(Chapter Nine! This is a special chapter to me, because episode 7 was the first episode I saw of the series Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It and episode 8 (;_;) were the episodes playing in Anime Club the meeting after I joined, so those episodes are particularly special to me.
Also, just so it's clear to reviewers and readers who've seen the anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, I intend to follow the canon storyline. Granted, the manga and movies are influencing certain plot ideas (ie: omitting episode 4), but all in all, I am sticking to the canon story development.)
"This is the tale of a man who has yet to realize what his destiny is.
"Days of fruitless searching pass as the Freedom Fighters searched for the enemy recall point.
"Just as they prepared to resume their journey after foiling an underhanded hot spring trap set by a Gizoid, a familiar old foe appeared before them.
"This was the beginning of a new set of trials."
CHAPTER NINE:
You Don't Get Anywhere By Running Away!
Freedom Emerl clashed its shades against the ARK-Cronus's twin black blades, the two Gizoids spinning around each other, looking for an opening in their opponent's line of defense.
"You're being real understanding..." called out Sonic to Shadow, from Freedom Emerl to ARK-Cronus, green eyes glinting behind red shades, "I mean, giving us the time to get dressed like this!"
Inside the cockpit of his downgraded Gizoid, Shadow cocked his head. "Defeating a band of naked filthy animals would not earn me any honors."
Freedom Emerl and ARK-Cronus's blades locked, and - much to Sonic and Tails, and all of the Freedom Fighters' dismay - Shadow managed to deflect Freedom Emerl's shades. The headless enemy Gizoid grabbed Freedom Emerl by the arm.
"We warriors of the Capital prize decorum above all else!" shouted Shadow as ARK-Cronus hurled Freedom Emerl into the air.
"The Capital?" Sonic asked.
Tails's face appeared on one of Freedom's monitors. "That hot springs Gizoid mentioned the Capital, too! That must be their base, Sonic!"
ARK-Cronus crouched, ready to pounce. Shadow's voice took on a more threatening tone.
"A 'base'? It is not so insignificant as a meer base!" he cried, leaping up on to Freedom Emerl even as the heroic Gizoid fell, attempting to drive one of his swords into Freedom's mouth, but Sonic's Gizoid clamped its jaws shut at the last moment.
The two Gizoids impacted into the dry dirt, creating a crater.
"The Capital is unique, and eternal!" ARK-Cronus bellowed in Shadow's voice. "It is ruled by the one and only Helix King, and is the sole example of civilization on the surface!"
"Helix King?" breathed Tails.
"Civilization?" asked Sonic.
ARK-Cronus brought both of its swords up, prepared to bisect the stolen Gizoid.
"Sonic!" cried out Sally, Meg, Blaze, and Marine.
"Look out!" shouted Rotor.
Freedom Emerl stood bolt upright, drills emerging from either side of each of its fists, catching the blades just in time.
"Damn you..." snarled Shadow. ARK-Cronus's eyes locked on to Emerl's crown-like warrior crest. "Return my helmet to me this instant!"
Sonic scoffed.
"You mean after all that fighting, that's all you want?"
And with a twist of its wrists, Freedom Emerl shattered ARK-Cronus's blades. Black shards fell about into the cracked earth.
In his cockpit, Shadow was momentarily stunned that a lowly blue hedgehog in a stolen Gizoid could break his swords again.
But he quickly recovered.
He had the might of one of the Four Helix Generals behind him.
"You seem determined to make a complete and utter enemy of the Capital," he growled, pushing a small button on his console, signalling the fortress. "Now... face the power of the Capital!"
Over the mountains, the sun seemed to flare, and Sonic and his fellow Freedom Fighters pondered for a moment just how powerful their foe was...
When they realized that it was not a flare from the sun, but a bullet the size of a Gizoid.
ARK-Cronus leapt aside. Freedom Emerl dodged in the opposite direction...
And was knocked off of its feet by the explosion.
Bullets didn't explode.
That was a missile.
The Freedom Fighters hid behind a boulder from the remains of the hot spring to avoid being crushed by Freedom Emerl.
"What the hell was that?" asked Sally.
When the dust and dirt brought up from Freedom Emerl's impact settled, everyone looked in the direction of the blast.
A mountain was moving.
"A mountain...?" Silver raised an eyebrow.
Freedom Emerl brought itself up to its knees.
"A mountain?" asked Tails.
"Since when do mountains shoot at you?" demanded Sonic.
A mountain with legs approached. An earthquake rumbled with each footstep.
"It's moving!" Silver shouted.
"What?" said Sonic.
