(There was a reference to Macross Frontier last chapter. There will be a reference to Neon Genesis Evangelion this chapter! Whoever can point them out gets a virtual cookie!
This chapter is the introduction of... well, you'll see who I introduce here!)
"So there I was, with the giant Gizoid's hand coming at me! Sonic The Hedgehog himself had fallen into a big pinch!"
There he was, boasting away about the battle earlier that day. Sally's fellow Acorn villagers were gathered around the fire, while Sonic danced wildly about it, regaling in the 'badassery' of his comandeering of Freedom.
And it wasn't even an hour after Sonic found his father's skeleton.
And he was acting like this...
"Suddenly, Emerl, piloted by my kid brother Tails, stopped the Gizoid's hand! His shout rang out, 'You won't lay a hand on my brother!' And as he said it, a drill emerged and shattered the Gizoid's arm! It's only because of Tails that I'm standing here right now! Thank you, Tails! My friend! My brother!"
Sonic pointed to the sky.
"Then Tails forced open Freedom's hatch, and this is what I said to the Black Arms that was piloting it...!"
At this point, Sally tuned Sonic out and walked over to Tails, who was still sitting in Emerl, avoiding the celebrations.
This was oddly beneficial to Sally; she didn't want Sonic to overhear her question. (Then again, with his bombastic retelling of the battle, that was unlikely to begin with.)
"Look at the other hero of the day," she said, smiling at him.
Tails looked up at her, then looked down at his shoes again. "Me? I'm no hero. Sonic's the one who won by taking Freedom. If he hadn't..."
"He's right, you know," Sally told him. "If you hadn't stopped that frog Gizoid from crushing him, he wouldn't be here dancing himself dizzy over how you saved his skin."
Tails didn't seem fazed by this.
And Sally decided to pose her question.
"Tell me... Is he alright?"
Tails looked at her fully now.
"Sonic? He wasn't even really hurt, so why...?"
"No. I mean, the whole reason he wanted to go to the surface to begin with is so that he could meet his father again. But now he's found out that his father's been dead all this time. He's pretending not to care, but that had to have come as a shock, right?"
Tails looked up at Freedom. The twin translucent-red blades that were once wielded by Giznaur had been melted together to form a Freedom-sized pair of Sonic's shades for the captured Gizoid.
"I think it's different," he said.
Sally looked at him, confused.
"He didn't want to see his father," Tails said. "He hated himself for not being able to go with his dad to begin with. That's why he wanted to find his dad: To show him that he was a man who could make it up here."
Sally turned this over in her head, and it all came around to the same conclusion to her.
"But doesn't that still boil down to him wanting to be reunited with his father?"
Tails shook his head vigorously.
"No! It's different! Totally different!"
He bowed his head, looking at his feet again.
"...I think."
"I don't really follow you," Sally said.
"Sorry. It's hard to explain."
Sally decided not to press further.
"It's alright," she said as she walked off. She called back to Tails, "Sorry for asking such a strange question. I hope he really is alright."
If she had eyes in the back of her head, Sally would have seen Tails's blush as he watched her retreating figure.
CHAPTER FIVE:
You're One Cocky Bastard, With Those Two Faces of Yours!
"Man, Rotor did a good job fixing Freedom up," Tails said. Night had come and gone, and it was now the start of his and Sonic's second full day on the surface. It was surprisingly cool out, so Tails decided to pull on a jacket he'd had tied around his waist when he found Emerl. He'd since deposited it under Emerl's seat until today.
"Rotor said that he combined the arms and legs of the other two Gizoids into Freedom," said Sonic, pushing up his shades. "I gotta admit, though, its old arms were kinda flimsy."
Tails looked over Freedom's new limbs. Its arms were taken wholesale from one of the three Gizoids that attacked when he and Sonic first came to the surface, and fought alongside Giznaur before its commanding Gizoid was taken by Sonic. Its legs served as Freedom's new legs, although the frog Gizoid's legs served as Freedom's feet.
"What's that symbol on your back, Tails?"
Sally had shown up, carrying her rifle and a quiver of arrows.
Sonic smirked, indicating the same logo on Freedom's forearms; he'd painted it on - surprisingly well - after Rotor had fixed Freedom up. "You like it? That's..."
