(On to Chapter Three! No spoilers in the comments, please!)
"This is the tale of a man who has yet to realize what his destiny is.
"A beautiful young woman named Sally Acorn, who fires wildly with a superconducting rifle, swings down from the surface and attacks the enemy Gizoid.
"Using a miniature Gizoid he'd unearthed while digging, Tails reluctantly attacks the hostile mecha.
"The momentum of the attack carries the trio up to the surface, but they run afoul of two more such Gizoids, and then..."
CHAPTER THREE:
That's Exactly The Kind Of World I Was Looking For!
Not wasting any time, Sally grabbed Tails and leapt into Emerl, followed by Sonic. The Gizoid which was closer to them brought its fist along the ground towards Emerl, which turned out to be lucky, as the instant that Tails closed Emerl's canopy, the fist dislodged Emerl from the crater it had created when it landed.
"Sneaking up on people is just playing dirty!" Sonic shouted as Tails guided Emerl to run from the two hostile Gizoids.
"Sorry! I forgot to tell you!" Sally said, her face showing a mix of alarm and guilt.
"Huh?"
"These two were waiting for us all along!"
"They were?"
"Three of them jumped me, and the one that fell into your village was one of them!"
"So there are lots of these things up here?"
"The surface is crawling with Gizoids!"
"That sounds great!" Sonic smirked.
Tails was terrified of this whole ordeal. He was in a world he knew nothing about, completely removed from any sense of familiarity, and two huge robot heads with arms and legs were trying to squash him.
"I HATE THIS!" he yelled, tears streaming down his face.
And Emerl began to dig. For some reason that Tails couldn't understand, drills would not come out of Emerl, so he made Emerl grab clumps of dirt and toss them to either side. Behind him, the Gizoids' footfalls grew louder.
"What are you doing, Tails?" Sonic asked angrily. He had stopped smirking.
"I'm going home, Sonic! I wanna go home! I don't wanna go to the surface! I just wanna go back to the villaaaaaAAAAAAGGGEEE!"
A Gizoid had caught up with Emerl and punted it.
When it landed, Tails was shaking.
"C'mon, Tails! Grow a pair already and fight them!" Sonic shouted.
"I don't understand!" said Sally, looking rather rattled at having been inside a giant football. "You did so well against the first one!"
"That was just a fluke!" Tails shouted back, his voice going high with fright as he looked around frantically. "Where's the hole we came out of?"
"Alright, Tails!" yelled Sonic. "I'll handle them! Open the hatch!"
Tails didn't need to be told twice.
Sonic strode out, pulled out the katana he'd taken from Chief Ivo quick as a flash, and faced the Gizoids.
"Listen close, you walking faces!" he said, his grin coming back. "He may have just left his homeland, but he never looks back, never retreats, and never regrets!"
That was when Tails realized just how small and squashable Sonic was compared to the Gizoids' fists.
"Never surrender, never give ground! The tenacity of a real man is all about the nevers!
"And so I, Sonic The Hedgehog of the Freedom Fighters, will take you on!"
Sonic posed with the katana.
"Let's rock and roll!"
A Gizoid's fist came down on where he was standing.
When it pulled its fist back, there was nothing there. No blood, no mangled hedgehog body, no broken shades. Nothing.
It blinked in confusion.
Tails in Emerl had bolted forward at the last possible second and grabbed Sonic in a mad dash before he could be crushed. Now Emerl was tearing down the desolate landscape, Sonic clutched between its fists, Tails looking at Sonic through the translucent back of Emerl's crest.
"You could've gotten yourself killed, Sonic!" he yelled at him.
Sonic fixed Tails with a hard look behind his pointed shades.
"How long are you gonna run, Tails?"
Tails started.
"We finally made it to the surface," Sonic said seriously. "Now's the time to cast aside the boy you used to be..."
He smirked slightly.
"...and become a man!"
Before Tails could say anything else, a Gizoid's fist slammed into the dirt behind him, and with a yelp from Tails, Emerl's turbine spun and unleashed green energy. The miniature Gizoid took to the air. Tails felt more at ease in the air, but was afraid that if the engines cut out he would fall and die.
