(Chapter Seventeen. Some stuff from the first Movie the past couple chapters. And a couple original ideas as well. This chapter eases back into the TV series a little.
Honestly, I was floundering about while I was writing this. I mean, at this point in the TV series, two of the Four Generals were still alive. Here, not so much.
Look for a reference to Soul Eater (which, incidentally, was also musically scored by Taku Iwasaki)!
The continuing world continues to endure battle and war...)
一ヵ月後
One Month Later
"Sonic..."
Tails gave the tattered red cape, flapping in the chill wind just before sunrise, a sad smile.
"I can never be you, Sonic," Tails spoke to the gravesite of his surrogate brother. "But I'm off to do the things... that only I can do." At Tails's side, Kukku shivered in the cold.
"The things... that only Tails The Digger can do," Tails said.
Behind him, Sally closed her vest a little more tightly.
"Tails, they're gonna be starting up soon," she said.
Tails half-turned away from the katana-cape marker of Sonic's burial site.
"Well... I'll be back, when this is all over, Sonic."
Tails turned to Freedom Emerl, behind Sally.
Sally made to follow him, but stopped a step later, and faced the sheathed katana, with Sonic's father's cape tied to it.
Her expression was tender.
As were her last words to the grave.
Then she climbed into Freedom's cockpit.
The cape billowed furiously as Freedom Emerl took off.
The hero Gizoid which personally slew two of the Four Helix Generals darted at top speed across the deep-blue sky of the early morning, over the near-countless bodies of smashed Gizoids, towards its destination:
Great Freedom.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Good Day, Everyone
"Welcome back, you two," Rotor said, smiling. "You pay your last respects?"
"Tails, welcome back, welcome back!" Charmy buzzed up to greet Tails, Cream running behind him.
"Welcome back, Mr. Tails," she said cheerily.
Tails nodded at Rotor. "How are the repairs coming?"
Rotor looked up at the slender white Gizoid in the hangar behind him. It had green highlights, two small blue orbs on its head, a grass-green cape trailing from its head, and a red orb instead of a face in the center of its chest.
ホワイトシード
White Seed
"Cosmo's Gizoid won't be ready for another couple of days," Rotor said lowly. "That battle yesterday really roughed it up."
"And Great Freedom's levi-sphere?"
"We'll be neck-and-neck with their starting time."
Tails gave a dark look to their target in the clouds beyond. "Well, make it quick. I get the feeling they'll be pulling out all the stops today."
"We will have to end this soon," Sally said, looking about at the people running about the Great Freedom's deck, the Gizoids undergoing last-minute repairs. There was an aura of anxiety in the air. "If we don't, we'll come apart at the seams."
Tails nodded resolutely...
And was stunned at the sight of Cosmo exiting the hangar. Though her White Seed was damaged in the previous battle, she'd miraculously escaped without a scratch.
"Good day, Tails," she smiled at him.
Tails's breath caught in his chest.
"What's wrong, Tails?" she asked, looking concerned, her head tilting to one side.
A blush crept across Tails's cheeks...
And he shook his head vigorously.
"Well, I'm... just not used to your new look yet, Cosmo," he said honestly.
True enough, Cosmo had changed her outfit since she discovered she was no longer a princess. She wore a grass-green jacket, bearing the flaming-skull-with-pointed-shades symbol of the Great Freedom Fighters on its back, over a plain white, strapless dress that went mid-thigh. She still wore her red gem in the middle of her chest. Her new shoes, going up to her knees, were white with green tips.
Cosmo frowned down at her outfit.
"I'm sorry," she said softly. "Does it look odd?"
"No! It really suits you, Cosmo!" Tails said.
Cosmo's demeanor brightened immediately. "Do you mean it?"
"I sure do!"
Folding her hands behind her back, Cosmo closed her eyes as she smiled. "That's a relief!"
Tails and Cosmo laughed a little together. Sally and Rotor shared secret smiles; Tails clearly had a soft spot for Cosmo.
Tails suddenly felt small hands grabbing at his jacket's sleeves.
Charmy and Cream looked worried.
Tails smiled at them. "Don't worry. We can win this!"
