Antoine D'Coolette and the Alternative Freedom Fighters.
Second Episode: Diplomatic Mission.
Chapter 13: The Civil War, Part 2.
"CHARGE, MY BRAVES!"
[Soundtrack: Unknown world – Metal Slug 3 OST]
With Colonel Prower's war cry, his followers quickly close the space of ten meters between them and the troops loyal to the King. As the 50,000 volunteers of the People's Republican Militia attack the New Castle of Acorn from all sides, the 10,000 Royal Guard soldiers try to resist the attack, though it's the 15,000 Robians brought by Baron Beauregard who really resist.
"Volunteers: neutralize the enemy, try not to kill them." Procion orders. "Remember that the Royal Guard and the Robians fight on orders."
PUM! PUM!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
BOOM!
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
RA-TA-TA-TA-TA! RA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA!
Swords resonate as they collide, and the gunshots of pistols, rifles and machine guns and the explosions of the bombs also ring.
Beauregard's Robians and the Royal Guard's soldiers shoot Taser pistols, and the latter also bring their sabers. Beauregard's Legion's Robians have also brought in a lot of fragmentation grenades, rumble bombs and some incendiary grenades, all of which are now being launched by soldiers from the terraces, balconies and windows of the castle towers.
The Royal Guard's former soldiers turned militiamen bring catapults to launch rocks, grenade launchers made in an improvised way and loaded with homemade tear gas grenades, Micro Uzi submachine guns with rakes attached to the tip as if they were bayonets, and Glock 18 machine pistols stored in their uniforms. The other militiamen are armed with very modest homemade submachine guns Sten Mk 2 and Błyskawica, simple to manufacture and made of stamped sheet. As for the bombs, each militiaman has only a few Model 24 stick grenades
In front of the castle's gates, the AFFs fight against the KFFs, along with all the allies that both teams gathered ad hoc for this battle.
Sonic rushes to Antoine, but the swordsman steps aside and, seizing his saber with his right hand, uses the sword's back to strike the sprinter's legs, causing him to stumble. As soon as the hedgehog rises from the ground, Antoine tries to cross him, so he makes a somersault in the air and stands behind the coyote; but the latter had foreseen such an act, and with his left hand, takes out his combat knife and makes a cut on Sonic's right wrist. Now the hand's tendons don't work and the blood comes out with a lot of pressure, although the Chaos energy starts to slowly heal the wound. Sonic is surprised by the new weapon that Antoine is carrying in his hand: the combat knife is made of pure diamond, completely transparent, perfectly crystallized, very well cut, very sharp and polished with the proper shape.
"An idea of Tails, votre vieil ami. You should see how much can be done with Chaos energy."
The young soldier attacks the sprinter unexpectedly, trying to cut him with his diamond combat knife or with his saber. Sonic dodges the coyote's maneuvers or protects himself them with his shield, then he runs away. Then, Antoine prepares his bow and shoots three remote-controlled arrows simultaneously. Sonic gets the arrows don't hit him, but he's forced to keep running.
Tails shoots Sally with his repulsor cannons, but the chipmunk is protected by the power blades generated by her Blade-Rings, and then she uses these blades to counterattack. The fox dodges the slashings and tries to hit Sally with his metal fists, but the princess also dodges the blows and manages to cut the union between the ATA suit and the railgun, then using this cannon to shoot Tails, who escapes flying. Sally activates her jet-pack and takes off to pursue the child prodigy of whom she was a surrogate mother sometime.
As they both fly at only four meters in height, Tails fires dozens of mini-missiles, which in this case are not nuclear, but the chipmunk dodges them all. Then the fox and the chipmunk start to chase after each other: he tries to shoot with his multiple-barreled laser machine gun or cut her with his tails, and she tries to do the same with her stolen railgun or with her Blade-Rings. Finally, the fox manages to shoot at Sally's jet-pack, forcing her to deactivate her Blade-Rings and attempt a forced landing. When the princess reaches the ground and gets to her feet, Tails lands next to her, hits her stomach with his metallic fist, then snatches the stolen railgun from her and mounts it over his right shoulder again, and finally, he points at her with his hand's palm's repulsor cannon, ready to make a shot with Chaos spear included.
