(Chapter Sixteen. This chapter is a real doozy, it turns out. But, I had a lot of stuff to work in. Also, look for a surprise or two, and some foreshadowing.
BTW, I got Gurren Lagann The Movie: Childhood's End in the mail on Wednesday; the day after the last chapter was posted. How about that timing, huh?)
"The enemy Gizoids are overwhelming us!" Blaze shouted from the radar console. "Enemy troops have landed on the deck!"
"Shake 'em off, Ari!" Elias shouted to the ram at the helm.
"Easier said than done!" Ari replied. "It's a hailstorm in every direction, and our legs are still sunken!"
Elias's hope began to fade.
Is this the end?
燃えてばかりでいいのかい?
Cosmo stared down at the billowing clouds of smoke emerging from where the Great Freedom was mere moments before. She knew that the bombardment from Salasine's flying Gizoids would not be enough to destroy it, but still...
A flying camera displayed Salasine's sneering face to Cosmo. She frowned.
"Perhaps you should be more worried about yourself?" he quipped.
"Why?" Cosmo asked angrily. "Why is Father doing this? Why has he cast me out?"
"Entertainment," came another voice.
Cosmo turned.
Gnonine's face was being projected as well, and he wore a sinister smile.
"Lucus and the four of us had been gifted with immunity to the effects of age," Gnonine said. "We have all lived over two-thousand years now, and most of that on this planet Möbius. Inevitably, we all developed hobbies. Syne developed a fondness for spicy food and jogging for scores of miles a day. Undenine took to swimming. Salasine has his penchant for admiring his reflection. I took to puzzles and battle simulations. And Lucus...
"Creating and raising children is a pastime to Lucus. And when he grows tired of one, he disposes of it." Gnonine leaned close, his grin showing many teeth. "Just like he would a doll."
Cosmo's heart turned to ice.
"A doll...?" she breathed. Memories flashed through Cosmo's mind of when her favorite doll had fallen apart, but when she presented it to her father, he merely presented her with a doll identical to it, disposing of the old one. Worn-out dolls must be thrown away, he'd said.
"I understand that you asked him, 'Why was I born?', Princess," Gnonine continued. "That was a bad move."
"Of course your father would hate you," said Salasine. "Why would a doll, a play-thing, need self-awareness?"
"I was just... a doll... to him?" Cosmo said, tears stinging her eyes.
"Exactly!" sneered Salasine and Gnonine.
"And this beautiful doll shall meet her end up here in the beautiful sky!" Salasine held Cosmo up in Zheuque's right hand.
And several flying cameras turned on her, projecting images of the Zheuque from every angle all across the Great Freedom far below, and to every village above and below the surface across the planet Möbius.
"Attention, Möbians!" Salasine called out, bringing his mirror-staff to bear in his left hand. "The heart-stopping show is about to begin. The public execution of First Princess Cosmo Darkoak, for the crime of standing up to her father, the Helix King! This punishment shall fall on the head of anyone who refuses to follow the King's will!"
But there, on a camera from above Cosmo, looking down on Zheuque's left leg, could be seen a small orange blur on the otherwise pristine blackness of Zheuque's body. The camera zoomed in.
It was a two-tailed orange fox boy, wearing digging goggles, a blue jacket bearing on its back a flaming skull with pointed shades, gloves, red-and-white shoes, and a fierce determination on his face. He held fast to Zheuque's leg by impaling it with a small drill made of emerald in one hand, and a larger hand drill in the other.
Everyone in the Great Freedom Fighters recognized him.
But could not believe their eyes...
"It can't be..." Sally said, looking up from her perch over Redpine and his Black Arms. "Is that...?"
Cosmo smiled in bright relief, looking down. "Tails...!"
Tails began to climb up Zheuque's leg, his two drills like pickaxes in the scaling of a huge mountain.
"I won't... let you have Cosmo!" he shouted.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Why Do You Suppose We Were Born?
Salasine Blacknarcissus's eyes bugged out.
"Impossible!" he said.
Cosmo appeared in his right eye; she was talking in proximity of his Zheuque, so the screen popped up.
"Do you see, Salasine?" she said fiercely. "Möbians may be small creatures indeed. But inside every chest of every Möbian beats a tremendously huge heart! They are not dolls!" Her eyebrows furrowed. "And neither am I!"
All about the battlefield in the Mystic Plateau, Gizoids friendly and ferocious turned to observe this act of selfless heroism.
Most gaped in awe at his sheer determinacy, but none so much as those who knew how far Tails had fallen after Sonic's death.
Inside the cockpit of Zheuque, Blacknarcissus spazzed out. This was being broadcast all around the planet, potentially inciting hope over fear in the Möbians...
But more importantly...
Zheuque's free arm tried to smack Tails off, but Tails climbed faster, feeling the wind sweeping by below him as Zheuque's arm and mirror-staff narrowly dodged him.
"H-h-how dare you defile my Zheuque's beautiful body with your dirty drill!" his voice rang out, belaying the menace of Zheuque's appearance, "Y-you little pest! You... you pesky little...!"
With his newly acquired haste, Tails had made it up to Zheuque's stomach. He resumed his climb, slower now.
"Cosmo... wait for me!" he said, his eyes on that clenched fist at the end of Zheuque's right arm.
Cosmo gazed at Tails in admiration and wonder.
Below, on the Great Freedom, Sally looked up at the projected image that was following Tails's relentless path up General Blacknarcissus's Gizoid...
And a bolt of lightning hit her, comprehension dawning.
