Sonic rushed into the building through the back door. He was staring from me to my father several times as if there was something wrong with us. Tempo's eyes stayed fixated on him. "Like, have you not looked outside in the past five minutes? Because there's like an entire invasion going on out there."

"What...?" I asked, squinting as I tried to look outside. But there was a wall in the way.

Dr. Light looked really surprised, and Tempo and I stayed put. Roll put her hands by her face, looking terrified. (She's really not that weak; she's stronger than she seems.) As soon as Dad had heard Sonic's first sentence, he was looking outside, trying to figure out how he hadn't seen whatever was apparently going on on the monitor. All the while he muttered to himself, rubbing his eyes as if he was tired.

Right after Sonic had given us the news, I was shocked, but I still turned into my fighting form - or, at least, I tried to. Parts of my body flashed, but my armor and my gun wouldn't appear.

I jogged to Dr. Light, explaining (almost in tears) what was happening. I couldn't stay back while everyone else was being a hero. And it wasn't solely because of my pride. In fact, I didn't care about that. The only reason I mattered was for everyone else. They needed me.

As soon as I was done talking to my father, there was some loud noise from somewhere outside that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. We all covered our ears, closing our eyes, trying to find a way to ease the pain. It wasn't a pretty sound, but it seemed to affect Sonic really bad. He couldn't move while it went on. His hands were over his ears and he was on his knees screaming in obvious pain.

It didn't last all that long, and by the time it had ended, we didn't have enough time to figure out what was wrong with my coding. I got a glance at the window, and there was a giant blast of debris that flew in every direction. We needed to get a move on to stop the attack of the city. It didn't matter what it took.

"I'm going to take Rush and do an air attack, Dad." I told him. I didn't give him enough time to answer. I was too sure he and Roll would object. I took a few seconds to pick out a decent plain old laser from the workshop, called Rush, then went to Sonic. I helped him up, glad to see that he could still hear. When I asked him what his favorite color was, he responded with, "What the hell...?" Which was probably a good sign. I just feared what had made that sound. If someone can do something once, they can probably do the same thing twice.

Tempo was waiting by the door, her face seeming more ready for battle than boored and agitated. There was a light smile curving on her lips and her eyes were almost in a frown, as if she was saying, "what are you waiting for? Let's do this!"

"Take this." I told Sonic once we got outside. Man, that air was brisk. It was obvious that we were both trying hard to hide our shivering. Weird, because Tempo was completely unaffected. Either that, or us boys were just weak kids. "I'm going to be in the air, and this will let us communicate."

"Uh, sure," he replied, sticking the communicator in his ear. I swear, he had lost ten of those things. "But don't you usually... Have a better gun? And some armor?"

"Yeah, that's not working out right now." I replied. "Now go!"

It felt weird to be giving him orders, since he was usually the one to keep me on track, but he followed them promptly. He was away from my sight in mere seconds, running into the chaos.

I hopped onto Rush, the gun in my hand, ready. For a moment, I didn't order him to go into the air. I just looked down at him. I was scared. I could be obliterated so easily.

I shook my head and pointed my finger forward, keeping my weight shifted correctly as my dog flew up into the air, blinking as I saw the city. My vision was lying. I couldn't be seeing what I was seeing.

Every Robot Master that I had ever known was there. Splash Woman, Cloud Man, the evil Mega Man copy, Wood Man... You name the robot, it was there. Even... I shuddered as I saw them. Quick Man and Bass with his wolf, Treble, working side by side, trying to destroy the city.

A quick note on Bass: he's crazy. He screams every time someone does something he doesn't like. His wolf, Treble, is annoying and too loyal to Bass. Paired together, they'd definitely be able to make the noise that crippled Sonic. And that was something that could not happen during the fighting, or we'd lose for sure.

Things didn't look good for us. Tempo had shown up to help Sonic, but even with the three of us, we were more doomed than we ever had been before. And we had been doomed a lot in that past week.

I tried to figure out a plan other than shoot and run, but there was no plan to make with what was going on. The city was in utter turmoil. What was there to do? You fight fire with fire, chaos with chaos.

There was a giant circle of robots around Sonic and Tempo, and they weren't happy. If Sonic was like a robot, then his only weakness would theoretically be Time Stop from Flash Man. I couldn't begin to guess what Tempo's weakness was. Pairing her with a robot would be crazy. And knowing which robot to attack first...

Where was I even going to begin?

Up in the air wouldn't help our situation much. I had to get on the ground and help. I opened up my chest, messing with wires, trying to see what the problem was. My dog tried to keep me steady above the city, but he nearly flung me off whenever he moved. Every time we thought we were at safety, a stray robot attacked.

Come on... I thought to myself over and over, as if that would actually help me find the issue. Eventually, I noticed one of the things that had covered Sonic when he was sick covering a mess of wires inside of me. I picked it off, and sure enough, I could use my Mega Buster again. I examined it, and it looked like a weird robotic scab.

"Rush, keep up the attack up here." I told him. "I'm going to go help down there."

He whined, but I ignored him and dropped to the ground. There were so many blasts from all directions and I was surprised I could get through them all without being destroyed. Sure, a few lazers grazed me, but I hurried towards Sonic and Tempo, shooting at the robots as often as I could. It wasn't much help.

"It's about time!" Sonic yelled as he came back from spinning into Heat Man - again.