However, the child prodigy doesn't get to shoot, because a blue blur from his left swiftly passes in front of him, picking up Sally on the way. When he looks to his left, he realizes that he's now in the path of Antoine's three remote-controlled arrows, so he tries to activate his Chaos energy shield, but the shield fails to form completely.
"Not again-"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Fiona is dodging Amy's hammer blows. Seeing how Tails, near where she is, is struck by the explosive arrows, she despairs.
"MILES!"
PIKO!
Amy takes the opportunity to give her a hammer from the side, throwing the vixen a few meters away. Shadow sees what happened and goes to confront the hedgehog girl.
"Come on, try to stop my hammer! Sonic's sloppy imitator!"
Amy tries to give him a hammer blow from above, but the black hedgehog jumps in the air and kicks the Piko-Piko sideways, taking it out of her hands. Then the "Ultimate Lifeform", as he often calls himself, grabs the hammer, holding it with one hand and manipulating it deftly, better than its former owner.
"Do you think I'm gonna give up?! I can keep fighting without my ha-!"
PIKO!
Sonic's Number One Fanatic is hit by her own hammer, being stunned and thrown about ten feet away. Then, Fiona rises from the ground, and Shadow goes quickly to attend her.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, Shadow, I'm fine... Go and check on Miles, right now."
"Of course." Shadow runs to Tails and tries to help him get up. He fortunately seems to be fine, but Fiona, who looks from afar, is still angry.
"You'll pay for this, Sonic."
Sonic is taking care of Sally and fighting against militiamen at the same time. After almost a minute, Sally stands up and activates her Blade-Rings again.
"I'm fine, Sonic. I can defend myself-"
BOOM!
Suddenly, a smoke bomb explodes where Sonic and Sally are. Taking advantage that they can't see, Fiona and Antoine jump on Sonic with a war cry.
Fiona uses her whip, which is disabled, to grab Sonic. Then she pulls the whip to lure Sonic towards him, and she hits him in the face, throwing the hedgehog to the ground.
"That's because you did that trick and you've hurt Miles."
When Sonic gets up, Antoine makes a quick move with his diamond knife to cut his knees' tendons. The blue hedgehog falls to the ground face down, unable to move or stand up.
"Et this is for making mon own weapons hurt mon meilleur ami."
Sonic isn't good at learning languages, but seems to know the meaning of what the coyote said; that paralyzes him, making him stay on the ground, vulnerable. Antoine tries to take advantage to attack the hedgehog using his modified saber, hot to white red, but Sally interposes, stops the saber with her Blade-Rings, and kicks to the coyote in the stomach.
"Attacking someone in that situation? You surprise me, Ant."
Sally leaves immediately after. Fiona doesn't pursue her, she's busy fighting the blue hedgehog.
"Are not you gonna chase Sally?"
"Soon there'll be someone to take care of her, Sonic. In this battle, I would rather have your head, or better yet, your balls."
The vixen throws a punch, but Sonic swiftly grabs her arm and grabs Fiona from behind.
"Are you mad at me?"
TZZ!
"AAAAAAAAAARRRGHH!"
Sonic, electrocuted by Fiona's cloak, falls to the ground with his body smoking.
"You fooled me, and you tried to stop me from connecting with Miles. And yet it remains to be mentioned all that you did to the others: Miles himself, Antoine, and me."
The red vixen rests her foot on the sprinter's crotch.
"I'll make you feel pain for each of those things. We have a long fight ahead..."
Lightning and Espio are locked in a duel, testing all their abilities as ninjas. The lynx is a raiju warrior, is strong and fast, is aggressive, implacable and dangerously impulsive; the chameleon is a shinobi warrior, is agile, is calculating and meditates his actions. At the beginning of the duel, Espio had become invisible, but Lightning had attacked him by detecting him with his refined sense of hearing, causing them both to start a fight that still continues, using mainly their katanas.
Rouge, Bunnie and Nic are dealing with Ray, Charmy and Julie-Su, in a fight that is both terrestrial and aerial. GUN's agent chases the bee to grab him with her own hands, but after continually failing, she prepares her guns and starts to try to shoot him. To save the life of her teammate in Chaotix, the former dark legionary prepares her proton guns and starts to shoot furiously at the bat woman.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
"You'll pay me for flirting with my boyfriend, witch! You'll see!"
