Tails and Luna finally meet.

Who will win in this final fight?

Tails and the general exchanged salutations before the final fight. Tails was so excited. He felt as if his heart was about to leap out his chest. He never thought that he could have ever gotten this far without the love and spiritual determination of Sonic. General Shay bid a final goodbye to Tails before he made his departure.

"Take them out, Tails. We're all counting on you."

"Thank you, General Shay. I promise I'll do my best," he said.

With that final salutation, Tails was off. The golden Flickies followed alongside him. He spun in full motion as he broke through the clouds. He looked behind him and saw General Shay and his army looking up at him. Tails promised to make them and Sonic proud. He could feel himself leaving Earth's atmosphere. It felt different since he wasn't in the Tornado. It was a very different and unusual feeling. Being in space like this without any protective helmet or anything space suit was truly weird. He figured this is what Sonic can do. He had only done this a few times. The only real time he remembers actually being transformed while in space is when they first had to stop Eggman from stealing the Master Emerald. It was a pretty epic feeling for him back then. Now, it seemed like the very first time he's ever done it because it had been so long ever since Angel Island. Tails gathered his bearings and continued through space. He could feel himself leaving the atmosphere of Earth. He was entering the stratosphere. It was very cold up there. It's a good thing he was moving at a reasonably fast speed otherwise he would have frozen in place. Once he left the stratosphere, he proceeded towards the mesosphere. By this time, he could easily make it through the layers now.

His thoughts were racing around the fact of whether or not he was going to defeat Luna. She was a very cold-hearted person, not to mention strong and smart. Plus, she commanded a powerful army of Tails' best friends to back her up. Just her name alone stuck fear and terror into his heart. He considered turning around and heading back home, but his Flicky friends convinced him otherwise. He decided to stay and fight. It was the only way to save his friends and save the world. What was even more overwhelming was that he not only had to save the world, he probably had to save the entire galaxy. That was a gigantic task. If only Sonic were here. He deserved to do this more than he did. In no time at all, he saw Luna and her army up ahead. She was floating in the empty pocket of space, glowing brightly. He could see that she was up to something. He needed to find out what it was without being detected. After finally departing from Earth, he carefully floated behind a nearby asteroid. He peeked his head above the asteroid to get a better view of the entire thing.

Luna looked menacing as she gave her army orders. "Very good. Have you disposed of Tails, Sonic?"

Sonic nodded with a confirming grunt. Little did they know, Tails was still alive, and he was ready to fight back.

"Good. He was never any threat to us to begin with. Now that he's out of the way, we can proceed with our plans. Everything has been going well so far without Tails distracting us. The first thing that will be done is the destruction of these worthless planets. They're completely symmetrical, so they should be easy to destroy. I'll be right back," she said.

Tails lost sight again. All these asteroids were getting in his way. He could just barely see what was going on. He did manage to get a glimpse of Luna hopping from planet to planet in several dancing-like motions. What was she doing? Was she going to put on some kind of show for aliens? It was so confusing. After she finished her little routine, she immediately teleported back to her army. She said that it was done. Tails was as confused as ever.

"Well, all that's left is to wait."

Wait for what?

Luna was about to proceed to scour the universe for more planets and objects to take over, but something was bothering her. Somebody was there, watching them, recording their every move. Luna wondered who it was. It had to be one possible explanation. If Sonic didn't defeat Tails, he had to be stalking them. Luna called his name. "Tails, come out!"

What?!

"I know you're there, Tails! Don't think that you can hide from me! I can smell your fear from a mile away!"

Tails' heart was pounding. His throat became dry, and his courage dropped like a rock. He began to sweat like a dog. How did she know that he was back there? Everything around him died. There was nowhere left for him to hide now. All that was left was him, his Flickies, and Sonic's spirit to lead him. Tails jumped out from behind the asteroid with his hands balled up and his eyes beaming with fire. His body flowed with energy from the Chaos Emeralds. His Super Flickies were by his side as well, ready and willing just as much as Tails was.

