(Chapter Twenty-two...
Man, things really took a sour turn last chapter, huh? Who is this Anti-Spiral? And which Sonic character is it?)
"This is the tale of a man who continues to search for his own path, even when betrayed by his destiny.
"It has been seven years since Greengate fell.
"Möbian civilization has evolved at an astonishing rate.
"As Darkoak predicted, the instant the Gizoid Moon Rocket left the atmosphere, it was destroyed, and an unknown destructive weapon appeared in Sonic City.
"The declaration of war against all Möbiankind came from an unexpected person..."
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:
Tell Me The Secrets Of This World
"I repeat," Cosmo repeated in her electronic drone on every monitor and speaker in the world, "The Möbiankind Annihilation System has been activated."
"What the hell is our little princess talking about?" Knuckles yelled, knocking a fist on the railing.
Silver turned to Helen. "Hurry, pinpoint the transmission's point of origin!"
The wheelchair-bound blonde typed furiously for several seconds, then a look of mingled frustration and panic crossed her features. "It's no good! It's using an encryption I've never seen before! It's scrambling everything."
Tails's face appeared on the monitor; he looked manic.
"Silver! Where's Cosmo?"
"That's what I'd like to know," Silver said levelly.
"She's not answering her cell, either," Tails said, sweat beading on his forehead. "Is that really Cosmo saying all that crazy stuff?"
Then every monitor and speaker on Möbius, which had previously been hijacked to broadcast Cosmo's message, went dead.
Sharp gasps seemed to draw the air out of the control room.
メガネで決めよう
A short time later, in the Public Relations Bureau, phones were ringing off the hook.
"Yeah, that's right! You can trust the New Government Council!" Knuckles grinned, talking into the phone from a caller before they'd even got the chance to speak. "What could possibly destroy all Möbian life?"
The caller then told Knuckles the real reason they'd called.
Knuckles frowned.
"What? 'Reimburse you for your busted-up house'?"
A vein popped on Knuckles's forehead.
"YOU FUCKIN' DUMBASS! FREEDOM EMERL WAS FIGHTING TO PROTECT THE CITY!"
A familiar voice spoke from the doorway,
"What's going on? It's chaos in here!"
Knuckles slammed a fist down on the table.
"WHERE THE FREAK HAVE YOU BEEN, ELIAS?"
He then returned to his shouting match with the irate caller on the other end of the line as Ash approached.
"My apologies for calling you in on such short notice, Provisions Chief Elias," he said.
"Don't worry about it," Elias replied. "Allie is still less than two months old; what can I really do for her?" He looked out warily over the PR room, phones ringing endlessly around them. "So, what are all these calls about?"
Ash folded his arms behind his back.
"The citizens are nervous about that declaration of war. Speaking to New Government officials, core members of the Great Freedom Fighters, will go far in alleviating the concerns of the general public. ...At least, that is Chief Adviser Silver's thinking on the matter."
Vector held his phone at arm's length, listening casually to the griper on the other end shouting at the top of his lungs about where Tails could stick his Giga Drill next.
"I'm getting more gripes about smashed-up houses than nervous citizens," he grumbled. "People are really attached to their new lifestyles."
Big spoke slowly into his phone ten feet away, "Don't worry. We're really tough, so we can handle this..."
Bark barked into his phone, "Yeah, so quit bitching and let us do our job!" He then slammed the phone onto the receiver so hard that the desk beneath cracked.
Sighing at this sight, Elias faced Ash again. "So, where is Silver?"
"He is considering how to deal with the situation," Ash said shortly. "The LDH bio-computer was just shipped in from the Spiral Power Research Institute. It should be coming online now."
Vector smacked the phone onto its receiver, cutting the complainer off mid-sentence.
"In other words," he snapped, "Leave it to the old-timers to handle the complaint calls while he figures out the problem. Sounds like something Pothead would think up, all right."
エルディーエイチ生体コンピュータ
Green lights illuminated the room, Silver standing before the glass tube reaching from the floor to the ceiling. It was filled with nutrient fluid for the bio-computer.
"Now, then," he addressed it. "You will tell me everything. Tell me the secrets of this world."
Four words were the first order given to the LDH bio-computer.
"Now, awaken, Lucus Darkoak."
For inside the glass tube, wires and tubes leading from its nonexistent neck, was the cloned head of Lucus Darkoak.
Green eyes opened slowly.
And the Lucus Darkoak Head yawned.
"Where am I?" it asked.
"It has been seven years since your death," Silver began without preamble. "No, it wasn't your death. Lucus Darkoak's original body was too damaged by its death and subsequent fall from the peak of the Capital to serve as a bio-computer. So, we preserved his memories and knowledge as data, utilizing you as a liaison. We didn't go so far as to replicate his personality, though."
The bio-computer gave a dark smirk. "So, you would dig up a grave and drag the dead back from Hell? You have an odd notion of fun."
"We had to because you died without having told us anything. This time, you can't get away." Silver furrowed his brows. "Now, tell me. What is Spiral Power? What are the Anti-Spiral? And... what do they have to do with Möbians?"
