This is a short one-shot taking place within the main games canon around Sonic Forces, the exception being that Mighty is a member of the Chaotix as he is in the Archie comics. Most of my time's spent writing my Blue Horizon series, but this came to me and I felt I just had to write it. Hope you enjoy!

"Beautiful."

Mighty the Armadillo was sitting with the others behind a great wall at the edge of Park Avenue. It was night, the clear sky cool and the fall air crisp, and you could see the stars twinkling in the night sky. Even the worn buildings and cracked streets weren't enough to take away from that beauty. Mighty had to agree. His legs were outstretched as he laid against the wall. His yellow head and the top of his red shell lay back against his arms, and he couldn't help but smile.

Sitting next to him was Charmy the Bee. He fidgeted with his orange shirt and his brown aviator's helmet and looked as if ready to burst a gasket. "I gotta go pee."

"Pipe down, Charmy, will ya?" Vector the Crocodile was sitting next to Charmy, trying his best to get some shuteye. The stars gleamed against his gold chain, not that he noticed.

"But I gotta go pee!"

"THEN PEE, DAMMIT! Just go around the back or something. Some of us are tryin' to get some shuteye. Gaea knows we haven't gotten enough of it."

He looked at Espio the Chameleon, sitting at the end of the wall. His legs were crossed in a meditative stance, and only the twitching of his right eye betrayed his otherwise complete and utter sense of serenity.

"Looks like one of us knows how to keep calm, am I right?", said Mighty.

"Yeah, I gotta go pee. Thanks, Vector!" Charmy flew over behind the nearest building. Just what happened afterward was a story best left for another day.

"Yeesh!" Vector stretched out his arms and yawned, his big gater mouth opening up like a maw and snapping shut something fierce. "Why do we keep that punk around anyway?"

"Because he works for free and you cannot afford to pay any more hired help?" Espio sat as calm ever, not moving a muscle. If Vector hadn't worked with Espio for so long, he wouldn't have even known it was him.

"He's got a point," said Mighty.

"Guess so," said Vector. "Sides, the little pipsqueak kinda grows on ya after a while. Don't tell him I said that."

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Mighty. He looked up at the stars again, marveling at their radiance.

It didn't last long.

"They're gonna come again tomorrow, aren't they?" he said.

"Guess so," said Vector.

"Honestly, I didn't think Eggman had it in him. One day, he's a laughingstock; the next, he's king of the world. Most of it anyway."

"Not something I try to think about," said Vector. "Though to be honest, I'm not sure WHAT to think about. Life used to be so easy, ya know? Just go to work, solve a case, get ripped off at the supermarket, beat the crap out of Eggface now and then. Sure, it sucked balls, but you knew what was comin'. Well, sides from that time that beaver pissed in my coffee. Nothin' was the same after that…"

"When is anything ever the same?" By this point, Espio was done with his mediation and was sitting laid back against the wall with Mighty. "Things are changing all the time, even if we are not always are of it. Why, for all we know, we could be dead tomorrow, our cares and worries but dust in the wind."

"Gee, thanks, Espio, I feel so much better."

"He's got a point," said Mighty. "For all we know, this could be it. Eggman's got a whole battalion waiting just outside the city walls. Second dawn comes, well, who knows?" He clenched his fists as if he could feel the power coursing through them. As if it made him feel alive. "Still though, it ain't worth getting your undies in a bunch. Whatever happens, happens. That's what I always say."

"I'm sure. Tell me something, Mighty. You ever had any regrets?"

"Now that's a tough question." Mighty cracked his knuckles and scratched his noggin as he tried to rummage through the last odd seventeen years of his existence. "Regrets, huh? I guess if I had one, it's that I never really got to see Ray again. He was like a little brother to me, you know? But after me and Sonic got caught by Eggman and were run through all those deathtraps, well, I don't know. I guess we kind of split apart. Part of me wishes I could've seen him just one last time."

"At least you might still have that chance," said Espio. "I left my clan ages ago. If I were to sum up my reasons, I suppose it would because they and I simply did not see eye to eye. They were weapons of death and destruction. I was not. Or at least not to that extent. And the punishment for leaving the clan is exile. If I ever show my face there again, well." One piercing look from his golden eyes was enough to give Mighty and Vector the message. "So I suppose my one regret would be is that I will likely never get the chance to see my clan again at all. Short of a death sentence. But at least you and Ray may still get that chance."

"I guess. Yeah, you're right. Thanks Espio."

"Not a problem."

Vector yawned again, nearly sucking in a fly while he was at it. "Goldarnn it. Anyway, I guess fair's fair. Mine's that I never got to make that big score. That's part of why I got into the detective business, ya know? Course, part of it was cause I was darn good at it. And another part was the thrills. But I'd always wanted to make it big. A fancy mansion, scores of lovely ladies at every arm, butlers to wait on you hand and foot. Fat chance of that now."

The three of them sat there in silence. After all of that talking, after spilling their guts to one another, neither of them knew just what to say after all that. Because for all they knew, this might really have been it.

"All done!" Just when it seemed like things couldn't get any more depressing, in came Charmy to brighten things up. He zipped around the street, buzzing two and fro like a hyperactive flying missile before finally plunking himself back down next to Mighty. "So, what you all been talking about? I wanna know I wanna know I wanna know!"

"Uh, nothin' Charmy," said Vector. "Just, you know, adult stuff."

"Oh," said Charmy. "Well, let's talk about something else. Like how we're gonna beat the stuffing out of Eggman and those robots tomorrow. Mighty's gonna go in and rip their robot guts out and Espio's gonna go pew-pew with those ninja stars, and Vector's gonna go RAAAAW and chomp into them like a T-rex, and I'll finish them off with my bee stings! Hotcha!"

As Charmy went on, Vector and the others couldn't help but feel relieved somehow. As if all of their troubles and worries, their fears and regrets, seemed like nothing at all. Something about Charmy's innocence and optimism was, well, it was childish and horribly naive because of course it was. But maybe there was something to be said be about being innocent and optimistic. Because with things being what they were, they could stand to have some of it.

Mighty beamed, as if he didn't have a care in the world. "Course. We're gonna beat Eggman's arse till he's whipped!"

"Indeed," said Espio, starting to get into it in spite of himself. "Eggman may have been able to conquer the rest of the world, but against the four of us, it won't be easy.

"Ain't that the truth," said Vector. He couldn't believe he was saying this, but someone had to. "Listen here, folks. It ain't gonna be easy and that's the truth. But what's also the truth is that you three are the best guys I've ever known. And that's saying a lot. So let's do this, people! First thing tomorrow, we're gonna send Eggman's kiester back where he came from!"

Everyone else pumped their fists into the air, shouting in unison. "YEAH!"

"And we're gonna make sure he never thinks of messin' with any of us again!"

"YEAH!"

"AND THEN WE'RE GONNA GET PAID!"

"F— YEAH!"

And in that moment, as the moon rose over the night sky, they did indeed believe they would live to see tomorrow.