He posed dramatically.
"The symbol of the Freedom Fighters!"
Tails turned his jacket around just enough to admire the same emblem on his back.
Sally nodded vaguely, then asked, "So, wanna go help me gather food?"
Sonic's demeanor cooled quite a bit. "Wait. What happens if the Gizoids attack again while we're out?"
"I don't think so," Sally shook her head. "They usually don't attack two days in a row; the last two days were just a fluke. Plus, once the morning hours have passed, we can rest easy knowing that they're not going to attack the rest of the day."
"Whoa... Really?" said Sonic.
"They may be ruthless killers, but even they seem to have rules that they operate by. And while we're not fighting, we have to stock up on food and water." Sally adjusted her rifle's shoulder strap, smiling at Sonic. "Now, you gonna come with me?"
"Of course!" said Sonic.
Then he turned to Tails.
"Tails, let's go!"
Sally's face fell.
Tails pointed at himself.
"What? Me? You want me to come along?"
Sally looked sullen for some reason.
"I guess."
raw! raw! fight the power!
"So, these weapons were part of some sort of storage warehouse under Acorn Village?" Sonic asked as they hunted. They had sent Tails off in Emerl to pump swamp water out into barrels, to be filtrated later for drinking and bathing.
"That's right," Sally said, aiming at a white sand alligator rabbit. Eh, she thought. That one looks sickly. She turned her gaze elsewhere. "But then a poison gas leak from the warehouse forced us to the surface. It seems like it was built hundreds of years ago, long before any of us were born."
"Really?"
"Yeah." Sally let out a very short chuckle that could have easily been mistaken for a cough. "It's ironic, isn't it? The very weapons that drove us to the surface, are the weapons we use to survive, whether by hunting for food or by fighting off Gizoids."
A pursuit heron, she thought, aiming her rifle. Those have good protein benefits.
She fired.
The pursuit heron fell in its pursuit of a fish, an arrow in its throat.
"Got it!" Sally pulled back the chamber of her rifle and pulled out another arrow from her quiver. "This gun is powered by electricity, so if I swap out the bullets for arrows..."
She pointed to something in the distance. "See that drooling grape hippo?"
"Yeah," Sonic said. He'd temporarily removed his shades.
"I'm gonna get it square between the eyes, okay?"
"Alright, let's see it!"
She did. It took the drooling grape hippo a whole ten seconds between getting struck and falling over.
"Wow, you're good," Sonic said, sounding genuinely impressed.
"I'm the best shot in the village," Sally said smilingly. "That's why they let me use Nicole here."
"'Nicole'?" Sonic asked.
"That's my nickname for this rifle," Sally patted the rifle. "She's saved my life quite a few times. Wanna take her for a spin?"
Sonic's eyes went wide. "Can I?"
Sally released her grip on the barrel and trigger.
"Now, you just put your hand here... No, there... put your other hand there... put your shoulder behind here, for balance... and you look through the sniper scope here and shoot at what you want to eat."
Sally was impressed. Less than a minute after leasing control of Nicole over to Sonic, he'd nailed a flying raccoon at 30 meters. Those things were quick flyers, and the fact that a novice gunner got one...
"Wow." That pretty much summed it up.
"I'll go get it!" Sonic darted off past Sally to collect his game.
raw! raw! fight the power!
"Let's see... It landed around here somewhere..." Sonic said, pushing his way through the tall grass.
Aha!
"There it is!"
Sonic approached his fallen prey...
And heard rustling to his right.
He turned... And saw a black shape approaching him rapidly.
萌えろ三姉妹
Elias shook his head wearily as Rotor typed away madly at his computer console. "Rotor, this is the second all-nighter in a row you've pulled. Why don't you get some rest?"
"I can't," said Rotor brightly, the only signs of fatigue being the dark circles under his eyes. "Not with all this data that I collected from Emerl. The sooner I collate it all, the sooner we can figure out what makes Emerl - and potentially, all Gizoids - tick."
"I guess..." Elias sighed.
"Elahh-iss," said Bunnie, entering the hangar.
"What's up, Bunnie?" Elias asked.
"We'all got ahh-selves some visitahhs," she said, pointing out of the hangar with her cyborg thumb. "Ah think y'all'd be int'rested in meeting 'em."
