(Chapter Nineteen.
Well, this is it, guys. The final battle (is it?).
It was a fun ride (can it be over already?).
But all good things have to come to an end (do they?).
Enjoy!
...Oh, and the answer to all three questions is 'No'.)
Helix King Lucus Darkoak gave the two circling brawlers - the Great Freedom Fighters' trump card, Freedom Emerl, and Shadow's greatest Gizoid yet, the ARK-Cerberus - a dully amused gaze.
This would be over quickly. He knew it.
"I'm a whole new Black Arms today," came Shadow's energized voice from ARK-Cerberus.
"What do you mean?" came the young voice from the Spiral Power Magnification Conduit Interface - or 'Emerl', as the Möbians naïvely dubbed it - atop the Möbian Gizoid.
The young voice reminded Lucus of himself at that age.
I was a young fool then, with foolish ideas, he thought. But foolish ideas are never meant to last...
For in the end...
You learn of despair...
Shadow was speaking again.
"My body has been modified into one which can recover from any wound, light or mortal, and which can go on fighting indefinitely without need of rest!"
ARK-Cerberus charged.
"I am the ultimate life form...!" Shadow roared, ARK-Cerberus swinging its half a dozen blades at Freedom Emerl wildly, every single swing a potential fatality for Freedom Emerl.
None of them hit.
Freedom Emerl dodged just enough that the black blades wielded by Shadow's Gizoid missed by mere millimeters.
ARK-Cerberus brought its swords back.
"And this place will be your grave, fox boy!" Shadow cried, bringing all six swords down on Freedom Emerl.
Freedom Emerl caught all six blades at once. In one hand.
"What?" Shadow shouted.
Freedom Emerl clenched his fist.
All six blades shattered. ARK-Cerberus's three faces showed shock.
"Why...?" Shadow asked.
Freedom Emerl brought its right fist back. Four drills emerged from its wrist, aimed for ARK-Cerberus's chest.
ARK-Cerberus's arms caught the drills, but the drills kept spinning wildly, tearing its limbs apart. Bringing up its last two arms, these two arms were torn apart as well.
"Why can't I defeat him?" Shadow screamed, no small amount of panic in his tone.
Lucus spoke.
"Shadow, you pour creature."
ARK-Cerberus's sole head turned to face the dais.
"Your Majesty?"
"I didn't grant you your immortal body so that you could do battle," Lucus said bluntly.
Then, in a blast of the fox boy's pure, emerald-green Spiral Power, ARK-Cerberus - what was left of it - was smashed against one of the glass windows arranged in a circle around the audience chamber at the peak of the Capital.
All this time, the six concubines standing around Lucus's dais had not budged so much as an inch.
Through the hole torn in ARK-Cerberus's chest, a charred form emerged.
"Y-Your Majesty..." it said, loose flesh crumbling from its body. In moments, it had regenerated into Shadow.
"Shadow, there is no possibility of a Black Arms defeating a Möbian who has awakened his or her Spiral Power. This end result would have been the same had I not sealed your Spiral Power once more; I did not want you to suffer under any illusions from a prolonged battle..."
"Illusions, Helix King...?" Shadow asked in a mutinous tone.
"It is true that I granted you a body that can not die or be killed," Lucus frowned at Shadow, not even turning his head from Freedom Emerl, looking at Shadow out of the corner of his eyes. "But it was not so that you could fight.
"It was so that you could be a storyteller, who will recount from now until the heat death of the universe itself the victory of the Helix King."
Shadow's face showed mingled shock and fury.
"Your storyteller...?"
Lucus grinned, "I am glad that you catch on so quickly, Shadow. Now just lay back in the wreckage of your Gizoid and watch. Observe the fate of a foolish Möbian. And then tell all who will listen, until the very end of time itself, of the futility of raising the flag of rebellion against the Helix King."
It was at that moment that "Emerl"'s canopy opened...
And stepping out was...
"Cosmo," Lucus said simply.
CHAPTER NINETEEN:
I Will Head Towards Tomorrow
"It's been a long time, Father," Cosmo said sharply.
"You're looking well," the Helix King said to his daughter lazily. "I never expected to see your face again."
Cosmo decided to cut to the chase.
"Why are you doing this, Father?" she asked angrily. "You seal the Möbians away underground, and kill them if they come to the surface. It's horrible! Why would you do something like that?"
Lucus stared up at his daughter for several moments.
And Cosmo was shocked when Lucus began to laugh.
