Author's Note: In Japan, it is illegal for more than two people to be on a bike.

The cyclist invited the teen to join him for breakfast.

Genos was unwilling at first. His initial plan for the day was to catalog his findings to the doctor and return home to wait for his teacher to return... He wound up accepting his offer.

Mumen Rider recommended a place close to the apartment building, but it would still be about a half hour commute. Since the area is so desolate, he was able to give the cyborg a lift on the back of his bike. Once Genos was settled, they rode off down the street. The crisp, refreshing morning breeze flowed through Genos' hair and face. Every once in a while, they would go through a puddle for their own amusement. They passed through collapsed buildings, broken bottles and the occasional stray cat. Though he did notice that there was more trash scattered on the floor and more graffiti on the walls. One piece in particular read WAITING TO BREATHE in red ink. It's funny how things can in such a short time. They remained silent until they reached their destination.

When they arrived, the sun had barely illuminated the area. The restaurant looked like a typical, generic chain. The inside looked even more generic with a slow atmosphere. They found a booth beside a window and sat on opposite sides. Mumen rider placed his helmet near the window. The waitress brought them menus and two glasses of iced water and left them alone. They both looked at the menus silently for a few moments.

"So, Genos," the cyclist blurted, "have you heard about the rumors?"

"What rumors?"

"You haven't heard?" Genos shook his head. "There's tons of gossip about you, though I'm kinda surprised you haven't. There's one where people think you've gone in hiding underground. Some even think that you're dead. I think the craziest one I heard was that you had gone and went to live on the moon," he laughed.

So this is why the cyclist came to "check on him". He wanted to confirm weather the rumors were true or not. "As you can see, I'm not living on the moon, but, in fact, having a conversation with you."

He laughed. "If you don't mind me asking, what have you been doing all this time?" He then took a sip of his drink.

"I've been hibernating."

Mumen Rider had nearly spat out his drink. "Y-You've been sleeping?"

"Yes. The latest log entry I had written was on September 23rd. So, since then." Genos asked for the current date. He assumed that he couldn't have been asleep for more than a week, since that was his plan. Through he questioned how the room could have gotten so filthy in such a short span. "I assume that today would be the 30th based on my calculations."

The cyclist was in a nervous sweat. He could see that is glasses had begun to fog from his body heat. "Um... About that... The dates kinda off."

"Is it? I thought I had done my calculations correctly. I even double checked. Could it already be October 1st?"

Mumen rider shook his head.

"The second? Third?"

The cyclist had sunken deeper into the booth. He felt that the teen was tearing into his soul with his amber eyes. Eyes that urged him to say something. He bit his tremulous lip. He felt like a criminal under a lamp being interrogated by a cop. He tried to keep quiet, but he knew he would have to say something eventually.

"Would you mind telling me todays date, please?"

He even pulled out the p-word! He had immediately succumbed to the stress. Mumen rider felt as if he were a doctor about to tell his patient that he had a life-threatening ailment. He took in a breath and said, "It-It's... It's March 2nd."

... What?

"Um. E-Excuse me, but are you the Demon Cyborg?" A shaken, feminine voice asked.

They both turned to their sides and saw a group of three girls huddled by the edge of their table. They displayed wary smiles, pink cheeks and their colorful phones. The girls looked like they could be in high school.

"Can we have your autograph? Maybe a picture with you?" The girls all seemed too thrilled to be in his presence. The cyborg was the total opposite.

The cyborg turned his attention to the window and remained silent. Mumen rider decided to take action. "I'm sorry ladies," he said, "but he hasn't been feeling very well. Maybe next time."

"Oh. We understand," the brunette said in a heartbroken tone. "We're sorry for the trouble." They bowed their heads and excused themselves from the table. As they left, the duo could hear them whisper about how the rumors were definitely only rumors.

Genos thanked the man for doing the talking. He feared that if he had said something, things would have ended badly. Who wouldn't be in a foul mood? He had just been informed that he had been gone for six months. He stared at his drink as beads of water rolled from the glass. His mind was bouncing off everywhere. How could he have kept himself in for half a year? He did the calculation beforehand. What happened? Whenever he tried to remember anything before September 23rd, his head was caught in a haze. The thought of him being dormant for so long was horrific. It seemed too unreal. The teen had scooted to the far edge of the table as he apologized to the cyclist. "I have to see Dr. Kuseno immediately," he stated in a shaken voice. "Something went terribly wrong."

"Yeah-Yeah I understand. Go straighten things out with him."

Genos stood up and fumbled away from the table."Please excuse me Mumen Rider, we can meet again some other time," he said. Before the cyclist could say anything, Genos had already burst through the door and sprinted down the street.