"Really, Mr. Tails?" Cream said.
Charmy pointed up at their enemy. "But look at the size of it!"
Tails nodded again. "We can beat them!
"Who the hell do you think we are?"
It had taken them a long time to reach it, and a hellish amount of effort, but now, finally, they were within striking distance of a goliath jet-black drill well over three kilometers tall, its tip burrowed a significant distance into the earth, the grooves glowing a sinister blood-red. Clouds brushed past it just below the midpoint.
The final stage.
The Royal Capital.
Greengate.
グリーンゲート攻略戦・6日目
Battle for Greengate・Day 6
髭とハーレム
Helix King Lucus Darkoak sat on his throne, his concubines dispatched to their hexagonal positions around his dais. A mammoth silhouette, its six arms crossed, stood motionlessly behind his throne.
Eternally patient.
Just like its King.
"It is said in ancient scriptures that the god that created the world in six days rested on the seventh," Lucus said.
"Sire?" the large silhouette boomed.
"It is an old religious belief of the fools who lived on this planet before even the Möbians," explained the Helix King. "And it is the sixth day since the Möbian scum have arrived here. Perfect timing, would you say?"
"Interesting notion, Your Majesty."
"Still, I am intrigued. In all this time, you have not pursued a battle with them."
"I can wait for him to come to me. I could wait forever now, thanks to you, Helix King. Besides, I have a fine vantage point on the battlefield from here. And I must admit, they are a tenacious rabble. We keep stomping them out, and they keep coming back for more, just like weeds."
Lucus nodded. "That is what makes them so terrifying. And this... despite the fact that I and my four great friends - all now dead - sealed the Möbians underground, so that they would never again take root on the surface."
"It's the power of the Spiral, isn't it, Helix King?" replied the tremendous silhouette. "And they are so unaware of the fact that this power will only lead to their destruction."
"Ignorance is what allows them to fight," Lucus said. "I envy them."
燃えてばかりでいいのかい?
In the engine room, Lupe toiled away at repairing the levi-sphere that was once the Great MetaWind's and was now the Great Freedom's.
The PA system crackled to life.
"Radar shows massive numbers of heat signatures approaching!" Blaze's voice echoed through the engine room. "They're bombarding us with missiles!"
Elias's voice cut in as well.
"Rotor, how much longer till the levi-sphere is operational again?"
There!
Lupe gave a quick thumbs-up to the walrus over her shoulder.
"We're all ready down here!" Rotor said into his microphone. "Sorry to keep you waiting."
Up on the bridge...
Elias grinned, showing many teeth.
"Alright!" he yelled. "Great Freedom, ascend!"
On Elias's command, Ari throttled the controls to the Great Freedom's levi-sphere, and the Great Gizoid slowly, surely... lifted off from the ground.
Not a moment too soon.
The curtain of missiles turned the earth it was once standing on into fire.
There, hovering before them, was a veritable swarm of Meta-Gizoids. There were all of similar design classes to the Great Freedom, but smaller. With the Four Generals dead, they were going for quantity over quality. Every last one of them was a bright purple.
And every one of them was launching enemy Gizoids.
"I'm on this!" shouted Bean, slamming the controls for the cannons. "With big guns, quantity is more important than precision!"
The enemy Gizoids had clouds of flame to fly through, so the sum total damage of Bean's random firing was limited to covering them in soot.
"We're not hitting anything..." moaned Bean.
"We'll have to send out our own Gizoid brigade!" Elias shouted.
Down in the hangar...
"That's our cue!" said Vector from Vector Prime.
"Mm-hmm," nodded Lobo inside O'Donnell.
"Try to keep up, Knuckles," taunted Mighty.
"Of course I will!" smirked Knuckles. "Who the hell do you think I am?"
"Knuckles of Gawain Village, the oldest of the Wandering Orphans," said Eliastriker in Meg's voice.
"Wha...?" Knuckles's arms unfolded, a slightly alarmed look on his face. "Meg, what're you...?"
"I'm here, too, mates!" shouted Super Marine.
"Marine? You, too?" King Knuckles faced Super Marine. On one of Knuckles's monitors, Marine was snickering.
