Light of Hope

IV. Mega Man

Shadow came like he promised the next day, though I didn't see much of him. For the next four days, I worked on the ship, making a lot of progress. Most of the walls and floor were finally covered, and there were a few lights on the ceilings.

I was mostly confined to the base and its secret basement, but I didn't really mind. The work kept my mind off of things, like Sonic's condition and if we would be able to stop Eggman when he attacked. Sometimes Nicole would take physical form and sit and watch.

The next night, I was walking up the stairs to get back into the base, exhausted. It was way past midnight. I had considered just staying down there and shutting my systems down, but decided to go back up. People would be able to find me in my little room if they needed me.

But when I was about halfway up the stairs, I heard alarms blaring in the base above. For a moment, I froze. I knew it could only be one thing: Eggman.

I groaned, taking the rest of the stairs as quickly as I could. It was late, but that didn't matter. Anyone would hear the alarms. They were loud. I wondered how long they had been going on, though Nicole hadn't said anything about an attack. Maybe it had happened as I got to the stairs.

After getting to the top of the stairs, I ran into the hallway, running for the exit. I stopped, though, as a door slammed into my face and knocked me to the ground.

"Oh my gosh!" the pink hedgehog shouted as she looked behind the door. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said, getting up and changing to my armor in case my head got smashed again by a stray door. "What's going on?"

"What else?" Amy sighed. She looked a bit frazzled, but mostly angry. "Eggman must have come to the city, trying to catch us off guard. But it won't work!"

"Then we should get going," I said. I jumped onto Rush, wanting to, well, rush. "Here, jump on."

After a moment of hesitation, she stepped on, wrapping her arms around my waist. I tried to keep my face from her. I wish I hadn't been programmed to be quite so bashful. Being brave like Sonic would have made things a lot easier. I tried to think of what Sonic would say if I told him that. I smiled; he would probably have said something that would make me feel warm and happy.

"Uh, ready?" Amy asked.

"Oh, sorry," I chuckled. "Yeah, let's go."

I ordered Rush to go to the city, and stopped when we got outside. Behind us, hundreds of Egg Carriers were traveling toward the city.

"How did he build them so quickly?" Amy gasped. "Sonic took down so many!"

"That must be why he gave us a week," I said. "Should we just attack the Egg Carriers?"

"What can we do to something so big?" Amy asked. "Sonic was able to destroy their engines in a second. It could take us an hour to take even one down!"

"If I knew what to attack, I could take them down," I grimaced, turning toward the city. "Maybe Shadow can do something."

It only took a few minutes to get to the city. Something covering it shimmered as missiles rammed into it. I passed through the shield easily and rose into the air, searching the ground for Sally, but there was so much chaos. People were running all over the place, watching as Eggman threatened their home.

"There she is!" Amy yelled, pointing to Sally. She looked like she was ordering people around in a frenzy. Rush went to her, and Amy and I jumped off.

"What do we do?" I asked. Sally turned when I spoke, looking very serious.

"We have to stop the ships before they get any closer," Sally replied. "Shadow's on the job, but he can only do so much. They have a weak spot underneath them, but..."