"So that's what he meant..." she muttered.
お前のXXXで天を…
"Yeah," said Sonic, a wide grin on his face. "That mountain is shooting out flames that are setting the earth ablaze... Talk about a showdown of a lifetime! Now I'm psyched! We're gonna rock and roll tomorrow!"
"Still, you should try to be careful, Sonic," Sally warned him. "That Great MetaFlare is very dangerous, even if it is pinned down."
"Don't worry," Sonic gave her a thumbs-up. "Tails will be with us."
"But, Tails is..."
Sonic removed his shades. Sally was shocked; his eyes showed profound admiration in them! He said in a deathly serious tone to Sally, "Sally, I believe Tails will pull through tomorrow. After all, he's always the one who saves my ass." Sonic stared at his feet. "...He's always the one who never gives up."
This was flew over Sally's head at the time, but she would come to understand it eventually.
Sonic sat facing away from Sally.
"He always moves forward, never giving up when he finds some goal to reach," Sonic said lowly.
"Moving forward..." Sally repeated to herself.
"This was before we met you, Sal," Sonic said. "We were digging our way out of Knothole, trying to escape to the surface. But the tunnel behind us caved in, and we were trapped. I... I was freaking out. I thought to myself, 'Why was Dad able to get to the surface, and I can't?' My confidence was shot. All I had was empty bravado. It was all I could do to shout, 'Onwards and upwards!'. But Tails just kept on digging."
Sonic gave a small smirk. "By dumb luck, he broke through the last boulder back into Knothole right there."
He gave Sally a strong look. "We got lucky that day. But I believe in that luck, and in Tails, that plucky little guy who brought us that luck. So, whenever I feel like I can't do anything, whenever I feel scared, I think back to the sight of Tails's back, hunched over, digging away. I think to myself, 'I'll be a man who won't be laughed at by that back'."
今は準備が必要なんだよ!
Up of Zheuque, Tails had just about reached Zheuque's right breast, and he needed only to climb across its arm to free Cosmo.
Sonic's last piece of advice echoed in his mind:
Listen, Tails. Never forget. Believe in yourself. Not in the you who believes in me. Not in the me who believes in you.
"Believe in the you..." Tails shouted aloud, vowing to himself to do so forever, "Who believes in you!"
And the Core Drill in his hand glowed like a small green star.
Tails's eyes were drawn to it in wonder...
And Zheuque's backhand knocked him clear off, his hand drill flying out of his hand as he flew past Cosmo.
"COSMO!" he yelled, reaching out to her. His fingers brushed her hair, blowing in the winds.
Cosmo's hands were pinned to her sides by Zheuque's fingers.
It was all she could do to call back.
"TAILS!" she screamed.
Inside Zheuque, Blacknarcissus was ecstatic.
"See that, Cosmo?" he grinned. "That is the fate that awaits these Möbians!"
Cosmo faced Zheuque's blank face with tears of anger in her eyes. "No! Just as Tails believed in his big brother Sonic, I believe in Tails!"
"What foolishness!" cried out Blacknarcissus in reply.
Below, Tails was trying in vain to get some sort of hold on any protrusion on Zheuque's body, but his fingers glided past everything, even the ridge at the base of the Gizoid's feet, the heat from the antigravity engines in its feet nearly making him break out into a sweat...
But as Tails fell from Zheuque, any reasonable hope of saving Cosmo fading away...
An even greater determination seized him.
"I won't die here!" he shouted to the heavens. "Cosmo is WAITING FOR ME!"
And the Core Drill pulsed again...
Below, the hangar of Great Freedom was filled with green light...
The hangar doors, closed in the emergency of the Great MetaSea taking half of the prow into its mouth, were suddenly rent by an Emerl-shaped hole...
And Tails landed in a familiar seat.
"Emerl?"
Emerl is working for me again? Tails smirked to himself. Perfect timing!
He drove the Core Drill into the center of the spiral-shaped meter.
"Emerl, Spin Start!"
Emerl stood reborn.
Above, the rim of Zheuque's mirror had sprouted razor-sharp buzz-saw teeth, and was lowering it towards Cosmo slowly, deliberately, and agonizingly.
"Watch! Cower! And then die!" Blacknarcissus cried out. "Ebony Mirror Chopp-..."
Emerl's drill shattered Zheuque's mirror, the buzz-saw teeth disappearing in bursts of pinkish-purple light.
Zheuque's right fist opened, Cosmo standing precariously on its pinky.
Emerl's canopy opened, and Tails leaned to the side, a fiery smile on his face.
"Cosmo! I'm here to save you! Come on!"
Tears of joy spilled down Cosmo's face as she awkwardly leapt from Zheuque's pinky, taking Tails's proffered hand in her own, pulling herself up and giving Tails an upside-down hug, her face buried in the soft fur of his chest.
"Tails!" she cried out in happiness.
The canopy closed, and Emerl emitted bright-green light, spiraling off into the clouds above Zheuque, shattering its entire weapon.
Righting itself, Emerl spun in circles above the five Meta-Gizoids, the canopy retracting again. Cosmo sat at Tails's right hand, where Sonic had sat when Emerl first activated.
They smiled at each other for a long time.
"Sorry I took so long," he said.
"It's alright," she replied, shaking her head.
"I understand now," Tails looked down at Emerl. "Emerl told me, too." He looked back at Cosmo, a brightness in his expression that had been missing for over a week. "I finally understand now!"
Cosmo brushed tears away from her face, a gentle smile for Tails. "I do, too.
"Thank you, Tails."