"Visitors?" Elias asked.
Outside were three warble-runners, facing away from him - warble-runners typically traveled by running backwards - each with a rider in all-black robes and tall black hoods covering their faces.
"Are you the leader of this village?" the head of the group asked. It was a woman, judging from her voice.
"Y-yeah," Elias replied shakily. He couldn't tell if she and her posse were friendly or hostile, so he gave the secret Acorn Village signal for all nearby villagers to discreetly train arms on these individuals until he could be certain they came on peaceful terms. "And... you are...?"
"Excuse this..." said the head of the group, removing her hood.
The first thing Elias saw were the wavy brown locks.
The next were the bright-green eyes.
And his heart skipped a beat.
"I'm Megan of the Wandering Orphans," said the squirrel-chipmunk woman before him as she hopped down from the lead warble-runner.
"'The Wanderin' Aw-fins'?" repeated Bunnie. "Who in tahnation..." She realized that Elias had not spoken a word since Meg had removed her hood.
"Hey, Elahh-iss!" Bunnie smacked Elias on the back with her metal hand; he didn't budge. "Don't git all stiff ovah a gal 'foh y'all reallehh know 'er!"
Meg giggled to herself, blushing a little as she looked at Elias.
"'The Wandering Orphans'?" said Rotor, emerging from his calculations into the sunlight. "I've heard of them."
Elias shook his head vigorously.
"Y-you have?" he asked, diverting his attention from the angel who had descended from heaven right in front of him...
"Sure have," said Rotor as Meg's two companions disembarked from their own warble-runner mounts and removed their own black outer-garments. "They're a group of Black Arms hunters who travel from village to village, having lost each of their own."
"We're not really siblings, but we look out for each other as though we were blood," said Meg, indicating her two companions, a lavender cat and an orange raccoon.
The cat bowed slightly. "My name is Blaze. I am pleased to meet you."
The raccoon put her fist in the air. "Arvo, mates! I'm Marine! It's bonzer meeting you, mates!"
"...I don't mean to be rude, but does the raccoon even speak our language?" asked Elias.
"Oy!" Marine got quite irritant. "Everyone in Windmill Village 'ad an accent like this, so don't pick a blue over it!"
"Please calm down, Marine," said Blaze, raising a hand in caution. "He meant nothing by it."
"I know!" Marine crossed her arms, looking quite pleased with herself. "I just like to go off on blokes in every village we stop by! So don't whinge about it."
Meg sighed softly.
By now, Elias had silently signaled the all-clear that these were a benevolent bunch, and many men - and a couple women as well - gathered around in interest at this new group that had arrived, the Wandering Orphans.
"Three girls..."
"They're like sisters!"
"There's one more member, as I recall," said Rotor, indirectly asking a question. "But if you've come to our village, then that means..."
"Yes," said Meg darkly. "A Gizoid more powerful than any ordinary Gizoid is approaching this village."
Any joviality at the arrival of three girls evaporated almost instantly.
"What...?" Elias asked.
"It seems like it's just on reconnaissance right now, but we don't think it will playing that game very long," said Blaze. "We suspect that it will attack tomorrow."
"It's the same crook bloke what took out our big bro's village, too!" added Marine.
"Our big brother's off looking for this Gizoid, so he'll let us know if he finds anything," said Meg.
Elias asked Bunnie quietly, "Where are Sally and the others?"
"They's off gettin' food and watahh," she replied.
Elias paled.
"This is bad... I hope they're okay..."
Nikopol
Sonic struggled with the black-cloaked figure. It had quite large hands.
"What's your deal, wearing that hood?" Sonic asked. "You must be a Black Arms!"
"Wha...?" the cloaked figure stopped struggling; Sonic had uncovered his secret, and he had stunned his foe with this revelation!
"Take that!" Sonic shouted, punching him where his face was. The hooded figure fell.
"Y-you're a Möbian?" it asked.
"It took you that long to figure it out?" Sonic asked, reaching for his katana.
"Wait!" it pulled back its hood. "I'm a Möbian, too!"
So he was. A red echidna with his hair in dreadlocks.
"Whoa," said Sonic, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry 'bout that, pal."