Flashes and bangs came from the mountain. Freedom Emerl was sent flying.
Sonic tried to push Freedom Emerl to its feet.
"What could have this kind of firepower?" he asked.
And then he heard ARK-Cronus approaching.
Well, he thought. As if things could be worse...
"Do you now know... the power of the Capital?" asked Shadow, as ARK-Cronus placed its hands on either side of the bladed crest where its head was, and with a great effort, pulled it free.
An emergency third sword.
"Yikes," said Sonic as Freedom Emerl dodged ARK-Cronus's attack with its new third sword.
"Give my helmet back to me!" Shadow called again.
"No way! This helmet's part of Freedom Emerl now!" Sonic said, Freedom Emerl holding its shades out like a sword. "You be happy with that mohawk you're swinging around!"
"That is enough of your insolence," said Shadow, replacing the crest blade between ARK-Cronus's shoulders and stepping back.
And as the mountain stepped closer, they realized something.
This was not a natural creation.
This was a machine.
A Gizoid.
A large, yellow humanoid that stood as high as twenty-seven Freedom Emerls, with very wide hips that made up the bladed prow as long as the Gizoid was tall, came to a stop just twenty-three Freedom Emerls away from the Freedom Fighters, its prow casting a dark shadow over them.
"It's huge!" Sally gasped.
"It's so big!" breathed Meg.
"So awe-inspiring..." said Blaze.
"It's bloody massive!" cried Marine.
"What a behemoth..." Silver said.
"Well... This is a problem..." Rotor mumbled.
ARK-Cronus raised an arm to gesture at the goliath Gizoid which had just arrived. "See this, blue hedgehog? This is the mobile fortress Gizoid, Great MetaFlare!"
巨大地上戦艦型ギゾイド
グレイトメタフレア
Ground Mobile Fortress Gizoid
Great MetaFlare
Tails's heart stopped.
"S-Sonic! Th-that thing is just too big for us!"
In Freedom, Sonic just smirked.
"This'll be interesting," he said.
Outside, Rotor's handheld on his belt began to beep rapidly, and comprehension dawned on him.
He paled.
Rotor grabbed his handheld and typed away on it, only confirming the truth.
"This is bad," he said, already knowing that that was the biggest understatement of his life. "This Gizoid is the recall point. It overlaps perfectly with Freedom's point of origin that we've been searching for for weeks. It makes sense, given that it was moving around. The base itself is a Gizoid!"
The face on the headless behemoth's chest - identified by its large glowing eyes that, from this vantage point, would likely have spanned Freedom Emerl's arm-span, and its glowing teeth - began to move in time to a voice.
"You seem to be having a bit of trouble, Shadow," the Great MetaFlare said.
ARK-Cronus bowed.
"My apologies, sir," said Shadow.
"It looks like there's someone in there, Sonic," Tails said.
Freedom Emerl began to step towards the Great MetaFlare.
Quickly, Sally tuned in the mic she had to Freedom's frequency and shouted, "Sonic, get back! That has to be the boss of the Black Arms!"
Sonic ignored her.
"No one's ever cast such a big shadow over me before," he smirked. "Don't think you're going home unscathed, pal!"
In Emerl, Tails was shaking. "Sonic, maybe we should listen to what he's saying and go back!" Tails gulped loudly at the prow of the Great MetaFlare, looming a hundred feet over his head. "W-we're no match for something this big!"
"We're gonna knock him on his ass because he's so big!" Sonic retorted.
"What's the matter, Möbians? Lost your nerve?" asked Shadow in ARK-Cronus.
"Butt out, stripey!" Sonic snapped back.
Freedom Emerl looked back up at the Great MetaFlare's face, focusing on one particular eye; Sonic thought he'd seen something moving in there.
"You Möbians have gotten too high and mighty in coming to the surface, and by persisting in staying above ground, have incurred the wrath of the Helix King," said the Great MetaFlare.
There! Sonic saw a horned figure in the Great MetaFlare's right eye.
Sonic yelled up at the silhouette in the window, "We see you up there, you Black Arms bastard!"
"I am not a Black Arms!" shouted the figure, the floor beneath him rising up and bringing him through a hole in the roof of Great MetaFlare's command center, allowing him to be seen clearly.
Neither Sonic nor Tails, nor, indeed, any of the Freedom Fighters, had never seen a creature like this before. He had no fur covering his greenish-yellow skin, only grass-green hair that may actually have been grass growing from his head. It may have been grass, because the figure had two horns that resembled thorns on either side of his head. He had no nose or ears, but he did have a tail. He only wore an orange jacket.
