A boxer might have punched his fist in the air. A warrior might have yelled out a battle scream to his army. A Gladiator may have cheered for his people and thrust his weapon above his head in triumph.

So what does this mighty savior do?

Well…he fainted.

With a slight glance over to Cora, the robot's eyes sunk up and he collapsed.

"Whoa!" Zane ran up to the limp body, Cora following. They kneeled down beside it.

Putting the unconscious dilemma aside, Cora grinned. She looked up to Zane and noticed he was grinning too. The moment was strange- they had just almost got killed, yet the thought that they were saved by this child like robot was just…hilarious. Zane started laughing a bit and Cora joined. Soon, they were both laughing hysterically, keeling over from the pain and joy the sensation caused them.

Cora gasped in a breath.

"Why are you laughing?" she asked, a tear rolling down her face. Zane just shook his head and looked down to the robot with an exhausted sigh.

"We almost got killed…" he muttered, his tone quickly dying down. Cora coughed and joined his change of mood.

"Yep," she agreed.

"Almost got our ass' kicked."

"Spanked."

"Screwed."

"What?"

They suddenly looked down to the boy as his eyes slowly opened. They both jolted back, Zane arranging himself into a squatting position.

"Hey, would you look at that…" he beamed. The boy groaned and moved his arm to wipe the sleep from his face and lifted his upper-body up. Cora put her hand on his back to steady him.

"You okay?" she asked. She noticed herself starting to forget he was a robot again, but after that fight, nothing could be greater than her caution. The robot boy looked around to the sky which was turning to a shade of dark purple, and then looked to Aim, destroyed and lying flat on the metal. His eyebrows raised.

"WHOA. What happened?" Cora and Zane's mouths dropped open.

"YOU DON'T KNOW?" Zane asked.

"Should I?"

"YES!" they both said together. An expression of complete confusion swept over the boy's face like a clouding fog. Cora sighed and pointed to Aim.

"You see that there?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah?" he answered, and she could tell he was starting to question their mental health. She stopped for a second.

"Don't talk to me in that tone." She scolded. The boy looked shocked at first, like someone had just told him to cut off his own leg. But he nodded never the less.

"That there," she said again, gesturing to the dead machine. "You did that." His eyes widened.

"Wait…what?" Zane nodded.

"You froze, and then we were about to get killed by the Scavengers-"

"-Those five that were attacking you when we met," Cora added in.

"Yeah well, that dead robot there was Aim, and he was about to shoot Cora when you zoomed up in front of her and then the spanner broke and you kicked butt and you threw Tails over the edge, ripped apart Aim and sent the others fleeing, all with one arm! You were amazing!"

The robot leaned back, almost exhausted by the story. "Oh! And then you fainted." Zane chirped in. There was a moment of silence before the boy spoke.

"What made me freeze?" he asked quietly. Zane and Cora looked to each other.

"Can we tell him?" Zane asked.

"What if he freezes again?"

Cora warned. Zane looked to the robot.

"Promise us you won't freeze again." Cora and the boy's eyebrow raised, but he agreed.

"I'll try my best."

"Okay…so do you remember we were telling you names?" Cora asked. He nodded.

"Well, Zane said…" she took a breath. "…Tobi, as a suggestion." The boy's eyes went wide.

"Tobi…" he echoed.

"Oh, good! You didn't freeze…" Zane muttered.

"Does the name mean anything to you?" It took a while before there was an answer.

"I'm not very sure. It sounds familiar, but… I can't remember…" Cora stood, dusting off her pant legs.

"Well, as soon as we get to the circus, Reno can fix your arm, and maybe your memory as well. Come on, our necks are dead as it is."

"I agree." Zane said, standing as well. The robot quickly climbed up to his knees.

"Wait, wait, wait…" he interrupted the departure. They looked towards him, Zane hopping over with bag around shoulder to Cora. "S-so…I killed two robots?" They nodded. He quickly darted his head to Cora. "You were about to get shot?"