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
To prevent the echidna from knocking out the ex-jewel thief bat, the cyborg rabbit girl flies near the ground to hit her in the stomach with her robotic fist. The echidna stops firing and jumps in the air; Bunnie manages to stop and turns around to try again to hit Julie-Su, but the pink echidna, who's also a cyborg, quickly dodges her, turns around, stands to the right of Bunnie, and uses her cybernetic left arm's elbow to hit her in the face. In turn, the she-wolf-weasel tries to shoot the cyborg echidna with her revolver, but Ray throws himself on her, causing her to shoot in the air.
"I don't care if you're just a kid or I've ever saved your life." Fiona's former tutor and girlfriend pulls her hunting knife out of her boot. "You'll pay for doing such a thing."
Nic is about to attack Ray with her knife, but Vanilla, whose face is bruised, rushes over her to avoid it, and then starts to beat her furiously while Ray escapes.
"We're not done yet, Lady Perfection."
Rosemary appears out of nowhere, behind Vanilla, and then grabs her shoulders and throws her far away. Vanilla tries to counterattack, but no longer finds Tails' mother.
"Were you looking for me?"
Vanilla turns around, but only sees the adult vixen's fist crashing into her face.
CLANK! CLANK!
Amadeus and Elias continue to fight: the fox, with his saber but without its modification activated, and the chipmunk, with the double daggers that he learned to use during his exile.
While the Colonel is fighting, a Robian suricate of Beauregard's Legion approaches him from behind and from the left, diagonally, after seeing the patch in his left eye and thinking that the enemy's leader couldn't see his attack coming. But Amadeus uses his hidden cybernetic eye to detect his new opponent, and apparently without even looking at him, activates his saber and makes a surprise attack before the robot can respond, using the saber to damage the laser weapon built into the Robian's arm, and then giving a blow that abolishes his metal head and leaves him knocked out. At that precise moment, Elias seizes the opportunity to attack with his daggers, but the war veteran, returning his saber in its normal way, stops the young King's attack.
CLANK!
"I've heard your speech, Colonel. It has been very offensive."
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but I was obliged to tell the truth."
CLANK!
"Then I'll not tolerate you insulting my family's memory!"
CLANK!
"And I'll not tolerate you or your father insulting and despising the people's intelligence!"
"ENOUGH!"
Amadeus and Elias hear Sally shout, and at the same moment, they're surrounded by two different force fields, both made of Chaos energy and created by a special device used by Sally. The princess enters the castle quickly, taking with her the device in question and also the two bubbles where her brother and the revolutionary leader are locked up.
Once they're in the throne room, Sally addresses them both.
"Can we please end this nonsense fight? It ain't necessary for you two to destroy each other to achieve peace. I trust we can find a solution to this. Now, if I free you two, do you commit to suspending this duel of swords, at least for a while?"
Meanwhile, Antoine, who had sneaked inside the castle, is watching them from the top of a scaffold.
Simian throws a grenade to where Vector is.
BOOM!
The grenade turns out to be a smoke grenade, which makes the crocodile unable to see for a few seconds, enough for the gorilla to strike him with all his might and to throw him several meters. Vector recovers and advances to the Sergeant, and when the latter throws more blows, the crocodile holds both fists with both hands and then gives him a headbuttle that even makes a crack in the helmet.
Rotor intervenes and shoots Simian with his ultrasonic cannon, pushing him to several meters, but Omega appears flying and shoots Rotor, leaving him on the ground and also destroying his ultrasonic cannon. Suddenly, Knuckles also appears there flying and hits the walking arsenal. The blow not only abolishes and stuns it, but also his knuckles' spikes break one of Omega's eyes. Shadow runs to the place where the Guardian and the robot are flying.
"If you're planning to attack me, Shadow, that will be very unwise of you."
"Do you want to see how I do something unwise, Guardian?"
The "Ultimate Lifeform" removes his wrists' inhibitor rings, and then his whole body begins to glow and rises a meter above the ground. Knowing what's to come, Omega escapes.
"Oh, no... By Aurora, it ain't possible... NO!"
"CHAOS BLAST!"
