(Chapter Fourteen. Will things look up for Tails anytime soon? We'll soon find out!
Also, no spoilers in the comments WHATSOEVER. There are people reading this who haven't seen the anime (I think), and I would appreciate it if they could look in the comments without fear of the story being spoiled for them.
Thank you, and we now return to our story! Look for the reference to the anime's theme song!)
"This is the tale of a man who continues to fight his destiny.
"Tails fights viciously and ruthlessly, trying to distract himself from the hard blow of Sonic's death.
"In the chaos of the battle, Emerl goes berserk, pulling free from Freedom.
"Moving on its own, Emerl leaps into a misty valley.
"And at the bottom...
"The man will find his destiny."
ヒトっていったい何ですか?
Tails's eyes blinked open, and he was surrounded by mist. He was lying in something cold and wet and squishy.
Did I die? he thought. He sat up, wiping the mess from his mouth from when he'd pushed himself too far in Emerl.
For several minutes, the two-tailed fox boy sat there in the cold, relentless rain.
I don't think I died, he thought, looking around. I don't see anyone else. If I died... I would be with Sonic...
Eventually, being alive, Tails felt that he would need to get to Emerl eventually; Emerl was the only way to get back at those monsters who...
There it was.
Tails slid through the muddy earth to the Gizoid he'd dug up from the dirt, which had fallen on its side when it had leapt into the ravine. Tails could only assume he cracked his head when he landed, or he would not have had to wake up from unconsciousness.
"But... why did the controls stop working?" he asked himself, pushing Emerl upright. Slowly, he clambored into the pilot's seat, inserting the Core Drill and forcibly growling, "Spin Start!"
The spiral-shaped power meter glimmered, and Emerl hummed to life.
"It worked," Tails said. Thank you for small blessings, he thought. Those are the only ones I get.
And Emerl trudged up the mound of earth it had fallen besides not too long ago.
With the falling rain, and the mist that seemed to appear in the valley in this rain, Tails realized that the mound was higher than he'd initially thought.
When he reached the top, the sight before him startled him.
Dozens - maybe hundreds - of metal boxes, each slightly smaller than Emerl, littered the valley bottom, disappearing into the mist in either direction. Most of them were weathered with age, some of them so rusted that no trace of white metal was visible.
But all of them had hinges. And all of them were shut tightly.
Tails, still so shellshocked by the loss of Sonic, was absorbed in this sight.
His sensitive fox ears picked up a sound apart from the rain falling.
He looked up.
On the valley edge above him, a Gizoid - it had to be one; its silhouette was too clunky - threw out its arms and tossed a box into the valley. It was identical to the ones Tails had seen in every direction.
It bumped along the canyon wall, and slid to a stop less than a hundred feet from Tails.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
What, Exactly, Is A Person?
Tails stared at the box for a long time.
It couldn't be dangerous, Tails thought. All the other boxes were intact, if much older, so nothing potentially deadly could be inside.
And if there was...
Tails would just see Sonic again a lot sooner.
He slowly pulled himself out of Emerl, slowly walking through the soggy dirt to the metal box. He reached out and touched it.
It was warm.
And, just below the seam marking the spot where the box opened, was a gray latch, which bore in its center a small indentation.
Which was shaped identically to Emerl's activation slot.
And it pulsed green when Tails got near to it.
He knew what to do.
Automatically, as though it were the only natural thing to do, Tails strode back to Emerl and removed the Core Drill, Emerl going limp as Tails did so.
Taking slow steps towards the white metallic box, Tails slowly, determinately inserted the Core Drill.
And twisted.
The latch unbolted, and the box opened up on its hinge, white smoke and light pouring out.
Tails shielded his eyes in case the smoke was dangerous, but it dissipated after a few moments. His eyes still adjusting to the sudden flood of bright light, Tails looked into the box.
It was...
It was a girl.