Cora shuffled on the spot. "Can we just go now? It's almost midnight and we should have arrived at the circus over three hours ago." She growled, Zane already starting to walk ahead. The robot's eyes looked a little puppy dog like, a power she hadn't seen used by other robots. She shook her head and started down along the hard metal Ridge.

The boy got onto wobbly feet and looked to the ground, feeling there was practically nothing he could do to get this girl's acceptance. He might as well be a mere puppy, attached to the end of her leash. He sighed and rubbed his sore arm. Cora squeezed her eyes closed to stop the temptation, but turned back to the robot. She coughed a little to get his attention, and it worked, the robot's head jolting up.

"Um…do you still want to come?" she asked, her usual strong, confident voice falling down to a sincere ballad tone. He smiled for the first time since they met and nodded, running up to walk alongside her.

The night was getting bristle and chilly, and Zane and Cora rubbed their shoulders to keep warm against the grasping clutches of the freezing winds. They had told the curious robot, as much as he believed to be true, the battle against the Scavengers. They still showed no signs of friends ship, simply telling him the facts and mostly kidding around with each other, joking and teasing on how scared they looked and so on.

"You were crying!" Zane said, pushing Cora a little to the side.

"Hey! I was about to die! You were the one that wanted to!" she returned the shove. He laughed.

"I would call it an act of heroics." He said boldly.

"Pfft, yeah right."

"Yeah, I know I'm right…"

"Shut up, glory hound."

"Where is this circus?" the robot butted in. They looked back to him.

"Well…" Cora looked around.

They were halfway around the Surface Ridge. The sky was now a deep violet to black; luckily the moon was bright, so they had a bit of light. But still not enough.

"Zane, you gotta map?" Zane searched in his many pockets until he felt the heavy paper. He pulled it out and un-folded it, Cora standing closer to examine it with him.

"Well, the Ridge is along here, and the circus is in Sunset City this month, so if we…" Zane's words were taken by the wind and he gulped. "Oh boy…"

The robot popped his head up. "Is there a problem?"

Cora saw were Zane was pointing and her eyes widened too. She groaned in annoyance and gave her friend a shove. "You idiot! Why didn't you get the map out from the start?!"

Zane growled. "Hey! You didn't think to mention it ether!" he argued.

Cora just let out another moan and coved her face with her hands. The robot walked around and looked at the map that Zane was scowling at, like it was a horrid bug ready to sting. He tried to read it, but the small moon was suddenly hid behind a huge group of dark clouds and the light was gone from the land.

Cora looked around. "Great. Just great!"

All the robot and Zane could hear was her voice.

"What's wrong?" the robot asked.

"Wrong turn…" Zane said. They could hear Cora sharply turn in their direction.

"Wrong turn?" she growled. "We went completely the wrong way!"

"Shut up, Cora! We'll figure this out, okay?"

"Oh? We're just gonna figure things out, are we? Well you can say that when we're cold and dead, lost in the middle of the Surface Waste Lands!" Zane walked towards her voice, leaving the map in the robot boy's good hand.

"Arguing, isn't going to help!"

"Neither is the dark! What are we gonna do?"

While the two teens fought, the robot looked down to where the map should be. He concentrated. He concentrated his eyes very hard, staring into the black nothingness. He wasn't sure exactly why, and hesitated for a second, blinking and looking away. But something told him to not give up.

"We'll…we'll ask for help." Zane suggested. Cora shook her head, but then remembered her body language couldn't be seen and quickly answered with a simple,

"No."

"Why not?"

She sighed.

"Zane, there's no one out here and we won't survive the night!" she cried.

"Why not?!"

"Well, for starters it's the middle of winter, so we'll freeze. Or…well, how long since your last meal?" Zane's stomach rumbled as an answer. "Exactly. Also we could badly injure ourselves, even fall off this Ridge. And then there are other robots out their like the Scavengers!" Zane scoffed.