BOOM!
Shadow's own body releases a devastating wave of Chaos energy, razing everything within a ten-meter radius. Before being struck by the energy wave, Knuckles throws to Sonic a bag with the seven Chaos Emeralds.
"Sonic! There they go! OOF!"
Sonic catches the bag. "Thanks, Knux!"
"Not so fast, Sonic."
FLAZ! PLAZ! TZZ!
Fiona starts attacking Sonic with her electric whip.
FLAZ! FLAZ! ¡PLAZ! TZZ!
Sonic tries to dodge the lashes and to take care of the Emeralds at the same time, but Fiona finally shoots him with her "taser fist".
TZZ!
"AAAAAAAAAARRRGHH! NOT AGAIN!"
Once the electrocution is over, Sonic uses his last forces to grab the Chaos Emeralds. Fiona runs and tries to take them from him, but Sonic finally transforms into Super Sonic, with his pelage glowing in golden color, his thorns slightly bent upwards and his body floating a few centimeters off the ground; when he's transformed, Super Sonic releases an explosion of Chaos energy, throwing everything around him about three meters away. Fiona is about to be hit by the energy wave, but Tails appears just in time, grabs her and flies away from there.
"Miles..."
"Fiona! Are you okay?"
"Miles, why do I always have to be the damsel in distress?"
"Because the Super transformation is dangerous for Non-Adepts to Chaos, like you."
"And why are Adepts to Chaos always men?"
"Because Chaos is sexist, I guess."
Finally, Tails lands and leaves Fiona on the ground, next to Nic.
"Nic, take good care of her, please."
"Okay, but, where are you going?"
"To pay off a debt." Tails addresses a group of militiamen. "Take care of Fiona and the she-gunslinger, at all costs!"
"Yes, sir!" replies a female mobian maned wolf, who leads her own division of militiamen. Then the fox flies away.
"Nic?"
"Yes, Fio?"
"Are you still as skilled as before when using whips?"
"I've not used a whip in a long time, but I think I could do it. Why you ask?"
Fiona gives her electro-whip to her former associate, who grabs and activates it.
"I'll not fail you, Fio. I swear." Then Nic flips the whip and makes a whiplash, ready to fight against a group of Robians approaching them.
The Royal Guard and Beauregard's Legion continue to fight against the People's Republican Militia. The militiamen manage to deal the Royal Guard's soldiers, but each Robian soldier is able to deal and beat two militiamen at a time.
Procion, designated by Colonel Prower as leader of the militiamen, is personally fighting against Baron Beauregard, who leads the Robians who now fight for the King. The raccoon attacks with his sword, but Beauregard pulls a facon stored inside his walking stick and stops the attack with it; then, he spins the facon and makes a cut in Procion's right hand, forcing him to use his sword with his left hand. Taking advantage of the fact that the raccoon is right-handed and can no longer handle his weapon as well as he did before, the rabbit throws a blow with his legionized right arm, but Procion manages to dodge him and, applying a martial arts technique, hits him in the shoulder joint and gets his opponent no longer able to use his cybernetic arm.
Procion prepares to take the Baron from the battlefield, and so show him as a prisoner of war and, perhaps, to get the battle to end; but the cyborg, without needing to raise his cybernetic arm, uses the his hand's palm's cannon to shoot Procion at close range.
BOOM!
The shot shatters the raccoon's left arm without mutilating him, as well as leaving him lying on the ground and shocked.
However, the Baron doesn't have time to do anything, because Bunnie plummets over him, using her robotic fist to crush her uncle's right shoulder and thus rip off his robotic arm. Then she begins to punish him by kicking him with her robotic legs, and then, using her organic arm, she grabs him by the neck and lifts him a few centimeters above the ground.
"Go ahead, Buns, kill your uncle. Kill the same one who raised you as if you were his own daughter, while her parents betrayed their own kind and were going to fight on overlanders' side."
Bunnie releases Beauregard, but when he turns around to escape, she activates her arm's cannon in the "Plasma-Thrower" mode and shoots him in the back. The tremendously hot blue-violet stream of fire starts to engulf the adult rabbit, starting with his feet and legs, continuing with the rest of his body and moving toward his head, while he screams in pain and fear.