"You're from a nearby village?" said the echidna. "It's dangerous around here, so you might want to go back to your village."
"Do I know 'dangerous'. Good thing for you I didn't bring my Gizoid to the party, or—"
"No."
The echidna was frowning.
"No way do you have a Gizoid! How could you get it in the first place?"
"Well, let's see..." Then Sonic got right in the echidna's face. "Because I stole it, that's how!"
"YOU CAN'T STEAL A GIZOID!"
"WELL, I DID!"
"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"
Sonic smirked. "Who the hell do you think I am?"
Then he placed his shades on.
Time to perform.
"Far beyond the farthest horizon, I crawled up from Knothole Village. I have defeated more Gizoids than there are stars in the sky! When you hear them speak of the Freedom Fighters' badass leader, who kicks common sense out and goes beyond the impossible, they're talking about me, Sonic The Hedgehog!"
Sonic pointed to the sun dramatically, sunlight glinting off the edge of his shades.
The echidna was silent for a few moments.
"I'm Knuckles of the Wanderi—"
"WHAT THE HELL, MAN?" Sonic interrupted Knuckles, picking up the flying raccoon; a second arrow was sticking out of it. He hadn't noticed it before. "Trying to pass my dinner off for yours? Who the hell do you think you are?"
"Dinner?"
"Don't play dumb! That second arrow's yours, right?"
Knuckles held up both hands. "Do I look like I'm carrying a bow?"
Sonic's blood ran cold.
"Then..." he said.
"That means..." Knuckles continued.
Twang.
Sonic narrowly dodged an arrow. He drew the pistol; after some instructions from Sally the previous night, he now knew how to hold it.
He listened to the rustle of the tall grass surrounding him and Knuckles.
There! he thought as he fired a shot to his left. Two broken pieces of a bow flew into the air.
I didn't see any blood, he thought. That Black Arms bastard is feinting...
Sonic rolled into a ball, which was just as good, because the machete that sliced through the air would have separated his head from his body if he were a second too slow.
Knuckles leapt back as the attacker swung his machete at the echidna.
Uncurling, Sonic fired his gun at the machete, deflecting its course so that swung around to cut off the attacker's other arm...
Or so Sonic had it planned out, because the attacker proved to be just as nimble as Sonic was, spinning with the force imparted to his machete, before facing Sonic and Knuckles.
"I'm impressed, blue hedgehog," said the black-with-red-stripes hedgehog. But he was no hedgehog; his colours proved it.
He was a Black Arms.
"Who the hell are you?" said Sonic.
The Black Arms hedgehog slung his machete into its holster on his back and folded his arms.
"I am of the Möbian Suppression Squad, Far East Division..." He opened blood-red eyes. "Commander Shadow."
"Möbian... Suppression Squad...?" Sonic said.
Shadow spoke, "There are two important things to note: firstly, the Möbian Suppression Squad is tasked with annihilating any Möbian foolish enough to travel to the surface. If you resist that fate, blue hedgehog, I will have no choice but to put you down.
"And secondly, that game is my dinner. The arrow of a Black Arms signifies that. You will return it to me."
Sonic held up the flying raccoon by the tail. "If you want it..." he clenched its tail. "Come and take it!"
The flying raccoon squirmed and squawked.
"It's still alive? With two arrows in it?" Shadow recoiled.
"Now!" Knuckles whistled, and a warble-runner darted out. He leapt onto it. "C'mon, Sonic! Hop on!"
"You won't escape!" Shadow called to Sonic.
Sonic leapt back to a safer distance from Shadow, drawing his katana.
"'Escape'? You're insulting me! Who the hell do you think I am? Parents use my name to make their children behave. I am the leader of the Freedom Fighters, Sonic The Hedgehog! And I never turn my back on an enemy!"
Shadow drew his machete. "That bravado will get you killed, blue hedgehog."
"That idiot!" shouted Knuckles, looking back as Sonic and Shadow began fighting.
Shadow definitely held the upper hand. Sonic's katana was forged for a man easily double his height, so he was quite off-balanced by his katana. Shadow was tauntingly only knicking him here and there with his machete, but it was clear that he was the superior swordsman.
"Do you honestly think you can hold your own against a trained soldier?" he called to Sonic.