He was consumed with frustration. How could he let this happen to himself? What could have let the plan fail? And why did the outside world seem so new to him? He had sprinted down a few more blocks when he saw a window full of various sized televisions, one of which played the news. He came to a halt. The cyborg couldn't help but be reeled in again by the television. Again. The anchorman continued with his story:

"An alert has been sent out from the Hero Association. Keep on the look out for tiny, grey robots with a purple image of a star on the back. They are highly dangerous and aggressive. If you happen to come across these robots, do not come in contact with them. Contact the police immediately-"

All of a sudden, he felt something bump against his leg, just below the knee. He expected a child to have accidentally collided into him, but it was nowhere near being a child. Or human. The droid was dark gray and had the shape of a snowman. The very top of its head was flattened, besides a dent curving inside. Two purple lights on the top sphere, possibly it's eyes, had fixated into his glare. He was more drawn to the purple scarf in it's pincer-like hands than anything else. It quickly rolled it's bottom half back and rolled down the street. It's slender arms waved around as it maneuvered down the street and into an alley. Genos had noticed a star shaped mark on it's back.

As much as he wanted to forget about the incident, curiosity got the best of him. He followed the robot to a dark alley between a convenient store and flower shop. The alley was of a breathable space, wide enough to where two bodies can stretch their arms out wide and still have space. Plastic grocery bags, cigarettes and damp newspapers littered the concrete floor. It reeked of cigarette smoke and rotting garbage. The tiny robot could have gone out further if it had not been blocked by a 10ft wooden fence. It was cornered by the teen. It immediately raised its wire-like arms and surrendered.

"Please don't hurt me!" The robot cried, it's voice distorted. "I'm sorry I took the scarf without permission! It just looked so pretty and soft and I just had to have it! I didn't mean any harm!" It rolled up to the cyborg cautiously and handed him the scarf with its head low.

Genos was more dumbfounded than anything else. Highly dangerous and aggressive? More like panicky and fragile. He picked up the robot and held it to eye level. The robot quickly retreated into it's body like a turtle. "Don't worry. That scarf doesn't belong to me. I have no intention of harming you."

The droid peeked out from it's and scanned the cyborg. "Say, are you a robot too?"

"No. Robots are advanced machines. I'm a cyborgs, which is a combination of living organism and machine."

"Cool! I guess that kinda makes us long lost brothers, huh?"

"Hardly. We're not even from the same creator."

"Then who's your creator?" It asked.

"That's classified. More importantly, who's yours?" He asked as he examined its body.

The robot refused to answer, to which he called him "unfair". Genos threatened to incinerate the droid, but his bluff was called out. What happened to the machine that cowered before him a few moments ago? The teen was beginning to loose his patience. As much as he didn't want to, he had to use other methods of persuasion.

"Can you please tell me? I mean, we are brothers. And we're supposed to tell each other everything. Right, big brother?" He figured that establishing himself as the "younger brother" role would help in persuading the robot.

"I-I'm your older brother," the robot said in a tone resembling a tearful one. Genos nodded. "Alright little bro, I'll tell you."

His tactics paid off. Genos felt a little proud. The tiny robot told the teen how he was just one of hundreds of identical bots, though he is a smaller version. It, along with a handful of others, were released into the city a few days ago for the purpose of creating havoc among the citizens. It figured it was part of something bigger, but he didn't know its full purpose. However, the robot in Genos' hands much rather preferred to steal things that interest it and wander. The one's operating the entire scheme were his inventor and his boss, which he deemed "the most badass of them all". Genos had persisted on for more information, but that was all the tiny robot knew. Or so he says. The teen planned to take the robot to Dr. Kuseno for further examination.

As they made their way down the alley, the tiny robot proceeded to talk about it's troubles. It complained about how people threw rocks at it whenever it came in contact with anyone. It didn't mean any harm. It's only intentions were to explore it's surroundings. It even praised the teen for showing it mercy. "Thanks for listening to me, lil' bro," it said. "It's hard for me to connect with others sometimes. Especially with the other robots. Like this one time when-."

It happened within the blink of an eye. As quick as it was, a small knife had pierced through its head. Slices of its body had begun to slide off onto the concrete. The purple scarf was left unscathed. Genos watched as static emitted from the torn wires inside its shredded body.

"Who would've guessed that I'd run into you here?" A disembodied voice remarked.

Genos looked up to face the stranger. The ninja sported a grey V-neck with newspaper print font on the front spelling "Top Dog". He had also worn black, skin tight pants and a chain hanging from his belt where his sword was. His silver eyes narrowed to him like cold steel.

Once again, frustration had seethed into the cyborg. "Why did do that?"