"We're going out there to help you, whether you want us to or not," said Meg seriously.
"Besides, we want to avenge Sonic, too," said Marine.
"Y-you guys..." Knuckles said.
Blaze's face appeared on all three of their Gizoids' monitors.
"Knuckles, Meg, Marine. I will take care of problems here on Great Freedom," a smile crossed Blaze's face, "So you three can give the Black Arms hell!"
Knuckles sighed heavily, then grinned. "Okay, then! Let's show these slackers the power of the Wandering Orphans!"
Meg, Blaze, and Marine gave cheers.
Two at a time, the Great Freedom Fighters' Gizoid brigade strode out on to the deck and, picked up by Great Freedom's Catapult Arms, were tossed into the empty void, already over a thousand feet off the ground.
Thankfully, the battles the past five days had given them access to Gizoid-sized levi-spheres from the enemy's flying Gizoid, jury-rigged onto their undercarriages.
Flares of blue energy blasted from the levi-spheres, and the Great Freedom Fighters' Gizoid brigade took to the sky.
Freedom Emerl rose up onto the deck.
"Sorry for the delay, Freedom Emerl," said the 'ROTOR - SOUND ONLY' panel in Tails's eye. "Ready to initiate combining?"
"When you are!" Tails said.
"Good luck, Tails!" said Sally, from Acorn Cannon, in Tails's other eye.
"Let's do this, Tails!" said Silver, below in Freedom.
"Alright!" Tails yelled, Emerl's screens going green.
Freedom Emerl's wings deployed, green energy flaring from the levi-sphere in its flying Gizoid component, the Gizoid flying up above Great Freedom's bridge, a drill appearing around Freedom Emerl's legs and driving into the space between Great Freedom's shoulders (the vantage tower had been abandoned after the battle with the Great MetaCompass).
In the month since Tails became the leader of the Great Freedom Fighters, he had figured out the exact amount of force needed to initiate transformation into Great Freedom Emerl, while still ensuring the safety and integrity of those in the bridge. And secure restraints had been installed throughout Great Freedom for people - and objects - in the emergency event that Great Freedom Emerl performed extreme maneuvers in battle.
The prow split, attaching to now-bulky arms.
Legs extended, becoming more flexible.
A cape appeared. As did large red shades.
The blue light of Great Freedom's levi-sphere turned green.
A shout rang out that shook the Capital down to its foundations.
"Great Freedom Emerl!"
And the Great Gizoid flew off to take the rear position of the Great Freedom Fighters' Gizoid brigade.
"Alright, you guys! Let's do it to it!" Great Freedom's mouth moved in time to Tails's orders.
Knuckles's grinning face appeared in Tails's eye. "Well, well! Looks like the amateur has become a full-fledged commander now! You take care of the big ones, we'll deal with the little ones!"
"I'm on it!" Great Freedom Emerl charged ahead, its cannons still blazing, the Great Freedom Fighters' Gizoid brigade dodging around it.
Knuckles broadcast out to Marine in her Super Marine. "Alright, Marine! Let's do the you-know-what! We're gonna combine, too!"
"Okay!" Marine gave a thumbs-up.
Super Marine entered spear-and-shield mode, King Knuckles taking each component in each hand as Marine's cockpit separated and attached to King Knuckles's back, riding on the Eliastriker piloted by Meg.
"KING KNUX DELUXE!" Knuckles roared out. "Let's take 'em down!"
"Yeah!" called out Meg and Marine.
King Knux Deluxe led the Great Freedom Fighters' Gizoid brigade in the charge against Greengate's Gizoid brigade.
And so the sixth day of the battle for Greengate commenced.
"So it's begun," Elias said, strapped into the captain's chair. "It's all down to whose fighting spirit is greater."
The elevator opened, and Rotor, secured in a motorized chair affixed to a track in the floor, entered the bridge.
"How are things going up here?" Rotor asked.
"We've avoided their opening gambit," Elias replied, "But this battle is only beginning."
Blaze piped in from the radar station. "A large Gizoid reading has entered our range!"