But it was unlike any girl Tails had ever seen. She had no nose (or ears, it looked like), but her hair was the exact same shade of green as grass, with the buds of roses on either side of her head. She was in a green dress which bore a red gem in the center, with a white skirt shaped like a flower's pedal. Her feet were bare.
As the raindrops struck the plant girl's cheek, Tails wondered if the girl was...
No, she was breathing.
And her eyes were opening.
Blue...
Bright-blue...
Sky-colored eyes.
She looked momentarily confused (and sleepy), then she sat up slowly, resting her hands on either side of the box, giving Tails a slightly dazed stare.
Then...
The plant girl...
Smiled, and it was the warmest smile Tails had ever seen.
"Good day to you," she said softly, like a whisp of wind.
"G-g-good day...?" Tails stammered.
"What is your name, kind sir?" the girl asked.
"'K-kind sir'?" Tails waved his hands frantically. "I'm not anyone worth being called 'kind sir'."
But before Tails had even finished, the plant girl's expression brightened, and she looked about eagerly. She was particularly pretty now, looking so happy-...
Tails kicked himself inside. What was wrong with him?
"This is the outside?" asked the girl brightly, reaching up with her hands. "So this is rain!"
"Y-yeah...?"
Tails had no idea how to deal with a girl like this, who seemed to not know what life was like outside.
The girl stood up - she was rather petite - and leapt down out of the box; she was a half a head shorter than Tails.
"What is this?" she said, her toes kneading the mud at her feet.
"It's... mud," Tails said simply, wondering if, as a plant girl, she could draw nutrients from the soil.
"It's cold and wet and squishy..." the girl said, smiling. "It feels wonderful!"
"It... does?" Tails had never squashed around his feet in the mud (partly because anthros like himself, Sonic, and Sally simply didn't have toes), but his impression became even stronger now that plant-people like this girl could draw nutrients from earth, which was probably why this girl liked it so much and now her hands were on either side of his face and she was gazing at him in wonder... close enough to kiss him.
Her hands felt so good there...
"Your fur is so soft," she said.
What was he supposed to say to that?
She continued, "You have blue eyes and you do not have feathers or scales. You are so much like me."
"O-of course; it's because I'm a person," he replied. This girl was either really out of it, or she was really sheltered.
"A... 'person'?" the girl asked, clearly confused, stepping back. "And... what, exactly, is a person?"
"W-well..." How are you supposed to explain that to someone? "Y-you see, a person is like... you and me."
"Really? There are more wonderful people like you?"
"H-how can you think I'm wonderful? We've just met."
"You let me out of this box."
"I didn't know you were in it."
"You could have ignored it."
"I... suppose..."
"There are... there are more people like you, right?"
"Y-yeah. Lots more."
"Many more? And they're all like you?" The girl looked slightly worried suddenly. "Do they all have the same face?"
Tails shook his head vigorously, a small laugh escaping in spite of himself. Suddenly, he realized he was smiling. "No, no, no. It would be creepy if everyone had the same face."
The girl sighed slightly, a beam of light shining down on her. "That is a relief. It struck me as wrong that no one person would have their own personhood."
"'P-personhood'? Is that even a word?"
The girl looked up, smiling. "Oh, look! The rain stopped."
"It did?"
The girl was right. Ever since he'd unsealed the box she was in, the sky had been getting gradually brighter, the fall of rain had gotten steadily less to the point of nothing, and now, blue sky shown down on the now mistless valley. In that entire week of rain, Tails had quite forgotten that it was daytime when the last Gizoid attack came.
"I wonder why I am outside?" the girl pondered aloud.
"I don't know," Tails said.
He shook his head slightly. Snap out of it, Tails!
"I gotta get you out of here," he said, pulling off his red-white high-tops. "Here. Put these on. Your feet are probably cold."
The girl stared down at the shoes. "The mud is quite nutritious here, but..." She smiled at him. "If you are so kind as to lend me those shoes to me, I will gladly use them." She took them in her hands, hopped up onto the edge of the box, and pulled them on.