"Hmmhmmhmm. Welcome, Tails. I'm actually very impressed that you made it as far as you did. Honestly, I thought that you'd be dead when you fought Sonic here, but I guess I was wrong about you. You're much more vigilant than I thought."

"I told you that anything could happen."

"Well, you are right. Anything can happen, and believe me, something can and will happen. Since this is your final moments of life, I may as well tell you what I plan to do. I plan to destroy everything. Why, may you ask? Let's start from the beginning. I used to have an army in the past that consisted of six members, each one containing certain unique abilities. Together, we dominated planets, destroyed homes, and took innocent lives without sacrifice. It was amazing," she laughed. "We were unstoppable. Nobody could stop us. In short time, we conquered three galaxies. It was amazing. However, my army soon rebelled. They disobeyed me in the worst ways. Action had to be taken, and swift punishment had to be carried out."

"What? Y-you killed them?"

"That's right. They should have listened to me. Now, I plan to use your friends as my new army members to conquer other galaxies. I can see that they are very obedient. They will continue to serve me for a long time, and there isn't anything that you can do about it."

What a heartless monster. First, she destroys her own army, then she steals my friends away from me! I have to do something.

Tails was gripped by fear. Just the sound of her voice made him want to run and hide. It was absolutely horrible. What was he going to do if Luna made off with his friends? If that happened, all he could do is sit there and watch in tearful sorrow as his friends were being controlled like puppets. Luna was the puppet master, and his friends were the puppets. He wasn't going to let that happen, no matter what.

"Well, if you're not going to do anything, I guess we can go now. It was nice meeting you again, Tails. We'll see you later," she chuckled.

"Stop!" Tails commanded her.

"What? Do you have something to say?"

"Yeah! Um...I...I don't think so! You're not going to get away with this!"

"Excuse me?" she said. "What did you just say?"

"I said you're not going to get away with this!"

Luna chuckled under her breath. "Yeah, right. I can't believe what I just heard. If you really believe that you can stop me...HA! That'll be the day. As a matter of fact, I think that I'm going to sit this one out. I'm going to let my army take care of this little annoyance. Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, attack Tails."

Did he just hear what he thought he heard? Maybe he was hearing things, but he thought he heard her command Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow to attack him. Oh, God, was he in trouble. If he had a hard time fighting Sonic by himself, just imagine how much of a challenge it's going to be to take on all three of them. "Oh, no. There's so much wrong with this. Oh, man. Those guys are far stronger than I am. I'm not ready to fight!"

Just then, the spirit of Sonic spoke to him. "Don't worry, Tails. You are ready. You can do it. You know you can do it. Just try your best."

"All right, Sonic. I'll do it for you."

Tails was finally ready to fight after a little pep talk from the spirit of his best friend and motivational teacher. Luna flew to a nearby asteroid and watched her top three army members battle with Tails. All three of them zoomed towards him at full force, arms outstretched and ready to strike. Tails lifted his fists nervously, and he felt like he was surrounded by death, but he knew that somewhere deep down inside him there was still some shred of hope within him, even if it was so miniscule. Almost in a flash, they were in his face, throwing punches. They came at his very fast, each one about as fast as a lightning strike. Tails found it hard to keep up with their various movements. Each punch and kick felt like they were being shot out of a giant cannon. Tails was barely able to defend himself because their attacks were coming at him with such intensity and speed. No one was here to help him, and there Luna was just sitting back and watching them have their way with him. The violent intensity of their attacks could be felt by the air that flew across his face. Their moves were impressive and impassable in every measure. Tails couldn't find an opening anywhere where he could land a decent hit. They defended themselves like fortresses. But, he was going to make them crumble. His Super Flickies were having an equally difficult time trying to land a solid hit as well. They also kept their distance from their ferocious attacks. Just then, as Shadow was about to perform the Chaos Blast and finish the battle for good, Tails found an opening; as Shadow was charging. Now was the perfect opportunity to grandstand them. Just as Shadow was about to launch Tails and his Flickies into oblivion, he was immediately blasted in the gut by the three Super Flickies. Tails finished him off with a powerful uppercut to the chin. That's one down, two to go.

Luna was speechless. "What the hell? This can't be."

