Okay, I'm not going to keep track of times and dates anymore. It's easy enough to tell which one it is by what is going on.
Special thanks to those who reviewed! You guys rock.
Also, this is going to be the last chapter I do for at least six weeks, since I'm off to India this Wednesday. So I'll update when I come back!
Dr. Light finally went to bed after Proto Man literally dragged him out of his chair and promised that he or Roll would wake the scientist if they received any news on Mega Man. Now both robots were currently sitting at the communications system, waiting, hoping, for something. However, no luck. Daylight came and Dr. Light rejoined them at the communications system.
The three sat there and were just about to give up when a screen flashed a message that Dr. Light had an incoming transmission. "What if it's Mega Man!" Roll gasped. Proto Man didn't say anything, but he too was hoping that Roll was right. Dr. Light activated the comm. system.
A man of about 57 appeared on the screen. He had a slightly square face with brown eyes and streaks of silver in his black hair. He was wearing a typical business suit with a stylized "C" pin attached to his left breast pocket. "Is this the laboratory of Dr. Light?"
All three occupants nodded. "I am Dr. Light. Might I ask who you are?"
"I am Mr. Yakanochi, head of Chronos Institute," he said. Then he paused. "I don't believe we have met before."
"No we haven't," Dr. Light agreed. "Might I ask the nature of your call?"
"It's about Mega Man and Dr. Wily," the middle-aged man said, "and the light that occurred right before their disappearance. Now, I'm afraid that what I believe happened might sound strange and unbelievable, but here it is.
"Thirty years ago, we began planning a prototype machine called "Time Skimmer." The Time Skimmer, as its name suggested, is able to travel through time. However, out of fear of what might happen if the wrong people got a hold of it, we kept the Time Skimmer hidden. For awhile, we were afraid that Dr. Wily might try to steal the Time Skimmer, but luckily he never attacked. We tested the Time Skimmer by traveling one hour into the future. What was significant was that the Time Skimmer would make a bright flash of rainbow light before it did anything."
"Rainbow light?" Roll and Proto Man echoed. That sounded very familiar...
Mr. Yakanochi nodded sadly. "I fear that a universe parallel to ours chose a different path. In this path, Dr. Wily stole the Time Skimmer, used it, and now made off with this world's Mega Man."
Dr. Light stared at him, unsure of whether to believe him. "Thank you, Mr. Yakanochi." The comm. screen fuzzed out. He turned to Proto Man and Roll. "What do you two think about this?"
"I believe him, Dr. Light," Proto Man said. "There's no other explanation. Wily's dead, after all."
"We don't know for sure," Dr. Light protested. "We only found some blood in his collapsed fortress."
Proto Man sighed. "He pulled himself out of Skull Fortress, but died before any of his robots found him. I saw his body myself, Dr. Light. It was clearly a human body. Mr. Yakanochi, no matter how ludicrous his story may sound, was telling the truth."
"So that means... Mega Man is out of our reach forever?" Roll whispered.
"Possibly. It's uncertain whether he would be able to use the Time Skimmer to come back to this time or whether he will be transported back to the future of that timeline instead. Either way though, he'll have to avoid Wily and steal the Time Skimmer from him. And stealing stuff from Wily is dangerous. That I know. But there is hope," Proto Man said.
"So how are we going to break the news to Dr. Cossack and Kalinka? And Duo, if he ever comes back?" Roll asked. Dr. Light sighed.
"We'll tell them when the time comes. For now, let's just concentrate on making sure that the Wily bots no longer cause any trouble and simply hope that Mega Man comes back home on his own," Dr. Light said, taking this strangely calmly for a man that had just lost his son.
"Sakugarne! Sakugarne!" the modified pogo-stick shouted happily. He nuzzled up affectionately against Quint, who giggled.
Quint was sitting inside a small room with white walls. A single yellow light bulb hung on the ceiling to provide a dim light. The contents of the room were scarce; the only thing inside it besides the two robots was bed with a moth-eaten mattress, a worn-out desk with a matching chair, and one worn-out chest to store items in.
Wily had allowed Quint to take a robot first-aid kit on the occasion that he or Sakugarne got damaged. "That is all the assistance that I am giving you," he had told the robot. "So don't lose that kit!"
The first-aid kit was now sitting inside the chest, hidden from the outside world. Quint smiled, patted Sakugarne, and lay down. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sakugarne place itself in standby to get some rest and then sighed.