Tails nodded, feeling more alive than ever.
He wanted to show these Black Arms and Four Generals that he was back.
And it needed to be a big move.
Then he noticed it.
"See those flying Gizoids, Cosmo?"
"Hmm?"
Tails smirked. "I think Freedom Emerl just found wings to fly with."
happily ever after
"I need to get to Acorn Cannon!" Sally said, leaping down from her perch above the hangar, delivering a flying kick to one of the Black Arms below - "Thanks for the soft landing," she'd quipped - before turning her rifle Nicole on the Black Arms around her, firing away.
Then she was knocked aside by a brawny arm that was not from a Black Arms, Nicole flying out of her hands.
She looked up at her attacker.
Him.
Pale-brown skin with blood-red hair, dull-red thorns for horns, bright green eyes, a purple-and-green jacket.
Undenine Redpine.
"I see that you and your fellow Möbians have been using the Great MetaFlare as you pleased," he said gruffly. "You Möbians are not suited to use the machinery of a Seedrian of the planet Greengate!"
Aliens, Sally thought, rapidly modifying Nicole from a sniper rifle to a machine gun with the materials she carried around in her vest. I should have known.
"I, Undenine Redpine, will now face you personally, so feel honored that I'm not holding back just because you're a girl!"
Sally turned Nicole on Redpine.
A spiraling field of red-orange light exactly matching Redpine's body area deflected all of Sally's bullets into the Black Arms behind him. Soon, green blood from the Black Arms soldiers behind Redpine spilled the deck, their entrails falling out of egregiously large holes torn open in their torsos, but Redpine was unharmed.
And Sally's only machine gun magazine was out of clips.
"It didn't work?"
Eyes widening, Sally ducked backwards under Redpine's fist.
"Get it through your head that this battle is hopeless..." He stepped on her ponytail as she tried to slide away, and pain wracked Sally's head. "...woman!"
And Redpine began to wail away on Sally.
Elsewhere on the Great Freedom's deck, Freedom, fallen onto its back now, had grabbed hold of the Goldion Hammer's handle as ARK-Hephaestus swung it at him. It was just too close; if Silver wasn't mistake, the very tip of Freedom's pointed nose was transforming into particles of light from contact with Shadow's newest weapon.
"Disappointing," said ARK-Hephaestus in Shadow's voice. "It's a shame, how disappointing this fight is, blue hedgehog. I had hoped our rivalry would last longer."
Freedom's arms snapped, and ARK-Hephaestus brought back its Goldion Hammer.
"Am I going to die... before he realizes I'm not Sonic?" Silver said, Freedom's controls going. Will enough of me even be left for him to realize I'm not Sonic? Silver as he closed his eyes, preparing for the worst...
"Silver!"
Tails's face appeared in Silver's eyes, and he looked and sounded more alive than he had in a week.
"Tails?" Silver couldn't help but smile.
"Let's combine!"
Silver grinned, "Yeah!"
And Freedom's screens filled with green light as Silver, exhausted, forced Freedom to roll.
"Tranform into light!" Shadow screamed, bringing the Goldion Hammer down on the Gizoid piloted by his most hated rival... but it rolled away! A hole glowing like the sun appeared in Great Freedom's deck.
"Damn you...!" Shadow shouted, turning to face Freedom...
Which clenched its fists.
"What are you trying to do?" Shadow asked.
As he did throughout the fight, the blue hedgehog did not broadcast any messages, but...
A green light appeared between Freedom's shoulders.
"What...?" Shadow looked up. "Don't tell me... Oh, shit!"
Emerl descended on Freedom, its drill rapidly burrowing into its shoulders, and in a burst of green light, Freedom Emerl stood reborn, and Freedom Emerl threw its shades at ARK-Hephaestus's right elbow, severing the Goldion Hammer from its host Gizoid again, the Gravity Shockwave Generating Tool deactivating as soon as signals from the ARK-Hephaestus stopped coming, the once-mighty weapon leaving a dent, and not a glowing hole, in the deck; and before the glow of Freedom Emerl's rebirth had even fully diminished, the mighty Gizoid leapt into the air, higher than it had ever leapt before, four of the spines in its back turning into drills and impaling a flying Gizoid from the Great MetaWind, the feathered Black Arms within evacuating herself at the last possible moment before it was integrated into Freedom Emerl...
All in less than five seconds.
Freedom Emerl's new flight engine fired up, a cross-shaped explosion of emerald light blasting out from Freedom Emerl as it hovered before Zheuque.
"What in the...?" Blacknarcissus gasped.
And then, as every camera in the vicinity turned on the reborn hero Gizoid, as all fighting ceased in an instant to observe this spectacle, as every Möbian, Black Arms, and Seedrian on and in Möbius stopped what they were doing and stared at a projection of Freedom Emerl...
Emerl's canopy opened, a two-tailed fox with his arms crossed, his tails and jacket flapping and waving in the torrential winds up there, stood atop the hero of Gizoids, the Gizoid of heroes, a Seedrian girl looking up at him in wonder...
It was not the time to perform.
It was time to be himself.
"My big bro, Sonic, is dead! He's gone!" Tails declared. "But he's on my back..." The mark of the Great Freedom Fighters was visible there. "On my arm..." Tails thrust out his left arm, the scrap of red cloth tied there visible to all the world. "And in my heart!" Tails pounded his right fist to his chest. "HE LIVES ON AS A PART OF ME!" His left hand pointed to the sun above. "If you're going to dig, dig towards the heavens! No matter what's in my way, I won't stop! 'Cause once I've dug through, THAT MEANS I'VE WON!"