With Shadow out of commission, Sonic and Knuckles were still on the battlefield. If Shadow was taken out, then those two will wield the same result. Tails put his guard up. So did the lifeless bodies of Sonic and Knuckles. Little did they know, Tails had something up his sleeve. Almost out of nowhere, Sonic heard a chirping noise. It sounded like it was coming from behind him. He turned around and saw the Flicky behind him. He didn't have enough time to react in time before he was smacked across the face a few times. Tails was hopping up and down in victory, cheering on his Flicky pals.

Meanwhile on the asteroid, Luna watched the losing battle with impatience and fraudulent anger. Her blood was boiling. She was absolutely furious. How was she losing to that half-pint Tails? He wasn't like this when they were back on Earth. What in the world happened to him? Maybe it was her. Maybe her recruits were so weak that they could take out a mere eight-year-old fox. She wasn't going to have this. She was not going to lose like this. This was unacceptable. She didn't want to jump in to the fight, but at this point, she had no other choice. "That does it. No more! Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, stand down! Now! I'll handle this from now on. You three are obviously far too weak to take on this pathetic waste of space. Stay down. I'll take care of this."

Tails felt like he was invincible. He felt as if Luna was going to fall at his feet, no matter how powerful she was. At this point, he was surprised that she didn't fall back.

"Tails, you are going to pay dearly for what you've done. I thought that my army members could take down a mere boy and his bird friends, but apparently they're all too weak for that. So, are you ready?"

"Yeah! I'm ready!" he said, confident of victory.

"Very well. Welcome to the beginning of the end, Tails."

Luna knew that Tails had no chance. It didn't matter how hard he fought, he still had a long way to go if he wanted to ever get anywhere. Luna decided that she would take it a bit easy on him. She didn't want to damage him too badly before she killed him. It wouldn't be fun if she killed him immediately. She could see that he was ready to fight. Maybe she was wrong about him. Maybe he was going to carry the day on his shoulders. That wasn't going to happen.

"Die!" Luna said menacingly.

Luna charged at him with fists flying across the blank darkness of space. It was weird, but Tails was keeping up with her moves. He stayed on par with her. She was firing at him with pinpoint accuracy, but he was still following her moves as if he knew what was happening. He never did this before. Nothing could possibly be this exhilarating than this. This fearsome enemy was being kept at bay by someone who originally was weak. It was amazing. He kept his guard up the entire time they were fighting. He could see the anger in Luna's face. She was getting frustrated. While she wasn't in the best position, now was his chance to strike. Luna was about to launch a kick to Tails, but she was soon intercepted by his Super Flickies. Luna was already being handled. Tails got a few good blows on her person before she recovered and flew back towards her army. She had miscalculated something because she was getting beaten. It was very strange and it severely damaged not only her person, but it severely damaged her ego. She had never been beaten by someone who was originally much weaker than she was. Granted, when she fought with Shadow, she had a good challenge, and he was obviously stronger than she was, but because her advantages during the night, she was just as strong as he was. She wasn't going to go down like this.

"Tails…"

"I told you that anything could happen," Tails said, still retaining his confidence in his grin.

Luna felt insulted by his disgusting smile. "You are a very well-balanced fighter, Tails. I applaud you. However, I have some very bad news for you. It ends today."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"Well, I must confess that I've been taking it easy on you. I honestly thought that you'd be real easy to fight because of what happened on Earth, but I can see that you have improved, but I can very well see that you are now insignificant. I suggest that you quit right now unless you want to die."

"You're bluffing," Tails said. Tails tried to call her bluff, but he could see the look in her eyes from where he was standing. She was not bluffing.

"Really?"