"Do not compare me to those creatures!" said the plantlike man. "I am one of the Helix King's Four Helix Generals..."
螺旋四天王の一人
シン・イエローゼルコヴァ
One of the Four Helix Generals
Syne Yellowzelkova
"And I am known as Syne Yellowzelkova! I and my fellow Generals command the Black Arms, and we obey only the Helix King! And in my Great MetaFlare, I shall punish you for coming to the surface, foolish Möbians!"
The Great MetaFlare brought its weaponry around to bear, firing rounds of deadly ammunition at Freedom Emerl. ARK-Cronus retreated to one of the Great MetaFlare's feet, which sprung open and revealed an elevator shaft up the Gizoid's leg.
The great Gizoid was knocked back, its two pilots being thrown about their respective cockpits before landing on the earth less than twenty feet from Sally.
"C'mon, run this way now!" she called out.
But when Freedom Emerl pulled itself up, instead of running away, it ran towards the Great MetaFlare again, Sonic yelling, "Son of a...!"
"Stop!" Sally yelled, but Sonic either didn't hear or didn't care.
Every cannon on the Great MetaFlare's prow lit up like miniature suns, and Freedom Emerl vanished in a cloud of black choking smoke. Fear and uncertainty stayed Sally, the only signs that Sonic was still alive being Sonic's occasional yell from out of the smoke.
"Do you Möbians seriously believe you can take us down by stealing our Gizoids?" asked Yellowzelkova over the din. "You can try to steal as many Gizoids as you want, but all of them are ineffectual against my Great MetaFlare!"
Eventually, the firing ceased, and the smoke cleared in the wind, and... Freedom Emerl was still standing there. Its arms were braced around its chest, and there were several torn metal plates across its body, but it was clear that Sonic and Tails were still alive.
"Who's the real 'ineffectual' one here, sprout?" Sonic asked, sounding like he'd run a mile. "That didn't hurt at all." Freedom Emerl shook its fist. "Don't mess with Freedom Emerl!"
And fell to its knees.
In Freedom's cockpit, Sonic was struggling to pull the controls up to force Freedom Emerl back to its feet.
Tails appeared in the corner of his eye. "It's no good! Our left leg is damaged!"
ARK-Cronus appeared on another screen. "Are you prepared to surrender, blue hedgehog?"
Sally appeared over ARK-Cronus. "Come on, Sonic! If you're going to retreat once in your life, make this it!"
Silver appeared next to Tails. "Sonic, I suggest that we withdraw for now and prepare a more detailed strategy."
Tails chimed in again, "I think we're in real trouble this time."
Every word spoken only drove Sonic's anger higher and higher, and then, finally...
The smirk disappeared.
"Are you kidding me?" he yelled, slamming a fist onto Freedom's console. "Never look back, never retreat, never surrender! That's how me and Tails see the world!"
"Sonic!" Sally shouted again.
"No more talk!" Sonic shouted, clenching the controls as tightly as he could, green sparks flying out of them as every screen blazed with green light.
In Emerl...
"Why are you dragging me into this?" Tails asked as every screen flooded with emerald lights.
From outside, green light appeared to flow out from every joint and broken spot on Freedom Emerl's body, and in a burst of emerald energy, the yellow Gizoid was as good as new.
"Huh? I-it fixed itself!" Tails said in awe, looking down at the machine. Freedom was now sparkling.
"It's the fighting spirit!" said Sonic on Tails's monitor with enough vehemence to frighten Kukku into producing an exclamation point from his head.
Sonic's face was set in determination.
"You don't get anywhere by running away!" he said in a set tone.
Sally's face on one of Freedom's monitor was exasperated. "Fine! See if I care! You blockhead!"
"Who asked you? Get clear!" Sonic shouted at her before thrusting with the controls, and Freedom Emerl bolted forward.
The Great MetaFlare opened fire on the charging Gizoid, but the ensuing blasts began to stretch back to the Freedom Fighters, prompting Rotor to grab Sally by the arm and drag her away from the battlefield.
"I can run on my own, Rotor!" she shouted. Rotor let her go.
"We have to get away from the battlefield. Sonic can handle himself against that inside Freedom Emerl, but we can't," Rotor said.
After a few minutes, they reached a valley at the edge of the nearby mountain range. At the top, they could see the tops of trees.
Using Rotor's binoculars to try to see the action on the Great MetaFlare, Sally found herself thinking, Don't get yourself killed, Sonic...
合体なんてクソくらえ!