Indeed, just beyond the red-tinted shades now adorning Great Freedom's face, a large air carrier Gizoid could be seen. It bore a dark-green color scheme as opposed to Great MetaWind's purple hue. Below, it carried a missile almost as large as the Great Freedom's prow.
仮説飛行要塞母空型ギゾイド
グレイトメタクラウド
Provisional Aerial Carrier Fortess Gizoid
Great MetaCloud
"Is it the Great MetaCloud again?" Elias asked.
"It is," said Chris, pulling down the binoculars. "They've dispatched Blackbull against us again."
"Doesn't matter!" called out Tails from Freedom Emerl, above them. "We're gonna take them all down!"
The spiral meter on Emerl's display lit up white. Then green.
And green light glowed from the drill that had impaled into Great Freedom's bridge. Bean noticed and stopped firing, mostly because the buttons he was mashing were glowing as well.
Every cannon on the Great Freedom Emerl glowed green, a drill-shaped missile flaring into existence in each barrel, launching out with a trail of green light behind it, drill-missiles continually respawning and launching behind them.
Each drill missile impacted against an enemy Meta-Gizoid.
The space between Great Freedom Emerl and the Great MetaCloud erupted in flames and smoke.
狼が来た!
In the center of the Great MetaCloud's bridge, there sat a large slug-like Black Arms, red on its back, black on its belly, a pair of feeble wing-like appendages on its back, with a single green eye over a mouth large enough to devour any Möbian whole.
交換螺旋四天王ブラックブル
Replacement Helix General Blackbull
And Blackbull's jaw was slack with shock at what had just happened.
But Blackbull recovered quickly.
"Very interesting, Möbian..." When Blackbull spoke, it was low, and slow, and ominous. The replacement General then turned to one of the smaller, feathered Black Arms at a console. "Set all batteries to fire at will! Let them get nowhere near the Capital! Burn them and their Gizoids to ash!"
"Yes, sir!" squawked the lieutenant.
合体なんてクソくらえ!
Tails was exhausted, that much Silver could tell, once the barrage of Spiral Missiles had abated.
"Tails, doing that with Great Freedom Emerl is different from Freedom Emerl alone!" he said over his channel to Tails. "You've got to pace yourself."
"Gotcha," Tails gasped. "You take over for now."
But Silver did not get to do much as the pilot of the Great Freedom Emerl.
Mostly because four Meta-Gizoids, having avoided Tails's missile massacre, took hold of Great Freedom Emerl's arms and legs, keeping it stuck in place.
"Crap!" Elias swore. "We're stuck!"
Elsewhere on the battlefield, King Knux Deluxe, Vector Prime, and Mighty Fists met in a brief lull.
"This isn't good!" Vector hailed Knuckles. "Great Freedom Emerl is in trouble!"
"Can't you guys go and back 'em up?" Knuckles asked.
"Get real!" Mighty said. "We've got our hands tied as it-..."
More enemy Gizoids flew in, on the kill.
"Goddamn!"
"Shit!"
The three Great Freedom Fighter Gizoids parted, returning to the fray.
The Acorn Cannon having dealt a finishing blow to its current target, it discharged the empty magazine on top of its head and, removing one of the two extras affixed to its underbelly, attached a new full one, reloading.
And Sally looked to the Great Freedom Emerl with dread.
"Guys...!"
And another enemy Gizoid flew in, drawing her away from her friends.
Blackbull's face appeared on Great Freedom's monitor.
"It was a wonderful experience knowing you, Möbians..." Blackbull boomed.
"Blackbull..." Elias growled.
"But know that your defeat was as inevitable as the sun setting!"
The missile mounted below the Great MetaCloud launched.
"I'm gonna blast it outta the sky!" Bean raised his fist to mash the fire button.
"No!" Rotor called out. "The barrels need to cool after Tails's missiles launched! If you fire now, the Great Freedom Emerl could explode!"
Bean clenched his fist, "Crap!"
In Emerl, Tails grit his teeth. "Sonic..."
On Great Freedom's monitor, Blackbull let out a long, slow laugh. "It's over...!"
And the missile exploded...
Less than halfway to Great Freedom Emerl.