"Ignorance is indeed a frightening thing," he said. "You may believe yourselves to be in the right, but I am Möbius's true protector. I, Lucus Darkoak, am the one who is your defender from unimaginable horror."
"What do you mean?" Tails said, standing up behind Cosmo.
"There cannot be such a thing as a guardian who kills his charges," Cosmo furrowed her brows. "Don't you see that there is something terribly wrong with the world because of you?"
Lucus glared up at Cosmo. "Cosmo, the world I have created on this planet is the only way it can survive. You and your Möbian friends have disrupted that world, and I cannot allow you to continue to exist. For the sake of Möbian life..." A crimson gleam appeared in Lucus's eyes, and a low rumble echoed below his dais. "You must die."
A dark-purple drill broke through the floor in front of the dais, aimed for Cosmo's throat.
Quickly removing its shades, Freedom Emerl deflected the drill.
Cosmo fell from her foothold in front of Emerl and screamed.
Freedom Emerl caught her in Freedom's other hand.
The dark drill retracted into the dais.
"The Power of the Spiral is strong within you," said Lucus, standing up from his throne. "But that is a power which leads only to destruction." The spiral-shaped dais retracted until it was level with the floor. "Allow me to teach that to you."
Suddenly, the spiraling black garments around the Helix King's concubines expanded into tremendous black Core Drills, and the concubines disappeared into them with a last sensual moan each. As the large Core Drills began to glow red, a horrific crunching sound echoed from each.
Cosmo's eyes widened in horror.
"To show you the futility," Darkoak continued, as the Core Drills that were once his concubines drilled through holes in the floor, and the dais lowered still more and retracted under the audience chamber floor.
Darkoak and his throne descended still further, into darkness.
His voice echoed up, "You are not the only one who has awakened their Spiral Power. Though you have slain my four oldest friends, who too have awakened their inner Spiral, you will not be so lucky with me.
"Allow me to show you the awesome and terrible nature of true Spiral Power..."
Red light filled the audience chamber as a horned silhouette taller than Freedom Emerl emerged from the hole where the throne once was. Outside, stars filled the sky, and the moon shone down through the open-air ceiling.
"Using my Huenlonix!" Darkoak's voice echoed from the figure, a mechanical modulation to his voice now.
It was a dark, sinister shade of purple, a green orb in the middle of its chest, and in the middle of its face, with a black cape hanging from each spiked epaulet. A pair of silver horns extended from its head.
"Father...?" Cosmo said uncertainly, from Emerl's cockpit.
Tails's heart leapt into his throat, looking at the readouts on Emerl's main display.
"Th... That's a Freedom Emerl-type!" Tails cried out.
真・螺旋王機
ホゥエンロニックス
Helix King's Personal Gizoid
Huenlonix
"Is that... the source of the identical Freedom Emerl reading?" Silver blanched. How could they possibly fair against someone with a mecha functionally identical to their own, who had potentially infinitely more experience than they did?
Huenlonix uncrossed its arms and leapt into the air, high above Freedom Emerl.
"Cosmo..." Tails said. "I have no choice but to fight him."
Cosmo nodded. "Right."
Freedom Emerl dodged Huenlonix's attack, and the dark double left a tremendous crater where Freedom Emerl was moments before.
Ripping its shades from its face, Freedom Emerl prepared for another attack from Darkoak.
However, Darkoak braced himself, brushed Freedom Emerl's arm to the side, and kneed it into the air.
Silver cried out in shock.
Before Tails, Cosmo, or Silver could recover, Huenlonix leapt up and kicked it into a glass wall, sending shards falling to the ground three kilometers below.
Freedom Emerl pulled itself up just as Huenlonix charged, the final enemy Gizoid swinging its arm in an attempt to separate Emerl from Freedom. Parrying with its own forearm, Freedom Emerl brought its other fist around to bust Huenlonix's chest orb, but met Huenlonix's corresponding fist instead.
Returning its shades to its face as Huenlonix brought its other arm about, Freedom Emerl grappled with Darkoak's Gizoid.
Darkoak began to push them back.
"A long time ago, there were once many who fought exactly as you do, Spiral boy," the Helix King boomed. "And they, too, were unaware that their actions would lead to absolute extinction."
"What do you mean?" Tails demanded.
"You don't need to know," Lucus replied shortly. "You'll be dead soon, anyway."
Bringing its leg around in a spinning kick, Huenlonix kicked Freedom Emerl away. Digging its feet into the throne room floor, Freedom Emerl pulled off its shades again.
Huenlonix extended a spear-like drill from its left forearm, intending to impale Freedom. As with the prelude to this final battle, Freedom Emerl's shades deflected its course, the drill shattering a window. Bringing up its other arm, Huenlonix fired a good five thin drills at the Great Freedom Fighters' - no, Möbius's - trump card.
Tails decided to end this. Now.
"Finishing Move!"
Freedom Emerl's shades tore through the drills like paper, splitting into two pairs of shades as it collided with Huenlonix, the Helix King's personal Gizoid spinning like a top as it was brought into the air in the center of the throne room, its cape completely obscuring its body beneath.
Inside his Huenlonix, Lucus Darkoak scoffed.
Inside Emerl, Tails screamed...
"GIGA...!"
Freedom Emerl produced a drill three times its size from its right fist...
"DRILL...!"
Pointed it at Huenlonix, and it began to spin rapidly as green energy poured from Freedom Emerl's integrated jetpack/wing set...
"DRIVER!"
And Freedom Emerl tore off to the Helix King's Gizoid, the instrument of destruction owned by the tyrant who enslaved the citizens of Möbius in underground villages, murdering them on the surface, and the Giga Drill made contact...
The cape unfurled.
Its arms, one over the other, were paralyzed above and below the Giga Drill which threatened to pierce its emerald core. They had produced a series of dark-purple drills, resembling a set of jaws now.
The drills had pierced the Giga Drill.
With a grunt of effort from Darkoak, he brought Huenlonix's arms together, and the Giga Drill broke.
"It can't be!" Silver gasped.
Huenlonix tore its arms apart from one another, shattering Freedom's shades.
In retaliation, Darkoak uppercutted Freedom Emerl into the air.
Red flames of energy engulfed Huenlonix, now resembling a demon king.
"AUGER STORM!"
Twenty-four needle-like drills emerged from Huenlonix's body, impaling Freedom Emerl against the glass wall.
After a moment, they retracted into Huenlonix's body, the red flames extinguishing themselves.
After another moment, Freedom Emerl fell to the floor.
It lay there for a long time.
Inside Freedom's cockpit, Silver was in shock.
"It's impossible... We can't beat him..."
Tails and Cosmo appeared in his right eye.
"Don't give up!" Tails said. "Kicking common sense out and going beyond the impossible is how the Great Freedom Fighters do it!"
Tails's brows met. "Silver, believe in me! Believe in me who believes in you!" Tails smirked. "We still have some fight left in us!"
With a good deal of effort - Huenlonix's Auger Storm had pierced many of Freedom Emerl's joints and important areas of citcuitry - the Great Freedom Fighters' greatest Gizoid returned to its feet.
"You have enough energy left to stand, I see," said Lucus in Huenlonix's cockpit, which he knew had identical configuration to the cockpit of the "Emerl" part of Freedom Emerl. He smirked, "However, it is a wasted effort!"
Huenlonix lunged with its right fist.
"We'll see about that!" Tails retorted, four drills emerging from Freedom Emerl's left wrist, meeting Huenlonix's right fist... and shattering its arm up to the elbow.
Lucus raised an eyebrow in shock; no one had ever damaged his Huenlonix before.
Not even them.
Still, it would be best to catch him in a Catch-22, a situation where no matter what choice the fox boy made, he would lose.
A drill emerged from Huenlonix's midsection, driving through Freedom's gritted teeth and out the back of the cockpit.
"SILVER!" Tails screamed, fearing the worst.
Silver's face appeared in his left eye. He was crouching in a corner, a large purple drill going through where he normally sat. Beads of sweat were on Silver's face.
"I'm alright, Tails!" he said in a slightly high voice, still slightly panicked from this near-death experience. "But now's your chance! Use Emerl!"
Tails was struck with indecision, then determination overtook him.
"Gotcha!"
Emerl launched off of Freedom, which turned from yellow to silver and hung a good twelve feet off the ground with its now-shorter legs.
"Go away," said Darkoak shortly and sharply, retracting the drill which impaled Freedom and, just for good measure, smashing it to the floor with his remaining fist.
Huenlonix looked up as...
"EMERL... IMPACT!" Tails screamed as Emerl descended with its drill towards the Huenlonix, intending to crush Darkoak inside its head.
Huenlonix brought up its remaining hand, letting the drill impale into its palm. Green energy began to move down the arm from Emerl's drill.
"So, you intend to convert my Huenlonix, do you?" Lucus said menacingly.
At once, Huenlonix's entire left arm detached and exploded.
"It self-destructed?" Tails said in shock, Emerl landing on its feet just in front of Huenlonix. Emerl was small enough to be stepped on by Darkoak.
"I see now," Huenlonix's synthetic voice said. "You made it here on much more than simply luck. However, the battle ends here, fox boy. Now that you have lost your main body, you have lost any chance of victory."
"Quit bullshitting around!" Emerl yelled in Tails's voice.
Within, Tails's expression was full of resolve.
"I'm not going to lose! Cosmo, Sally, Silver, Rotor, Knuckles, Elias, and all the rest of the people in the Great Freedom Fighters believe in me!" A grin crossed Tails's face. "The me that Sonic believed in... The me that I believe in... Isn't possibly gonna lose to the likes of YOU!"
Emerl was engulfed in green light, drills as large as the miniature Gizoid itself emerging from its fists as the fired-up Tails let out a scream.
Inside Huenlonix, Darkoak grit his teeth. "Interesting, Möbian. In which case... I will pull out all the stops to CRUSH YOU!" Red flames of Darkoak's unique Spiral Power filled Huenlonix's cockpit. "MEGA AUGER!"
Long, purple drills emerged from every inch of Huenlonix's body as red flames emerged from its back, the entirety of the Helix King's Gizoid being submerged in the converging drills, until all that the Huenlonix was was converted into a large, needle-like drill.
Mega Auger.
合体なんてクソくらえ!
The battle around the Capital had been going on for hours now, into the long night and into the early hours of the morning.
There was a pinprick of green light, like a distant star, on top of the Great MetaRex's purple dragon head. And it was surrounded - no, engulfed - by a torrent of crimson flame.
"What the...?" Knuckles's eyes widened inside King Knux Deluxe as he looked up at the Great MetaRex.
One at a time, every Gizoid pilot - Möbian or otherwise - stopped what they were doing and looked up at the battle unfolding above them all.
Through the flames, they could make out the shape of a drill that was more like a needle, pressing down on a drill that was glowing like an emerald star.
Come on, Tails...! Sally thought, in Acorn Cannon.
メガオーガー
Inside Emerl, Tails felt a tremendous burden on his shoulders, as though some very muscular man were pushing him down.
Still, he fought it, and forced more of that green energy out of his body.
He had to win.
Here.
And now.
Or it was all for nothing.
He had to create a world where people could live under the sun without fear.
Beside him, Cosmo felt the same.
Even if her father had to meet his end here...
The two of them let loose with a single scream, a scream of persistence, a scream of endurance, a scream to let Lucus Darkoak know that they, as Möbians, would not let him choose the way they lived life...
A crack appeared in Huenlonix's Mega Auger.
Darkoak's eyes widened in disbelief.
Then, the Mega Auger shattered.
Emerl's Giga Drill buried itself in Huenlonix's chest, shattering its chest orb. Green light poured from fissures in purple metal.
A bizarre grin overtook Lucus's face.
"I should have known I couldn't trust a Gizoid... to get the job done!"
From Tails's perspective, Huenlonix's face orb shattered outwards, revealing a face identical to Emerl's own, but black, and with a three-pronged yellow crest vaguely resembling a crown. Emerging from its opening canopy, Helix King Lucus Darkoak emerged, burning with red Spiral fire, coalescing around his fists.
He walked straight down Huenlonix's ruined body...
Brought a fist back...
And (to Tails's horror and shock) punched it clear off, snapping Emerl's Giga Drill.
Darkoak, liberated from his Gizoid, delivered crushing punches and kicks to Emerl, eventually knocking it down to the floor of the decimated throne room.
The canopy sprang open, and Cosmo and Kukku flew out, Cosmo hitting her head against a piece of the floor that had been torn out when Freedom Emerl skidded to a stop.
Cosmo blacked out...
"Chao... Chao..."
Cosmo woke up to a splitting headache, and Kukku shaking her awake. Rubbing her eyes, Cosmo looked up at the eastern horizon. It was a very faint green. The sky itself was a very deep shade of blue.
Morning is coming, she thought. We've been fighting all day and into the next? No wonder Cosmo suddenly felt so tired.
The sounds of creaking metal and weary groans...
Cosmo looked.
Tails and Emerl were clearly on their last limbs; Tails could barely keep Emerl standing, and Emerl was battered badly in several areas, one of its arms bent back so that its forearm was not straight.
And her father, swept up in his Spiral Power flames, was approaching.
"Tails!" she cried out from her spot on the ground.
But Tails brought Emerl's fist around and struck her father.
Darkoak just laughed, and returned the strike. Emerl flew back ten feet, landing on its face.