"You also committed treason, Uncle Beau: you betrayed me, leaving me in a hospital knowing that I was dying. Compared to you, even Antoine's father would have been better than you."
Meanwhile, Matilde, from Beauregard's Legion, and her brother Mighty, from Chaotix, are confronting the twins Leeta and Lyco, from the Wolf Pack. The armadillos have a great force, although he has that force in his proper body and she obtained that force by the legionization of her arms; but the she-wolves are very agile and manage not only to avoid strong blows but also to make accurate attacks on sensitive areas of their opponents.
Elsewhere, Knuckles and Shadow are fighting, testing their Chaos powers. The Guardian takes flight, then plummets quickly over the black hedgehog, seeking to crush him with his fists with spikes; the "Ultimate Lifeform" activates his shoes with rockets to dodge the blow, to run, to turn and to hit the echidna, but this one opposes a lot of resistance with his body and doesn't fall or is moved from his place; then, Knuckles starts to punish Shadow with several blows, but Shadow responds releasing another devastating Chaos blast that throws several tens of meters backwards at the echidna, and then the "Ultimate Lifeform" fires a barrage of Chaos spears at him, so the Guardian is forced to cover himself as he tries to rise from the ground and to move toward his opponent; when he manages to reach him, Knuckles threatens to punch, so Shadow does Chaos Control and teleports, but the echidna, foreseeing that Shadow would appear behind him again, strikes his elbow backward, and this blow directly impacts the hedgehog's teeth; however, it seems that he doesn't even feel the blow; Shadow teleports again and Knuckles turns around, but the hedgehog reappears in the same place from where he had teleported, and then shoots a Chaos spear at the echidna from behind.
After being Super Sonic for a moment, Sonic had returned to his normal state, and is now repelling militiamen with his super-speed and his new shield, which turns out to be very useful: he not only uses it to protect himself, but also uses it as a frisbee.
Tails suddenly appears flying and shoots Sonic with his laser machine gun, but the hedgehog manages to react in time and protects himself with his shield. Tired of being shooting in vain, the fox flies quickly and lands in front of him, preparing the repulsor cannons from his hands' palms to make shots with Chaos spears included; as soon as he lands, Tails shoots Sonic at close range, but Sonic protects himself again with the shield, and both remain in their positions for several seconds: Sonic, using his shield as sole protection, and Tails, firing a continuous beam of Chaos energy to try to overcome the amazing resistance that shield opposses. Finally, both move away from each other, and Sonic leaves the shield and becomes Super Sonic again, avoiding to cause an explosion in this occasion.
"Do you dare to fight with someone like that, Tails?"
"Do you want a real fight?" Having said that, Tails immediately flies up, towards Angel Island, with Super Sonic chasing him.
As he's about to reach Angel Island, the fox fires continuous beams of Chaos energy with his repulsor cannons, making a hole beneath the floating island. He enters there, and after crossing the rock, comes directly to the altar where's the very Master Emerald.
Sally is walking along the scaffolding on the roofs of the New Castle of Acorn, watching silently: Amadeus and Elias had vowed not to kill each other while she was away, and judging by what Sally is seeing from there, both are keeping their word and are even moving forward with the negotiations.
"I guess it's time to stop the battle." Amadeus grabs his communicator. "I'll tell my soldiers that we'll make a cease-fire."
"I'll do the same." Elias grabs his own communicator.
Seeing how both leaders order their respective troops to cease the battle, the princess smiles, but this smile fades when she hears a barely perceptible noise. At that moment, Sally starts to run on the scaffolding.
Antoine is walking along the scaffolding, preparing an arrow whose tip has an Anarchy Beryl. When Scourge was captured, the Zone Cops took over Anarchy Beryls, and Tails had got them to give one. As far as is known, the Anarchy Beryls' energy can be harmful in certain forms and quantities, depending on the circumstances and the being to which it affects, and an Anarchy Beryl is the only one with certain chances of achieving the death of the current target of the coyote.
"If you wanna kill my father, you'll have to get over me, Ant."
Without looking surprised, Antoine meets with Sally, who's standing right in front of him, blocking the way.
"I guess you heard me coming, Sally."
"Foxes like Tails and coyotes like you are not the only ones with a acute hearing."