All about the Mystic Plateau, eyes were trained in awe, shock, and admiration on the young boy from Knothole Village who had seen the worst happen to his surrogate brother, and come out stronger...
"Who the hell do you think I am?" Tails shouted. "I'm Tails! I'm not Sonic, my brother! I'm ME! TAILS THE DIGGER!" Pulling his digging goggles down, Tails returned to Emerl's cockpit, Freedom Emerl producing a drill from its right fist.
"Enough of your blabbering!" Blacknarcissus shouted from Zheuque. "You sound like a chapter from a self-help booklet!" Zheuque began to glow with a pinkish-purple light. "I'll finish you off with this...!" Dark-purple drills began to emerge from Zheuque's joints. "Great Zheuque Blacknarcissus Demolition Pl-..."
But he was interrupted midway through his attack name by Freedom Emerl pulling off its shades, doubling them in a flash of green light, and snaring Zheuque in its pair of shades.
Inside Emerl, Cosmo looked on Tails in worry. Tears were pouring down his face.
Tails took in every memory of Sonic he had, every time he had ever looked up to Sonic, every time he had hidden behind Sonic, every time he had saved Sonic, every time Sonic had depended on him to win... Sonic's death...
And let it all out.
Sonic was no longer here to help Tails, so Tails would do what only he could do...
"Finishing Move!" he shouted.
The drill on the end of its right fist grew to three times Freedom Emerl's size...
"Giga...!"
Tails pointed the drill at Zheuque, and it began to spin...
"Drill...!"
A whirlwind of green energy tore from Freedom Emerl's winged jetpack, tearing towards Zheuque...
"DRIVER!"
And with one last scream of defiance, Salasine Blacknarcissus was obliterated as the Giga Drill tore straight through him and the midsection of his personal Gizoid, Freedom Emerl pausing once it had cleared Zheuque a hundred meters away, its shades returning to one and affixing themselves to Freedom Emerl's chest-face again, as Zheuque disappeared in a final, definite explosion...
And the Great Freedom Fighters, one and all, cheered.
Inside ARK-Hephaestus, Shadow was in shock.
"Impossible..." he gasped. "The blue hedgehog was dead this whole time? He really... did die on that day?"
Atop the Great MetaRock, inside Xuanwuo, Gnonine Pale-Bayleaf paled.
"The legendary Freedom Emerl..." he frowned. "...is going down here!"
And Xuanwuo leapt onto Great Freedom's deck again, brandishing its twin swords.
"Face me, Freedom Emerl!" he shouted.
But King Knuckles, Eliastriker, and Super Marine ran up to him. Super Marine's feet attached to each other, drawing out from its body to reveal spear-tips on the concealed ends of its small legs, forming a double-edged spear, its body retracting into a koala-shaped shield.
"KING KNUCKLES..." Knuckles's Gizoid took the shield and spear in hands, Marine's cockpit affixing itself to King Knuckles's back as it leapt on top of the Eliastriker like a steed.
"DELUXE!" called Knuckles, Meg, and Marine.
And they pinned Xuanwuo down, the Super Marine spear going into its left wrist, Eliastriker driving its cannon into Xuanwuo's right wrist.
"Wh-what...?" Pale-Bayleaf stuttered.
"Tails is busting his namesake up there!" Knuckles shouted. "We can't all be sitting on our asses, doing nothing!" Meg and Marine joined his shout on his last word.
Eliastriker fired, and the Super Marine spear was jammed further in.
Xuanwuo's hands were severed.
Pulling itself free, Xuanwuo stood over them on the deck, a pale-green light coming from the insectoid Gizoid...
And Great Freedom's remaining arm grabbed it.
"Damn straight!" shouted Elias from the control room, hurling Gnonine's Gizoid towards the Great MetaRock.
On the deck, Sally was bruised, bleeding from a split lip, and still being assaulted by Redpine.
"It's over!" he yelled, sliding his tail around to whack her across the face.
Sally dove onto it, pulling a piece of Nicole's sniper rifle mode from off the ground - her sniper bullet magazine - and jamming the sharp edge as hard as she could onto Redpine's tail.
He did not cry out, but sweat beaded on his forehead, and his teeth clenched.
Sally produced a handgun that she'd kept hidden in her ponytail, pointing it at Redpine.
"Hate to break it to you, but this is the Great Freedom Fighters' ship," she glared at him. Her eyes were starting to burn. "It's our home that he gave his life so that we could have it! We're not about to let you have it!"
She pulled the trigger...
At the same instant that Redpine pulled sharply away, some layers of skin tearing off of his tail from the empty magazine jammed into it. He tore off back towards the Qyinlone, leaping over fallen Black Arms, dodging Sally's six shots in a way that he should have been too slow to avoid.
Qyinlone took off.
Sally cursed.
And then gasped as she heard a loud whoosh next to her.
It was the Acorn Cannon, on a track. The hangar doors had opened while she was fighting Redpine.
"That's your Gizoid, isn't it?" Rotor's voice called out on the PA. "So use it!"
"Thanks, Rotor!" she called out, as Kukku flew in with a "Chao!" and settled in Sally's cleavage.
回って回って回って回ってててて…
Undenine Redpine's tail was paining him, but it was better than a bullet in the brain. He wouldn't have been able to concentrate on his protective field of Spiral Energy. Even now, he directed his Spiral Energy to speed up the healing process of his tail's torn skin.