Sally stood on top of Emerl, facing the Gizoids and pointing her rifle at them.
"Hold us steady, Tails!" she called.
Bang.
Tails jolted, and Emerl spun upside-down and rightside-up again. It was so loud just a couple feet away, and he was in a place further from home than he'd ever been and he was so high up that if he fell he didn't know what he'd do...
"I'm scared, Sonic!" he screamed.
Then he felt a warm something on the back of his head.
Two warm somethings.
Sally was leaning against the back of his head. If he looked up, he could see her short-shorts. Tails blushed furiously in spite of himself.
"I said, hold us steady!" Sally said testily.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
The rifle was even closer now. And louder. Tails clenched his fists over his ears; this place was loud and scary and there were giant robots out to kill him waiting everywhere and he just wanted to curl up in a hole and never come out again and
Emerl's turbine cut out, the green energy flow ceased, and the Gizoid - and its passengers - began to fall.
"Um, hello?" said Sally, raising up off of Tails. "We're kind of falling!"
Tails didn't want to die from this fall, and somehow, Emerl slowed in its descent enough that it landed in front of a row of large boulders with only a very soft thunk, facing away from the approaching Gizoids.
"What's wrong, Tails?" Sonic asked the shaking fox boy.
"It won't move!" he replied, frenetically rocking the controls.
"Why not?"
"I don't know!" Tails hung his head in defeat. "I can't do this! You do this, Sonic."
"Tails, you little..." Sonic growled.
"Save the family squabbles for later!" Sally snapped, before turning to face the Gizoids again.
She pulled the trigger.
Click.
She gasped sharply; she was out of ammunition, she had no other clips left on hand, her handgun was back at Acorn Village, and Emerl wouldn't run for some reason.
It was all over...
Until the hail of gunfire came from the direction Emerl was facing. The Gizoids halted and immediately raised their arms to protect themselves from the surprise attack.
Sonic, Tails, and Sally faced the boulders.
There was a large group of a dozen or more people, some human, some anthro, but all wielding either shotguns or machine guns. At their head was a squirrel man who looked very much like Sally.
"Are you alright, Sal?" he called out.
A large smile spread across Sally's face.
"Elias!" she replied.
"A friend of yours?" Sonic asked.
"My brother, actually, but I'm glad he's here!" she replied brightly.
"And with reinforcements, too!" Sonic grinned.
Tails looked up; it sounded like things were going to be alright.
As it took the gunfire, the nearest Gizoid's joints began to emit smoke. Its lower jaw went slack, and a small compartment inside split like two sets of teeth, and a small dark shape jumped out.
Tails watched it. "There was something piloting it?"
"Get your heads down!" said Sally, pushing both Sonic and Tails to the bottom of Emerl's seat. Overhead, they could hear the horrendous sound of scraping metal and billowing smoke as the Gizoid collapsed.
"Aww... my Gizoid..." came a snarling voice.
Looking up, Sonic and Tails saw a creature with black scales and red fur stripes. It was so utterly unlike anything either of them had seen before.
The remaining Gizoid lifted it up by the scruff of the neck.
"Leave it be. It's almost sunset, and we need to regroup at the base," it said.
"You hear that, you filthy Möbians?" yelled the black creature, fixating on them with hate-filled yellow eyes. "We're gonna settle this tomorrow!"
Elias noted this, and then ordered, "Don't hold anything back on them! FIRE!"
A dozen rifles fired at once on the remaining Gizoid even as it bolted for the setting sun, the words "You'll rue this day!" drifting back to them from the Gizoidless black creature.
Silence fell.
And Tails breathed a sigh of relief.
Sally hitched her rifle's strap over her shoulder and smiled at her brother.
"I'm so glad you're safe, sis," said Elias, embracing her. "When you fell in that hole it made..."
"I'm alright, Elias," Sally said, returning his gesture. "With a life like this, we're gonna have to get used to it. We lost a lot of people protecting Acorn over the years."
Elias looked at Emerl. He raised an eyebrow. "I didn't see that Gizoid in their platoon."