Suddenly, Sonic drew his hand across Shadow's face, leaving a long slice across Shadow's cheek, droplets of slime-green blood shooting out.
"What the...?" Shadow leapt away from the blue hedgehog.
Sonic threw away the spare arrow he'd tucked into his pant-leg. "Damn, you dodged just in time..."
Shadow flicked away the dribbling blood. "Impressive, Möbian; you managed to injure me. But, you know, a sneak attack is just a sneak attack. It's only a surprise once."
Sonic drew his katana back.
"This is OVER!" shouted Shadow, charging at Sonic, prepared to spill his Möbian entrails all over this grassy field.
"SONIC!"
Emerl leapt in between the dueling hedgehog, and both leapt away.
"Tails! Why are you interrupting our duel between men?" Sonic said.
"Sorry! I came when I heard gunfire," said Emerl in Tails's voice.
Shadow landed on a rock that stood above the tall grass.
"A miniature Gizoid...?"
A glint of light on the nearby cliff.
Shadow leapt aside in time to avoid the bullet.
raw! raw! fight the power!
"He spotted my shot from that far away...?" said Sally.
raw! raw! fight the power!
Engaging his Hover Shoes, Shadow skated his way through the tall grass, dodging from side to side to throw off the enemy sniper.
"A rebel cell?" Shadow smirked to himself. "Perfect timing!"
Reaching a small mound, Shadow threw himself around it...
And activated his Gizoid.
raw! raw! fight the power!
"Oh no!" said Sally as she witnessed the white Gizoid with a kingly crown rise up from behind a seemingly innocent mound.
Emerl had reached her.
"Sal! Hop in!" shouted Sonic. She did.
A red echidna on a warble-runner caught up to them.
"It's you from before..." Sonic said.
"Listen to me!" shouted Knuckles. "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, then don't! That's ARK, an extremely powerful Gizoid! The most powerful I've ever seen! You don't stand a chance against it!"
"Then I know what I'm gonna do!" grinned Sonic as Emerl reached Freedom's spot just outside Acorn Village. "I'm gonna take him on in Freedom!"
Knuckles looked at Freedom in awe. "That's your Gizoid...? I gotta admit, amateur, to nab yourself a Gizoid like this..."
"If you want one of your own, steal one of your own!" Sonic said as Freedom's cockpit closed.
A small screen opened up next to Sonic's head. Tails was on it.
"Sonic!"
"H-how did you...?"
"Rote calibrated it for us last night," came Sally's voice. A small black screen reading 'SALLY: SOUND ONLY' in red letters appeared beside Tails's screen. "This way, we can stay in contact during battle."
燃えてばかりでいいのかい?
"So, what's the plan, Sonic?" Tails asked the image on Sonic's face on the back end of Emerl's crest.
"What else? We fight him till we beat him!" Sonic smirked.
"But, he seems like he's a lot tougher than the other enemies we've run into so far, Sonic."
"Don't be afraid, Tails! You've got Emerl! You've got your drill!"
"But..."
"Alright, let's rock and roll!" Sonic's screen disappeared, leaving Tails to shake off his fear.
raw! raw! fight the power!
"Aren't you going to fight?" Sally asked the red echidna.
The echidna crossed his arms. "When it gets crazy like this, there's really nothing to be done." He turned to face Sally. "By the way, I'm Knuckles of the Wanderi—"
"Save the introductions for later," said Sally.
Knuckles face-faulted.
raw! raw! fight the power!
Freedom approached the white Gizoid, which sported four horns on its head arranged like a crown.
"I was dispatched out here when we received reports that Möbians were stealing Gizoids," ARK's jaws opened and closed in an approximation of Shadow's voice. "But it looks like I'll have this wrapped up before dinner."
Sonic slammed Freedom's face against ARK's, though ARK held a clear height advantage; Freedom didn't even reach the eyes on ARK's chest. "Gizoid? That lame thing isn't its name! This is Freedom! You're one cocky bastard, with those two faces of yours!"
"'Faces'? ...Oh, you mean that?" ARK indicated the crown-like helm it wore. "It's traditional for a warrior to wear a crested helmet. I don't see where a lowly Möbian like you can get off telling me what it means to be a true warrior!"
"You Black Arms need to make up your minds! Are you Möbians or not?"
