(Chapter Twelve. Did you know that twelve is four times three? And that four is a bad luck number in Japan?
How about this? Lucus in the original Japanese version of Sonic X shares a voice actor with Kamina: Katsuyuki Konishi! Don't believe me? Check Sonic X's article on the Japanese Wikipedia!
Now, onto a story so evilly cut off last chapter...)
Tails could not believe what had just happened. A huge yellow Gizoid had burst out of the Great MetaFlare's deck and, quick as a flash, smashed Freedom - and Sonic - into the crater.
And Sonic was not sending out any signals that he was unhurt.
Or alive.
Sonic could not be gone... He had to still be alive...
I need him to believe in me, Tails thought.
"SONIC!" he cried, opening up a channel to Freedom.
Darkness.
And silence.
Tears spilled down Tails's cheeks.
His whole world shattered; without Sonic, he couldn't do anything.
Icy waves of despair swept over Tails and crushed his heart.
"SONIIIIC!"
And everything lit up in green.
僕はソニックにはなれない。
Over the course of the battle, the volcanoes had been spewing black soot and smoke into the clouds, darkening the sky even before midday.
And then every window and portal and weapons battery on the Great MetaFlare blazed like a green sun, every Black Arms and Gizoid aboard being blasted out of the mammoth Gizoid.
Just when the Great Freedom Fighters began to realize that something horribly wrong was happening apart from Sonic's fall...
The entire Great MetaFlare lit up in green light, and every Gizoid, friend and foe, was blasted away.
Fissures of emerald light opened up along the dry, rocky landscape, reaching out to every mountain in the distance.
And every volcano exploded.
The Great MetaFlare, its green glow now sated, lurched out of its crater, dragging its feet through the cracked earth, in the direction of one of the volcanoes.
The green fissures erupted with magma. The green energy had torn all the way down Möbius's crust and into the mantle.
"Wh-what's going on?" said Yellowzelkova in Baihuu's cockpit; this was beyond what he could have though would have happened from putting down the leader of these Möbians.
Shadow's face appeared in his eye. He looked alarmed.
"General, look out!"
And ARK-Cronus pushed Baihuu over.
Yellowzelkova was livid.
"Shadow! What was that for?"
And Great MetaFlare's swinging arm knocked ARK-Cronus beyond the horizon.
"Now where are you going, Shadow?" Yellowzelkova asked angrily.
生きる
Pain tore through his upper chest, as though someone had stuck a sword in there.
That wasn't too far from the truth.
The screens that weren't covered in blood were shattered from the impact by that old alien's giant axe-hammer, so he couldn't see who was talking. But he could guess.
"What the hell's going on?"
That was Knuckles.
"The Great MetaFlare has gone berserk!"
And that was Rotor.
"If it keeps going, it'll fall into the volcano!"
Pothead.
"Tails, calm down! Do you read me?"
Rotor again.
"But... Sonic? What about Sonic? SONIC!"
Sal.
Green eyes opened, blinking away blood that threatened to cake them shut, gloved hands pulling their owner up from the pool of blood he'd been engulfed in.
"Can't a guy get any sleep around here?" he wheezed.
His hands were bloody. And blurry. Or were his eyes blurry, and made his hands look blurry? How much blood did he lose?
It didn't matter.
It was time to tidy things up.
僕には何もできない。
King Knuckles, Eliastriker, and Acorn Cannon bolted after the Great MetaFlare as quickly as they could, but with the behemoth's greater stride, even dragging its heels as it was, it outpaced them greatly.
"Tails, stop!" shouted Elias into his channel to Emerl; Tails's head was bowed, his eyes hidden by his hair.
"TAILS!" screamed Sally from Acorn Cannon.
But Tails did not budge.
"It's hopeless..." he breathed, and neither Sally nor Elias - or anyone on the battlefield - had heard such despair before. "There's nothing... nothing... nothing I can do anymore."
And the Great MetaFlare kept moving towards the molten pit where it would meet its end in a few short seconds...
And then...
"Tails! Let's see you grit those teeth!"
Inside Emerl, Tails's face bolted up in joyous disbelief at that voice...
And saw Freedom's left fist flying towards him.
Emerl shook violently with the impact. Tails was bounced around the inside of Emerl's cockpit, landing on his seat upside-down.
The Great MetaFlare stopped in its tracks.
Through Great MetaFlare's systems, a channel opened up, showing...
