Here he comes, like a cool drink of water, freeing us from that shell, from the pain, from the Eggman. Here he is, our hero come from the heavens to deliver us. We should be grateful. We should turn on the roboticist. The enemy of our enemy is our friend.
We should align ourselves with this calm hero, this savior who makes a joke of our salvation to lessen the burden of our gratitude.
I look at my brothers in arms in front of me, shoulders tall, cloaking me in shadow, a barrier between me and our now former captor.
We are grateful. But I doubt he ll understand the way we show it.
Just moments ago, we were expected to be grateful for a sandwich. For a meal, for the basics of life. Just moments ago, we (or maybe just I) felt guilt at not achieving, at not striving hard enough to please someone who would subject us to excruciating pain for failing. We (or just I) were disappointed for not fulfilling the goals of someone who works only for his own ends. Before this all began, we were free, independent, beholden only to each other. Moments ago, we were slaves to gratitude and a shell.
And now we are free again, all courtesy of this little blue creature. He, who expects nothing of us not yet, anyway.
How long until we should do something for him? How long until after all, he did set us free? How long until we owe him for something we never asked for?
Any moment now, the others will turn the robots back against the good Doctor. Any moment now, the war will be on, and we will join this alien s assault on this other alien.
But I ve noticed something they haven t: the little yellow creature hiding in the direction our savior came from. Clearly an ally. I take control of a robot, instructing it not to move yet. Then I turn its targeting systems on the alien in hiding, and I wait for the others to make the first move. When it s over, no one else will know who targeted him, who blew our potential alliance with the blue one. No one will ask who painted a target on our backs. We didn t come to be known as the Deadly Six by navel-gazing after the fact.
We re grateful, truly we are. But we ll never answer to gratitude again.
The enemy of my enemy is not my friend.