Light of Hope

IX. Mega Man

Sonic sat by the window with Tails and pointed at clouds while Silver drummed his fingers and looked worried. He wasn't really happy that we couldn't take the Chaos Emerald.

"If Eggman has the other six, we're done," Silver said grumpily. "Everything will be lost if he learns where that one is."

"At the moment, they need it more than we do," Sally said.

Silver looked like he was going to say something, but thought against it. "We could have recovered Sonic's memory," he ended up saying. He looked stunned. "We should have had him touch it. That connection could have-"

"We don't even know if that will happen if he gets a Chaos Emerald," Sally reminded him. "They'll give us the Emerald when they're ready."

Silver sighed. His eyes were filled with so much pain of the past that it hurt to look at him. He was trying his best to aid us, but nothing had ended up helping yet.

"Maybe Nicole will find something during the night," Sally suggested. "It's not like everything is lost."

Silver shook his head. "I don't understand how you guys stay so positive. The world is on the brink of disaster."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Isn't it always? It's not like there's an enemy Sonic wouldn't want to go up against."

Silver got up, opened his mouth to say something, and walked away. He went to his room, the door sliding shut behind him.

"Should we have taken it by force...?" I asked Sally.

"They're well fortified," Sally said, unwavering. "The Chaos Emerald is in good hands for now. We just have to race Eggman for the rest."

"That sounds dangerous, even with an incredibly fast sonic speed hedgehog on our side," I said.

"And with ten Metal Sonics on Eggman's side," Sally sighed. "And whatever nearly finished off Sonic."

"Sonic won't lose," Amy said confidently.

"I know," Sally agreed, though it didn't look like she was so sure.

"I'm going to recharge my systems," I announced. "I want to make sure they're ready if we face anything. Feel free to wake me up if we run into trouble."

I went to my room, changing from my armor. Rush followed me, curling up on the floor and falling asleep. I laid on my bed and closed my eyes, smiling as I saw Roll and Dr. Light in my mind. I felt guilty that I hadn't found Tempo yet, but I wouldn't stop until I did. With that thought, I shut off my systems.

It took two days before Nicole sensed a Chaos Emerald. I had thought Sonic was going to go nuts being on a flying battleship over the ocean. He slept through some of it, pacing around and asking Nicole if she had found anything yet. She seemed used to it.

When I woke up the day Nicole found the Chaos Emerald, the sun was only just rising. No one else was up, and I sat at the table, wishing there was something to do. Nicole and I talked for a while until everyone got up. Sonic looked tired, his arm hanging in its sling as he ate breakfast.

"There's a Chaos Emerald!" Nicole suddenly shouted, making everyone in the room jump.

"Are we on land?" Sonic asked immediately, his expression full of fear. "Please tell me we're on land this time."

"Yes, we just reached solid ground," Nicole said. She had barely spoken when Sonic raced to the window like a kid excited to see snow. He touched the glass with his hand, looking down at the ground.

"It's about time!" he said, racing back to the table. "Let's go get it!"

I couldn't help but smile. It was nice to see him excited about something again.