"What the hell?" he growled, returning Qyinlone to the Great MetaSea. "Their spirits shot up all of a sudden."
Gnonine's face appeared in his eye. "Undenine, Freedom Emerl killed Salasine. I suggest that we abandon pretense and destroy these Möbians in one fell swoop. The ultimate advantage of the Compass Formation!"
"There are only two Helix Generals left, though," Undenine said lowly.
Shadow appeared in his other eye.
"I am here, too, Generals," he said. "I have returned to the Great MetaARK."
"Very well," said Gnonine. "Let us begin, then."
And a green cloud engulfed the four Meta-Gizoids still loyal to the Capital.
Great MetaRock, splitting down the middle, docked symmetrically on either side of Great MetaARK.
Great MetaSea, splitting along its midsection, docked into Great MetaARK's upper pair of Catapult Arms.
Great MetaWind docked beneath the other three combined Meta-Gizoids. At the tip of each X-tip, another cluster of blue lights activated to bear the additional load of three more Meta-Gizoids.
The final plates slid into place.
There, hovering over the Mystic Plateau, was a true behemoth of a Meta-Gizoid.
Its name was bellowed by its three commanders - Gnonine, Undenine, and Shadow.
"The Great Meta-Compass!"
四天王完全要塞ギゾイド
グレイトメタコンパス
Four Generals Absolute Fortress Gizoid
Great MetaCompass
"Take THIS!" the three remaining Helix Generals shouted.
Every missile port on the four combined Meta-Gizoids opened up, firing on the Great Freedom even as it pulled itself one-armed out of its bedrock tomb.
The former Great MetaFlare vanished in a mushroom cloud of flames.
Gnonine laughed over the radio channel. "You couldn't have been expecting that, Möbian scum!"
Undenine added, "The Helix King's Generals are fighting seriously now, you pieces of trash!"
Shadow finished, "North, South, East, West... Earth, water, and wind... No weak point in the past, present, future, or the four directions! Feel the power of the absolute fortress, the Great MetaCompass, even as we send you to the deepest pits!"
When the smoke cleared, a green shield was just beginning to fade away from where Great Freedom was standing. The stolen Meta-Gizoid was undamaged beyond what had been incurred before the Great MetaCompass rose up.
And Freedom Emerl stood at the tip of the prow, the green energy shield dissipating into its Giga Drill.
"Don't give in, everyone!" he called out through Emerl's mouthpiece. "It's just a big light show!"
The Great MetaCompass's many loudspeakers boomed out in Shadow's voice. "Do not fool around, fox boy. I know you are scared!"
"The day I'm scared of you bastards again is when the sky itself falls, and that ain't happening anytime soon!" Tails shouted back.
Freedom Emerl held its Giga Drill to the sky.
"Finishing Move! Giga... Drill... DRIVER!"
Freedom Emerl launched towards the Great MetaCompass, its Giga Drill spinning faster than it had ever spun before.
It made contact...
With a spiraling green energy shield that enveloped the Great MetaCompass.
"Don't screw with me!" Tails screamed, letting loose with a long, loud yell as the Giga Drill expanded to five times the size of Freedom Emerl, spinning so fast it seemed to spin backwards.
Sparks flew from the drill.
"Tails, stop!" Silver appeared in Tails's eye. "You're pushing Freedom Emerl too hard!"
"I... almost... got i-... UGH!"
A sharp pain shot up Tails's right arm, and the Giga Drill cracked sharply, and Freedom Emerl flew back from the Great MetaCompass.
Generals Redpine and Pale-Bayleaf laughed triumphantly. "What do you think of our Spiral Shield, Möbian?"
Tails breathed heavily, holding his right arm tightly.
"Tails! Are you alright?" Cosmo asked anxiously.
Tails grit his teeth, nodding. "Let's try it again, Silver!"
"It's just too big," Silver said, appearing in Tails's left eye. "The Giga Drill Driver isn't big enough."
"So, we're gonna need a bigger drill..." Tails muttered. "But, where can we..." I'm not gonna give up. Not until we can find a drill big enough to break through that shield...
Rotor appeared in Tails's right eye. "Tails, I have an idea! Combine Freedom Emerl with Great Freedom!"
"Combine?" Silver said.
"If Freedom gets a big power boost from Emerl combining with it," Rotor said, "Then, theoretically speaking..."
"Some sort of Great Freedom Emerl would be a lot more powerful than regular Freedom Emerl!" said Tails, victory once again in sight.
Freedom Emerl tore off back towards the Great Freedom, feet-first as its Giga Drill dissipated...
"What's wrong, Möbian?" taunted Pale-Bayleaf. "Are you going back to your hole?"
...as the Giga Drill reappeared, engulfing Freedom Emerl's entire lower half, the Gizoid hero spinning into the air, and descending towards Great Freedom.
And Rotor's face appeared in the eye of every Gizoid pilot in the Great Freedom Fighters. "Everyone, get back into the Gizoid hangar! Things could get a little rough!"
And Tails's shout echoed for miles:
"FREEDOM EMERL... IMPACT!"
The now-abandoned control room once again was subject to a giant drill piercing from the ceiling into the floor beneath, torrents of green energy pouring into the machine.
In the No. 2 bridge, in the area of Great Freedom's teeth, Chris was baffled at something appearing at his computer terminal. "Rotor, we're receiving a transformation signal from Freedom Emerl!"
"Okay, Tails! So far, so good!" Rotor said.
And with two words, turned the tide:
"Hit it!"
