(Chapter Eighteen. This certainly came out fast, given my time constraints with work and all, right?)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Thank You, Tails
The Great Freedom Fighters in Great Freedom Emerl, and in the Gizoid brigade, and in the surviving Meta-Gizoids, stared in numb shock up at the unbelievably large Gizoid before them, the sun beginning to set behind it, casting it in a demonic silhouette. Through the smoke, they could see that, from left to right - from their perspective - the three dragon heads were jet-black, dark-purple, and pale-green. A torso like an impossibly large tree trunk connected the Great MetaRex's three heads to a blood-red left arm with long, clawed fingers, and a yellow right arm ending in a large hammer head.
"Look at the size of that thing..." breathed Elias.
"Something that size has to be breaking a rule here or there," Rotor quipped.
Suddenly, Blaze's radar began to beep loudly. She looked down at it.
"I'm picking up another Gizoid reading, in the middle head," she said, narrowing her eyes. "This pattern looks..."
Blaze's eyes widened, and beneath the white fur of her muzzle, she went pale.
"It can't be!" she said.
"What's wrong?" asked Rotor, taking his mobile chair over to Blaze.
"This reading..." Blaze said.
And in three words, she stunned her comrades.
"It's Freedom Emerl!"
"What?" everyone present chorused at once.
"There's a Gizoid reading from the Capital's center head that is completely identical to Freedom Emerl's!" Blaze explained, sweat beading on her forehead.
Looking over Blaze's shoulder, Rotor could see it plain as day. There was the spiral-shaped marker on Blaze's radar indicating Freedom Emerl directly overhead, and another, identical reading in the center of what was once Greengate.
Inside Emerl, Tails pulled down his digging goggles.
And Freedom Emerl disengaged from Great Freedom, its prow returning to normal, its shades, arm armor, and cape dissipating.
"Tails! Where are you going?" Sally asked from Acorn Cannon.
"What do you think? I'm going to see what that other Freedom Emerl reading's about!"
But flying Freedom Emerl up so high was a significant chore for Tails; he'd never done it before, and needed to continually push himself to generate the spirit necessary to reach the level of the central head.
After flying straight up for a good minute, Tails was level with the purple head's emerald gaze.
"Wait!" he said, zooming in with Emerl's magnification vision. "There's a tower between its horns. And... is that...?"
Emerl's projected images of an extreme close-up of the Capital's highest tower showed a dull-purple creature seated on a throne atop a spiraling dais. His only facial features were green eyes and a mouth currently turned down in a frown. His long purple hair went down to his waist, and he wore only a black jacket with red trim.
"Father!"
All eyes on the Great Freedom's bridge went to the elevator doors.
Cosmo was standing there, staring intently at the glowering person on the monitor.
"Then that means..." Elias said, facing the screen again.
"That's the Helix King..." Rotor continued. "Lucus Darkoak."
"Correct," said the Helix King.
Everyone gasped; he could hear them?
"You weak-willed souls, who cannot sustain the willpower to live in your holes..." he said. "You weak-willed souls, who would rather run in a world you think is free, but is really an endless prison...! I shall show you the meaning of terror, with this... my Great MetaRex!"
Kilometers above Great Freedom, Tails's brow furrowed.
"As if we'll let you do that!" he shouted to the Helix King in his eye. "I'm gonna take you down!"
Freedom Emerl put its right fist in the air...
"GIGA..."
A drill three times Freedom Emerl's size emerged...
"DRILL..."
And, the drill now spinning rapidly, Freedom Emerl beelined for the Helix King's tower...
"DRIVER!"
And the Great MetaRex brought up its left arm, halting Freedom Emerl's unblockable Finishing Move with a single finger.
In Great Freedom's bridge, stunned emotions ran wild.
"Is that... what it can do...?" Elias said numbly.
Up in Emerl, Tails screamed in fury, his fighting spirit rising even higher until all the world around him went green.
Though the torrents of green energy pouring from Freedom Emerl's levi-sphere would have engulfed the Great MetaRex had Freedom Emerl been aiming the other way, the titanic Gizoid's finger did not even shudder.
"And to think that I am not even using my Spiral Shield," droned the Helix King, idly raising his left hand. "Is this all you can do, Möbian? Pathetic."
He flicked his forefinger.
Great MetaRex's forefinger twitched, but at that scale it sent Freedom Emerl flying violently away, the shards of its now-broken Giga Drill falling to join the fallen skyscrapers of Greengate.
"TAILS!" shrieked Sally in Acorn Cannon.
Great Freedom caught Freedom Emerl.
