Team Sonic were traversing the neon gambling city that was only known as Bingo Highway. They had been travelling to stop Dr. Eggman's plan to conquer the world, and had only 24 hours left to stop him.

Tails and Knuckles had willingly followed Sonic onto the pinball tables, trying to get as many rings as they could for the journey ahead. After the first BINGO table, which gave them a plentiful amount of rings, they had decided to avoid the remainder of the tables, if it was possible.

Until all three of them wound up falling onto one below the city.

"My head's spinning!" Tails shouted, "Sonic!"

"Aw, don't worry, Tails!" Sonic shouted back, "This is fun!"

Eventually, Sonic and Tails were able to get off of the pinball table, and the two decided to sit and wait for Knuckles. After two minutes, Sonic glanced at the table they had just left; seeing that their red echinda friend wasn't even on it anymore.

"Hey, Tails." Sonic said, turning his attention towards his other friend, "Did you see Knuckles pass us-"

"Sonic! Sonic!" Tails screamed, flailing wildly. He had been captured by a golden, jellyfish like robot, and was being taken away.

"Tails! Hang on! I'll save-" Sonic stopped short, seeing that the robot had flown high above, to another platform, which was only accesible by green orbs and a large red die.

"Heh... This is an easy one." Sonic said to himself, "Don't worry, Tails! I'm comin'!"

The blue blur jumped onto a green orb, flying up, landing on the die. When he looked ahead, he saw the yellow "FLY" sign, and then he realized just how far away the platform was.

"Alright, guess I gotta jump over." Sonic said, planning his jump. He got a running start, and then leapt into the air, almost flying for a moment, before he came crashing back to the ground.

"Ok, ok! You got this, hedgehog." Sonic said, trying to motivate himself, "That was just a warm up jump. I'll get it this time."

Sonic tried to jump again, getting the same result; he'd make it up to the die, but if he tried to jump across the gap seperating him from the platform, he'd always miss. Much worse, there was a robot flying, just barely out of his Homing Attack range, practically taunting him.

He kept cheering himself on, simply getting back up with a loud, "You're gonna get it this time!" or "That's it! Keep trying! You're gonna get it!". He continued this routine for nearly ten minutes, keeping up his cheer, until he finally realized how hopeless it was.

After another fall, he was sobbing, "Y-You're gonna ge-get... Get it, Sonic!"

He continued trying, now out of sheer desperation and panic. He was totally alone, and he felt useless, for the first time. After another fall, he wiped away his tears, looking up at the robot.

He snapped his fingers, and jumped on the orb again, this time, attempting a Blue Tornado. He successfully hit the robot, landing on the platform, grinning.

"Tails! I'm here to save..." His voice trailed. Tails and the robot were both gone. There wasn't even a sign of them being there. The hero fell to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"T-Tails is ok... H-He's a... He's a strong kid..." Sonic said, trying to lie, to make himself feel better, "A-And Knuckles... Heh, h-he probably just g-got finished getting m... More rings for us..."

The defeated hedgehog fell down, curling into a ball. He hoped a robot would just see him and put him out of his misery.

Because he'd failed to protect the ones he'd cared about...