Green energy erupted from all over Great Freedom's body, the hangar doors slamming shut as the Great Freedom's prow split in two down the middle, hovering in mid-air as they were connected to the Great Freedom by glowing green energy.
The shattered remains of Great Freedom's right arm, glowing green, raced back to their proper place, the Catapult Arm repairing itself in an instant, along with all the damage incurred to the Meta-Gizoid in battle. The two halves of the prow affixed themselves to the forearms of Great Freedom, green energy traveling up its arms and leaving yellow armor. The legs of the behemoth Gizoid became longer, a pair of bright-red shades identical to Sonic's appearing across its chest-face, a wave of green energy leading away from the newly formed shoulder epaulets of the Gizoid, transforming into a large red cape identical to the one Sonic had worn.
The transformation was complete, Freedom Emerl perched on top of Great Freedom's shoulders in the same way that Emerl was to the Freedom.
"Even when we're buried by the bedrock of despair," the newly-formed Gizoid blasted through its loudspeakers, in Tails's voice, "We Möbians have the ability to break through it to a new dawn!
"Belief Combining!
"Great Freedom Emerl!"
グレイトフリーダムエメル
Great Freedom Emerl
Inside the Great MetaCompass, Redpine and Pale-Bayleaf paled.
"They transformed something that large...?" Redpine breathed.
"Must be their level of Spiral Energy," noted Pale-Bayleaf. "But they will not be able to control it for long. All missile bays, continue to fire! Send them down to the deepest pit of all!"
The missile barrage of the Great MetaCompass resumed, more intense than ever. Green flashes from each port indicated that there were more missiles being spontaneously generated within the Great MetaCompass.
How can they possibly have that many missiles in that Gizoid of theirs? Tails wondered. Is it... fighting spirit?
Eventually, the barrage stopped, and the Spiral Shield generated by Great Freedom Emerl faded away, the Great Gizoid no more harmed than it was when it first appeared.
And Great Freedom Emerl lashed out, slicing off one of the levi-spheres on the underside of the Great MetaWind component of Great MetaCompass, the massive fortress Gizoid becoming imbalanced.
"No. 3 levi-sphere has been severed from the Great MetaWind!" squawked a Black Arms with black feathers and a red beak in the Helix Generals' eyes. "Unable to maintain stable altitude!"
"Do whatever you can to keep us level until we've destroyed these fools!" Redpine shouted at him.
"Y-yes, sir!" the birdlike Black Arms's comm channel disappeared.
In Freedom Emerl's No. 2 bridge, Rotor grinned in excitement. "It's a levitation device! Tails, see if you can incorporate it!"
"I'll try!" Tails called out from Emerl.
Drills emerged from Great Freedom Emerl's back, drilling into the levi-sphere which hovered aimlessly about the battlefield. Its blue lights did not so much as flicker. A green light began to play out on the lower portion of the Great Gizoid's back, and the drills drew the levi-sphere into the Great Freedom Emerl.
"Levi-sphere incorporated successfully, Rotor!" piped in Lupe's voice from the engine room. "Now we can achieve flight even in Great Freedom mode!"
"Möbian scum, taking our weapons of coercion...!" snarled Pale-Bayleaf. "We will teach you the meaning of the word 'fear'!"
"You can't make us fear you!" Tails shouted at the Helix Generals.
"Of course not!" added the King Knuckles. "With all these buddies at our side, what is there to be scared of?
"The oldest of the Wandering Orphans, Knuckles!"
"Meg!" shouted the Eliastriker.
"Marine!" Super Marine called out.
"Vector!" called the Vector Prime.
"Mighty!" Mighty Fists shouted.
"Espio!" yelled Espionaj.
"Lobo!" shouted the O'Donnell.
"Big!" "Bark!" called two voices from the Double Bruiser.
"Silver!" Freedom shouted.
"Chao!" "Kukku and Sally!" yelled the Acorn Cannon in two very different voices.
"Cosmo!" Tails shouted from Emerl, eliciting a gasp from Cosmo, "And... Tails!"
Cosmo smiled at Tails.
And then, in a shout that shook all of Möbius, the Great Freedom Fighters shouted out from Great Freedom Emerl:
"WHO THE HELL... DO YOU THINK WE ARE?"
"Finishing Move!" yelled the Great Freedom Emerl in Tails's voice...
Great Freedom Emerl raised its arms over its head...
"Great Freedom Fighters...!" the Great Freedom Emerl bellowed in the voices of the Great Freedom Fighters.
It slammed both halves of Great Freedom's prow back together...
"Giga...!"
A Giga Drill three times the size of the Great Freedom Emerl emerged from the prow...
"Drill...!"
The Great Giga Drill began to spin, many different flares of green energy, each one contributed by every member of the Great Freedom Fighters, emerging from the grooves running down the length of the drill...
"DRIVER!"
Great Freedom Emerl's newly-incorporated levi-sphere redlined, blasting out a tornado of emerald-colored energy as it blasted at the Great MetaCompass as quick as a flash...
The Great MetaCompass's Spiral Shield broke in an instant...
And the Great Giga Drill broke effortlessly through the armor of the Great MetaRock which would have survived the bombardment of a dozen Great MetaCompasses with no damage to its outermost layer, piercing through the central control room and tearing Helix General Gnonine Pale-Bayleaf's body to pieces, his last thought being But I have so much left to do, and the Great Freedom Emerl tore straight through the Great MetaCompass, leaving a gaping hole behind it through the Great MetaRock and Great MetaARK, the power cores of the four Meta-Gizoids having been linked together in the combining now leading to a disastrous overload...