With a growl of effort, Tails pulled Emerl up, and charged.
Darkoak and Emerl grappled.
And Darkoak was winning.
Silver, having emerged from Freedom, and Shadow, amidst the wreckage of ARK-Cerberus, watched with disbelief.
The outline of a drill appeared from Emerl's third eye on its crest, but a full drill did not materialize.
"The drill... won't come out..." Tails breathed raggedly.
"What's wrong?" Darkoak did not sound the least bit exhausted. "Has your Spiral run dry, Möbian?"
Cosmo, with all of her strength, watched how Tails continued to fight for her, even into exhaustion, and pulled herself up to her knees.
"Tails..." she called out. "If our belief in you is what gives you your power... then... I'll believe in you with every fiber of my being!" Tears stung her eyes. "So please! Win!"
Darkoak ripped out Emerl's arms. Tails gave one last gasp of pain, and then fell forward onto Emerl's control console.
Cosmo's heart turned to ice.
"I haven't had so much fun in a long time, fox boy," growled her father, his Spiral fires dissipating. He grabbed Tails by the head. "Now, I'll send you into the deepest pit of all, myself!"
He pulled Tails out and began to drag him across the throne room.
Neither he nor Cosmo noticed that Tails had removed his Core Drill from Emerl.
He reached the edge.
"FATHER! Please don't!" Cosmo shrieked.
Darkoak turned wholly to face his one remaining child.
"Cosmo, you will never understand why I did what I did..." He scowled at Cosmo; he had no smile to give her, sinister or otherwise. "Because I will do the same to you when I-..."
Cosmo understood immediately why her father had stopped speaking, and could not believe her eyes.
Tails had brought his arm up and drove his Core Drill into the center of Darkoak's chest.
Darkoak looked down, refusing to believe this.
"A... Core Drill...?" he said weakly. Of course, he would need one to have activated that device in the first place, he thought detachedly.
And when Tails spoke, it was quiet, but building, and filled with fire.
"I'm Tails... The leader of the Great Freedom Fighters, Tails The Digger. If you decide to be a wall that's standing in my way... I have something that will tear a hole open in you every time!"
Silver gaped.
Shadow's eyes widened.
Cosmo smiled weakly.
Tails furrowed his brow.
"And that something... is my DRILL!"
Tails turned the Core Drill.
The sky turned emerald-green.
When the smoke and dust kicked up by the explosion cleared, Tails & Cosmo, supporting each other, were shocked to see that Darkoak was still standing on the edge of the throne room.
Especially since there was now a hole torn straight through his torso, and the skin around it had been scorched black. The remains of blackened organs and bones could be seen inside the rim of the hole through the Helix King's chest by the Core Drill.
"I see..." he was talking, but very weakly, which was surprising, given that his lungs had to have been vaporized. Tails and Cosmo could barely hear him "So... your Spiral Power outstripped mine in the end..."
The reason Lucus Darkoak had remained alive after he should have been declared legally dead, was because of his drive to tell Tails and Cosmo of what he knew.
He looked to the two who supported each other: the fox boy who was the potential harbinger of Their wrath, and to his sole surviving daughter who was Their potential Messenger, and laughed weakly.
"You will regret this..." he rasped. "When you realize how important it was..."
"Darkoak..." the fox boy's expression was remarkably sober, given his victory over Lucus.
Lucus looked up at the glowing disk overhead, which the Möbians called the Moon, and gave his last words:
"I leave you with this warning... When you primitive animals pierce the heavens and make for outer space, the Moon shall become Hell's messenger, and destroy the world of the Spiral."
Upon hearing these words, Tails's brow furrowed, and he shouted, "What are you talking about?"
But Lucus's expression was already going slack.
Cosmo's eyes widened.
She bolted.
"Father!"
But Lucus Darkoak was gone. His body went limp, falling backwards from the peak of the throne room tower of the Great MetaRex, the Royal Capital Greengate, the once-single example of civilization on the surface, and Cosmo's eyes followed his body until it fell through a cloud and out of sight.
The Helix King, Lucus Darkoak, had fallen.
She sat there, on her knees at the edge, stunned for several seconds. Footsteps beside her told her that Tails had walked up next to her.
Cosmo's expression of numb shock turned to determination.
"Farewell, Father..."
She stood.
"I will head towards tomorrow."
And the Capital shook.
Without Darkoak there to keep it running with his Spiral power, the Great MetaRex began to collapse. A corner of the tower fell off, taking Shadow and the ARK-Cerberus with it. Silver ran up to Tails in alarm.