"Our robot will take them on!" Even as he heard this, the boy robot kept his stare in the map.

"What if that was the one chance that happened?" Cora's voice was quivering with fear. "We can't make him freeze again, the last time he rescued me at the last second. What if he's a few seconds short next time?"

Suddenly a brilliant bright blue light shone out of the robot's eyes, erupting blindingly on the now visible map. He jolted back a little, smiling. Cora and Zane looked towards it, startled. The boy looked towards them, his eyes shining on their faces. They were quick to shield their faces with their arms.

"HEY!"

The robot focused and the light faded down. Zane strode up to him with a grin. "Awesome!" he cheered, snatching up the map. The boy scratched the back of his neck meekly.

"I'm not sure why, or how I did it…" he mumbled.

"Programming." Cora answered. He looked up at her and in the light he saw tear tracks down her cheeks and noticed she must've been crying out of distress. She cleared her throat. "Most robots have the programming so they have to assist a human in any way. Mostly it's house bots. Maybe that's what you are."

"Bloody strong one, I'll give him that!" Zane chuckled, tugging on the robot's hair.

"I guess that officially means we own you now," Cora said with a bit of a shrug.

"Cool!" Zane cheered. The boy looked up to her, his lights still shining but getting lower.

"What?"

"Well, each robot has an owner and they will do anything to protect them. They won't do exactly the same to anyone else. So, considering what you've done so far, your ours."

He looked a little disturbed, as if how dare she claim such a fact. Cora leveled a glare on him and he quickly avoided eye contact.

"And no better robot to have, in my opinion," Zane beamed. "The others will get so jealous! Did you see the one Liza-Bell found? Ha! She thought that was the best one!" Cora and Zane huddled next to each other to examine the map.

"If we go here…" Zane thought, running his fingertips along the different roads of the Surface Waste Lands. The robot took a deep breath.

"Just a robot…" He mumbled. Cora shot her hand up.

"Shhh. Shine your eye lights over here, will ya?" She said it as a question, but the robot knew it was a command. It sent his mind reeling in irritation.

I don't need to follow every direction they give me, the robot thought to himself. 'Yourrobot' this!

He immediately switched his eye lights off and the night once again swallowed the trio. He could hear desperate shuffling in front of him. "What? Hey!" Cora screeched.

"Hey! Turn the lights back on!" Zane yelped in distress.

The freezing winds started to pick up and the map got snatched out of Cora's hand by the sudden gust. She blinded looked around and reached out to grab it, succeeding in only clutching air. She started taking baby steps to where the map took off.

"Cora-?" she heard Zane call, trying to find some sort of direction.

"Robot! Turn your eye lights back on!" Cora screamed, tripping over a rusted car tire. The robot glanced around to the noises with a grin on his face that would never be discovered. He remained silent. Cora landed on her knees and gladly picked up a new tactic of crawling.

"Cora! Where are you?"

"I've lost the map!" She spread out her arms in all directions.

Little did she know she was coming dreadfully close to the edge of the Ridge…

Zane stumbled across to grab onto the robot's sleeve. Grasping it desperately, he pulled close and violently tapped on the robot's metal skull. "LIGHTS!" he yelled in his face. Another unwanted gust sent the pair falling down by Cora.

They both grunted, adapting like Cora and searching on their hands and knees, no more better than three blind mice. The robot took no intention in helping, but was forced to travel where ever Zane wish as he grabbed firmly on his sleeve.

"I still can't find the map!" Cora yelled out. Hearing her voice close, Zane reached out and found her ankle. A high pitched gasp came, then a hand came down and grabbed his. "Zane!" she cried in relief.

"Yeah, I'm here," he comforted. "I got the robot, I think he's shut down or something's snapped."

