Light of Hope

II. Mega Man

"But it's still all up to Sonic," I added.

"Oh, don't you worry about him," Amy said, her eyes lighting up. "He can do anything."

Sally smiled, though it looked forced. "Right. There's nothing to worry about."

Bunnie beckoned me to sit in one of the beanbags and said, "sit with us and tell us about yo' world, kid. Give us somethin' to do while we wait."

I didn't know where to start. It was a place I always lived in, and I don't know that there's anything super extraordinary about it. But it was a big place, and it seemed so different than the world I was in now.

I started with the first time Wily decided to betray my father, and my dad had to make me into a fighting machine, even though I really didn't want to fight. I told them about Wily's castles that he always managed to make pretty quickly, all my robot friends, all of the robots that Wily made, my sister, Tempo...

"Zat is a ton of robots," Antoine commented.

"But they're not all evil!" I assured him. "Wily just manages to find ways to turn them against us. Sometimes we can even turn the evil ones to our side. That's basically my job." I paused for a moment, looking at Bunnie and trying to ask a question without being intrusive.

"Ah, yo' curious about my legs and arm?" Bunnie asked, reading my mind.

"Well, I just..." I scratched my head. "What happened?"

"It was so long ago," Bunnie said with a smile. "I was in tha process a bein' robotisized when all of a sudden, Sonic appeared and helped me out."

"But it was too late," I guessed.

"Aw, it's not so bad anymore," Bunnie said. "Used to think it was so awful, that's fo' sho'. But now I can help the Freedom Fighters. I don' know what I'd do without 'em."

"Really?" I asked.

"Fo' one, I can fly," Bunnie explained. "And punching with mah left arm packs a wallop."

"She has made the best out of a sour situation," Antoine said, smiling at Bunnie.

For a few minutes, we sat in silence, not much else to say. Then, all of a sudden in the silence, we heard from the other room, "guys!"

"Sacre bleu!" Antoine jumped. I had never met anyone quite so skittish.

Rotor came running out. "Eggman managed to escape our radars and is now in a five mile radius around the city!"

"He's got it surrounded?" Sally asked.

"The entire city," Rotor said, shaking his head. Tails ran past Rotor, sprinting down one of the paths.

"That gives me hope, actually," Sally said, finally showing a real smile. She almost sounded excited. "With this much resistance, it shows he expects to overpower us. He wouldn't bring these fleets just to watch them be destroyed. He must not know!"

"You were just bein' paranoid, Sally-girl," Bunnie said.

"Nicole," Sally said, beckoning for me to follow her. "Tell Sonic he must take out the Egg Carriers before going to the Death Egg."

Nicole did nothing that made me think she heard Sally, but she seemed confident that Nicole had relayed the message. Sally went into a giant lab that Rotor was in, sitting at a computer. "I'll just sit here and watch the battle," Rotor laughed, putting his feet up.

"Good thing the council voted to let Sonic handle this on his own," Sally muttered, shuffling through some boards in a heap on the ground. She found one she seemed satisfied with, tossing it through the air to Antoine. "I hope Nagus doesn't change his mind and get involved."