"Nice catch!" smiled Rotor.
Tails's image appeared on Great Freedom's main monitor; his eyes were spinning as he groaned in pain. Kukku's floating ball had become a spiral.
"Are you alright, Tails?" Chris asked.
"Somehow..."
Before Tails had even fully replied, Silver's image appeared beside Tails.
"I can't believe it," he said, returning himself to a right-side-up position. "The Giga Drill Driver couldn't penetrate that thing's armor."
Cosmo stepped up to the main screen.
"Tails, I must ask something of you," she folded her hands in front of her chest, a serious expression on her face. "I want you to take me to my father."
Tails cocked an eyebrow. "Cosmo...?"
"I would like to speak to my father, Tails," Cosmo repeated.
"That's insane!" cut in Silver. "Darkoak isn't gonna let us get near him, never mind getting you close enough to talk to him! We should pull back and formulate a long-range plan of attack, not go charging in when we're still tired from the day's fighting!"
Rotor gave Silver a steady, serious look. "Silver, this girl came all this way so that she could give her father a piece of her mind."
"But that's-..."
"Silver, you might wanna remember this for when you get a girl," Rotor waved a finger in the air as he smiled. "When a girl sets her heart to something, a man is obligated to help her do it."
Cosmo's expression did not falter. "Please, Tails."
Tails nodded.
"Sure thing," he smiled. "Let's go, Cosmo!"
Silver looked at Tails, flabbergasted. "Are you serious, Tails?"
"You better believe it!"
Knuckles appeared in the corner of Tails's eye. "I'm going, too, Tails!" Knuckles looked quite irritated. "If I don't go up there and kick that guy's tail, I won't be able to live with myself!"
The other Gizoid pilots of the Great Freedom Fighters - apart from Sally - appeared and expressed their own eagerness to punch Darkoak out, drag him through the dirt, and kick him in a very sensitive area. Even Kukku jumped in front of Tails and put a small Chao fist in the air with a cry of "Chao-chao!"
"You guys..." Tails muttered.
Sally appeared, finally. She looked incredibly tense about something.
"Sorry, guys, but I don't think getting near that thing is very likely."
"What do you mean, Sal?" asked Knuckles roughly.
Acorn Cannon pointed at the Great MetaRex...
Which was rearing up, blood-red energy appearing in all three dragon heads' jaws. The purple dragon head and neck remained perfectly static, though.
And the Helix King said:
"FINAL..."
The dragon heads fired off the blasts, converging in front of the purple head...
"NOVA!"
And fired off a tremendous beam that turned the sky red, and would have vaporized the Great Freedom and Freedom Emerl had it not veered sharply to the side, courtesy of Ari.
The blast tore a hole in Möbius's crust. After a few moments, magma spurted out of the new fissure.
The Great Freedom Fighters, all of their hearts pounding rapidly from that near-miss, thanked their lucky stars that the rebellion didn't end then and there.
That was altogether too close.
"Impressive, Möbians," boomed the Great MetaRex. "You dodged this Great MetaRex's ultimate attack. But still... can you withstand the brunt of the Helix King's Meta-Gizoid Armada?"
And countless hatches as small as stars in the sky opened up along the Great MetaRex's torso.
And Gizoids the size of the Great Freedom Fighters' recently acquired Meta-Gizoid squadrons began pouring out. Blotting out the sun.
"Silver was right," said Elias. "Darkoak isn't just gonna let us walk up to him."
"How many of them are there?" Lobo asked, his hands shaking slightly.
"This looks like a right bonzer blue, right, Meg?" asked Marine, grinning in her Super Marine.
Meg nodded at Marine on her monitor. "Mm-hmm," she grinned. "With this many enemies to fight, we can finally show the whole world what the Wandering Orphans are made of!"
A grin returned to Knuckles's features in King Knuckles.
"You guys..." he grunted.
"Right, Knux?" Marine asked.
"Yep, she's right." Then Knuckles shrugged. "But she's wrong about one thing."
"Hmm?" Meg and Marine were confused.
"It ain't the power of the Wandering Orphans that we're gonna show the world."
King Knuckles pointed to the heavens.
"It's the power of the Great Freedom Fighters!"
His fellow Gizoids followed suite, cheering heartily.
On the Great Freedom's main screen, Knuckles faced Tails.
"Alright, Tails!" Knuckles grinned. "You get Cosmo, and we'll open up a path for Great Freedom!"
"Knuckles..." Tails was stunned.
Vector's image muscled Knuckles's aside. "When you get there, give Darkoak a couple whacks from each of us!"
