There was fire all over when I woke up after the explosion. Bass and Treble were still relatively pieced together, as was Mega Man, but there was no sign of Quick Man or Rush. They had been completely obliterated.

Both Mega Man and I had been thrown away, and he wasn't too far from me. There were little bits of fire all over from the bombs, but no one had come to put them out. I had to get out of there, 'cause I was, like, the one thing around that had to actually breathe. The smoke wasn't helping the fact that I had just finished a really intense battle and needed fresh air. For a few minutes, though, I didn't move except for a few coughs. My skin was scorched all over. Had I really been as crazy as Mega Man had been when I was infected with the virus? Wanting to kill everything that resisted him?

Finally, I stood, walking towards Mega Man. Along with being brutally punished from Quick Man, he hadn't fared well from the bombs. I slung his arm over my shoulder, looking for a safe route out of the city and to Dr. Light's.

I just hoped there really were no other robots out to get us.

I travelled through the city, wandering through the debris. The city was completely trashed. I felt kind of bad. There were halves of robots lying around. They were like people. It was as if there had just been a massive war.

But that still left a major question that hadn't been answered yet. Why had Dr. Wily stolen my energy? It couldn't have been for any of this. These robots were already powered. They didn't need any of my energy. What exactly was Wily planning?

As I stopped sweating, it got colder and colder, even with the elastic band on. I got lost like three times trying to get to the lab, but eventually, it appeared. And no robots appeared to trying and stop me.

But then I remembered Tempo. Where was she? I shook my head. Maybe she was inside. If she wasn't, I would go look for her after I warmed up a bit.

I took a look at the unconscious Mega Man, then at the city. Both seemed to resemble chaos at the moment. But that would be going too much into philosophy.

I walked inside the lab, calling for someone to help. That kid needed lighter armor or to lose quite a few pounds. Roll and Dr. Light came rushing in, both trying to squeeze out of me what had happened. I didn't really want to, but I had to explain that Mega Man kind of went crazy after he sucked the energy out of the other Mega Man. The faker, if you will.

"Is it the virus?" Roll asked.

"I don't know." He said, Rock in his arms. He carried him into the other room, strapping him onto the extremely comfy flat board.

"You don't look so good." Roll told me. Thank you. Because I didn't know that.

"Yeah." I said. My eyelids started to droop. "I'll just sleep for a bit."

"We have to take care of your burns-"

And that's when he woke up.

"Where am I?" He asked harshly. "Tell me!" 

We all ran in, trying to calm him down. "You're in the lab, Rock." Roll said calmly.

"You're safe, son." Dr. Light said.

"Why? Quick Man - he's going to kill us! Everyone in the city!"

"We took care of him, dude." I added. "He's gone. You destroyed him. Bass and Treble and out, too."

"But there's more! There's always more! Let me go. Now!"

He kept trying to get out, and for a moment, I thought the bars wouldn't hold him. Then he shot his gun, making a giant hole in the wall.

"Let me go." He said, his eyes closed as if he was trying to hold back his anger.

"Son..." Dr. Light knew something was gravely wrong. I didn't know what it was. Of course, I suspected the virus, but was it something else that had happened?

"We can't." I told him. "Everyone is safe. We're all okay. Everyone is okay."

"I don't care!" He said, squirming around again. "Wily's still out there!"

Okay, I'll give him, that was true. "But he's not in the city, Rock." Roll told him. "He's in hiding. He won't hurt anyone from where he is for at least a few days. You and Sonic need rest."

"No!" He said, tearing his gun arm free from the bars. "I'm going, and no one is going to stop me!"

He struggled free from his other arm, pointing his gun at us. "Now, Father, go set up the teleporter for me. Roll, get an E-Tank. Sonic, get ready to come with me."

"Are you crazy?!" I replied. "I'm in no shape to go anywhere, and you're not either!"

He pointed his gun at me, shooting me. It wasn't one of his major shots, but right in my gut didn't feel great. I gasped as the wind was knocked out of me. "Get ready."

Roll helped me up, but I still held my stomach. I turned to her. "I'll stall, you do what you need to to figure out what's wrong with him." I whispered. She hesitated, but went to her dad and told him what I ordered her. He looked at me, and I tried to smile and winked, but I'm pretty sure it looked really pathetic.

They ran out of the room, sitting at the computer that sat outside. "I'm not going with you." I told him. "So go find another speedy, powerful hedgehog to go with you, because you won't be able to do it on your own."

"Hah!" He shouted, charging his gun. "You say that like you didn't get thrown under a pile of building bricks earlier." Hey! You got blown up!