Shadow, having retreated to his ARK-Hephaestus, now stood on the peak of the Great MetaARK, looking for some manner of escape from this crisis...
When the Great MetaCompass below him exploded, the great chunks of burning debris falling to the Mystic Plateau below, erupting into a tremendous fireball that incinerated every lifeform inside.
Helix General Undenine Redpine's last thought was Syne, I'm sorry...
And all across Möbius, as the Great Freedom Emerl soared away from this battle, victorious over the last of the Helix King's Four Generals, cheers tore through every village aboveground and underground. The entire battle had been a gambit to induce absolute despair into ever man, woman, and child on Möbius, but instead, the camera Gizoids had broadcast a tide-turning victory for the Möbians to every village that was oppressed by the Helix King.
We have an oppressor. But he can be overthrown! the cheers generally went. Nothing can keep us from living on the surface!
お前のXXXで…
ARK-Hephaestus had been severely damaged, beyond hope of utilizing it as a ride back to Greengate. Its legs had been blown apart by the Great MetaCompass's explosion, the entirety of the pristine-white Gizoid scorched black.
Its mouth fell open, but that was more from the locks of the Gizoid's jaws falling apart than from the pilot willfully opening it...
And a black-and-red hedgehog-shaped creature fell out, green blood dribbling out of the corner of his mouth.
Shadow looked around at the wreckage around him.
"Why...?" he gasped, baring his teeth. "Why am I always the sole survivor?"
In the distance, he saw a tremendous caped figure sailing away on a stolen levi-sphere.
"Möbian scum... damn you to Hell!"
A flying Gizoid set down next to Shadow, its mouth opening and a hawk-like Black Arms flapping out.
"General Shadow, let me give you a flight back to the CapitACKH!"
Shadow grabbed the Black Arms bird's neck, and snapped it. Green blood leaked from its beak, its eyes staring blankly beyond the sky.
"The weaker the bird, the shriller the squawking," he snarled, walking over to the flying Gizoid.
お前のXXXよ、そそり立て！
Cosmo had said, "Tails, there's a place I would like you to take me," so Tails took her there.
To the valley of discarded princesses.
"This is the place where Tails found me," she gestured at the boxes lying about the valley floor. "And these boxes all contain past princesses. Hundreds of sisters I will never know, who were discarded by my father when he grew tired of them, over his two-thousand years on this planet."
Knuckles's eyes were popping in shock, "All of these are princesses?"
Cosmo nodded sadly, "I would like to see them buried in a sunny place." She closed her eyes. "Please."
"O-of course!" Knuckles said quickly.
"No problem!" said Ari.
A few hours later...
It was sunset now...
And the burial of the last of the princesses was finished.
Cosmo stood over the burial site for her long-dead sisters, each grave marked by a tall pillar of stone.
"Father was my entire world," she said, the red gem on her chest gleaming in the sun's last light of the day. "I depended on no one but him, relied on no one but him. I did not even depend or rely on myself. That is why I wanted to rely on him to the very end." Cosmo was silent for several moments. "Why do you suppose we were born?"
"Cosmo," Tails said.
"Hmm?"
"There's a place... I would like to take you," he said.
親父の塊
"So... the Four Helix Generals have been killed by a young man of the Spiral? And rebellion across this planet is inevitable?"
Shadow had never heard such fury in the Helix King's voice, and awaited the darkness of death.
"It seems that wherever you go, Shadow, cataclysmic failure is soon to follow," said the shadow in the throne, the concubines lying about him and laying their limbs along his body in suggestive poses. "Your failures are worthy of capital punishment."
"Helix King, I would gladly accept whatever you decide of me, even if it means my death," Shadow said, remaining bowed down, staring at his feet. "But first, there is something that I must know."
A moment of tense silence...
"Very well," the Helix King said. "Ask."
Shadow stood, staring into the Helix King's glimmering green eyes, averting his gaze from the lascivious actions of the King's concubines towards the man he spoke to.
"Are... Are Black Arms truly superior creatures to the Möbians?" he asked. "These Möbians..." Memories of humiliation ran through Shadow's brain, and he clenched his fists and teeth. "WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY?"
The Helix King raised an eyebrow.
"It would seem that, in your obsessive urge to better yourself in the face of this particular group of Möbians, you have developed Spiral Power through sheer force of will, Shadow," said King Darkoak, standing from his throne (his concubines, no longer able to touch their beloved King, now kissed, fondled, and groped each other), walking down the dais.
Shadow's heart was pounding; what did His Majesty mean by Spiral Power? Was this a sign that his life could be measured in hours? Minutes? Seconds?
Before Shadow knew it, Helix King Lucus Darkoak stood before him.
"Follow me, Shadow."
The Helix King led Shadow to a hidden elevator just outside of the audience chamber, and pressed a button that read 'Level EEE'.
"Triple... 'E'...?" Shadow asked.
"I am taking you to one of the lowest levels of the Capital, Shadow," Helix King Darkoak said.
The elevator descended quickly, passing through levels of barracks for the Black Arms, loading docks for the Gizoids, reparation docks, lounges, recreation centers...
After a good five minutes, when Shadow wondered when they would reach the bottom, the walls on all sides turned to glass...
"We are now below the surface, below the Capital," explained Helix King Darkoak.
And before him, was an impossibly large ship, shaped like a drill, but with no grooves down its line. It was predominantly white, with yellow and blue highlights.
"Is... is this...?"
"This is not Level EEE," snapped the Helix King. "This is something which I hope never has the need to be launched. I need not explain it to you."