Kukku flitted up and nuzzled Tails's ear, his floating ball turning into a heart.
Tails's brows set. "Got it!"
Freedom Emerl floated up to Great Freedom's right eye, holding out its hand. At his station, Chris tapped a button, opening one of the diamond-dust windows that made up Great Freedom's eyes. A blast of hot air rushed in, and Cosmo held down the front of her dress to keep people from seeing her panties.
Freedom Emerl's hand was just outside of the window now.
"Let's go, Cosmo!" Tails said brightly.
Without hesitation, Cosmo leapt onto Freedom's hand, the Gizoid's arm moving to Emerl, which opened the hatch on top of its head. Cosmo leapt into Emerl's cockpit, sitting astride Tails's waist.
"Thank you, Tails," she said.
"Are we all set?" he asked her.
"Yes!"
Nodding, Tails closed Emerl's canopy, and Freedom Emerl took to the fore of Great Freedom's prow, folding its arms.
"Great Freedom, launch!" Elias ordered.
"Launching!" acknowledged Ari, thrusting the helm forward.
Great Freedom's levi-sphere glowed like a blue star, taking the Great Gizoid into the air. The surviving Meta-Gizoids and the swarms of Möbian-piloted Gizoids followed the Great Freedom Fighters' super-sized Gizoid even as the Capital's armies brought them into a midday eclipse.
So they would fight in the shade? the Great Freedom Fighters thought.
Bring it on.
ファイナルノヴァ
"What tenacity they show, Your Majesty," the silhouetted giant behind the dais said.
"Indeed," Lucus replied. "They hijack our army, and thus increase their own numbers. That is the only reason they have made it this far."
"No."
"Hmm?" the Helix King nearly turned in his chair. "You disagree with me?"
"The reason they came this far, was because of him. The flames of revolt were brought forth by that blue pest: Sonic The Hedgehog. Their obstinacy... Are they even afraid of death?"
"Do the Möbians frighten you?"
"No, sire," came the response. "Not anymore. I do not even fear death anymore. I have no reason to. Now, I only fear their Spiral Power."
Lucus nodded in assent.
"Good."
Then you will have no trepidation about traveling amidst the entirety of all Möbian life, Lucus finished in his mind.
happily ever after
No matter haw many Gizoids the King Knux Deluxe sliced through, at least two more seemed to fly in to replace it. The sun had practically set by now, and everyone was getting tired from a long day of battle.
"Damn it! There are so many of them!" Knuckles groaned.
Sally appeared in his right eye.
"What good will complaining about it do?" she snapped. "We can't afford to lose here!"
"Good point, Sal!" Knuckles grinned at her, as Acorn Cannon swapped out its apparently empty magazine for a full one.
"That's right." There was a powerful fire in her eyes now. "We have to win here, so that the people who died for us won't have died in vain!"
"And that's why...!" said Tails, from the head of the Great Freedom's prow, "We'll win for sure!"
Even so, even as their armies clashed against those of the Helix King, even as no quarter was given or taken in this most bloody of all battles, no progress had been made in their advance on the Great MetaRex. On the Capital.
Until...
"There's a thin patch on the left!" Blaze said, the tip of her nose almost touching the radar screen.
"Ari!" Elias shouted.
"On it!" came the reply.
With a rapid spin of the helm, the Great Freedom tore towards that thin patch of enemy Gizoids.
But the Great MetaRex was raising its right arm at their advance, preparing to smash them with that large yellow hammer it had in place of a hand.
At the tip of Great Freedom's prow, as the Great Gizoid red-lined its speed gauges, Freedom Emerl produced a Giga Drill from its right palm.
"We can do this..." Tails growled, "If we pool Freedom Emerl's strength with Great Freedom!"
Up in the Great MetaRex's throne room, the Helix King gave an amused smirk.
"Oh? But the end result will be the same," he smirked darkly.
The hammer was very close now.
"LET'S GO!" shouted Elias and Rotor.
With a great crunch, Great Freedom embedded its prow wholly into the head of the hammer.
If their calculations were correct - having come at the Great MetaRex from its right side - the Helix King's throne room was separated from them only by the hammer's head.
So...
"FIRE!" screamed Elias and Bean.
All batteries on the Great Freedom's prow launched their arsenals, which also included delayed time bombs that embedded within the framework concealed within the layers of molecularly bonded steel that formed the hammer's head.
The greatest volleys, though, tore straight through the hammer and to the other end of the head.
"Guys, I can see light from the other side!" Tails shouted.
This confirmation was what they needed.
"LAUNCH THE KNIFE ANCHOR!" Elias shouted.