Luna glowed a bright white and charged him at full speed. Tails put his hands up and guarded himself. Luna broke through his guard easily and gave him a knee—at full force—to the gut. Tails had never felt anything that painful. It was as if all of time had stopped just to let all of the pain protrude into him, lay its eggs in his stomach, and take turns smacking his stomach around. Everything around him vanished. He coughed up blood and held his head down. Luna had him now. Luna dug her knee deeper into his stomach. He was dying and no one was here to save him. The pain was so intense. It felt like someone was crawling away at his body with a knife. The knife cut deeper into his flesh as it scarred his insides into pieces. It hurt so much. He couldn't take it anymore. Luna watched as tears flowed from his eyes. One of the Flickies tried to fly in and try to help Tails by attacking Luna, but all she did was grab the bird and crush it in-between her fingers. She let the bird fall down to Earth. She took so much pleasure in his suffering. She decided to give him a severe beating. She barraged him with a flurry of punches. There was nothing Tails could do to defend himself. The Flickies could do nothing of any kind to help him. Tails was feeling the full wrath of Luna, and there wasn't anything he could do. Luna threw powerful punches and kicks at him without effort. Luna finished it all off with a strong roundhouse kick to the face. Tails flew backwards. He was left floating. His Super Flickies went to see if he was okay. They couldn't wake him up. He was completely unconscious. His bloody face was beautiful to her.

"Tails, do you understand now what you're up against? You are fighting against someone who has years of experience. I don't think that I need to say anything else. You said it yourself. "Anything can happen," and something did happen. You dug your own grave when you chose to fight me. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some planets to destroy."

Was it all over? Was there really no other person to save the world—or the universe? It seemed so. As Luna flew away, she could hear a voice calling her. It was quiet and small like a mouse, but she could hear it. It sounded like Tails. He was still alive, but he was hanging on by a single thread. She couldn't believe that he survived from a beating that brutal. Weak and crippled after the killer beating, Tails tried his best to get up, but his stomach was still out of commission after that last attack, so he became a temporary vegetable with a small voice. "Luna, come back."

"What are you going to do to stop me?"

"Please don't hurt my friends."

"Don't worry. I won't hurt them. They'll just follow my order, harboring them to my power. They are under my command from now on."

Tails couldn't fight anymore, but he had to do something. "I mean, you could have gotten people who were ten times stronger that my friends. Honestly, they won't help you very much in your plan to dominate. They aren't very strong. They won't be of much use to you, Luna. You should have gotten somebody else. So, maybe you should just give my friends back, okay?"

Luna saw what he was doing. He was trying to make her quit and give up. Did he really think that she was that naïve? Luna decided to play along. "Hmm, I thought about it, and you're right. They are weak. They are of no use to me. That's why you beat them as easily as you did. They are weak and they are nothing to me."

"That's right. You should have gotten somebody else."

"In fact, they are completely worthless to me. They are utter wastes of space. Just looking at them desensitizes my air and thus, I am completely deflowered. In fact, I think that I'll play along with you."

"What do you mean?"

"Attention!"

"Yes, Commander Luna!"

"Every single one of you line up and stand of the surface of one of those planets. Immediately!"

"Yes, Commander Luna!"

Then, almost like sentry bots, they each stood on the surface of a planet. They just stood there and looked forward as if nothing happened. What was going on? Tails was finally able to stand up, but he stood with a limp because his stomach was still in excruciating pain. He was confused as to what was going on. "Luna, what are you doing now?"

"You're awake. Good. Since you asked and there's nothing you can do, I may as well tell you. I decided to change my plans around a bit. I was originally going to use them to help me conquer the universe, one by one, but I've had a change of heart. I'm not going to use your friends. I'll explain why. You see, I have an ability that lets me drop a bomb within the core of whichever planet I choose, and I just so happen to choose the nearest planets near Earth, and to top it off, since you said that they are useless, well, I think that made my point."

"Y-you're g-going to blow them up?"

"That's right!" she laughed maniacally. "I purposely fell into your little lie. You really thought that you could stop me, but you were mistaken."

"You can't! Hold on, guys! I'm coming!"

"Ah, ah, ah. Don't even go near them, Tails. One snap of my fingers, and then they go boom. We wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?"

Tails couldn't believe it. It was all over. There wasn't anything left for him to do. All that he ever worked for, everything that he ever earned, and all of the good times he had with them all, it was all gone. Tails' situation couldn't be any worse than this. Luna was too powerful for him, and he blamed himself for not defending himself when he was on Emerald Coast. He just wished that there was someway to stop all of this mayhem and horror, but obviously, wishes were far from helping him at this point. There was no hope left. His entire last ditch efforts to save his friends had been crumbled into dust before his eyes. He lowered his head and cried.