Before even daring to say anything else, I made sure he didn't hit the wall that Roll and Dr. Light were behind with his charge shot. "And you taunt like you didn't pass out after killing Quick Man." I replied. He threw the shot, which I barely dodged. "You were putting bombs all over him like nothing."

"Shut up!" He shouted, turning into Elec Man. I had no idea he had that power, but I didn't like the fact that he did. Now I had to run on the walls to dodge the attacks, which I failed at dodging. I was tired, hence I didn't want to go defeat Dr. Wily.

"So no more talking?" I asked, running across the ceiling. He screamed in anger. Did he want to kill me?!

"No!" He shouted, finally hitting me off the ceiling. I fell to the ground.

"Mega Man..." I moaned. "Please... Stop. We're just trying to help."

"Help?" He scoffed, his shadow covering my face. I saw a smug smile out of the corner of my eyes. "When did I ask for help?"

Uh, you asked me to go with you to find Dr. Wily... "You'll regret it if you kill me." I replied.

"How do you know? You have no idea how I'll feel about anything!"

He aimed his blaster at me, quickly charging it with the obvious intent of killing me. I closed my eyes, but something appeared. Roll was standing between us.

"Move." Rock said simply.

"Brother, stop." Roll replied harshly. "Stop now." 

He seemed taken aback. His mouth was open, and the smile was gone. He wasn't going to hurt anyone in his family, no matter what it meant. Me, on the other hand... "I..."

"We can help you." She pleaded. Tears fell onto the floor as she sobbed. "You just have to calm down."

He took a step backwards, looking from me to Roll with the corner of his eye. He still felt some hatred for me, though I wasn't sure why.

From behind him, I noticed Tempo moving completely silently towards him, trying to make sure, no matter what, Mega Man didn't see her. "But..." Mega Man replied, "Wily... We have to... We have to stop him, now!"

I thought he was going to move and attack me, so I ducked my head into my arms, but nothing happened. "Wily can wait." Roll explained. "You can't. These viruses might end up destroying you. Please, we can't wait!" As she ended the final word, Tempo drilled into his back. For a moment, he was in too much shock and pain to do anything. His eyes grew and he gasped. But then he turned to Roll.

"You lied to me!" He screamed, aiming for her.

"Whoops!" I called, grabbing her before the blast could get to her. "Close call."

"You need to open the panel in the front of his chest." Roll explained. "Tempo should know what to do."

I nodded, and tripped Mega Man by sliding my feet before he could shoot Tempo. He got up too quickly, though, and before I could even really look at the panel, I was thrown against a wall.

"That temper is annoying." I told him. He ignored me, which was sort of ironic.

"Knock it off!" Tempo yelled, hitting the top of his head. I tripped him again, and he fell and slammed his neck against a table. 

"Tempo, shut him down through his..." I honestly had no idea what to call it. Heart? Lungs? Would she even know what those were? "Chest panel thingy!" Goal!

She nodded with that blank expression on her face as she turned to him, and Mega Man's eyes turned white and creepy as she turned him off. "It is done." She replied as she stood back up.

"Finally." I sighed, wanting to fall asleep standing up. "I could sleep for a week."

"I doubt it." Tempo replied. "You are not a hibernating bear."

"Oh, yeah? Well, maybe I want to be the first hibernating hedgehog."

"That was a test. Hedgehogs do hibernate." There was a sparkle in her eye.

"Wait." I blinked. "Are you serious? Hedgehogs actually hibernate?" Whoops... There were a few things to be learned on my planet.

"Of course."

"I need to keep up with the times of the worlds I visit. Anyway, I'm tired, you're kind of... Like a hibernating bear, and I'm going to sleep."

"Wait!" I turned to see Roll running towards me. "Your burns..."

"Aw, they're not that bad."

"Of course they are!" She shouted. "Just look at them!"

She was kind of right. Half of my body was covered in the chard black burns, but they didn't hurt all that much. I mostly felt like I was going to throw up from not enough sleep and just feeling feverish. It was common. "So, they're a little... Bad."

"Here, just..." She got a cold - freezing cold - wet cloth and rubbed it on my arm. I wanted to scream. "That will make it less worse in the future..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." I said, snagging it from her and walking away. I was too tired to care. To humor her, I kept it on one of my shoulders. Like, I didn't want to die in front of them. Mega Man would have never forgiven himself. But would I rather sleep or heal some stupid wounds that didn't even really hurt? Yeah, EVERYONE'S going to choose the first.

I went to the bed I normally slept on, ripping the elastic bracelet off and throwing the blankets on. As soon as I took it off, though, it was obvious how much it had helped. The blankets weren't enough, though I was able to fall asleep peacefully.