ラップは漢の魂だ!無理を通して道理を蹴っ飛ばす!俺たち大グレン団のテーマを耳の穴かっぽじってよ～く聴きやがれ!
Back in the Great MetaCloud, Blackbull flailed his vestigial wings about in anger.
"HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?" he bellowed.
"It's cannon fire from the Möbians!" the Black Arms on radar clucked.
"But their weapons couldn't possibly have been able to fire after that!"
"Sir, the fire isn't coming from one vessel!"
"What?"
Back with Great Freedom Emerl...
Tails's energy had been rejuvenated, and he pulled Great Freedom Emerl's limbs away from the restraining Meta-Gizoids, smashing their levi-spheres in the process.
"What was that?" Elias asked.
Blaze looked down at the radar. "On the eastern horizon! To the east, there's..."
Hearing this unfold in the bridge below, Tails looked out to the east, to his right.
A cloud of dust was dissipating on the horizon.
When it cleared, Tails heart skipped a beat.
Dozens of Meta-Gizoids, the size of the battalions unleashed on them this day of battle. But they were all different colors, featuring different decals painted on the sides.
But the one thing they all had in common was...
"Sonic's flag!" Tails's grin could have split his head in two.
A green hawk appeared in Tails's right eye, and on Great Freedom's monitor below.
"Hey there, Great Freedom Fighters!" he said in a high, scratchy voice. "Need a little hand out there?"
"Who are you?" asked Rotor.
"We're villagers who saw those images in the sky," replied the hawk.
"You mean... when the Four Generals attacked?" Elias asked.
The hawk nodded, "I'm Jet, and I hail from Lamorak Village! Nice to meetcha!" A green Meta-Gizoid at the head raised an arm.
A gray albatross appeared on the monitor as well. "I'm Storm, and I'm from Babylon Village!" he said in a very gruff voice, as a gray-painted Gizoid beside Jet's put a fist in the air.
A purple swallow appeared beside them. She said, "I'm Wave, and I'm from Hudson Village! We've been hijacking enemy Gizoids, too!"
"That big-ass drill is the head honcho, right?" asked Jet.
"Y-yeah..." said Elias, smiling despite himself.
"Well, don't sweat it!" Jet gave a thumbs-up. "With Jet of Lamorak Village on your side, victory is assured!"
And the reinforcement Meta-Gizoids opened fire on the Great MetaCloud and the few remaining enemy Meta-Gizoids.
Amongst the Great Freedom Fighters' Gizoid brigade, feelings soared.
"Look, everybody!" called out Double Bruiser in Big's slow voice. "We got new friends, and they're helping us out!"
Knuckles's grin showed through King Knux Deluxe's features.
"C'mon, guys! We can't let them have all the fun!" And he drove the Super Marine Spear into the flying enemy Gizoid he'd been hijacking (Meg in Eliastriker had taken on a separate enemy Gizoid).
ブラックブル
Panic was king on the Great MetaCloud's bridge, and Blackbull's single eye was wide with fear and rage.
"Möbians...? More Möbians?" he growled. "When did this horde of Möbians get here?"
The screen lit up one by one with avian Black Arms, each wearing an expression of intense anxiety.
"Armor plating is taking heavy damage!"
"No. 3 levi-sphere has been hit! Output is destabilized!"
"General Blackbull, I suggest a temporary withdrawal."
This last touched a nerve.
"NO! We must hold them here, no matter what!"
And that's when Blackbull realized that he was the only one left in the bridge. Everyone else had fled.
And that Great Freedom Emerl had just clasped its hands together over its head, its prow as one.
And that this oversized knife was swinging down at him.
"A knife...?" squeaked Blackbull in fright.
The flaming wreckage of the Great MetaCloud - falling in two pieces - crashed to the empty landscape below.
回って回って回って回ってててて…
The Great Freedom Fighters cheered. As the battle had progressed those many hours between the opening missile gambit and this destruction of the Great MetaCloud, the Great Freedom Emerl and its Gizoid and newly acquired Meta-Gizoid brigades had moved under the rim of the Capital itself, the high noon sun eclipsed by Greengate itself.