She smiled at Tails. "I never introduced myself, did I? My name is Cosmo. And your name is...?"
"My name...?" Tails's face was burning, and he didn't know why. "It's... well, back home, my parents named me Miles Prower, but... everyone I know calls me Tails."
"Tails..." Cosmo smiled. "That's a nice name."
"Th-thank you."
Cosmo stared at Tails's feet.
"What is it?"
"Your toes... What happened to them?" She asked fearfully.
"What?" Tails held up a bare foot and flexed it. "Me and others like me don't have toes. I don't know why, but... the humans have them."
"What, exactly, is a human?"
Tails gave her a slightly weary smile. "Maybe we should wait till we get back to answer your questions."
Cosmo looked suddenly fearful, pointing past Tails's shoulder. "Tails, what's that?"
Tails turned.
It was a Gizoid. Blue, shark-like, it roared at the two, swinging with a large arm.
Tails grabbed Cosmo and pulled her from the box, tearing towards Emerl as the Gizoid smashed Cosmo's box.
"That's a Gizoid! It's a giant robot, and there are a lot of them, and the Möbians are at war with them!" he shouted back at Cosmo.
"'Möbians'? At 'war'?"
"Möbians are my people! And 'war' means that if we don't fight, they'll kill us!"
Tails leapt into Emerl, Cosmo sitting at his shoulder. She was alarmed at the sight of dried vomit on Emerl's console, but chose to ignore it for now.
He inserted the Core Drill.
"Come on, Emerl! Spin Start!"
The spiral gauge lit up, and Emerl stood erect.
"It worked!" Tails smiled, and Cosmo's scream of alarm told him that the enemy Gizoid had almost reached them.
Closing Emerl's canopy - Cosmo fell to Tails's side - Tails leapt at the Gizoid, yelling manically because a Gizoid killed Sonic and Gizoids fighting killed his mom and dad and he wanted to make it pay and
And Emerl's spiral gauge cut out again, the miniature Gizoid seizing up as green energy burst out of its joints.
The shark Gizoid looked puzzled, then punched Emerl out of the air.
Emerl's canopy opened up when it hit the ground, Cosmo falling on top of Tails.
"Tails! Get up, please, Tails!" she cried out to him.
"Damn it..."
In the light, Cosmo saw how hollow Tails's cheeks were, and the droop to his muzzle fur.
Tails stared into the empty sky.
"Damn it... Why won't you do what I tell you to... EMERL?"
Tails stood up like a puppet, his face empty of any emotion, his eyes staring at his feet as he lifelessly trudged towards the fallen Emerl.
"Run, Cosmo," he said forcefully. "Run away, and don't look back. I don't want this to happen to you."
"But Tails...!"
Tails found his digging drill. "They take away everyone I love. They took my mom from me. They took my dad from me. They even took Sonic from me!" He pointed the drill at the shark Gizoid. "I don't care what happens to me... JUST SO LONG AS NO ONE ELSE DIES!"
The shark Gizoid opened its mouth, a missile emerging from a port beneath the Black Arms's cockpit.
So be it. As long as Cosmo got away, it would be alright if Tails died facing this thing...
He would be with Sonic...
Warm hands clasped around his.
Tails whipped around.
Cosmo had a very serious look on her face.
"Are you afraid to die?" she asked him. "You are not someone who should die now."
"No!" Tails said defiantly. "I'm not afraid to die!"
"You mustn't lie, either," she said.
Then she smiled.
"Let's run away... together!"
Tails couldn't really argue with her; for some reason, she had a great effect on him, and he just went along with what she was asking of him.
So Tails and Cosmo ran, just as the shark Gizoid fired off its missile.
They would never make it. It was gonna catch them...
Acorn Cannon leapt into the canyon, firing at the missile.
"I'm not gonna let anyone else die!" shouted Sally's voice from within Acorn Cannon. The missile exploded a good distance away from Tails and Cosmo.
"I'm here, too!" shouted Knuckles, his King Knuckles leaping down, its spearhead-shaped head on a beeline for the shark Gizoid, which had only enough time to drop its jaw in shock before...
"TITANIUM HEAD DRIVER!" The King Knuckles drove itself into the Gizoid's mouth. Pulling itself onto its own feet, King Knuckles looked up at the flailing shark Gizoid with green eyes. "Let's hope you're good in math, Black Arms, 'cause here's a little lesson in... DIVISION!"
King Knuckles's pointed cone split into five dreadlocks, shattering the enemy Gizoid. The shrapnel exploded.
"How was that for a finishing move?" Knuckles grinned.
Inside Acorn Cannon, Sally turned her eyes to the screen showing Tails and that strange plant-looking girl that was currently holding his hand.
Who is that girl? Sally thought, glaring. She looks like she's the same species as that guy we took the Great MetaFlare from. But... that Gizoid attacked her. Who is she...?
「萌え」っていったい何ですか?
In the Great Freedom's dining hall, every member of the Great Freedom Fighters had been brought forward to meet the girl whom Tails had found in a box. Everyone but Tails, Sally, Silver, Blaze, and Bean.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Cosmo. It is wonderful to meet you all," she said cheerfully.
"So, he runs off in the middle of a battle, and comes back with a girl on his arm?" muttered Vector. Then he smirked, "I oughta retreat more often!"
"This is no laughing matter, Vector," Espio said curtly. "We do not know where this girl-..."
"I was just joking, Espio! Sheesh!"
"Although, I will admit that she is rather easy on the eyes," Espio conceded.
Cosmo, her introduction wrapped up, was now looking about the people in the Great Freedom Fighters. "Some people are fat, some are thin, some are round, some are angular. And everyone's a different color. People really do come in all shapes and sizes!"
"So..." Elias began. "You've never seen another person before in your life?"
"Only my father and my aunts, and his servants and bodyguards."
"Bodyguards? You mean, your father is rich?" said Knuckles, suddenly very interested.
"What does 'rich' mean?"
Knuckles's eyebrow twitched.
"You're joking, right? Rich is when you have a really big home and a lot of stuff!"
"Well, then, I suppose my father is rich. Our home was quite expansive."
Meg approached. "Your cup of tea, Ms. Cosmo?"
Cosmo sipped from it. She smiled brightly, "You make a marvelous tea, Ms. Meg!"
Meg smiled; it looked a little awkward. "Th-thank you, Ms. Cosmo." She stepped back into the crowd.
Cosmo took another sip of Meg's tea. "It really is a fine tea."
"So, do you remember any details about your village?" Rotor asked.
"'Village'?" Cosmo asked.
"The place where you live."
Cosmo looked down at her feet. She'd stopped smiling. "I don't know. I've never been outside before. My father said that the outside world was a very dangerous place."
"Well, he was right about that," Elias said. "With all these Gizoids and all. Your father must be worried sick about you."
"I don't... think so," Cosmo said.
This drew a fair bit of attention.
"I... fear that I made my father angry."
"What do you mean?"
"Well... one day, I asked my father, 'Why was I born?'. And at that point, I felt..." Cosmo closed her eyes. "That Father had closed his heart to me."
"Your father sounds like a strange man," Rotor said.
BafBaf!そんなに燃えるのが…好きかい?
Silver finally found Tails inside the Great Freedom's hangar, looming in front of Emerl.
"Emerl..." Tails growled. "Are you going... to abandon me, too?"
Then he ripped off his Core Drill, throwing it to the floor.
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, DAMNIT?" he screamed. "CAN'T I EVEN GET A CHANCE TO AVENGE SONIC'S DEATH?"
Silver felt the urge to say something - anything - to try to make Tails feel better about this situation.
When a hand grabbed his shoulder. He turned.
"Sally?"
"Don't," she said simply. Sadly. "Nothing you can say will help him. You'll only make the hole in his heart bigger."
And the Great Freedom shook.
Silver and Sally fell, as did Tails.
Back in the dining room...
"What's going on?" Elias asked.
"We'd better ask about that on the bridge!" Rotor said, he and Elias bolting to the elevator that would take them to the bridge.
Once there, they faced Blaze, on radar duty. She was gaping out one of the two window-ports that doubled as the Great Freedom's eyes.
"What was that?" Rotor asked.
"Where's all this water coming from?" asked Bean frantically, pointing out the two windows.
Indeed, walls of water higher than the Great Freedom itself had surrounded the vessel.
Blaze shouted, "Wait! There's something coming on the radar! It's huge..."
From the wall of water directly in front of the Great Freedom, a tremendous, dark-red centipede made entirely out of metal emerged. A pair of crab pincers emerged from the water as well, indicating a larger midsection behind it.
海中潜行要塞型ギゾイド
グレイトメタシー
Submarine Fortress Gizoid
Great MetaSea
Standing atop the vessel's head, as large as Baihuu was, was a Gizoid the color of old blood, with three orange orbs on its body: one in its chest, one in the middle of its head, and a very small one just over that one. It had black highlights around its shoulder pads, a cape the color of fresh blood, and horns coming out of its back and out of its head.
ウンデニン・レッドパイン専用カスタムギゾイド
キンロン
Undenine Redpine's Exclusive Use Custom Gizoid
Qyinlone
The enemy Gizoid leapt onto the Great Freedom's deck.
"There's no escape, Möbians!" came a menacing voice from the enemy Gizoid.
In the dining room...
Cosmo looked shocked as the voice rang through the vessel.
But not the same sort of shocked as everyone else.
"I know that voice..." she said, running out of the room.
On the bridge...
"OPEN FIRE ON THE ENEMY!" screamed Bean, smashing the button that controlled the guns. Again. And again. And again.
Nothing happened. Bean pounded still more fiercely.
"The guns haven't been calibrated yet, Bean," Elias said, palming his face.
Rotor activated the PA system. "Silver! Get into Freedom right away! There's a-..."
Down in the hangar...
"I got it, Rotor!" said Silver, Freedom's mouth already closing around him. "I can see it! I'm gonna have to wait for Tails and Emerl, though."
For Tails had crouched in front of Emerl, facing the outside.
"I am one of Helix King Lucus Darkoak's Four Helix Generals: Undenine Redpine!" shouted the red Gizoid outside. "You filthy Möbians have been having your way with Syne's Great MetaFlare for too long! The sight of my undeterrable Great MetaSea, and my personal Gizoid, the Qyinlone, will be your last!"
The Qyinlone began to stomp forwards across the Great Freedom's deck.
Sally, holding Nicole, paused momentarily to look at Tails, then decided, I should distract Redpine long enough for Tails to get a hold of himself and into Emerl...!
She bolted outside.
A few moments later, Tails heard the sound of his shoes running across the hangar floor.
And he remembered: Cosmo was still wearing them.
He looked up.
Cosmo.
Was running.
Onto.
The deck.
Where.
An enemy Gizoid.
Was waiting.
"Cosmo!" he called after her.
Cosmo ran past Sally, who was firing with Nicole at the Qyinlone. Sally's eyes widened, "Wh... Is she trying to get herself killed?"
Cosmo stopped less than twenty feet from the Qyinlone.
It stopped.
Cosmo put out her arms.
"Stop this, General Redpine!" she said sternly. "Do you not know who I am?"
Everyone froze.
Inside Qyinlone, Undenine Redpine was stunned.
"It can't be... Is that...?"
And with Cosmo's next words, everything changed.
"First Princess Cosmo Darkoak, daughter of Helix King Lucus Darkoak, commands you to leave, Undenine Redpine!"
つづく
To be continued...
次回予告
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Memories...
Are they what tie people down...?
Or are they what set people free?
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "Who Is This 'Sonic'?"