Not for the first time he began to ponder his existence. It still seemed a mystery to him. Occasionally, he would start to get visions of places that he had never seen before and people that he had never met, yet his subconscious seemed to know them. One of his most vivid visions involved an old man with a white beard, who had a kind smile. Quint wondered who he was. The man appeared to be a stranger, but for some reason Quint felt at ease around him.
Other times, he would see a red and gray robot with a bright yellow cloth around his neck wearing a visor, or a girl with large blue eyes and bright blond hair. There are other people he would see, but he didn't see them as often.
"So... what could those visions mean?" he muttered to himself. "And why do I get the feeling that something is not right about Wily?"
Wily had mentioned that he was a robot created by him. Quint's programming told him this information, and all logic told him that he was, indeed, a Wily bot. However, his "heart" refused to acknowledge this fact and kept telling him that it was someone else, that there was another, caring person that was responsible for his existence.
Quint decided he would continue pondering about his existence later and eventually he went to sleep, his dreams filled with plasma shots and evil, psychotic laughter...
"So what do you think?" Mega Man asked his older brother Proto Man. Proto Man had finally dropped by for a brief visit, and the younger robot was curious as to what his brother thought about Wily and the stolen Time Skimmer.
"Time Skimmer... Besides what you have told me, all I know is that it should not be in the hands of evil. Especially Wily. And I'm betting that he's gone and messed up time with it," Proto Man replied. "Who knows, there might even be another you running around right now."
Mega Man shivered inwardly. For some reason, that last statement gave him a very uneasy feeling. "But wouldn't that cause a time paradox in the universe? I thought two mes couldn't exist at the same time."
"That's just theory," the older robot said. "No one knows for sure what happens when you do time travel."
"I've read a couple of other theories about time travel before, in science fiction novels. How many theories are there?" Mega Man asked.
"Lots, and a few of them are more well known than others. Here's a few of the more common theories.
"Theory Number 1: Nothing changes in time travel. Anything that a time traveler does will not affect the universe in any way, because it had already been done. For example, a time traveler goes back in time to save their father or mother from an incident that would otherwise kill them, therefore allowing their existence. This is what most people hope for in time travel, as their lives will not be affected in any way.
"Theory Number 2: Drastic changes occur. What the time traveler does may, in fact, destroy the future that they were in and cause an alternate future. Sometimes this might be good, and other times this might be bad. For example, the time traveler goes back in time and accidentally ends up killing his younger self, thereby altering the future. There's no way they would be able to go back in time if they don't exist anymore, therefore it would be impossible to go back in time and kill your younger self, and this goes on in a continuous loop... a time paradox, if you will."
"Theory Number 3: Two entities of the same being could not exist at the same time. As in, since a person already exists, another version of them is unable to exist. Therefore, the one attempting time travel would not be able to do time travel, or the time traveler would suddenly pop out of existence when there is no way his future would take place.
"Theory Number 4: When a person time travels to the future, they don't travel through time. Instead, they end up in a sort of limbo that transports them to, say, thirty years in the future in less than ten seconds. However, outside the limbo, thirty years would have actually gone by and the time traveler, for all purposes, 'disappears' for those thirty years until he arrives. This can be reversed by simply going back where the time traveler came from."
"That sounds weird," Mega Man commented. "Anymore theories, or are those four the only ones?" Neither of the robots noticed Dr. Light or Roll silently watching and listening them.
"One more, kid," Proto Man continued. "Theory Number 5: A person doesn't time travel at all. At least, not in his own universe. For all we know, multiple parallel universes are running alongside us. However, they may run at a different pace. For example, it could be December 27, 2076 in our universe, December 27, 2046 in another universe, and December 27, 2106 in yet another universe. Therefore, when a person time travels, they don't time travel at all. They merely jump to another universe that is running at a different pace. By doing things there, they influence that other universe, but not their own universe."
"Whoa," Mega Man whispered. It was almost too much to take in, but he was amazed at the complexity of time travel. "I wonder if I would ever get the chance to time travel and find out what really happens?"
Proto Man gave him one of his mysterious half-smiles. "Who knows, kid, you might have already."
No, Proto Man doesn't know about Quint at all. He's just being his mysterious self again. As for Theory Number 5, I saw that in another Mega Man fanfic and thought it was ingenious. I forgot whose fanfic it was, so I apologize. Theory Number 4 was taken from the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon.