Tempo tied the rope around her as tightly as she could; She did it quickly and efficiently. Next, I took a few feet of rope, circling it around my waist and tying a few knots, pulling on it and exaggerating the motions of my arms so Sonic didn't feel like we were trying to kill him or something.

Finally, Sonic stared at it. He took a deep breath, and tied so many knots we lost count. It took him so long, I sat down with my head on my fist, nearly falling asleep. "What if there's water down there?!" He asked. I jumped up. "I don't want to drown!"

"Uh..." I blinked. "Okay. Tempo, are you sure you know what you're doing?"

She nodded, like a girl who was a huge fan of me would. "Yes! You can rock climb, right?"

"Of course." Sonic answered.

She ran over to the rocky wall, forgetting we were attached to her. Sonic and I tripped, rolling over each other and getting the rope tangled. It took us fifteen minutes just to fix that. 'No, Sonic, I said go under the rope, not behind me.' 'Oh, wait, I guess I need to go between your legs... Oh, that's awkward...' 'No! Sonic! Don't move! It's perfect!'

So it took some time. Once we finally figured it out, Sonic was annoyed (probably rightfully) and Tempo was still super excited. She went first in the special rock climbing experience, then me, then Sonic. 

She used her drill in some of the spots where it was harder for the three of us together to climb, and for a while, it went great. We all focused on what we were doing, and when one of us slipped, it put a lot of stress on Tempo, and we all had to stop. It was never so bad that we couldn't recover. But the walls were becoming smoother and smoother. Then we came to a big problem. "You guys are going to have to let go."

"What?!" Sonic and I said in perfect unison.

"There are no more rocks." She explained. "You two can't continue to climb. I'm going to have to drill into the wall. You guys will have to hang down below me."

"Why?!" Sonic asked frantically.

"Will you just trust me?" Tempo snapped.

"Will you be able to catch us?" I asked. " The physics of the force of us falling adds to the weight."

"I'm going to put my drill far into the wall." The sound of drilling filled the air for minutes. It really wasn't a pleasant sound. Sonic tried to say something to me, but I couldn't hear him.

"What did you say?" I asked him a few minutes later, when there was finally silence.

"Uh... I forgot." He smiled and shrugged.

"Okay, are you guys ready?" Tempo asked.

"For what?" Sonic asked, as if asking would cause everything to get better.

"Were you not listening?!" I asked.

"On the count of three, let go." She said calmly. I could tell she was nervous. I checked my arsenal of weapons. Fire, electricity... and some other stuff that would be useless. This was completely up to Tempo. If I had gotten her drill, I could have helped her. But it was too late now.

"Oh, right!" Sonic said. He didn't say anything after that. I thought he was scared that there was water at the bottom...?

"You can do this." I told her. She nodded in response. She was sweaty.

"One..." Her voice was shaky... "T-two..." I closed my eyes. "Three!" I let go. We weren't going to make it. There was no way. 

I gasped as my body was yanked sharply. My body was curved, looking up at Tempo and the unending darkness that was the ceiling. Tempo was pouring all her strength and concentration into making sure she didn't lose her grip on the wall.

Then something hit me. I was a robot, so I hadn't split in two. Heck, I didn't even have bones. But if Sonic hadn't been holding onto the rope with his hands, he would have snapped his spine. It would have been like falling on the ground onto his back from how high up he was (he was a little higher up than us), and with the rope with the angle that it was at, that would have just made it worse. 

I didn't want to look down. The scene would be horrid. I just stayed as I was, hoping for him to say something. He should have by now. It was Sonic. He always had something to say, whether it was to a friend or an enemy or a brick wall. And as unemotional as Tempo was, she would blame herself forever. Even she still hadn't opened her eyes. Was she still thinking the same thing?

"... Are we alive?" I heard from below me. Tempo sighed with relief. Turning my head, I saw that Sonic was holding tightly onto the rope with his arms and legs with one eye open, the rope slowly spinning him. I sighed too.

Then I couldn't help but chuckle. "Is it even possible for you to die?"

"Okay, I'm going to go down now..." Tempo said, her voice still just barely shaky. "Pretty slowly."

We started to move. "Well, I died once, but I don't really remember it." Sonic said. He was still holding onto the rope and looking down as if danger lurked everywhere. He told me about a weird journey with a dude named Mephiles that stabbed him with a spear of light. "I don't remember much more than that. A few bits here and there, a princess named Elise... the town was named... Uh... Solaris? Oh, wait, that was the Iblis dude's final form or something."

"That's definitely weird." I replied. I decided to keep him talking to make him feel more comfortable  with the fact we could possibly be over a giant hole of water. "What else happens in your world?"

He told me all about everything - he had a doppelganger named Shadow, a girl that chased him everywhere named Amy, another friend named Knuckles, and an arch nemesis named Dr. Eggman. 

"That doesn't sound evil at all." I laughed. "What, is he an egg with a face drawn on it? That's a pretty pathetic arch nemesis, oh great Sonic the Hedgehog."

He shrugged. "I don't know how he got that name. He used to be called Dr. Robotnik, but then we called him Dr. Eggman. He's shaped like an egg, though, so it works." He told me about some more enemies, like Chaos, the water creature, which he obviously didn't like, and the Biolizard, which seemed to cause a lot of trouble. "But saving the world gets you a lot of attention, so I'm up for it any day of the week!"

"Seems like it!" I said. "You always seem to have something going on."

"Those... Actually don't take very long. Give it a week, and I'm bored again."

For a few minutes, we were silent. I thought about everything he said. He had obviously had a lot more bigger battles than me. In fact, he had had a lot more battles than me, period. 

"What about you?" He asked.

That caught me off guard. He never really asked about me. And that was okay. He just wasn't the type of person who did. "I have a brother who doesn't like me because I was his replacement, so we don't get a lot of bonding time. He worked for Wily, which doesn't help."

"Wow. Why'd he get replaced?"

"He ran away. I don't remember why, but he left, and a year or so later, Dr. Light created me and Roll. Blues got jealous and went over to Wily. No one knows where he is now."

Sonic burst out laughing. "Bluh-Blues?!"

I blinked. "Yeah. Why?"

"Haha... Ouch... I think I pulled something... Okay, I'm done. Your dad is too into music. Blues, Rock, and Roll." He laughed again.

"Okay, okay, haha."

I heard Tempo giggle a little too. I glared at her a little. "What? It's cute watching you two bond over music that you can't hear."

"Whatever..."

"Ow... okay, so you have a missing brother..." Sonic said, as if he was waiting for me to continue.

"Dr. Wily used to be a great friend of Dr. Light, until he betrayed all of us."

There was a silence. "That'll happen. A lot. You have to be on your toes. You can't trust everyone."

"I thought you were the complete opposite...?"

"I am."

"But to be a hero, don't you have to help everyone in need?"

"Not everyone who appears to be in need is actually in need, kid. You're still young, and you're obviously naive. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. You don't know every way to be a hero, and you might not have to know how to be one."

"... I'm not like you. I don't want to be a hero. I just want to have a normal life."

That's when we stopped talking. I know he already knew that, but maybe he was just getting tired of talking to me. I looked down at him to make sure he was okay, and he was still holding on for dear life, blinking and breathing. Did I really not want to be a hero? There obviously weren't enough people protecting the world, in the state it was in. Without me, Wily would take over. Did I not enjoy trashing his castles?

But Roll... She missed me. And I missed her. We used to play all the time together. I missed that. And I would rather have that than run around defeating Wily's robots.

In the middle of my thought, the rope between me and Tempo and me suddenly broke without a hint of warning.