill me.

Eventually, time slowly merged back into itself, and I was able to move. It was slow and strange at first, but eventually, it went completely back to normal.

"All fixed." Rock said to himself. The robot in front of Mega Man seemed to be speaking to him, and since Mega Man wasn't getting a drill through his chest, I assumed she was back to her 'normal' self. I was still annoyed, however. Why did there have to be so many interruptions in everything we did?

I glanced at the gems longingly, as if I had forgotten how hard I had been trying to avoid them. It made me want to stay there and look at them forever. They showed all sorts of things that I wanted, and they showed Tails and I running around, having an adventure. How I missed those days... At that moment, I would have done anything to go back home. I didn't want to be on this crummy planet anymore. Everyone was trying to kill me, and it was getting weird.

It was almost as if my mind was trying to merge with the pictures. Every second seemed to slow down by a bit, as if to show me everything it could. Though I knew the rocks were trying to kill me, I seemed to enjoy every second that passed more and more. It didn't matter that I was about to die. Nothing really mattered. My impending doom didn't phase me at all, and, if anything, it made me love the memories even more.

The ceiling finally fell on top of me, as it had to Mega Man. A shock of some sort went through my spine. Three rocks had come down at the same time, one on my head and another crushing my back. The last was trapping both of my feet down. To make it worse, more came on top, and though I was quite dazed, I tried to crawl away.

I saw Mega Man and his robot friend run towards me, but they stopped short and held their heads as a massive amount of rocks piled together. I covered my head as well, but with how many there were coming to squash me, there was no way I would be able to escape death.

Somehow, the rocks all locked themselves together, creating a sort of wall above me. Even though that was lucky, Mega Man and his friend were on the other side of it all, and there would be no way they could get to me.

Mega Man's dog barked, and I was glad he was in there. His eyes shone as if they had flashlights in them, which helped me see the situation a bit better. The gems that used to be glowing were now all dim, as if covered in sadness. I was in what seemed like a small room made of rocks, barely longer than I was lengthwise, and shorter than I was tall.

"Sonic?" Mega Man asked. I had just remembered we had the communicators! "Sonic, are you okay?!"

"I'm fine." I moaned, the feeling of numbness making my head foggy. "Your dog's in here, by the way."

"Hang on." Rock said. How ironic. "Tempo will help me get you out of here in just a second!"

"Tempo...?" I asked. "Is that your girlfriend?"

I smiled as there was a bit of hesitation. "Wha-? No, this is serious, Sonic! And she's just a friend!"

"Sure." I replied. "Be careful drilling, though, or this whole place will cave in."

After that, Mega Man said nothing, and I suffered in peace. Occasionally, the robot dog looked at me, and sometimes he sniffed my face. I just rested my head on my arms, trying not to sleep, though I didn't really care. There was no way Mega Man would be able to get me out without breaking it all.

The dog came and nudged one of my hands and whined, as if wanting me to get up and play. I chuckled. "I like you. I mean, you are a flying dog and all."

Again, he whined, but there was nothing I could have done. It wasn't like he could protect me when the architecture tore itself apart. Or could he...?

I tried to move, but my back gave out, as there was a giant rock on it. If my spine wasn't broken, that would be by a miracle of some sort. Then again, I could still move my hands, and I would've been completely paralyzed if my spine had been split. Not to mention dead.

"Mega Man," I said, "you should just save yourself. There really is - "

"No!" He yelled. It sounded like he had been crying. "I'm not giving up!"

I looked at his dog again, who sniffed the rocks that Mega Man seemed to be behind. Then he barked, and a spot of light traveled across the place I had been trapped in. What I had feared would happen hadn't. The ceiling seemed to be holding well.

Two drills were protruding from the wall; one was Mega Man's, and one was his friend's. In a matter of seconds, they broke through, and Mega man grabbed my arm and tried to pull me free while his friend drilled the rock on my back. If that had never been there, I would have been able to get out myself.

The drilling was like a jackhammer on my back; the vibration carried through all the way. I tried not to make any noises of pain; I didn't want to discourage Mega Man anymore. Once it had broken into smaller bits, I crawled away. Turned out the rocks on my legs wasn't really holding me down much at all; it had just been the one on my back that had tried to kill me.

I tripped as I stood painfully. "Don't push yourself, Sonic..." Mega Man said. I nodded, taking a few minutes to rest before I tried again.

I waited a minute before trying again. That time, instead of standing up immediately, I went on each of my legs slowly, rising up as slowly as I could. But my back still gave out. It worried me; especially since the schedule we were on didn't give us much time to lose.

The entire cave shook violently, as if trying to kill us. Rock and the robot looked at each other, nodding. They then each grabbed one of my arms, putting it around their necks. Mega Man called his dog, who came immediately.

They dragged me along as they ran, my back painfully spasming. It twitched, the muscles seeming to churn around. Rocks fell just behind us, trying to take us with them in the collapsing tower of dirt.