But nothing could block the feelings of jubilance at this enemy's defeat. They had fought many Meta-Gizoids in the long path to the Capital, but now...
The Helix King was all that was left to take care of.
Suddenly, a beam of light shot out from a window on the side of Great Freedom Emerl's hangar...
And an image of Cosmo, the size of the Great Freedom Emerl itself, appeared beside it.
"Good day, everyone," she said, addressing the new Meta-Gizoid battalion. "I am Cosmo Darkoak, the head cook of the Great Freedom Fighters." She bowed towards them.
They bowed back.
"Now that we have defeated the Great MetaCloud, and its General Blackbull, our next target is this Royal Capital, Greengate," Cosmo explained, smiling brightly. "It may seem like a real challenge, but Tails will have no problem taking it down."
"How can one little kid do all that to that thing?" called out Jet's Meta-Gizoid in Jet's voice.
Cosmo's brows furrowed. "I say this... because Tails's drill..." Cosmo pointed to the sky, a smile once more appearing on her round face. "Is the drill that will pierce the heavens!"
"You said it, little lady!" Knuckles intoned from King Knuckles - Super Marine had reconstituted when the Great MetaCloud - pointing up at the Capital directly above them. "We're gonna take out the Capital now, so everybo...dy..."
The reason Knuckles had trailed off was because the Capital's shadow over them seemed to be growing.
No.
It wasn't growing.
Something was falling towards them.
The Gizoid brigade narrowly dodged a skyscraper falling on them.
Cosmo's skyscraper-sized image showed an alarmed expression, then cut out abruptly.
On the bridge, Bean was spazzing. "Big-ass buildings are falling this way!"
Rotor could not believe his eyes.
"What in the world is going on...?" he shouted.
王都
"This is the tale of a man who continues to fight his destiny..."
グリーンゲート
"Tails!" Silver appeared in Tails's eye. "We should pull back!"
"Y-yeah!" Tails acquiesced.
Great Freedom Emerl spun around, green energy pouring out of its levi-sphere as it tore backwards away from the Capital, swerving to avoid the falling buildings.
Some Meta-Gizoids were not so lucky.
Tails froze in horror at the sight of Jet, Storm, and Wave's Meta-Gizoids getting caught up in the chaos of the Capital's collapsing, and being smashed by one of the skyscrapers falling from Greengate.
"Ari, take emergency control!" Elias ordered. "Get us out of here!"
"Got it!" Ari said, spinning the helm wildly to avoid the falling debris.
After several hellish minutes, the Great Freedom Emerl had managed to escape from the danger zone, though whether their Gizoid brigade had made it out alive was a whole other story.
"Great Freedom Emerl!" Knuckles's face appeared on Great Freedom's main monitor.
"We read you, Knuckles," Elias said. "Status? Where's Meg?"
"We're all fine here, including Meg," Knuckles replied, "But... what the flying FUCK is going on?"
"The Capital seems to be collapsing on its own," Rotor told him.
"I can see that!" shouted Knuckles. "But why?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Elias waved his hands, trying to calm Knuckles down.
"Look!" Chris pointed at the thick clouds of smoke and dust kicked up by the Capital's hundreds of falling skyscrapers. "In there!"
Everyone did...
And refused to believe their eyes.
"It's huge..." breathed Charmy, from a window below, in the Great Freedom's main body.
In Freedom, Silver's eyes were wide with disbelief.
"I... I can't believe it!" he breathed. "It's a...!"
As the smoke cleared, a distinct silhouette of three long necks and two large, bulky, winglike arms became visible...
超特大ギゾイド
"In that instant, destiny took shape...
"And revealed itself to the man."
グレイトメタレックス
Tails's stomach dropped out on him. Hidden inside the Royal Capital of Greengate for two-thousand years, larger than any other of its type that Tails had ever seen, was...
"A Gizoid!"
超特大ギゾイド
グレイトメタレックス
Special Super-Large Gizoid
Great MetaRex
つづく
To be continued...
次回予告
Next Episode Preview
The wall crumbles, revealing the dark monster behind it.
Even so, all it takes to banish darkness is a little light.
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "Thank You, Tails".