"That's because Tails there dug it up and used it to destroy the one that fell with me."
"Tails?" Elias was confused.
"The fox boy. He was a Digger in his village."
Elias noted Tails's two tails. "I can tell where he got that name from. And he found that? Underground? What was a Gizoid doing buried near a pit?"
Sally shook her head. "If only we knew..."
Sonic raised a hand to shield his eyes.
"So, those black creatures are inside the Gizoids?" he said to himself.
"They're called the Black Arms," said Sally, striding to stand beside him.
"Black...Arms?" Sonic said.
"Yes. They pilot the Gizoids and try to kill anyone they can find. They come out when the sun rises, and leave when the sun sets."
Sun? Tails thought. What's a 'sun'?
"Why do they leave then?"
"I don't know."
"And... you've been fighting them your whole life?"
"That's right," said Sally, before walking over to the wreckage of the Gizoid. "I'll fill you in on the details later."
raw! raw! fight the power!
The big ball of blinding bright light had gone down, and the surface's ceiling had gone almost black, apart from the ball of bright, but not blinding light, hovering overhead like the large eye of some great god, and the countless specks of light all around it. Elias, Sally's older brother, had called forward their village's technician to help him strip the Gizoid of useful parts.
Tails sat in Emerl, looking down at his feet. This had been such a long and frightening day. The ball floating over Kukku's head turned into a little heart, which was either a sign of happiness or affection in Chao. He was rubbing his little hand against the fur on Tails's arm, to try to soothe him.
It wasn't working.
"You did good today, Tails," Sonic said at Tails's right hand. He had removed his shades.
"I can't do this," Tails murmured. "It's so scary up here on the surface. I just wanna go home."
"Tails, if you'd gone back to Knothole Village, I would be flatter than a pig-mole steak under that one Gizoid's fist," Sonic said, smiling warmly at Tails. "Whenever my ass is in trouble, you're always there to save it.
"Thanks."
Tails couldn't help but feel that Sonic was giving him too much credit. Sonic was the one who had the courage to stand up to the Gizoids, not him. Tails was only doing what was natural when Sonic threw himself in the face of danger by dragging him back.
"I finally made it, Dad," said Sonic.
Tails faced him. "Huh?"
"Nevermind," Sonic said quickly, looking at the 'ceiling'. "It's really a nice sight, isn't it? The sky? That's what the people on the surface call that big ceiling, y'know?"
"Y-yeah," Tails said. "It does look nice."
"Mm-hmm. There's that big light there, and all those itty-bitty lights all around it. This place is full of light, even at night! This is way better than the pitch-black nights back in Knothole." Sonic took a deep breath, and sighed. "Yep. Comin' up here was the right call."
"That big light is called the 'Moon'," said Sally, walking up to them. Sonic and Tails faced her. "The 'itty-bitty' lights, as you call them, are called the 'stars'."
Sonic looked back at the sky. "Moon and stars, huh? Aren't those names kinda simple?"
"I wonder why they had names in the first place," Tails said. Sonic and Sally looked at him.
"What do you mean?" asked Sonic.
"I mean, if they had names, then that means that people in the past may have looked up at the lights in the sky all the time."
"Wow, that's a pretty bright observation, kid," came a voice from in front of Emerl. Tails snapped to look in that direction. A purple walrus rose up into view, holding a small device which he was tapping with his fingers. He was wearing a yellow hat, a jacket, and a belt with a wide range of tools hanging off of it.
"This is a fascinating mecha you have here!" he said.
"'Mecha'?" Sonic asked.
"It may be small, but it's packing a lot of power," said the walrus, wearing a smile as he typed away at his handheld.
"What are you doing?" asked Tails.
"Running some numbers," said the walrus, handing the device to Tails. "Want to see?"
Tails looked at the display.
"Is this a machine that makes squiggly lines?" he asked.
"Oh, you don't know how to read?" asked the walrus.
"'Read'?" Tails asked, before handing the device to Sonic. "You know how to 'read', Sonic?"