"We can't do this..." I sighed, still not even sure where to start. I couldn't do anything other than stare at the destruction that was happening in front of my eyes.

"Yes, Mega Man, we can!" Sonic shouted, his face stern, yet not like he was angry. "What's yours is mine, and I intend to protect my stuff!" That was a persistent dude.

I looked at the giant battlefield that used to be my city. There were so many burnt buildings and robots... What Sonic said had made me just a pinch more hopeful, but the chaos still made me think too much. Some of the robots were Wily's creations, but Elec Man and his little group weren't. Seriously, the amount of times they had been turned against me was ridiculous. I cared more about robots than most people. But when I saw someone trying to get out of burning debris, I shouted my first instinct: "We have to get the people to safety!"

Sonic looked at me like I was crazy, getting distracted and burnt on his shoulder by Flame Man. He flicked his burnt skin off like it was nothing, but it was obviously causing him pain. "Dude, we can barely hold our own." He eventually replied calmly. "Can't the police help or something?"

I looked around. I had no idea where any officials were. "Tempo!" I called, and she shot a look at me. "I want you to handle the people over there - " I pointed to the far end of the city, where I saw the most rubble. "Sonic, it's us they want, so we're going to stick together."

Tempo looked at me quickly with a flash of pain, then ran off to her destination. I knew she would be okay because she would be safe, and there wasn't enough rock to bury her. As I thought, only a few robots went after her; the rest were ready to attack us.

"Normally, I don't do plans," Sonic said, "but if you got one, I'll definitely think about it for a second or two."

A faint smile came to my face. "It's no different than yours: fight and run!"

He gave me a thumbs up, then ran into a group of various robots. I charged up my Mega Buster for as long as the robots let me and released the energy.

I couldn't help but feel discouraged when I saw the three robots I obliterated. We wouldn't be able to save many, if any, robots in this battle. I just hoped neither Tempo nor I would be with the destroyed Wily robots.

In the meantime, Sonic had run in a bunch of circles, creating a tornado that sky rocketed into the air. Seven or so robots flew up, going at least to the stratosphere. Sonic then tried to stop, but walked in a circle holding his head until his balance was better. He looked hilarious, but I didn't laugh. I had other things to do, but he always seemed to lighten the mood, whether on purpose or not. Soon enough, after every tornado, he ran off to find another group to destroy.

Both of us did the same thing for a really long time. It was really tiring. My energy was draining quickly, and there seemed to be no end, and right when we thought we could take a break, more would appear. I hadn't realized how many robots Dr. Wily had created. That, and there were definitely duplicates. Tempo barely had time to do anything to help us, but she was still being really helpful to the citizens. There were dozens of helpless people everywhere, passed out or stuck somewhere.

As soon as the waves of robots started coming slower and slower, thinner each time, I began to wonder where Quick Man and Bass and Treble were. Unless Sonic had run into them, as I hadn't seen Sonic in quite a while, they had disappeared for the time being. I had a bad feeling they were going to back, unfortunately, in the nick of the most dramatic timing possible.

As the final burst of light that I could take blew from my gun, I fell backwards, panting heavily. I needed an E-tank really badly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sonic coming towards me, super dizzy and tired. He was trying to walk in a straight line towards me, but ended up walking diagonally sideways. Both of us needed this to end or we wouldn't live long.

Sonic came over after he could walk in a slightly straight line, clutching his stomach. His eyes burned with pain. "I think I'm going to be sick. Again. Please tell me we finished 'em off."

I shook my head and coughed. "We still got a few left. And, unfortunately, multiply what we just did by two and that's how powerful they are."

His eyes grew wide, and I felt his pain. I was done with this stuff too. The beginning of a battle is the best part - the adrenaline rush, the loose feel in your limbs - but the ending is the worst. You never know when the battle will end, and the more tired your body is, the longer the battle lasts. 

"It's just three;" I assured him; or, at least, tried to. "Quick Man, Bass, and Treble."

"Well, we should get rid of this Treble Quick-ly." He laughed as if he had made the most hilarious joke anyone could ever come up with. Then he gagged like he was going to throw up.

"Are you serious?!" I shouted. "These guys aren't here to mess around. I need you on your A-game! Save the sarcasm for later."

"Yeah, because you know me." Sonic yawned after a few more seconds. "I'm never trying my Bass-t." 

"You're hopeless."

"You're right, that one wasn't all that great. We gonna do this or sit around and talk about how terrible my puns are?"

I sighed. "I'm not the one holding us up."

"Oh, wait, hang on!" Sonic shouted, pointing and looking just above me. I looked just in time to see the evil Mega Man copy about to blast me to shreds, but Sonic spun into him and they both flew into a building. The evil Mega Man copy got the brunt of that attack.

I stood, way too shocked to move. Sonic was walking back, wiping the dust from his hands as if he had just done something really easily. He was still panting, but if I could get energy from the Mega Man copy... "There were four, not three, kid. You should learn how to count."

I still just stared at him, my life still seeming to flash before my eyes over and over again. Finally, I shook my head, taking his hand as he held it out to me to help me up.

"Well, we still don't know where the others are." I said, regaining a bit of sense. "I'm going to guess still in the city, but, who knows? With Wily in charge, this-"

"Then let's get a move on!" Sonic shouted, jogging ahead of me. I blinked. Then, I eased up and I chuckled as I watched him for a few seconds, wondering how he didn't seem to be scared at all, charging into the face of death.