"Well, I'm sorry, but your father is a threat to the Nation et to the entire planet. Killing him is the only alternative available." The coyote keeps his bow and his arrow with the Anarchy Beryl, and takes out his modified sword and his diamond knife. "Et if vous get in my way, I'll not hesitate to kill you too. After all, you're terrible as a leader and as a mobian, you no longer deserve my respect at all."
In response, Sally unfolds the power blades of her Blade-Rings.
"Do you want a duel? Then you'll have it. And I'll not hesitate to kill you either, because you are and you've always been an absolutely unpleasant frenchy, so you're likely to find some surprises when you see me fight."
Super Sonic crosses Angel Island from below, reaching the Master Emerald's altar. Once there, he walks around the great gem, until he finds Tails' armor lying on the ground.
"What are you planning to do, Tails?" He says to himself.
BOOM!
An explosion of Chaos energy, originated above the Master Emerald, launches Super Sonic into the temple walls. When the hedgehog looks at the explosion's point of origin, he meets with Tails, now transformed into his "Hyper Tails" form: in addition to his red cloak, which now seems to be very broken worn, and his red gloves, which are pierced by his claws, he also has three flickies of pure Chaos energy fluttering around him, his body and his facial features look more developed, there's a faint white-yellowish glow that is being emitted from his pupils, and his upper fangs protrude a little from the other teeth in his upper jaw.
"NOW I'LL MAKE YOU LEARN YOUR LESSON, SONIC! I'LL MAKE YOU LEARN THAT YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES!"
[Soundtrack: Battle of the heroes – John Wiliams]
Hyper Tails fires a powerful beam of Chaos energy in the direction of Super Sonic; he creates a shield, but the beam hits him anyway, causing the hedgehog to cross the wall where he was standing. However, when Super Sonic rises from the ground, he immediately flies in the direction of Hyper Tails, screaming furiously, and gives a blow to the fox's face; the child prodigy is also thrown towards the opposing wall in such a way that he crosses it, but then he rises from the ground and, flying without needing to use his tails, attacks with his fists to Super Sonic. The hedgehog holds both fists and, taking advantage of the few hundredths of a second in which his former friend is immobilized, gives him a headbuttle; but the blow hardly stuns the super-powerful fox, who then gives a much stronger blow to Super Sonic, who then falls to the ground.
When he recovers, Super Sonic decides to use his super-speed improved by his new Chaos powers, and then runs at almost the speed of light to, at that speed, to give a blow that really leaves the fox at a disadvantage. However, when his fist is a very short distance from Hyper Tails' face, he apparently anticipates Sonic's movement, striking him in the stomach and throwing him afterwards; the super-powerful sprinter crashes into several dozens of large rocks, breaking them as well, until finally braking.
"How... is it... possible?"
"Physics, Sonic: when running at almost the speed of light, you traveled to the future, so your blow came late." Hyper Tails starts to laugh in a sincere way. "You know what? When you were running towards me, raising your hand to hit me, you looked like robots from the movies of 'Robocop': you were moving sequence by sequence, like a video made by stop-motion, ha, ha!"
Hyper Tails approaches Sonic, who's still lying on the ground.
"Come on, Sonic... You're supposed to be in a Super form, you should have gotten off the floor already."
"You're in a Hyper form... and you're also intelligent." Sonic says, seemingly giving up. "I can't beat you..."
"Throwing the towel so easy? That ain't the Sonic I know. If you really are so convinced that you're the 'Hero of Mobius', try to beat me."
On a snow-covered terrace, in a wide, high tower in the center of the castle, Antoine and Sally are having something vaguely resembling a fencing duel: she's using her Blade-Rings, and he's using his red-hot saber and his new combat knife. To the surprise of the coyote, the princess seems to be gaining an advantage; finally, she removes the saber from his hands to the soldier, leaving the gun nailed to the ground, but he is still fighting only with his combat knife, inflicting cuts to the chipmunk throughout her body and even breaking a Blade-Ring. Finally, she makes a martial arts shot and grabs him from behind, then removes the combat knife from his hand.
"Have not you been taught that technology ain't all that matters?"
"Et are vous embracing me as part of the fight ou as part of a wooing?"