Shadow asked no more questions, as they descended beyond the docked starship, into darkness again.
After another two minutes, it stopped. Slowly.
The doors opened into darkness.
The Helix King roughly grabbed Shadow's hand, touching a switch on the wall. Dim red lights lit up.
"I am taking you to someone that I once fought, but who now serves me in a greater capacity than he could have ever imagined," Darkoak explained curtly.
"Who...?" Shadow asked.
"I will explain once we get there!" the Helix King growled, reaching a door made entirely of drills intersecting with each other.
He touched the drills, his fingers glowing the red of Möbian blood.
The drills retracted into the walls.
Shadow's eyes widened.
"Is... is that... a Gizoid? No, it can't be...!"
"It isn't," said the Helix King simply. "It is the source of all Black Arms life. He may yet be the only surviving member of his race. I do not know what his name was; I have codenamed him 'Black Doom'."
"Black... Doom...?" Shadow asked, looking up at the monster nailed up by its hands onto a large red cross, as large as any of the Four Helix Generals' personal Gizoids.
Three fiery eyes, staring into nothing... demonic horns pointing to his left and right... black, clawed hands with only two fingers and a thumb each... a large golden sword, impaling its chest... a torso that ended abruptly at the waist... green blood, leaking endlessly to a pool below...
"What... is all this...?"
"Black Doom was an opponent of mine whom I battled across the galaxy," the Helix King explained. "He served a higher authority, and purged himself of his Spiral Power to set an example of his allegiance to them. I eventually defeated him, but fled to this planet after his superiors proved too powerful to put down.
"Black Doom's species had two hearts; one was weaker than the other, but so long as one of his hearts still beated, he would still live. The larger of the hearts was the more difficult to pierce, but I managed it. This blade is that of my personal Gizoid, back in the Capital. With only his weaker heart still beating, Black Doom is still alive, but in a vegetable state; his brain has been deprived of nutrients too long, his secondary heart too weak to effectively supply his brain with nutrients.
"I needed live tissue samples to cross his DNA samples with those of the creatures of this planet."
"But, sire," Shadow said. "I hate to seem imprudent, but this does not answer my question."
But the Helix King continued, ignoring Shadow.
"Every member of the Black Arms is a unique species unto him- or herself. I did this so that I could accurately determine exactly how many Black Arms I had at my disposal."
The Helix King faced Shadow.
"Black Arms are imperfect creatures, indeed," Lucus Darkoak told his creation. "They must fall into a death-like sleep in order for their cells to continue to divide. If they were to push themselves to stay awake too long, they would inevitably die. And if one were to rouse a Black Arms from its sleep too suddenly, that Black Arms would die."
Shadow stared at the Helix King, the man who came from his own home planet beyond the stars and banished this planet's inhabitants to villages below the surface, for a very long time.
"Helix King, you are the one who created the Black Arms. Why give us such imperfect bodies?"
The Helix King smirked, holding out a hand.
"What are Möbians?"
A small drill made from Möbian-blood-red energy appeared there, spun for a few moments, then dissipated.
"Do you really want to know the answer?" the Helix King asked. "Do you, Shadow?"
Shadow set his gaze, and gave his reply.
"Yes."
続く世界
Cosmo stared at the tattered red cape, tied to the sheathed katana, silent volcanoes surrounding them.
"So... this is where your Sonic is buried," she bowed her head in respect.
Tails nodded.
And reached into his pocket.
"Cosmo, take this," he said, trying not to look at her. Otherwise, she'd see his fierce blush.
"What is it?" she said, fingering the chunk of white crystal in her hand.
"I found it, while I was digging with Sonic that one time," he explained.
She smiled fondly at it. "It's lovely!"
Tails smiled at this, before looking with a sad smile at Sonic's grave.
"You were wondering why we were born, Cosmo?" Tails asked, and Cosmo looked up at him. "I don't really understand, but I don't think it really matters why you were born, or even if you were a princess. The Cosmo here, now, that's who you are. That's all that matters, is that you live life as yourself."
Cosmo gave a warm smile, nodding at Tails.
Tails put his hands behind his head. "And I'll live life as myself as well. I can't be Sonic, but I have things that only I can do."
Sally stepped forward from the crowd of Great Freedom Fighters, Kukku resting in her cleavage. "Well, don't I feel dumb now," she said, giving Tails a significant look.
"Hmm? What do you mean, Sally?" Tails asked.
"I was the one here who was with you the longest, but I probably believed the least," she explained. "in you, and in Sonic, and even in myself."
"Sally..."
Sally smiled, "Well, I look forward to working with our new comrade," she nodded at a surprised Cosmo, "and our new leader!" and when she nodded at Tails, Kukku suddenly flew out of her cleavage, floating next to Tails's head and hugging it, his ball over his head turning into a heart.
"Leader? Me...?" Tails said, pointing at himself.
"Of course; you're the only one Sonic would've picked for the job," said Knuckles, smacking Tails in the back. "So hold your head a little higher for a change!"
Back at the foot of Great Freedom Emerl...
Silver turned to Rotor.
"The battles will continue, won't they? I mean, just because we took down the Four Generals..."
"Maybe," said Rotor. "But for today, the fighting's over, so just smile and laugh. It's for the best."
After a moment, Silver did as Rotor suggested.
Smiling towards tomorrow.
つづく
To be continued...
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If you strike at a wall enough, it will eventually crumble.
In that case, we all continue to strike at the wall together.
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "Good Day, Everyone".