The entire prow separated from Great Freedom, green energy pouring from the end as it tore its way through the few remaining supports, flying through empty space in a great parabolic arc, before burrowing itself in the tower perched atop the Great MetaRex's purple dragon head.
The Helix King looked up at the cloud of shattered glass raining down from the right-hand side of his audience chamber.
As the glass cleared, there was the Knife Anchor fired off from the stolen Great MetaFlare.
And on its tip...
Freedom Emerl.
Lucus couldn't help it. He chuckled, impressed.
This would be interesting.
Back in the bridge of Great Freedom...
Cheers erupted...
"We got you up there, just like we promised, Tails!" Elias cheered.
...And these cheers were quickly put down when the Great Freedom bucked violently in an explosion.
Chirs was leaning over his computer screen, "There are fires breaking out all over the engine room and the main shaft!"
Lupe's voice broke out over the PA system.
"Rotor, that was all this Great Freedom could give," she said.
"That's okay," Rotor replied. "We're just about done with her. Now all we gotta do, is tuck her in for the night."
Elias nodded at Rotor, just as Tails and Cosmo appeared on Great Freedom's monitor.
"What was that explosion?" Tails looked worried.
"Don't worry about us, Tails," Elias said. "You go get Darkoak."
"But-..."
Sally's image appeared beside Tails and Cosmo.
"You heard my brother. Go!"
Tails's expression showed no small degree of shock now. "Sally...?"
"Go on, Tails! This what we've all been fighting so hard for!"
Tails's face was screwed up in thought for a moment, and he finally nodded in acknowledgment.
"Got it."
Up in the Royal Capital's audience chamber, Freedom Emerl leapt from the former prow of Great Freedom, hovering down to face the final boss: Helix King Lucus Darkoak.
"Well, time for your last mission, Great Freedom," Rotor said solemnly. This magnificent Gizoid had done so much for them - sheltered them from the cold rain the week after Sonic had died - stood its ground against the four Meta-Gizoids piloted by the remaining Helix Generals - destroyed the last two Helix Generals - single-handedly took down Blackbull - and now, its line of duty was finished.
Elias called out to Ari and Bean, "Prime the detonators on the time bombs and explosives in the cargo bay!"
Ari pushed a few buttons and pulled a lever. "Timers set!"
Bean hammered several buttons, exposing a red one under a glass plate, punching through the glass with his right fist. "Blow 'em up!"
"Emergency... ejection!" Elias, Rotor, and Chris cried.
At their separate stations, Elias, Rotor, and Chris hit the buttons that needed to be hit at the same time, signaling that Great Freedom - and its jury-rigged levi-sphere - would eject from the brace that had connected it to the Knife Anchor from the moment of its construction.
Fortunately, the cargo bay - and the explosives - were in the brace.
So Great Freedom was a great distance away when the explosives and time bombs went off, the combined concussive force of all the detonations turning the great yellow hammer into a cloud of smoke and fire. Blackened chunks of yellow metal fell around the remains of Great Freedom as it hovered slowly to the ground.
"Sayonara, Great Freedom," Rotor said quietly, his eyes closed.
Sally had managed to extricate herself from the fighting long enough to look up at the Great MetaRex's purple head.
"It's all down to you now, Tails," she said to herself.
そのまま黙って燃えてくれ～天におわす神
Great Freedom touched down not too gently less than a hundred feet from the dais where the source of all of Möbius's troubles sat. Six women of varying different species - including a woman of Cosmo's species; was it her mother? - stood around the throne in a hexagon.
"I am impressed that you have made it this far," said the Helix King, a red gleam entering his green eyes, "Young man of the Spiral."
Spiral? Tails thought. Don't think about that; we have to finish this as soon as Cosmo's had her words with him!
Freedom Emerl took a step forward, Tails preparing to open Emerl's canopy...
And leapt to the side to avoid a flying kick from another Gizoid.
Freedom Emerl entered a battle pose, looking over its newest threat.
Its six arms were currently folded, and a crowned head sat atop its shoulders. There were two more faces on its chest. The enemy Gizoid was a polished, pearly white.
アークケルベロス
ARK-Cerberus
"Nicely dodged," came a familiar voice from its three mouths. "As expected of you, fox boy."
A flash of light, and six swords were drawn.
"I've been waiting."
Tails's expression was of mingled surprise and anger.
"Shadow!"
つづく
To be continued...
次回予告
Next Episode Preview
I came all this way, just to tell him this:
That it is possible for me and the Möbians to exist peacefully in this world.
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "I Will Head Towards Tomorrow".