Sonic stared at the device's display for a long moment, furrowing his brow... then turned it sideways. Finally, he handed it back to the walrus. "No idea."
Sally chuckled, "What a pair of bumpkins we dug up!"
"Y'know, you're not exactly the brightest bulb on the block yourself, Sally," said the walrus.
"At least I can read," she said, taking the device from the walrus and typing a couple of buttons. The screen went blank except for a flickering line in the upper-left corner.
"See?"she typed out a word that was four characters long.
"This says 'Star'..."
She typed out another four-letter long word on the next line. The two middle characters were the same.
"...and this says 'Moon'!"
Sally returned the display back to what it said before, and now Sonic and Tails could occasionally see the letters from 'star' and 'moon' in the numbers that the walrus was crunching. It was an odd feeling, knowing sort of how to read, but not quite. And even if they could read them, who was to say either Sonic or Tails would derive any meaning from the words that were being written? This walrus was clearly well-versed in technology, and who knew what made this Gizoid Emerl tick.
The walrus looked over his readings, and his eyebrows went up. "Fascinating."
"What's fascinating?" asked Sally.
"I've seen lots of Gizoids over the years, but this one is different."
"How so?" Sonic asked.
"It's just a theory at this point, but if what I'm hypothesizing turns out to be accurate..." he closed the small device. "Then this Gizoid could adapt to war conditions on any battlefront."
"It's that powerful?" Sally cast a glance at Emerl. "Emerl is?"
"It's entirely possible," said the walrus, looking to the sky, "As probable as it is that Möbians used to live on the surface."
"Möbians?" Tails asked.
"The name of the surface world is Möbius," said the walrus. "It stands to reason that its inhabitants - us - would be called Möbians."
"And 'we' encompasses..."
"Every human and anthro that lives in any underground village anywhere," the walrus said. "Basically, anyone but the Black Arms. It's a big mystery, though. Some records say Möbians lived on the surface in the past, and others say they didn't." He picked up Kukku, who expressed his delight with this newcomer with a heart-shaped ball over his head. "Kinda like how I'm sort of both and neither a land- and sea-person. And I'm inclined to believe that the surface used to overflow with Möbians."
"So, who are you?" asked Sonic, a little testy at going so long without knowing someone's name.
The walrus looked slightly surprised, "Oh! Sorry, I was so interested in this Gizoid here I forgot to..." He trailed off. He put out a hand.
"Name's Rotor Walrus, but some people call me 'Rote'. I was Boomer when I was little, but it didn't stick."
"Rotor's a real mechanical genius," Sally said as Sonic tentatively shook Rotor's hand. "He handles all our weapons-related maintenance. Plus, he's the village technician."
"You do that?" Sonic said as he released Rotor's hand.
Then Sally turned to Tails just as Rotor shook with him.
"Now, I kinda have to ask a favor of you, Tails," she said.
"What?" asked Tails.
Sally gestured towards the pile of parts they had salvaged from the Gizoid they'd destroyed.
"Could you carry that for me?" Sally said, before adding, "With Emerl, I mean."
"I-I'm sure I could, but..." Tails looked at the drill pendant that had powered Emerl before, but which was useless now. He had tried several times since the Acorn villagers had taken down that one Gizoid and forced the other to retreat, but nothing had happened. It was useless now...
"Wow, what is that?" asked Sally, leaning in to look at the drill pendant. She looked spellbound. "It looks... kinda pretty."
Tails's heart pounded as he realized how close Sally was. He tried to keep his eyes from drifting to her chest... her chest which was pressed against his face not a few hours before...
Tails felt some warm emotion rising in him...
And the drill pendant began to emit an emerald light.
Tails's eyes widened. As did Sally's, Sonic's, and Rotor's.
While the drill pendant was still glowing and a desire to earn Sally's romantic favor filled him, Tails inserted the drill into the slot.
The display lit up, and Emerl stood erect.
"It's working again," said Sally with a smile. "Now, follow me!"
Sally walked toward the salvaged parts, and Tails followed.
"So it responds to male spirit?" Rotor said, folding his arms. "Fascinating."