Antoine hits Sally's solar plexus with his elbow, then gives her a headbuttle with the back of his head, steps on her foot, lifts his leg at a 180-degree angle and keeps it extended to kick the princess's face, and finally, when she can barely stand up because of the blows she received, he bites the Blade-Ring that was still functional, deactivating it and breaking it. Now they would have to fight hand to hand.
Sally, now with a lot of punches and cuts, backs but manages to stand, and then she attacks Antoine again with several kicks, some of them flying and all of them failed, since he dodges them all; in one of the princess's kicks, the coyote catches one of her feet with his own hands, then seizes the opportunity and uses his elbow to hit and break the chipmunk's knee quickly. Despite this, she stands on one foot, and takes up a combat position again.
Maximillian Acorn calmly rises from his bed and walks down the castle's hallways. Through the windows, he can see the corpses on the battlefield where there's already a cease-fire, the Sonic-Tails fight on Angel Island, and also the fight between his own daughter Sally and the swordsman Antoine. Watching all this, he smiles a little, while his eyes' iris emits a faint violet glow.
Meanwhile, on Angel Island, Hyper Tails is fighting Super Sonic and is outdoing him by far: the fox is giving several blows to the hedgehog, which doesn't even make an attempt to defend himself.
"Come on, Sonic... Do something, I'm bored."
Super Sonic, lying on the ground, gets up and stands on all fours, and then gives a threatening look to his former best friend.
"You know what? I'll let you continue to get bored."
"Then, I guess I'll have to end up with you once and for all."
Hyper Tails starts to charge energy for a Chaos Blast...
BOOM!
But the sprinter releases a Chaos Blast before him, taking the child prodigy by surprise and pushing him a meter back.
"Wow... It looks like I just made you motivated-"
BOOM!
Another Chaos Blast is generated by Super Sonic, being Hyper Tails thrown about five meters backwards.
"Do you think I never learn from my mistakes, Miles?"
Another Chaos Blast generated by the hedgehog, and the fox is thrown twenty meters back.
"I've been keeping this for a long time, literally."
Finally, Super Sonic starts to generate a huge sphere of pure Chaos energy, while Hyper Tails looks stunned. The "Hero of Mobius" had been letting Tails beat him, while also storing Chaos energy to make an attack so strong that Hyper Tails would be unable to stop it. Finally, the sphere reaches an unusual diameter, equivalent to half the diameter of the surface of Angel Island, and Super Sonic, turning the sphere into a beam, pours all that energy directly on Hyper Tails.
"I'm sorry, my friend. Really, I'm so sorry."
The fox tries to use all his Chaos energy to repel that tremendously powerful beam, but he fails; when the beam strikes against him, he's thrown a hundred meters back while still being struck by the continuous flow of energy; then, Hyper Tails stands still and tries to absorb Chaos energy, but the torrent of energy is too much for him.
While Sally is fighting Antoine, something starts to affect her inside her mind. Suddenly, her hatred for the coyote is magnified until her judgment is clouded, causing her to start to attack him more fiercely. Antoine tries to defend himself, but soon realizes that she's a more dangerous rival when she's angry.
The young rebel soldier shoots a common arrow to the chipmunk, and the arrow crosses her side without mortally hurting her, but she throws herself on him and pushes him, causing them both to fall. The princess quickly rises and then pulls the arrow from her body, and when Antoine gets up, she starts beating him without giving him rest, while grunting and screaming. Finally, Sally, in the midst of her fury, finds Antoine's saber nailed to the ground, grabs it and attacks the coyote with it, piercing through his body.
Antoine, unable to move, looks helplessly at Sally, and falls to the ground covered with snow, still with his body pierced by the saber. The princess, coming to reason again, sees the coyote lying on the floor and, feeling guilty, kneels next to him and tries to attend him.
"Leave me ..." Antoine tells her in a weak voice.
"No, I will not, not this time." The chipmunk is about to cry.
"Kill Max... He..."
"What about my father? Why did you do this?"
"IXIS... He... is... IXIS..."
"What? Does Naugus have anything to do with all this?"
"I saw a violet glow in your eyes... I saw Max watching us fight... He's behind all this..."
"No, it ain't possible, he... He was in the Void, something happened there. Then he came back, and..."