Just in time, as seeming just to be dramatic, we made it out. They set me down, my back on something cold. I realized we were in a world filled with ice. The strange thing was that there was what looked like the sun; was it just an illusion? Nobody else seemed to be questioning it, so I put the thought aside.

"Good." I said sarcastically. "Somewhere nice and warm to rest."

Instead of a smile, Mega Man seemed to be studying me. Then, he knelled by me, looking at something on my chest. I bent my neck to see what he was looking at, and I was puzzled. There sat a small device of some sort. It just looked like a small, square sticker of some sort, but when Mega Man tried to pull it off, it slightly hurt and rejected him. It wasn't on me; it seemed to be a part of me.

"What is it?" I asked him, thinking he would know the answer.

Mega Man only shook his head. "I have no idea. Maybe Dad put it on you for some reason. It doesn't seem like it will hurt you in any way. If I could communicate with Roll, then she would be able to scan it, but... I think it's fine."

"Fair enough, kid." I replied. If he thought it was okay, then I was fine with it. After, all, he was a robot, and he was probably smarter than me. Just not as cool.

The robot stepped in to say something. "My programs do not indicate that this is a form consistent with those of life." Now that sounded more like a robot. It seemed to have much intelligence, but didn't talk like a kid. For that matter, it didn't talk like anything but a machine.

"Never thought I'd be wondering why a robot didn't have emotions..." I said to Mega Man. "What's with her?"

"She..." Mega Man hesitated, as if trying to put it into words. "Her creator didn't feel that emotions were necessary, so she didn't add them. There was this whole incident years back... She has her feelings now, but they haven't all been processed completely. Oh! I haven't introduced you two. Tempo a.k.a. Quake Woman, Sonic, Sonic, Tempo a.k.a. Quake Woman."

I guessed that she was in her form that she used to fight, mostly because one of her hands was a drill. Her armor was green and purple, and she looked down at me with her green eyes, as if she imagined that she was far superior. Her hair was pulled into two parts that were both tied back. "Er, nice to meet you." I said, still laying on the cold ground.

"So, uh, where to next?" I asked. To my surprise, Quake Woman answered.

"We are to cross these ice burgs and stop the Robot Master that is potentially there. Then, we will proceed to the next area."

"Geeze, lighten up!" I replied. "Can't you just say, 'let's go kick the Robot Master's butt!'?"

"I..." She paused. "I am not so certain that it would be of the correct manner. Speaking correctly and respectively in even the most dire of situations reveals ones dignity."

I'm not so sure I had understand what she had said. "Can't you fear? Are you excited? I don't understand..."

"Dignity is not a matter of excitement or no excitement." Tempo replied. "It is a form of keeping cool under the most..."

Something seemed to affect her suddenly. She looked at the rocks, studying them. "Yes. I do fear. I fear things that most would not see as a major threat. I am... Happy with Rock and his new found friend."

"Hah!" I pointed to Mega Man. "She is your girlfriend!"

Quake Woman blushed. "That was not that which I said. I merely was saying that we are friends who enjoy each others' company. Now, shall we continue into the water?"

"Nah, you're totally - " Water. She said water. She said into the water. She meant swim. She meant swim in the water into a battle. Had they no idea that I was frightened out of mind by the thought of swimming?! "Wait, what?! Are you out of your mind?!"

"I am not sure I comprehend..." She began, but her voice trailed off and she looked at Mega Man, who shrugged. That's right; he hadn't gotten the chance to learn that I couldn't swim.

"You're robots, so you can swim!" I yelled. "You can breathe underwater! I can't do either of those things!"

"Sure you can, Sonic." Mega Man said, as if it were obvious and true. "Everyone can swim."

"No, no, no..." I said that to myself over and over again. "You don't understand. There has to be another way."

"Fear is natural." Tempo said, as if she weren't listening to what I was saying, only wanting to contradict it. This robot was really getting on my nerves.

I looked at her angrily. I stood up, my back finally stopping its spasms. "Are you saying I should get over it?!"

"If that is what I had implied, I apologize." She replied. That seemed to ease my anger a bit. "What I was meaning to imply was that fear is natural, and fear is something that should be avoided."

"Good." I said. "So what should we do?"

"We shall journey into the sea." She said.

I looked at her like she was stupid. "But you just... what?"

"I said it is something that should be avoided, did I not?" She answered. "But even fear must be faced, as the result may turn into something that is greater. And, as I have just thought of every possible way, this is the least likely to result in your death."

I sighed. "So now you're telling me to get over it?"

"In its own form of accuracy, yes."

I rolled my eyes, letting them trail off to look at the water. "Alright, this conversation is boring me, so let's just get on with it." I wondered if that had been her plan all along.

Mega Man blinked a few times. "O-okay. So, all we need is a place where we can get to it safely. Or maybe we will have to end up jumping into it..."

I dreaded this. For one, I wouldn't get to fight, and I would barely be able to walk in the water. There was no way of running in it. And, if there were no air pockets, I would be doomed.