Freedom, standing in the Great MetaFlare's path. Its right leg propped up under it as a makeshift crutch, its right arm clutching the stump of its left arm, the rest of which was laying next to Emerl, but it was still moving. And that meant one thing...
"Sonic! You're still alive!" A smile nearly split Tails's face in two.
Inside Acorn Cannon, Sally heard this exchange, and her heart sang.
"Sonic!" she cried, tears running down her cheeks.
Inside Emerl, Sonic's face appeared on Tails's interface; he had blood smeared across his face, and blood dribbled out of his mouth when he spoke, and his eyes had an odd green glint in them even though the lights in Freedom were now somewhat dim, but he was alive. Somehow, someway, he'd survived that crushing blow!
"Tails, who the hell do you think you are?"
Tails's heart was bouncing about in joy. He never thought he'd hear those words again.
Freedom pointed to the dark sky with its remaining hand.
"Aim for the top! Isn't your drill supposed to be the drill that's gonna pierce through the heavens and Möbius, to get through to tomorrow?"
Tails felt Sonic's faith in him pouring back into him like water into a pitcher, and his blue eyes sparkled with life again.
"What are you messing around for? We won, little bro! That big-ass robot belongs to you now! You don't have to worry about anything anymore!"
"Sonic...!" Tails said, still smiling widely. Then he pulled himself into the proper position to pilot Emerl - as in, not upside-down - and took the controls. "You got it!"
And the Great MetaFlare turned away from the volcano, faced the Great Freedom Fighters...
And struck a pose.
"Everyone, it's alright now!" Tails cried out in joy, using the Great MetaFlare's voice system. "This Great MetaFlare is ours now! Come aboard!"
トップをねらえ!
Silver was beside himself with joy as well.
"Rotor, he's alive! We did it!"
He turned to Rotor...
Who was frowning darkly at the display of the pilots' vitals.
Specifically, Freedom's pilot.
Silver followed Rotor's gaze...
"What... what does this mean?" Silver asked.
Rotor shook his head solemnly.
お前のXXXで天を衝け!
A twin blast of red and yellow energy sent the Great Freedom Fighters' Gizoid brigade flying.
Baihuu tore past them, blasting at the Great MetaFlare with his God And Devil attack, a full dozen Gizoids backing him up.
"You damn Möbians!" Yellowzelkova roared. "That Great MetaFlare was given to me by the Helix King when he made me General! I would sooner destroy it than see it fall into your hands!"
Sonic looked weary on Tails's display.
"That old weed don't know when to give up, does he?" He offered Tails a weak smile. "Tails? C'mon. Let's finish 'em all at once."
"Huh?"
"Let's combine. The last thing these Black Arms will see is the might of Freedom Emerl!"
"You got it, Sonic!" Tails pulled Emerl free from the Great MetaFlare, grabbing Freedom's left arm beside him, leaping down to the deck and taking Freedom's shades from where they had landed after Shadow tossed them at Sonic, and hurled it at the two Gizoids which were leaping at Freedom, smashing them to scrap.
"LET'S GO!" Sonic shouted, as Emerl's drill pierced into Freedom.
Freedom's left arm and right leg repaired themselves instantly as they elongated from Freedom's silver limbs to Freedom Emerl's yellow ones, all of the egregious damage that the Gizoid had sustained in this battle repairing itself in a second.
"We're brawlers sustained by sheer willpower, even when others call us crazy and reckless!" Freedom shouted in Sonic's voice.
"If there's a wall in our way, we smash it down!" Emerl shouted in Tails's voice. "If there's no path to follow, we carve one with these hands!"
Freedom Emerl held up one hand. And caught its boomeranging shades...
"The magma of our souls burns with a mighty flame!"
And replaced them on its chest!
"EVERLASTING COMBINING! FREEDOM EMERL!" they shouted together.
"Just who...?" Tails said.
"The hell...?" Sonic added.
"DO YOU THINK WE ARE?" they yelled in unison.
And, in a bizarre moment of perfect timing, the volcano behind them exploded with a burst of magma.
The Great Freedom Fighters roared in triumph; their leader was back in full force, and no Gizoid or Black Arms could take him down.
Inside Acorn Cannon, Sally smiled. "There's no one else like them."
Baihuu pointed at Freedom Emerl, "Hold nothing back! Kill them dead!"
The Gizoids charged.
