Sonic gasped shakily and shook his head, clearing himself of his doubts and fears furiously before getting up and punching Eggman across the room. The bracelet he'd clutched dropped and the genius collapsed tiredly.
"Jokes on you!" Sonic grinned, quickly brushing a tear from his face "It's after twelve, you can't do April Fools on me now."
"Worth a shot." Eggman grimaced and unclipped the pack of bombs he'd tied to himself carefully, before rolling over to his feet. "Let's go. Quickly." And they did, although Sonic was a lot further ahead a lot of the time, and it was only when they nearly left the building that he realised it was because Eggman was slow and not that Sonic was fast.
"Hey, Egghead, you gotta speed up, it could go any minute now!" He warned caringly, and then frowned at his tone. It wasn't a tone he hated, he just never thought he'd use it on Eggman. Like, the evil guy. But he wasn't evil? He saved Sonic's life, and all his friends... but they wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place if it wasn't for him. Eggman had practically tortured them with this Pokemon madness, and now Sonic was extending his kindness to him?
The doctor didn't even hear him. He tripped over himself and fell to his knees, confused as to why everything was blurring, why his body ached, why he couldn't move... He saw something blue and a hatred immediately stirred, but then he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, an encouraging voice, and he gripped the creatures arms. It was a weak hold, even for him, but he didn't want to be alone.
Not now.
Meowth stared through his binoculars.
"I found Sonic! He's there- That Eggman guy has got him!" The cat pointed frantically and Amy snatched it from him.
"Eggman is on OUR side! He wouldn't-" But her sentence stopped as she peered down and saw the doctor holding tightly onto Sonic "The bomb could go off any minute! What is he doing?!"
"That doctor guy is a traitor! I hate to break it to you, but I know them when I see them, and-" Meowth was cut off.
"He's tricked us many times before." It was Knuckles "He probably wants to die, and take Sonic with him!"
"NO!" Amy squealed in despair "That Eggman! WHY?! He couldn't do one nice thing in his whole life?!" Tails looked up at this weakly, and opened his mouth to protest, having just been saved because of him, but his throat was dry and he only succeeded in making a rasping noise. "What should we do?" The pink hedgehog demanded and Espio stepped forward.
"Team Rocket, if you can get me close enough, I could-" He started, but Jessie was already turning away firmly.
"Jessie, please!" Meowth cried, gripping the fabric of her leg "We owe him-" But he was kicked off violently, and held a bruising cheek as he look up at Jessie half fearfully.
"I TOLD YOU NOT TO GET ATTATCHED!" She shrieked "Sonic is just another Pokemon, he's nothing and We. Don't. Owe. Him." The woman clenched her fists furiously "You're absolutely pathetic Meowth. Team Rocket serves Giovanni and Giovanni only, isn't that right James?" They glanced round, but the man had gone, and with him, Espio. They looked over at the building and saw that he was flying a hovercraft over to them.
"Yay!" Meowth purred and Jessie whacked down on his head, furious at her team.
"Idiots."
Sonic was frozen, uncertain on whether he should save the half concious man or not. A million reasons pulled him in a million directions and he had absolutely no idea what the right thing to do was. And then the choice was ripped away from him, and he wished he had chosen to save him.
A rope wrapped around the hedgehogs stomach and in seconds he was ripped away from Eggman, who gave a final sob before he curled up. As they rose up the building began to explode, closing in on Eggman, and Sonic tore at the ropes, wanting to save him, but it was too late now and he was going to die and it was all his fault why had he even hesitatedwhatwaswrongwithhimhowcouldhedothistosomeone? And the final explosion went off and the dust covered the red of the Eggheads coat, and the debris covered the form of the genius's body, and Sonic told himself that Eggman would never die, because he was just as bad at dying as him. However, the guilt still tore at him. He thought he was better than to leave a defenseless man near a bomb, enemy or not, he shouldn't have hesitated for a second, and yet he had hesitated for minutes on end.
Surely he wasn't dead at all though so it didn't matter.
But if it had been Giovanni in his place, then he surely would be dead, and Sonic felt sick with himself, because he knew he'd have left him to die too.
And what if Eggman was suddenly good at dying, the way he was suddenly nice? The way he'd held Sonic... like he needed him, and he had needed him, but Sonic hadn't helped him. He hadn't helped him.
Some hero. What the hell even was he if he couldn't decide whether he should let someone die or not? As soon as he was let down he ran back to the fallen mansion, where the dust hadn't yet settled, and he dug for Eggman, ignoring his friends questions, ignoring Meowth when he proudly announced that they'd helped...
"SONIC!" Amy's hammer slammed into him "What are you doing?!"
"I didn't save him!" He yelled "He was right in front of me-"
"It doesn't matter, it was Eggman!" She snapped back
"NO, IT DOES!" His eyes were bright, furious at himself, at her. How dare she defend him? "He'd helped us, and I didn't save him, he saved my life- I can run, I can see you again, he freed me and I just let him get blown up!" Sonic's words were bubbled and sharp and made little sense because he spoke so quickly, but Amy understood him. She made it her business to.
"There's nothing you can do now." Simple. Cold. True. Sonic took in a sharp breath of dust and coughed, before lowering his head in shame.
"Thank you Meowth." He said suddenly "We'll be going soon. You wont see us again."
"Good." Jessie grabbed James and they stormed off, while Meowth put a small paw to Sonic's shoulder.
"Mistakes happen to the best people." He murmured and then ran after his team.
