Tempo was down and out, and only I could see the big, giant, ugly spider guy Wily was controlling.

All in all, it was going great.

At first, I tried to direct Mega Man (or myself) and tell him where to hit the cockpit. But that always ended in getting slapped by the legs. We were just exhausting ourselves and putting Tempo in more danger.

 "Tempo needs to get to safety." Mega Man started. "I need you to-"

"Heads up!" I interrupted, pushing him over then leaning back so the spider leg just barely missed the both of us. "Sorry, go on?"

"Distract it while I get Tempo out of here!" He shouted, somewhat panicky. "You can do that, right, Mr. Hotshot?"

I sighed. "Yeah, sure, just leave me with the giant killer robot..."

"You deal with these all the time!"

"They aren't all this killer robot like!" I tapped my foot. "What are you waiting for? Go!" The not-so-friendly neighborhood robot spider was going to attack again any second.

Mega Man threw me a nod and ran towards Tempo. I didn't think Wily would go immediately after him, but he did. Turns out he wanted him dead - er, destroyed? - first.

"Hey, Ugly!" I called. The spider stopped. "Oh, sorry, I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to lemon-shooter boy. You're Grotesque. The girl's Temper. Get it?" I snickered for effect, though it was a funny joke. "'Cause her name's Tempo, and I named her Temper... The two, like-"

"I don't have time for this!" Grotesque said. Without any warning, he lifted up two of his robot-y spider legs and started to lift them up to stab them into Temper and Lemon-Shooter Boy. But distractions don't let that happen. Especially distractions like me.

Then again, I wasn't the smartest distraction. I ran over to the legs in front of Mega Man, as if I thought they wouldn't stab me and cut my arms off or stab me. Maybe I should have changed Grotesque's name to Temper. Tempo could keep her name. I winced as the leg came towards me, and I wrapped my fists around the robotic appendages...  I caught the robot's legs.

"What?!" Wily shouted. "You should be dead!"

It was my power that was coursing through the machine; but I couldn't steal it back. The most I could do was level with it and make sure it wouldn't crush me. But he had more tricks that I didn't know about. I was ready for them, but I didn't know what they were. "You've met your match, Wily." I panted. "Give up!"

"Never!" He screamed. I looked up for a moment, but not in enough time to catch the next legs coming for my shoulders. I barely grabbed the ends between my fingers, but they were digging into my shoulders. I couldn't spin dash - I was under just a bit too much pressure.

"Mega Man!" I shouted. "I need help!"

One of the legs backed away and stabbed at me, and I dropped them all and slid under them. They dug into the ground.

"We need a strategy!" I yelled to Mega Man, holding my neck. "I'll attack-"

"Sonic, we need to back down!" He called. "You're-"

"We're this close!" I told him. 

"You're bleeding!" He yelled.

I looked at my shoulder. "It's nothing. We can't back down now."

He looked unsure, but he followed my orders. "We need to find a way for my to see him. Otherwise, there's no way we can win."

"Just keep hitting the middle of the cave!" I said. "I have a dumb idea!"

"Good!"

I ran in front of Wily, facing him, waiting for him to attack again. "I won't lose to a robot fool and an alien!" He yelled. "It will not happen!"

"Watch us." I smiled.

He threw two legs towards me, and I caught them. I shouted out with pain. My shoulder was burning. But I wasn't going to let Mega Man down. And I wasn't going to let Tempo rot in her greatest fear.

"I can see him now!" Mega Man said.

"Shoot the legs that come at me!" I said.

After I said that, I started to push him towards one of the sides of the cave. I still had to watch out for stray things attacking me, whether it was a tentacle or a leg, but Mega Man did a pretty good job protecting me. He should be a body guard.

I pushed him as far as he would go into the wall; then I called for Mega Man. "Hit above him!" I shouted. "Now!"

With a beautiful charged up lemon, the wall tumbled all over Dr. Wily's robot. I spin dashed out of the way, trying to catch my breath.

"Can I be promoted to something other than Ugly now?" Mega Man asked.

"Sure." I panted. "Lemon Hero."

"They are not lemons!" He rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

"Well, what do they look like? Honestly."

"They look like little bullets!"

"Sure..." I sighed. "That was an epic final battle. I'm going to be so sore tomorrow..."

All of a sudden, a tentacle came out of the pile of rocks, snatching me from my spot and rising me up into the air. "Sonic!" Mega Man yelled, shooting it with his 'bullets'. The robot began to stand up, but it was obviously damaged and wouldn't be able to do much. 

"I will not lose that easily!" Wily screamed. Electricity coursed through the tentacle, but he wasn't trying to steal my energy. This time, he was trying to take my life.

"Mega Man!" I shouted. "Do something!"