Just then, a gentle voice began to speak to him. It was small and soft, almost like the coo of a dove. "Miles "Tails" Prower, I presume. I assume you wish to know who I am," the voice said. The voice appeared before him as a silhouette of a girl. "Hello, Tails. My name is Yashima the Hybrid. I was a former member of Luna's old army. I can see that you are troubled, and I wish to help you."

"What can I do? It's all over. I've let everybody down."

"Do not worry anymore, Tails. I will assist you. This convoluted demon has no right to terrorize people any longer."

Just then, Tails felt a strange presence in the air. Stars began to shimmer and encircle around him. He began to glow with great intensity. What was happening? What was she doing to him? He could feel his energy rising upwards to new limits, new heights that he would have never been able to reach all by himself, no matter how hard he tried. The stars formed a constellation around him. It stood for power and honesty. Yashima held these stars in place as their power flowed into Tails. The energy felt incredible. It felt like nothing he had ever experienced before. He glowed with a strong presence that could be only described as life-changing. Yashima accomplished what she had to do. The riddle had been solved, and now it was time for her to leave. She disappeared into the emptiness of space, leaving nothing behind as she left forever. Tails was about to thank her, but she had already left. If only she stayed, he could have thanked her for granting him the powers from the heavens to defeat Luna. He hoped that with this newly founded power bestowed to him, Luna would finally go down.

"Hey!"

"What is it, Tails? Have you finally accepted defeat? I would love to hear that."

There was a quick interlude of silence before Tails rushed forward and clashed with Luna. Luna and Tails exchanged fists back and forth, reading each other's moves like a book. Neither one of them could land a punch. A flurry of fists and kicks were flying everywhere. Tails was able to keep up with Luna, but it was only a matter of time before he was overtaken. Luna was backed up onto Pluto, one of the planets that she placed a bomb inside of. Both of them were evenly matched up, but it wasn't going to be for long. Tails was running low on energy. He had to finish this. He flew back and left a force field on the planet's surface, which sustained and locked Luna in. She was unable to escape. This gave Tails all of the time he needed to rescue his friends. He ran to each of them and carefully removed the interface devices from the ligaments on which they were placed. They slowly woke up one by one, but they soon became unconscious. As they fell back, Tails grabbed each one and placed them in an energy sphere that he had with him. He didn't know when he would ever get any use from this thing, but after three years, he finally got a chance to use it properly. Once all of them were finally evacuated, Tails snapped his fingers and the planets exploded in a line, one by one.

Luna was trapped with no way out. The planets were all exploding in a distinct pattern. It wasn't long until the massive chain explosion reached her. Luna pressed and scratched at the force-field, trying her best to escape before it was too late, but she couldn't. There was too much energy flowing through it. Her life was now a ticking time bomb. Just a few seconds, and she was finished. She tried just about everything, even teleportation, but the force-field interfered with her powers. As far as she could tell, she was already finished. Everything that she worked for was now for naught. It was all ruined by a child. Luna thought about it, and she finally figured it out. Golden, victory, enemy…the one that was supposed to defeat her was Tails. The victor would walk away with his friends successfully and the enemy will die. It was finally solved. Just then, a soft voice spoke and said to her…

You were too late to save yourself.

BBBBBOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!

It was over. The reign of evil that had been terrorizing the Earth and everything that the universe is had finally been stopped forever. Tails could finally go home and rest without having to worry about death again, because nothing would ever separate him from his friends ever again. Tails took this opportunity to make a promise to be braver than he ever was. No matter what came to him, he would not be afraid to try and nothing would ever break him again. Now that the evil was gone forever, he could finally return to the life he once knew without distraction. The evils of the world would just have to keep trying because as long as good prevails, they will never win. Before he left, he stared at Sonic's face and said…

"Thank you, Sonic."

The End


It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts.

-Robert H. Schuller (1926--)