The Robotic Endgame

XIX. Mega Man

While the ruins were cool to look at, they got repetitive after awhile. I walked side by side with Sonic, who obviously itched to run forward. I sighed, trying to ignore his restlessness.

Before too long, we came to a large room, its walls littered with openings. They stretched pretty high before stopping a few feet below the ceiling. I stepped inside and turned in a circle, calculating the number. There were twenty-five in all.

"You've got to be kidding me," Sonic said. "There's got to be a hundred rooms in here."

"Try a quarter of that, Sonic," I said.

"How do we know which one is the right one?" Sally asked. "Do we just have to go through all of them and hope for the best?"

"I guess so," I replied. I hurried through an opening before Sonic could protest. With a sigh, he started walking beside me again. He wrapped a hand around his stomach, but it seemed like he had done it absentmindedly.

We took some turns, ending up in the same room at an opening on the other side . Nothing seemed different. "That was some strange deja vu," I commented. 

"That's not possible," Tails replied.

"From a scientific standpoint, it's not," I said, "but I've learned that things don't necessarily have to make sense. We might as well just go in order." I led the way through the next door.

Another couple of turns, and we ended up in the room again, emerging from a place that didn't make sense from where we entered. It happened again. And again. And again.

"This is getting old fast," Tails muttered.

"It really is," Sally added.

"You guys aren't helping..." I sighed.

At the twentieth door, we came to the room again, but all of the openings were gone. All of the openings except for the one we had walked through. I frowned, looking all around the room. "This is weird," I said. "Do we just turn back?

"I don't think we have a choice," Tails replied. "Unless there's some sort of hidden passageway."

I nodded, leading everyone down the hall. I wasn't sure how I had come to be the leader for now, but since Sonic usually led the way and he was hurt, I guess they counted on me to take care of whatever came in our way. That filled me with confidence, but put some massive pressure on me.

The hall didn't turn where we had turned to come down it before. For a long time, we just walked down another straight corridor. I kept my eyes peeled, certain that something was about to happen. Who knew what could be in store? An ambush? Poison darts that would instantly kill my friends?

I sighed. I was pretty sure we would be able to handle anything, as long as we didn't run in to Shadow. Why had Shadow waited for Sonic at the end of the tunnel instead of going in and taking the shard for himself? Maybe we had to go through a certain amount of the ruins before being able to find the end at the center of the city. Would Shadow wait for us at the end and attack, even though there were more of us this time?

Finally, we ended up taking a turn. And another. And another. We were going in a weird pattern that didn't make sense, the turns coming almost immediately. It was almost dizzying, but it didn't last long. After just a little while of walking through it, the hall became straight again. If I didn't have something that told me what direction we were facing, I would have been completely confused. My scanners showed that we weren't going in the right direction, but it wasn't as if we could change course.

"Hey, guys," Sonic suddenly said. He didn't look so good, but had an exhausted looking smile on his face, as if he was trying to hide that he didn't feel well. "Can we, uh, stop for just a minute?"