Freedom's fist attempted to connect with ARK's jaw, but ARK caught it, and Sonic could not prise it free.
"You acquaint yourself well enough in person, but your Gizoid skills need work!"
ARK bent Freedom's arm back, then slammed against the top of Freedom's head with both fists before kicking the stolen Gizoid away.
raw! raw! fight the power!
"Sonic!" Sally shouted, receiving only radio silence from Freedom. She called to Emerl, "Tails! Go back Sonic up!"
"Got it!" said Tails, hopping Emerl down the cliff, rolling the mecha sideways onto the ramp that the cliff-face had formed naturally over thousands of years, before turning the miniature Gizoid so that its legs faced ARK, a drill appearing from nowhere.
Slots along ARK's shoulder blasted out large blades that knocked Emerl out of the air.
"Uhh... lady..." said Knuckles, trying to draw her attention to the incoming weapons.
"What?" Sally said.
Then they hit.
Sally and Knuckles were knocked about, screaming,
男の魂完全燃焼キャノンボールアタック
"Get back, Sal! Echidna guy!" shouted Sonic as Emerl landed next to Freedom. "Tails, time to break out the you-know-what!"
"Got it, Sonic!" said Tails.
Freedom picked up Emerl, which produced a drill over the lower half of its body.
Sonic shouted, "Take this! Finishing Move! Perfect Combustion of the Souls of Men! CANNONBALL ATTACK!"
And tossed Emerl at ARK. Tails let out a battle cry.
"Pathetic," said Shadow in ARK, casually sidestepping the flying Emerl.
Emerl dissipated its drill and kicked off from a rock in the field, turning in midair so that its drill faced ARK again, Tails screaming in the adrenaline rush...
And ARK kicked Emerl out of the air, the miniature Gizoid embedding in a cliff wall.
And Freedom waddled its way towards ARK.
And ARK kicked out Freedom's feet from under it.
And as Freedom hung in midair...
"I thought I told you:" Shadow sounded almost disappointed. "A sneak attack is a sneak attack. It's only a surprise ONCE!"
With a double-fisted attack, ARK knocked Freedom into the wall just under Emerl.
Sally picked herself up. "Sonic! Tails! He's wiping the floor with you!"
"It's over. You could have avoided a terrible fate if you surrendered your Gizoids and went back underground, but now, I will send you to the deepest pits! You're going straight to HELL! Chaos..."
The points on ARK's crown-like helmet glowed red, gathering together in a red sun hovering just over its head. ARK rotated its neck so that this energy cannon faced the dust cloud where Freedom and Emerl were hidden...
"...BLAST!"
The crimson energy attack tore into the cliff-face, turning the sky red.
Sally's heart fell into her stomach.
"Don't tell me those guys..." said Knuckles, using his hand to shield his eyes from the sunlight.
But when the smoke cleared, there were no traces of either Freedom or Emerl.
"They're gone?" Shadow said from within ARK. "They've mastered the art of running away, I see..."
Then the sun touched the horizon.
Sally could have sworn that ARK let out a sigh.
"Very well," said Shadow's voice as ARK slouched off into the distance. "Wherever you've hidden, we settle this tomorrow, blue hedgehog."
Sally sat their on her knees, stunned at the sheer power of the Gizoid she had just seen...
The sound of falling earth.
Sally looked in the direction of the sound.
There, emerging from a freshly-dug tunnel, were Freedom and Emerl.
She sighed in relief. They were safe.
That was all that mattered.
"Uhh... By the way, I'm Knuckles of the Wanderi—"
That was all that mattered.
"I'm sorry, but can you tell me later?"
Knuckles fell over in frustration.
テイルス
Tails sat shuddering in Emerl's cockpit. This guy was a lot more powerful than anything they could have imagined in their worst nightmares, and they would have died were it not for his digging a tunnel at the last moment.
I can't do this, he thought. I can't. This is too much... I can't keep fighting on the surface. I don't want to die, and I don't want to see Sonic die.
I don't want to end up like his dad...
つづく
To be continued...
次回予告
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Does having a lot of faces make you great? No way! Having a lot of souls doesn't make you great, either! Having a lot of burning souls is what counts!
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "That's What It Means To Be Partners".