Sonic raised an eyebrow.
"Y'know, I doubt anyone would build something like that, but the way you said that makes it sounds like that thing runs off of erections."
raw! raw! fight the power!
The salvaged parts from the enemy Gizoid had been strapped down to a concave metal plate which was formerly the Gizoid's shell, and the villagers from Acorn unfortunate enough to not have room to sit on it - like Sally, Elias, and Rotor - walked alongside it. Tails piloted Emerl, and Sonic rode behind Tails's right arm.
"We're really sorry about this," said Elias to Tails as Emerl pulled the gathered parts towards Acorn Village. "We went in an wrecked up your village, and then dragged you into this battle, and then on top of that we're having you cart this stuff to our village."
"Don't worry about it," said Tails, before yawning loudly. It had been a long day.
Sonic followed suite. So did a handful of the Acorn villagers.
"We don't exactly lead a very high-class life out here," said Sally. "We need to salvage what we can from the enemies we kill."
Emerl stopped. The parts shuffled, and the passengers nearly slipped off.
"What's wrong?" Sally asked Sonic and Tails.
"What the hell's that?" Sonic asked roughly, pointing at something round and bleached-white, with what looked like a large hole shaped vaguely like two connected 'O's in the middle, with two smaller holes just under it, and some sort of joint below that with what looked like teeth set into it.
"That's someone who was killed by a Gizoid," said Sally.
Tails let out a short, but loud, scream. That's what happens to someone who... who dies? How long does it take for that to happen to someone who...?
"In this lifestyle we live by, it's not exactly like this is my first time seeing it," said Sally grimly. "He has to have been dead a while; we haven't come back to Acorn Village this way in a few years, so..."
A short while later, Sally and Elias had set a large rock by the recently created mound of earth over the deceased.
"We couldn't just leave his bones lying there," said Elias.
Sally nodded.
Sonic scoffed.
"It's a waste to bury anyone who dies out in this wasteland," he said.
Sally glared at him. She said sharply, "Look, up on the surface, there's never any way of knowing when you're gonna be the next one being buried."
Sonic's gaze was set. "That will never happen!"
He pointed towards the sky.
"Our journey will continue until we've pierced the heavens! As far as it takes!"
Sally raised an eyebrow.
"Huh?"
It seems crazy, thought Tails. But when Sonic's around, nothing seems impossible. I feel like I can do anything with Sonic here.
The journey continued for a short while in silence, and a lookout tower had become visible in the distance, before Sally spoke up again.
"Y'know, it's not exactly like we live on the surface because we have a choice," she said to Sonic.
"Really?"
"Really. Our Acorn Village was once an underground village like yours, but there was a gas leak, and it became uninhabitable. We had no choice but to come to the surface, and when we did, the Gizoids were waiting for us. We have nowhere else to go, so we have no choice but to fight. It's a struggle just to survive against the Black Arms and their Gizoids."
"We would go for their base of operations, but no one ever gets far before the Gizoids get them," added Elias.
"Sounds cool!" said Sonic, grinning. "That's exactly the kind of world I was looking for!"
Sally sighed. This man was incorrigible.
Upon their arrival in Acorn Village, the villagers expressed awe at the fact that they had a Gizoid on their side. There was a long line of people who would want to touch it or even look at it. It was difficult to imagine a Gizoid which was not actively trying to kill the nearest Möbian, so seeing one which was inactive, even if it was as small as Emerl was, was something very unusual.
Sally had prepared a meal for Sonic and Tails, to welcome them to Acorn Village, but when she found them beside Emerl, they were out cold.
She smiled. Tails looked so peaceful in his sleep, and Sonic looked...
No. Sally decided that she would not let Sonic get to her. She had a job to do protecting Acorn Village, and she pushed her growing feelings into the back of her heart.
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they fell asleep," she said aloud. "It's been a day full of firsts to them."
つづく
To be continued...
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If you're doing it, then so am I! If I don't do it, will you? If you won't do it, I will! I'm doing it, so you do it, too, damn it!
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "I Said I'm Gonna Pilot That Thing!"