"YOU MOOKS BETTER CLEAR OUT!" Sonic roared.
And every joint on Freedom Emerl glowed green, as though a green sunlike being were concealed beneath the invincible Gizoid's armor...
And drills like needles lashed out at the enemy Gizoids from these glowing points. One even emerged from Emerl's 'third eye'.
The enemy Gizoids exploded, and the drills mostly retracted.
Freedom Emerl was prickly like a hedgehog now.
"Damn you..." snarled Yellowzelkova, bringing up the Goldion Hammer, pointing the pike at the tip at Freedom Emerl. "I will finish you myself, then! God And Devil!"
A double-helix of red and yellow energy blasts lanced out at Freedom Emerl.
"That better not be all you got!" Sonic yelled, and Freedom Emerl's fist caught the blast, dispersing it harmlessly.
Yellowzelkova was, for the first time in this battle, truly frightened. "I-impossible!"
Tails's smile had never left his face through all this; Sonic was still with him, and he could still go on with Sonic there to believe in him.
And then...
"Listen, Tails. Never forget," breathed Sonic, the light leaving his eyes. "Believe in yourself. Not in the you who believes in me. Not in the me who believes in you. Believe in the you... who believes in you!"
"Sonic...?" Tails wondered what was wrong with Sonic.
Then Sonic...
Ripped off Freedom's shades and...
"FINISHING MOOOVE!"
Hurled them at Baihuu, and somehow the giant pair of crimson shades became two pairs of shades, both of them tearing into Yellowzelkova's personal Gizoid, one of them tearing off Baihuu's right arm at the elbow, the bulky Gizoid's right forearm falling with the Goldion Hammer, the twin shades binding the Gizoid's limbs together, pinning it in midair...
Then the drills elongated themselves again as Freedom Emerl pointed to the heavens with its right hand as Sonic shouted...
"Giga...!"
The drills retracted into Freedom Emerl's body, a drill three times the size of the heroic Gizoid emerging from its right hand...
"Drill...!"
Then Freedom Emerl pointed the Giga Drill at Baihuu, and it began to spin so rapidly that the earth itself beneath Freedom Emerl's feet began to crumble, and green energy began to emit from Freedom Emerl's feet, launching at Baihuu...
"DRIVER!"
And the Giga Drill Driver drove into Baihuu's chest, obliterating the Helix General Gizoid's entire torso, and Helix General Syne Yellowzelkova along with it, as Freedom Emerl passed straight through it and looped around, landing exactly where it had taken off from, the Giga Drill dispersing itself into green energy which dissipated in the air as Baihuu vanished in a final, definite explosion, the twin sets of shades becoming one again and affixing themselves to Freedom's chest again...
Tails was smiling at the defeat of Yellowzelkova...
When four words shook him to the core.
"See ya, big guy..."
Tails's eyes darted to Emerl's channel towards Freedom.
The screen was pitch-black.
"What was that, Sonic?" Tails asked nervously.
...
...
...
"...Sonic?"
ギガドリルドライバー
The rain came in torrents just moments after the battle ended.
The Great MetaFlare was theirs.
But even so...
Even so...
Once all the Great Freedom Fighters' Gizoids had gotten up onto its deck to meet with Sonic and Tails, Freedom's mouth slowly opened...
Sonic's eyes were closed, blood coating his lower jaw. His last smile was still on his face. A gash from his left shoulder to his right leg had been torn open by Baihuu's Goldion Hammer.
The rain mingled with Sally's tears.
Tails threw himself to the deck, screaming at the top of his lungs.
Knuckles and Espio bowed their heads in sorrow. Vector, Big, and Bark's lower jaws gaped. Mighty and Lobo hid their faces against their forearms.
Rotor slouched in defeat. Silver embraced Blaze, who was sobbing. Meg tried to console Marine, Charmy and Cream, who were all howling with grief.
The vitals of Freedom's pilot were dark and silent, even through to the defeat of Syne Yellowzelkova.
The falling raindrops were like tears on Emerl's face.
...
That day...
Möbius lost something which could not be replaced.
CHAPTER TWELVE:
See Ya, Big Guy
次回予告
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This is the tale of a man who continues to fight his destiny.
He lived a life of desire, loyalty, and extravagance.
He loved his companions, and he strove for freedom.
And then...
Suddenly...
He died.
But Tails is still alive.
He must go on living.
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl...