Light of Hope

VIII. Mega Man

"... Do you have any twos?" I asked Bunnie.

"Go fish," Bunnie replied. I drew a card, glancing at Sonic as he turned his head in his sleep. He snored softly, his head resting on his casted arm. Silver sat on the end of the table, twirling some sort of cube in the middle of the table with his telekinesis. Amy was resting in her room, and Sally was looking stuff up on a computer. I wasn't sure where Antoine had gone.

"Mega Man, do you have any twos?" Tails asked.

"Darn it," I sighed, handing him my two card. "I knew I should have asked you."

"Bunnie, do you have any threes?" Tails asked again.

"Tails is gonna win again," Bunnie lamented.

I leaned back in my chair, throwing my cards onto the table. "I can't lose anymore, sorry," I said. "Do we even know where we're going?" I asked, putting my head on my hand and tapping my fingers against the table.

"Finding the Chaos Emeralds will take days, Mega Man." Tails explained. "It's not the fastest thing in the world."

I looked at Sonic, who never even stirred as we talked. "Man, he's really passed out."

"He'll be fine," Tails said with a smile. "Give him a few more days, and he'll be good as new."

One of Sonic's ears flicked, like he knew we were talking about him.

"How do we know Eggman doesn't have all the Chaos Emeralds?" I asked.

"If I'm not wrong again," Silver said, "it takes a while for Eggman to get all seven of them. But, then again, I didn't know he had ten more Metal Sonics at his disposal. It's almost like the future is changing to stop us at every turn."

Sally suddenly stood up, looking at the wall with the giant screen on it. "Nicole's found something."

"Already?" Tails asked, frowning. "That seems too easy."

"The energy is just like a Chaos Emerald, but... it's in an underwater town," Nicole said slowly.

We all looked at Sonic, who turned his head again and sighed in his sleep. "That's... unfortunate," I said.

"What's unfortunate is we have no way of getting into it this time," Sally said. "We've gotten in before the past, but that was because they were expecting us. We have no way of communicating with them right now."

"I can swim down there," I suggested. "I don't need to breathe, after all."

"They're hostile toward outsiders," Sally said, shaking her head. "Without knowing who you are, they wouldn't let you in. I'm not sure they would even give us the Chaos Emerald, if they had one."

"It might be better to come back at another time," Nicole said.

"I'm confident that if Sonic gets a Chaos Emerald, his memory of what happened will return," Silver said. "It would be well worth the risk."

"Sonic would have to go," Sally said. She looked at Sonic with pity. "They recognize and trust him."

"I can take three people, including myself, down into the city," Silver explained. "Sonic and I are the obvious choices. It might be better to take just you and Mega Man."

"I can go?" I asked, excited.

Sally looked from me to Silver, and sighed. "You should be fine with Sonic, and after being trapped in the base for so long, I guess you deserve it."

"Are we sure we want Sonic recovering his memories?" Bunnie asked. "It might be traumatic, even for him."

"We need to know what happened," Silver said, looking at Sonic. "I don't want to put him through anything else any more than you guys, but it could be the difference between saving and losing the entire world. The reward far outweighs the risk."