"Do something... Vite... Ne t'inquiète pas pour moi... I'll be fine..."
"No, you're not fine-"
"The modified saber... The wound is burned, cauterized... I'll survive..."
"Ant... I'm sorry... about everything... I would like to repair this-"
"Then go and stop Max... That's enough..."
Sally obeys and runs off, down stairs. Meanwhile, Bunnie arrives there flying.
"ANTOINE!"
When seeing her boyfriend's body, Bunnie throws herself on him to see how he is. Crying and desperate, the cyborg leaves there flying, carrying Antoine in her arms.
When Super Sonic's attack ends, Tails is still there, again in his normal form, lying on the floor, barely able to move, his eyes narrowed, and his body smoking. Sonic also returns to his normal form, and walks up to him.
"Did you learn the lesson?"
"F*** you... This doesn't change anything between us... You're still the same as always..."
Looking pitifully at his former best friend, and also feeling guilty for the fact that his way of acting caused this fight, Sonic walks away, becomes Super Sonic again and leaves Angel Island flying.
Meanwhile, in the castle's throne room, Amadeus and Elias continue to argue about what changes to make in government and how to make those changes. While they make the debate (which is already quite pleasant at this point), Max arrives at the place.
Max: [pretending surprise] "What's hapening here?! What's that traitor doing here?!"
Elias: "We're making peace, father. And we're also evaluating how to perform a Democracy. Something wrong?"
Max: "You embarrass me, my son. You're the King, you should act as such."
Meanwhile, Sally also appears there and moves directly towards her brother. When she arrives, she whispers something in his ear. Whatever the King is hearing from his sister's mouth, it's obvious that it's surprising him and also making him angry.
Elias: [suddenly gets up from the table] "You're right, father. It's time for me to do my duty. I should have done this a long time ago."
In saying this, the King looks menacingly at Amadeus, who prepares to unsheathe his sword and to fight. Max smiles slyly, and Sally remains poker-faced.
Elias: [while still looking at Amadeus] "Guards!"
Two robust mobian bulldog dogs, each wearing a green set of beret, band, belt, gloves and boots, armed each with a laser version of an AK-47 assault rifle, are made present inside the throne room.
Elias: [smiling, looks at Max suddenly] "Escort Lord Maximillian Acorn to the borders of the Kingdom. From now on, he is banned from entering this country, and the breach of this rule will be severely punished."
Max: [desperately and furiously] "WHAT?! Don't listen to him! He's not thinking clearly!"
Elias: "I, King Elias Acorn, have just given a direct order to you two. [shows his double daggers] And if you've not understood it well, believe me when I tell you that I'll take the trouble to explain to you what that means."
Guard 1: [involuntarily making a slight smile] "Don't worry about it, Your Majesty."
Guard 2: [smiling the same way] "It will be a pleasure to carry out your order."
The two guards stand on either side of the emeritus king, who finally decides to accompany them reluctantly. While walking escorted, Max addresses his son.
Max: "You'll pay for having betrayed me, son."
Elias: "No, you'll pay for having betrayed us all, IXIS Maximillian."
Max: "You don't know who you're messing with-"
The guard 2 gives Max a blow to the nape of his neck using the rifle butt, causing Max to faint.
Guard 2: [shyly] "Sorry, Your Majesty."
Guard 1: [whispering to the guard 2] "Shut up, you idiot. You'll make everything worse."
Elias: "Actually, it was a very good idea. He's a sorcerer, he could influence people's minds, so... Prevention is better than cure, is not it?"
While the guards drag an unconscious Max out of the castle, a relieved Amadeus exhales air.
Amadeus: "For a moment I thought..."
Elias: "Yes, that was my goal."
Amadeus: "That's what I call 'a sense of humor', Your Majesty."
Elias: "Please, just call me by my name, will you?"
Glossary:
Maned wolf: a large, long-legged, endangered wild dog that has a reddish coat with black hair across the shoulders and large erect ears, native to the grasslands of South America. It receives different names depending on the country, being in Argentina called "aguará-guazú" (in Guarani, "large fox").
Stop-motion: a cinematographic technique whereby the camera is repeatedly stopped and started, for example to give animated figures the impression of movement.