"I saw that thing run off with my scarf. I lost its trail for a bit, until I heard you. It took every ounce of willpower I had to not slice your stupid face."

"That was completely unnecessary! That robot had valuable information with it and you completely sabotaged my investigation."

"So? That thing stole my scarf. It signed his death wish when he did that. That portable pencil sharpener had it coming."

Just looking at his smug face made him want to punch it. "Not only did you destroy possible data, but you just had to show off that unsightly face of yours."

"Don't fucking start with me bot-boy! I've been in a bad mood all day. My hands are basically screaming at me to break some bones. Or, at least, some metal limbs," he snickered.

Genos felt his hands tense into fists, itching to brawl. "I feel the same way," he said. His legs spread to a stance and his arms were pulled to his side. His chest had an amber glow as he prepared his body for a fight.

Sonic laughed. "Then I guess there's only one way to settle this." He had completely forgotten about his scarf.

Genos and Sonic charged toward each other. Sonic quickly drew out his sword and blocked the cyborgs metal fist. A few sparks flew as the ninja's sword scraped against the metal. They pulled back, leaving Sonic to bounce off the walls like a ball to the rooftop. The teen followed his trail. The sun shone down brightly on the two as they threw punches at each other. More sparks flew like fireworks as they came in contact with one another. Genos fired up his hands and tried to aim at the agile man. He managed to shoot a ball of fire aimed at his side. He could have done some damage if Sonic hadn't blocked it with his sword, though it did melt the steel.

Since when was he so quick? His sensors could hardly keep up with him. Genos could feel himself overheating. His growing rage wasn't helping either. But he didn't want to stop. There was some sort of longing for hand-on-hand combat. He enjoyed the strain in his joints, his heavy breathing and the heat from his body. It was sorta deranged. The longer he fought, the more the steam emitted from his body. Sonic took notice of this.

"Ya' know, I missed not being able to remember your face," Sonic remarked as he dodged a punch. He toyed with Genos' anger more. "I thought you would have been more of a challenge since you've been gone so long. Guess I was wrong-."

"Shut up!" He barked, firing more fireballs that Sonic easily dodged.

He grinned. "Face it Genos. You're nothing but a rusty hunk of metal. There's no way you can defeat me. I'm Speed-O'-Sound Soni-!"

He managed to grab the ninja's arm as he was distracted from his own monologue. He twisted the ninja's forearm, lifted him over his head and slammed him down onto the alley's pavement. The cement had cracked under the force. He picked him up again and slammed him onto the floor repeatedly. The cyborg was sure that the ninja had at least a broken rib or two. Genos grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled back his arm to punch him. As he was about to do so, he couldn't. He tried, but he wasn't moving an inch. The heat escaped from his body. He felt as stiff as a tree trunk. Suddenly, it had occurred to him.

He forgot to oil his limbs.

The more he struggled, the harder it was to move his appendages.

Sonic saw Geno's stiffness as a window of opportunity. He pulled his head away from the cyborg's grasp and crawled back. Even Sonic was sure that he had broken something. Without wasting any time, he stood up, pulled his leg back and kicked Genos in the face. The teen plummeted to the ground as the ninja recoiled back to tend to his injured arm and chest. The stunt had left his foot throbbing. Sonic limped toward him and continued to kick and step on him. Bolts and pieces of metal fell onto the floor. At this point, Genos was completely immobile. The metal was bending and his skin was peeling. To make matters worse, Sonic grabbed his arm, ripped it off, and slapped him repeatedly with his own hand. He obviously got a kick out of it for a short while. The ninja threw the arm onto his body.

Sonic crouched down to face the cyborg. A stream of blood slid down the side of his face from a cut on his forehead. His narrowed, silver eyes felt as if had pierced into his core. He smacked his lips. "This was a waste of my time. There's a place for junk like you."

Sonic grabbed the cyborg's collar and flung him over the fence. Genos landed atop a pile of black garbage bags and in a dumpster. Pieces of the tiny robot and his arm landed on his stomach. It wasn't long until the lid had slammed down shut. Genos was engulfed in darkness. The first thing that hit him was the horrendous smell. The powerful, sour oder of made him nauseous and sent his mind in a daze. Genos couldn't fathom what had happened. No. It was more like he didn't want to. He was humiliated. Defeated by the likes of him. It was through his own carelessness that he wound up in the trash. But there was some truth to the ninja's words. He felt like junk. He was junk. Genos decided to shut down for a moment, not wanting to think anymore about his situation. Maybe someone would find him. Faintly, he could hear Sonic speak again from the other side.

"That sorry excuse for a hero. Why can't the baldy still be here?"

What better way to kill time than by closing your eyes and forgetting that your problems ever existed in the first place. Right?