"There's no way we can get up there, Sonic!" Tails said as Freedom Emerl ran back and forth underneath the huge Gizoid, where there were blind spots in the Great MetaFlare's weapon banks.
"I have an idea!" Sonic said, and Freedom Emerl ran back out from underneath Great MetaFlare.
On the prow of the Great MetaFlare, ARK-Cronus peered down at the stolen Gizoid, standing there like a statue. In plain view of every one of the Great MetaFlare's turrets.
"Oh? Have you decided to give up, blue hedgehog?" Shadow called down to the idiot blue hedgehog.
And in a mushroom cloud from a full barrage of Great MetaFlare's missiles engulfed Freedom Emerl.
Looking up into the explosion, Shadow saw Freedom Emerl, still intact, but blasted high into the air by the force of the blast.
"Your resistance was brave, but doomed to fail," he said, in eulogy of the fallen blue hedgehog. "The Great MetaFlare's combined barrage will now reduce you to charred scrap!"
Shadow could not have known at that moment that, actually, Sonic and Tails were alive and well, and were prepared to put Sonic's idea into action.
Freedom Emerl flipped into a battle-ready position, and Shadow realized that they were still active... and in a position to land on the Great MetaFlare's prow.
"Impossible!" he cried.
Behind him, in the Great MetaFlare's bridge, General Yellowzelkova roared, "Fire, fire, FIRE!"
Shadow removed his bladed crest in the event that the blue hedgehog made it through the Great MetaFlare's missile massacre and came to him.
Freedom Emerl dove through the missile blasts towards the ARK-Cronus, an energy shield generated by Sonic's sheer force of will deflecting the destructive energy of the missiles. Suddenly, the Gizoid erupted into flames.
In a moment of panic, Shadow hurled his blade at Freedom Emerl, but the flames deflected it into the Great MetaFlare's deck.
Sonic's yell rang out.
"Burning Man's..." Freedom Emerl angled its leg toward ARK-Cronus. "Blazing Chariot... KIII~ICK!"
Freedom Emerl impacted fully into ARK-Cronus, carving a burned valley into the deck of the Great MetaFlare's prow, leaving ARK-Cronus half-buried while Freedom Emerl's flames died out and the great Gizoid collapsed to its knees following that dramatic attack.
燃える男の火の車キック
Silver, now the one who was looking through Rotor's binoculars, was slightly put off by those billowing clouds of smoke from the deck of the Great MetaFlare.
"Something doesn't seem right..." he said.
"Is Sonic alright? I hope he did not die," said Blaze.
"I can't tell," Silver said.
"No way would Sonic cark it!" Marine said, shaking a fist.
"But there was that huge explosion..." said Rotor uncertainly.
CRASH
An earthquake landed nearby.
The Freedom Fighters faced it.
"It's the Gizoid from the hot springs trap!" screamed Meg.
So it was.
"General Yellowzelkova will be quite irritated that I attempted to take hostages," it said. "But a Black Arms has to do what it can to do achieve results."
Sally fired on it with her pistol, but after six shots, she'd emptied her clip.
"If only I had Nicole with me!" she lamented.
The Gizoid had managed to back them to a corner of the canyon.
"There's nowhere to run!" Blaze called in alarm.
And just as the Gizoid opened its third eye to blast them...
A mechanized voice shouted "TITANIUM HEAD DRIVER!" and a Gizoid with a spiked head dove straight down into the enemy Gizoid's head, flipping onto its legs and then splitting its spiked head into five dreadlock-looking components, causing the enemy Gizoid to explode.
"A Gizoid... saved us?" Sally said.
"It doesn't seem to be an enemy," said Silver.
"But, its red plating looks a little haphazard," Rotor noted.
Sally called out to it. "If you aren't an enemy, go help Sonic!" It turned to face her. "He needs whatever help he can get! Lend us your power!"
The Gizoid's mouth opened, and a dreadlocked figure stepped out - Meg, Blaze, and Marine gasped and smiled - and Knuckles The Echidna smirked and asked, "What's that idiot Sonic up to now?"
つづく
To be continued...
次回予告
Next Episode Preview
Sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do. Someday, someplace, maybe here, maybe there, you'll come across a great chance! Whether you live or die is up to your ability!
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "That's Why You're Gonna Do It!"
(This chapter was editted on June 17th 2010, because I accidentally wrote 'Sine' when this was initially posted, instead of 'Syne'. I reversed the Thymine-Sylph thing; Thymilph in the series got Thymine and Sylph; Yellow Zelkova here gets Sylph and Thymine. Make sense?)