"I'm trying!" He replied. He was trying to blast the tentacle, but it wasn't doing much. Eventually, a tentacle got him too, denting in his armor. It was probably hard for him to see it still.

"After you watch your freak friend die, Mega Man," Wily said, "I'll finally finish you off!"

We both struggled and squirmed, but no amount of shooting him or luck was going to save us.

Then Tempo saved the day.

I don't know where she came from, seeing as she was in a completely different place, but she ran herself and her drill straight through the body of the robot, going in on one end and coming out the other. Then, she smashed the cockpit, throwing Wily out of the terrible impersonation of a spider. 

The tentacles released us as their grips weakened from the machine being destroyed. I tried to roll on the ground softly, but even Mega Man just stayed where he was. I was able to somersault a bit before finally feeling like we should all just take a little nap.

"I'm never without a plan!" Wily shouted. "Enjoy your demise!" He teleported away suddenly.

"What was that about?" Mega Man asked.

"The robot!" Tempo shouted. "It's self destructing!"

My eyes shot open. I tried to stand, but was too dizzy and weak. I still needed a few minutes to regain some strength. Unfortunately, we probably didn't have that much time. "How long?" I asked.

"A minute and thirty seconds." Tempo said. "We need to get to the other side."

Mega Man helped me up and helped me walk over to where he took Tempo. "You okay to go, Tempo?" He asked.

"I did some repairs." She said.

"I just need a minute..." I winced.

"We don't have a minute." Mega Man said sternly.

We got to the room, which was way smaller than the other one. It was like a little den. "How is this going to help?" I asked.

"We do not know." Tempo said. "But we can't teleport right now."

We all leaned against a wall, waiting for the blast. I kept having to force my eyes open. It seemed to be taking longer than the time Tempo had said.

Then we heard it.

The ceiling above us shook, as if trying to tear itself apart. 

"We all need to dig ourselves out of here." I said, watching the ceiling carefully. "All three of us can dig up to the top. Otherwise, we'll be crushed!"

Mega Man touched Tempo, gaining her power. We nodded to each other, then leaped into the rock. I spun into a razor like ball, while they used their drills. It was like trying to keep my feet steady during an earthquake. One slip up, and it was back to the doomed cave with us!

None of us spoke. No words of encouragement would help us. We just had to  focus and... Hey, there's light right there! I wanted to rush up and get to the ground and run around and kiss the grass, but I held my patience and stayed by Tempo and Rock.

We sprang out of the ground like a geyser, somersaulting onto the ground to soften our falls. I stood and stretched. The snow was gone. The city was still a disaster, but that was to be expected. And it could be fixed. But I had to get home.

I got up slowly, trying not to use my stabbed shoulder. Mega Man was trying to get up, but the dent in his armor had obviously done some damage.

"I gotcha." I said, pulling him up with an arm. Tempo was already up. "How did you manage to get better so quickly?" I asked.

"I rewired some of my circuits so they would equalize the power within my body." She answered.

"Right." I folded my arms. "Obviously."

"I guess we get you back to the lab..." Mega Man looked down. "And get you back home."

I paused. We had had some good times together. "This definitely won't be the last time I see you, Rock." I told him. And I knew it was true.

He smiled a bit, and we walked the rest of the way to the lab. It was completely unharmed, as if there was a shield protecting it from everything that had happened in the city. It was like a glowing shrine.

"We're home!" I shouted when we came in. Roll peaked around the corner, then ran to hug her brother.

"We were so worried!" She cried, tears forming in her eyes. "We couldn't get in touch with you or anything! What happened? You're hurt! We need to-"

"I'm fine, Roll." He smiled. "There's barely any damage. We finished Wily for now, but we couldn't catch him. Right now, we need to focus on getting Sonic home."

She looked at me, but it didn't seem like she was sad that I was about to leave. It was almost as if she was relieved. But I stayed emotionless.

"You guys can keep up the family reunion." I said. "I'll check in with Dr. Light."

Mega Man squirmed free of Roll and ran over to me, wrapping his arms around me in a hug. "Thank you... Sonic." He said, trying to resist tears.

I hugged him back. "Dude, you're going to make me cry! Stop it!"

He laughed and pulled away, and we fist bumped. "See you later."

"No doubt." I replied.

They nodded, and I crossed a little hall into the room with the giant computer. "I'm ready to go home, Doc."

"Thanks for the extra hand around here, Sonic." He said. "But if I let you go home, you may never come back."

I smiled. "I think I will. Things like this always happen."

He shrugged. "Good luck to you, Sonic." He opened up a portal that stood just in front of a wall. It was glowing with all sorts of colors. "Want me to patch you up before you go?"

I shook my head. "I've got a friend there who would love an excuse to hear this story."

Dr. Light laughed. "Fair enough. Goodbye!"

"Have fun with Wily!" I shouted as I ran through the portal.