"Tails! We have to go!"
空色デイズ
An eerie quiet fell over the battlefield.
"What happened?" asked Elias of Blaze, holding a machine gun.
Blaze looked down at her radar. "All enemy Gizoids have stopped moving!"
"So... you mean... it's over?" Elias wondered.
And then the Great MetaRex began to collapse. Hastily, Ari brought Great Freedom around, making it run as fast as it could from the big thing as its remaining arm and three dragon heads fell off from the main body, crushing countless skyscrapers. Black smoke poured up into the pink sky.
The Gizoid and Meta-Gizoid brigades ran as well, King Knux Deluxe at the head.
"Yeah! You did it, Tails, you little S.O.B.!" Knuckles shouted over the open comm channels.
But, even when the Great MetaRex had fallen apart, no voice came to them from either Freedom or Emerl.
Had they fought so hard to win the war, that Tails...?
Tails...?
"No..." breathed Sally in Acorn Cannon.
Then...
"It's Freedom Emerl!" cried Blaze over the comm channels, bringing every Great Freedom Fighter to tears of joy.
Tears spilled down Blaze's muzzle as she continued, "They're alright! They're coming home!"
So, Freedom Emerl, returned to its best condition through Tails's Spiral Power, flew down from where the central dragon head of the Great MetaRex had been when it was still standing. The Great Freedom Fighters poured out of their Gizoids en masse, all wanting to see the boy who had now seen his childhood's end, who had become their leader in the flames of war and rebellion, and who had now freed them from the absolute oppression of the Helix King.
Silver, knowing that Tails had full control of Freedom Emerl, fell back into his seat, looking up at the Moon which Lucus Darkoak had defied death long enough to warn them about, wondering vaguely how the Moon could become an instrument of doom before passing out from exhaustion...
Charmy and Cream waved enthusiastically at Freedom Emerl, bright smiles on their faces. Bean and Marine both leapt up and down exuberantly, neither of them able to be contained even when there were no enemies to fight. Rotor, Knuckles, Vector, Espio, Bark, Lobo, and Ari crossed their arms and smiled up at the hero Gizoid, and the hero within. Blaze crossed her hands over her chest, her eyes sparkling with admiration and falling tears. Elias & Meg were so overcome with joy that they took each other in their arms and pressed their lips to the other's, their tongues wrestling for a good ten seconds before they realized what they were doing, and continuing for a good fifteen seconds after that. Mighty gave a thumbs-up that only his comrades would have been able to spot. Big danced on the spot, waving his arms in the air as he chanted Kinda super-duper happy. Lupe folded her arms and nodded with a small smile. Chris waved joyfully at Freedom Emerl, a broad smile on his face.
And Sally, letting Nicole slide slowly to the ground on her spot in front of her Acorn Cannon, gave Freedom Emerl the widest smile of them all.
Inside Emerl, Tails wore a weary grin. His digging goggles had been ruined in the battle, but he didn't care. He would have all the time in the world to have them fixed up.
Tails's eyes fell on the green-haired alien girl who sat across his lap, her blue eyes shimmering with joy as she looked down at the people waving and cheering at them. He had so much to say to her, but they would have time to talk later. Hours and days and even years where they could do nothing but talk.
He settled with wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
Cosmo turned to look at him, surprised by his closeness, but - with a cute pink tint in her cheeks - she smiled at him with such warmth that Tails felt his heart soaring to the Moon.
And Cosmo nuzzled her noseless face against his cheek as she kissed him there, resting her head on his shoulder.
Tails's face burned, and he reached up to put a hand in her flowery hair...
When a bright orange light appeared to his left.
The sun had risen on another day.
He had reached the Great Freedom Fighters, and when he bounded out, Cosmo held bridal-style in his arms, he was the center of a massive conglomeration of joyful rebels, everyone wanting to get near enough to touch him, shake his hand, kiss him, give him their thanks in some way.
And then, an hour or so later, they had all returned to their quarters in the remnants of the Great Freedom, even as the sun shone down on them from the eastern horizon.
There would be no need for battle now.
グリーンゲート攻略戦
Battle for Greengate
They would rest today.
7日目
Day 7
The final boss had been defeated.
王都グリーンゲート・陥落
Greengate, The Royal Capital・Fallen
They would begin work on their new world tomorrow.
まだまだつづく！
To be continued some more!
次回予告
Next Episode Preview
Time passes, and many people grow closer together.
While others... grow further apart.
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "Dear Sonic".