"So what was that?"
Cosmo pulled her eyes from the glass canopies on all sides of the lift, setting them instead on the Kitsune in the front seat. Tails had one hand on the control yoke, his other on the back corner of the chair with his head turned to hers. "Pardon?" she asked, sparing a quick glance down again and noting that Rouge and Shadow were likely not listening, engaged in a conversation of their own on the other side of the rising floor.
"That," he said again, gingerly standing up and turning around, making sure not to push his bandaged tail up against anything as he kneeled backwards in the seat. His right hand slowly extended and lightly took hers, turning it upright as his left descended and traced the palm line below her thumb. "You protected me," he continued, "creating some sort of barrier. What was it? How'd you do that?"
She pulled her hand back, cupping it with the other against her mouth. The kitsune didn't resist the movement. "I…" she began, "I don't know. I really don't, Tails. I just saw those beams coming and…" The seedrian returned her hands to her lap, her head falling down in shame. "I mean… My sisters used to tell me stories. Most of our heritage was lost with the homeworld, but some knowledge endured through the form of memories. I heard about some of our heroes had been born with more advanced abilities for photosynthetic manipulation, that they could actually shape absorbed light into new forms. But I always thought they were just that: stories!"
"They could do it," said Tails, folding his arms as his namesakes waved slowly in the air. "Pale Bay Leaf was able to make sabers out of light – I saw him do it in our final battle with the Metarex. At the time I thought he had just summoned them back, but he might have just as well created new ones."
"I'm… like the Metarex?" said Cosmo looking at her hands before squeezing both them and her eyes shut. "I-I am. No matter how much I try to do away with my past, no matter how hard I work to be like you, I'll always be of the same blood as them; the same species. You and all your friends are animals, and I'm a plant. A monster! A freak-"
She stopped her growing hysterics suddenly when a hand touched her chin, bringing her head back up as a pair of warm lips found hers. She blinked in surprise, Tails withdrawing from her face after a moment and tilting his head, his hand remaining where it was. "Hey," he said with a deep caring that warmed her soul, "I don't care what kingdom you were born from, okay? I love you; plant, powers, and all."
Cosmo stared for a few seconds at the kitsune, then closed her eyes again and leaned her head against the glove with a smile and contented sigh. "Thanks, Tails."
The lift shuddered and stopped, clamps on either side locking it into place. Shadow stepped off first, walking down the boarding ramp and stopping before the large door at the end. Punching in three digits onto the keypad beside it, the barrier hissed as it was lifted up by internal mechanisms, leaving a wide passage for the room beyond.
The hedgehog and bat entered first, followed shortly by the clanking of the Cyclone. The room beyond was wider than it had first appeared, a massive observation chamber with windows in both the floor and walls, Mobius shining like an enormous sapphire in the black sea below.
As they reached the center of the chamber, a gold-rimmed circle in the center of a metal X and surrounded by four glass triangle, the Cyclone stopped as Tails suddenly was caught in thought. "I…" he said, "I remember this place. It's where Sonic was ejected into space and Eggman and I battled."
"Which makes it all the more appropriate place to BURY YOU!!" shouted a familiar voice, the Egg Walker dropping down from one of the square holes in the ceiling. The kitsune blinked, surprised, and was completely caught off guard when Ivo started unloading rapid-fire rounds at point blank into the Cyclone's side.
"What the hell Eggman?!" shouted Tails as Cosmo ducked into her canopy, directing the Cyclone to jump up, the right side of his mecha riddled with impact dents. The Robotnik didn't respond, his taglaser painting the rear of his opponent's mecha and firing a homing attack from his blaster. The seedrian squeaked and put out her hands in reflex, a glowing emerald field bursting into being behind them and absorbing the attack.
"Doctor, what are you doing?" asked Shadow casually from the sidelines while Eggman fumed in frustration, a vein popping up on the side of his bald head.
"I'd like to know myself!" the kitsune shouted too, his hands readying over the controls of his vessel should Ivo attack again.
"You know perfectly well what!" shouted Eggman back to Tails, not failing to disappoint as the front of his mecha flashes, missiles streaking from the ports. The kitsune was ready this time though, jumping over the incoming projectiles and engaging the boosters, hovering as he made a counterattack of his own. Painting the Egg Walker with a taglaser of his own, the blaster on the Cyclone belched, a ball of sapphire light curving out along the right before smashing into the opposing mecha's armored leg. The Egg Walker pivoted, but remained upright.
"We tied the last time we fought here Eggman," said Tails, touching down and starting to circle Ivo. "And I've only gotten better since then."
"You dare compare yourself to the great Eggman?!" shouted the Doctor, absolutely livid, his rationality long since having packed up its bags and gone on vacation. "You're no match for me, you weak little fox!"
Both mechas jumped back at the same time, lasers pointing to one another as blue and green projectiles met midway between them. Rapid fire blazed from bazooka and cannon, jumps in turn avoiding the damage in this dance of destruction. Rouge had flown up to the ceiling just to stay out of the way of stray fire, and Shadow had vanished too, likely off to some sort of higher ground as well.
Another blue projectile smashed into the Egg Walker, this time on the left leg, leaving a large black mark on the rust-red armor plating. The Doctor's eyebrows slanted in rage, baring his teeth as he reached into his coat. The edges of his snarl pointed as his hand closed on something, the hate turning into devilish glee with his smile.