More strong winds picked up and they struggled to pull all of them together until they were a huddling mess: Zane griping Cora, Cora griping Zane and the robot kneeling close by. This was some entertainment for the boy and he gratefully waited for what would happen next.

Little did he know he wouldn't soon be as grateful.

The moon finally showed its self, spilling out much welcomed pale auras of light. Cora and Zane exhaled a sigh as if they were forced to hold their breaths for the whole desperate time. They looked around and their eyes widened, as well as the robot's.

This was not what he wanted.

They were inches away from falling off the Ridge's edge. Zane jolted back with a screech, but soon settled as tiny clunks of metal rustled out and fell, only small 'pings' echoing as they dipped into the darkness below.

Gulp.

"Now what?" Cora quivered.

"S-slowly…make our w-way…back…"

Both of them, still clammy hand in hand not daring to let go and Zane still clinging onto the robot's sleeve, inched their way back to steady grounds.

"Hey!" Zane whispered to the robot. He looked at him, petrified. "Oh, now your responding!"

"Stop talking!" Cora hissed, slipping out of Zane's hand and making her way onto her palms and knees. Zane and the robot stayed put until she was steadied. Zane was exploding with fear and anxiousness, he couldn't bear the thought of her, his best friend, falling.

The moon once again was blocked by clouds, and that desperately needed blue light faded out. "I want to MURDER that sky…" Cora mumbled. The robot didn't even think to turn his eye lights on, too engraved with the girls 'could be fatal' movements. When she was just getting to stable ground, her knee met a particularly slippery surface of an old gum ball dispenser machine. "Oh shi-"

She screamed as she went tumbling backwards. Nausea flooded her and the shot of undesired thrill as she felt the air around her swoop as she fell.

I'm going to die. I can't die! And all because of a stupid robot!

The robot was rushed with alert and snapped on his eye lights, showing the horrifying scene clearly. Zane darted forward as if he had just sat on a pin, grasping her hand and leaning all the way back, sending Cora to land on top of him with a grunt.

He muffled out complaints as her hair filled his mouth. Cora just lay there, motionless and breathing a hundred miles per hour. He pushed her tense body off to lay beside him. She caught up with her breath and looked around. They were back were they started.

Stuck.

"Well…that was a good look…" the flustered teen muttered. Cora's fear then twisted to rage. She snapped her head to the robot.

"You!" she screamed.

Zane looked to her.

"Shhh, calm down…"

"You little son of a bitch! I COULD HAVE DIED!"

She started to sit up, causing more lone bolts and a hairdryer to fall into the plunging darkness. The robot boy meekly looked up to her with his glowing eyes, guilt across his face.

"Why did you turn your eye lights off?! Some joke?!"

He gulped as she spoke the truth. Zane tried an effort to calm her down once more as more debris fell and as she stupidly tried to stand.

"I swear that when we get to the circus," she warned in a growl, her sense lost and getting to her knees, leaning over a terrified Zane.

"I shall personally make sure you get such a beating from Hamegg,"

The robot glanced down to a patch of crumbling Surface she was upon. It was slowly breaking as she moved. He pointed with caution.

"Uh…."

"You will wish you were never made! YOU STUPID,"

"But-"

"SELFISH,"

"The-"

"IGNORANT,"

"You better-"

"LITTLE-"

"CORA!"

Zane yelped as the ground could hold no more. It crumbled and broke apart, Cora glancing down with a scowl. The anger once again turned to fear.

She reached out for Zane as she started to fall, but the ground beneath him broke as well. They looked horror stricken at each other. Cora fell, and Zane reached out and grabbed her hand. As he started to fall as well, he grabbed out to the robots sleeve.

"HELP-!"

But it was too late.

Those words were that last ones before the night was filled with screams, as the robot got pulled with them and they all went plunging down.

Down…

Down…

The moon light glistened out once again, but not even that could clear the sight of the sea of black as Cora's eyes looked frighteningly down. And then squeezed shut tight.