Cheaters Always Win

As Amic and Vector flew towards Robotropolis, Amic had a few concerns that he wanted to get off his chest.

"Vector, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Why would you guys never let me fight the androids until now?"

Vector looked down when he heard that. "Well, we always thought that you weren't ready. We thought that you would never be ready. That's why we always fought them without you. As we trained, we got stronger. And the stronger we got, the more we thought we could do it on our own. But then we thought that you would never get stronger if you didn't fight them yourself. That's why I'm taking you with me now."

"NEVER BE READY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING!"

"Amic, calm down."

"How can I calm down when you guys don't even believe in me!"

"Listen! It's been a while since we fought them, a month tops. Maybe we have a chance."

Amic looked down. "Wouldn't it have been better if Espio came with us?"

"He had some business to take care of with an old friend of his. This is it, Amic. There's Robotropolis. And I can tell they're here." When he said this he was referring to the ruined buildings.

Tails Doll was in a car and Metal Knuckles was getting in too when Vector and Amic landed in front of them.

"Oh, look M.K. It's Vector. Except he has a new friend today." Doll had a very high robotic voice, like a little boy's voice. He also acted like a child.

"Of course, Doll. Espio must have died from the last fight." M.K sounded like a teenage boy. It seemed more realistic than Doll's voice. He was the "adult" in the duo.

"How about we finish Vector off this time?"

"Sure…"

"Amic, let me handle this," Vector whispered to him.

"Right."

M.K jump-kicked toward Vector. Vector jumped into the sky. M.K threw a blast at him, but missed. Vector powered up with the chaos ring he had. Electricity sparked all around him.

"Wow, Vector's stronger than I thought. No wonder I could never beat him," Amic thought to himself.

M.K flew towards Vector. They collided their arm, and then their fist. Vector moved to the side as M.K tried punching him. M.K quickly back flipped and kicked Vector into a pole. As Vector slowly recovered, M.K came up and punched him further back. He disappeared and reappeared behind Vector, elbowing him into a ruined building. He flew in, but got knocked out of the top as soon as he entered. Vector came out and powered up some more, shooting a blast from his mouth. As M.K dodged it, Vector punched him in the face.

"Man! He's doing it! Wow!" Amic said, thinking the battle would end soon. Doll got a bit mad when he saw M.K getting punched.

M.K and Vector started sparring, blocking and punching. Vector swung his tail and smashed M.K back. As M.K fell, Vector headed for him.

Doll appeared in front of Vector out of nowhere and punched him into a window of a building. Vector lay on his back in the room, in pain from the glass all over him.

"Man, where did all of that come from," M.K asked, wiping his face.

"Vector's powerful today. Something is making him fight better. Let's work this together."

"Fine with me. Go!"

"Vector!" Amic called out, seeing the two doubling up on Vector.

As Vector barely stood up, Doll tripped him as M.K kneed him in the stomach. Doll came up with an uppercut in the chin.

"NO!" Amic yelled as he charged in the building.

Doll widened his arms and an explosion occurred, blowing up the entire building. As Amic was pushed out from the blast, he stopped himself mid-air and flew towards Doll, who was standing on top of another building. He landed across from him.

"You better get out of here while you still can." Doll warned.

"So you can gang up on my friend again? I see how you two operate, you're weak when alone, but strong together. Now I know I can beat you." Amic gave a smirk.

"Sigh Whatever."

Amic charged at Doll. He threw a series of punches and kicks, but Doll dodged them all. He punched Amic twice in the face. Amic got mad and punched even faster. Doll started blocking them, playing with him. As Amic gave his last punch, Doll dodged it and hit him in the face. But Amic came back and kneed Doll in the stomach. Doll got mad and threw a blast into his face. Doll caught him by the neck.

"Now what do you think, idiot?"

"I…think… you're nothing but a pile SHIT!" Amic spat on Doll's face.

This pissed Doll. He raised his other hand, and gathered energy into it.

"Oh no, Amic!" Vector yelled as he flew towards them. M.K quickly blasted Amic in the back as Vector kicked Doll in the face. Doll had let go, but quickly shot laser beams out of his eyes towards Amic. Vector caught Amic and covered him, taking Doll's shots. He landed and ran for cover, hiding behind a rock near the two. Doll and M.K started blasting the whole area, hoping to hit the two.

"How did he give us the slip AGAIN!" M.K said in annoyance.

"I don't know. And I wanted to kill that hedgehog, too!"

"This makes us look bad. When we say we're gonna do something we need to do it."

"You're really stuck on that, aren't you?"

"It's common sense, Doll! Get it?"

"Yeah. Let's take one more shot. We might get lucky."

They raised their hands and a huge explosion destroyed the whole city.

"Did you hear any yells or anything like that?" Doll asked.

"Why would we? He's tough. He probably wouldn't yell anyway."

"That boy might have yelled."

"Well I didn't hear anything…. That would suck if we got them but didn't know it."

"What difference would it make?" Doll asked in confusion.

"Because then we'd never know if we got them or not, you retard!"

"Oh yeah, right. That would bite…. Now what?"

"Let's go and report this to Metal Lord." They flew off.

Vector woke up, all bloody. His tail was blown off and his arm severely wounded. As he picked himself up with his arm, he pulled himself toward Amic. He stopped mid-way as he saw the chaos ring near Amic. He checked his pocket to see if he still had his. He didn't.

"Oh no… he forgot his chaos ring. Shoot! Just like my chances of living, only one left."

He continued crawling towards Amic. He grabbed the ring and put it to his face.

"Now Vector, what would Knuckles do," he thought. Although he needed the ring to live, he did the right thing. He squeezed it as he started crawling again.

He continued towards Amic. When he reached him, he dropped to his side.

"Hey kid… you did great. Especially without a chaos ring, heh. Here, take this. Live, got to live…"

As soon as he put the ring in Amic's hand, he fainted. For good.

Espio was in the field near their house, looking at Charmy's grave. He stood there in silence, keeping his tears back. Amic flew in with Vector on his back.

"Amic! What happened!"

"To be blunt, we got beat up."

"Put him down!" Espio checked Vector's chest. "He's gone." He looked up. "Vector's gone!"

Amic looked surprisingly at Vector's dead body. A tear started swelling up in his eye.

"Hey! There's no need to cry! You can never be powerful if you cry!"

Amic got a bit mad at this, but then made a straight face. "Now what do we do?"

"We continue training, that's what."