"Alright…" said Eggman, pulling his right hand up and revealing the Gray Chaos Emerald glowing with the dazzling radiance common to all seven jewels, "NO MORE GAMES TAILS!"
He then slammed the magnificent gemstone into a waiting slot upon the Egg Walker's console, the screen suddenly shining with the enormous surge of newfound power. The green lens on the front of the mecha lit up like a sun, becoming almost blindingly bright. There was the sound of a vacuum, the sucking of air before Eggman's transport, snakes of intense blue light spinning out in an eight-sided star from the tiny star. Then they collided back together, and with a thunderous crack that deafened everything in the chamber, exploded outward in a massive, gradient beam of indigo, cyan, and purple.
The kickback knocked the Egg Walker rearward at least five feet, the fat man flying and toppling heads over heels from his cockpit. The beam itself grew in milliseconds to twice its diameter, and if the kitsune hadn't been forewarned probably would have disintegrated him, Cosmo, and the Cyclone on the spot. As it was, he had thrown the mecha to the left as Eggman charged his super-weapon, and only lost a leg wing from the attack.
Unfortunately, neither party (especially Ivo) had actually given pause to consider collateral damage. The energy attack streaked past its intended target and didn't even slow down upon hitting the canopy wall, tearing through the metal and glass like tissue paper as it continued to scream out into space. The gaping hole, however, left pressurization problems, as a maelstrom of air was sucked into space.
Sound of metal scraping metal greeted Tails' ears as the Cyclone's feet were scraped along the floor towards the gaping black mouth, The kitsune bending the mecha lower and trying to provide more friction. He didn't dare jump – The limited amount of air would make propulsion almost useless, and the resistance made possible by the floor was the only thing actually keeping them from being outright dragged into space.
Rouge was even worse off. The bat had been floating about bored in the air, waiting for the boys to get the bloodthirst out of their systems, the vacuum catching her off-guard as she lost control in the sudden gust and tumbled towards the opening. Once again, Shadow saved the jewel thief, warping in by a window and casually reaching up and grabbing the bat by the boot. His spare hand held the frame in an iron grip, barely wavering in the suction.
This couldn't go on forever, though. The Cyclone was dragged with increased intensity toward the fissure despite Tails' best efforts, Cosmo looking back with wide eyes towards the wound in the ARK. Summoning up the courage a desperate moment can induce, the seedrian took several deep breaths of carbon dioxide to calm herself before raising up her hands. Truth be told she really had no idea what she was doing, but a trial by fire was more often the way to harness abilities than not. It was time to do or die… Literally.
Focusing on the gap, she willed something to happen as they inched closer toward it. Nothing happened. She twisted around fully in her seat, leaning forward on her knees as well as around the Cyclone's energy cannon. Still nothing. Panic returning, and with feet left to go, a trickle of moisture went down the back of her head. She could see Mobius below them now, and the light of the sun creeping around the left side of the hole-
Her hands started glowing.
With all her emotion, Cosmo pictured the sun in her head, the rainbow light of the Chaos Emeralds, the blaze of a wildfire. And from deep within her, a well of power responded. A blanket of green incandescence emerged from empty air, settling across the fissure. Light, however, did nothing to stop the vacuum, and with two or three feet between the Cyclone and being spaced, the plant girl clenched her hands into fists out of frustration and fright.
Instantly after, the emerald light hardened into a thick wall of green glass, bumpy and rough like clay molded by a child. Aesthetics were hardly a concern or point though, the pressure and air just as quickly leveling off as the solid barrier formed. The Cyclone ceased to screech across the floor, and there was a nearby thud as Rouge dropped to the ground, Shadow releasing his grips without a care as the normal atmosphere returned.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" came from Tails and Rouge almost simultaneously, thought the targets of their outbursts being aimed at Eggman and Shadow, respectively. The ultimate life form didn't even acknowledge his verbal assailant, while the Doctor shoved his mecha upright with a grunt and jumped back in it.
Tails, at once readying for another round, was surprised as Shadow warped directly in front of the Egg Walker and its line of fire. "Again, Doctor," said the black hedgehog, "I ask you: what are you doing?"
"Move it Shadow," said Eggman, grinding his teeth as he tried to sidestep his organic obstacle. "I don't have to explain myself to you, or anyone for that matter."
The ultimate life form, however, disagreed. Jumping atop the Egg Walker's windscreen, he stuck out a downward palm, the Gray Chaos Emerald yanked from the console by an unseen force and drawn into his hand. "And I don't have to share," he said, releasing the jewel to gently float about, its Blue sibling joining it as the two circled the black hedgehog like gemstone moons.
Eggman's right brow twitched a few times, Shadow watching with his face an emotionless mask. Finally; "I bumped into the fox alone after we separated. He lured me into a trap. I'm just balancing the account."
Tails' eyebrows moved now, narrowing into a V. "I wasn't even sure you were alive, Eggman. And I've been with Cosmo, Shadow, and Rouge this whole time. Ask any of them."
"So what," said the Doctor dramatically, raising his arms. "I'm supposed to believe you have an evil twin?"
"You mistook me for Sonic," said Shadow simply, once again surprising the kitsune by taking his side. It was just as quickly followed by a darker thought clouding in Tails' gut as he shared a worried glance with Cosmo.
Eggman just groaned and facepalmed.