月日は百代の過客なり
Tails was at wit's end. He had checked Cosmo's house, and found it empty. He had called her cell phone, and got her voice mail. It would be pointless to call her house phone, since he knew her house was empty.
He was sitting on Freedom Emerl's shoulder, next to Emerl.
"Please come back, Cosmo..."
A light fell on Tails.
Then he heard jet engines.
Looking up, he saw a pair of Fremeralds - one orange, one cream - hovering beside Freedom Emerl. The orange one's right shoulder was projecting the spotlight on Tails.
"We found you, Supreme Commander Tails!" said the orange Fremerald in Charmy's voice.
Tails leapt into Emerl. Charmy's Fremerald, Buzz Buzz, stood in his way.
"Where do you think you're going, Tails?" Charmy asked.
"Get outta the way, Charmy!" Tails shouted.
"Freedom Emerl has been ordered back to base," Charmy explained as Cream landed beside him.
"Besides, all combat rights are currently granted solely to the Fremeralds," Cream added.
Freedom Emerl butted heads with Buzz Buzz.
"You two were no match for that thing!" Tails bellowed.
"We could've beaten it by ourselves!" Charmy yelled back, but he sounded shaky on that count.
"I'm looking for Cosmo! This is an emergency! Stand aside!" Tails ordered.
"I won't!"
"That's an order from your Supreme Commander!"
"Gizoid dispatches fall under Chief Adviser Silver's purview," Charmy returned. "Not even the Supreme Commander can ignore the rules."
"Get outta the way, you..."
Cream appeared in Tails's right eye.
"The citizens are worried, Mister Tails," she said seriously, brushing hair out of her left eye. "Freedom Emerl is not an ordinary Gizoid. It is a symbol of the retaking of the surface. A symbol of strength. If people see it flying around, they'll worry that another big battle is coming. You don't want the citizens to worry, do you, Mister Tails?"
Tails thought about what Cream said, and finally conceded, "You sure can make a persuasive case when you want to, Cream."
Emerl detached from Freedom, Freedom's body turning from yellow to silver, its limbs becoming shorter and clunkier again as Emerl hovered over it.
"You win," Tails said shortly. "You two take Freedom back to the base. I'll go out in Emerl. I won't get a whole lot of attention from this, right?"
Without another word, Emerl blasted off across Sonic City.
"Supreme Commander Tails!" Charmy shouted after him.
Cream appeared on a monitor in Buzz Buzz's cockpit. "Charmy, let him go. You know that no one can stop him when he gets like this."
Charmy swore. "I wish he'd accept the fact that times've changed."
"I don't think he wants to accept that."
"That's just being selfish..." Charmy sighed. "Alright, Cream, let's get Freedom back to the Parliament Complex."
お前のXXXで…
Lobo leaned out of the car he was working on - he was handling the reupholstering, while Lupe handled the axle - and tapped Lupe's knees. His wife slid out, their kids Marcos and Maria sitting at the door to the house from their garage-centered repair shop.
Lupe gave Lobo a questioning look.
He pointed out of the garage.
She looked.
"Well, well."
Tails waved at them. "Hey, Lupe. Lobo."
"Tails?"
A short time later...
"So, she hasn't been here, either?" Tails said solemnly.
"Sorry we couldn't help out more," Lupe said.
Tails shook his head. "It's alright. I just came on the off chance that she was here."
Lupe did not look reassured, but instead fixed Tails with an even more serious gaze. "Is everything okay, Tails?"
Tails looked momentarily befuddled, then glanced at Lobo & Lupe's orange-furred son Marcos and gray-furred daughter Maria. They were both giving Tails worrisome looks.
"Did they see it?" he asked.
"Huh?"
"Cosmo's broadcast on the TV."
Lupe nodded darkly.
Tails did Sonic's famous 'aim for the heavens!' pose. "Don't you worry, kids!" He gave them a thumbs-up and a wink. "It doesn't matter what happens, we'll come up with something. I don't know what this Möbiankind Annihilation System thing is, but it's nothing to worry about with Freedom Emerl on the job!"
Marcos and Maria's expressions relaxed a great deal.
Moments later, Emerl blasted off from the Wolf household.
"You're the one we're all worried about, Tails," Lupe muttered so low that only her husband could hear.
"He looked pretty down, 'f'you ask me," Lobo said.
"Shame he isn't a mecha. Then we could fix his problems for him."
アンチスパイラルのメッセンジャー
Now Tails really did not know what to do, or where to go. It was like Cosmo - his fiancée - had dropped off of the face of Möbius.
He sat at the edge of the artificial lake in the Great MetaRex Memorial Site, in the shadow of the Great MetaRex Memorial Complex - the Great MetaRex's fallen left arm, it was the second highest construct in Sonic City, apart from the Parliament Complex; it jutted up, its hand grasping at the sky in its stiff throes. Lost in thought, Tails found himself staring down into the city lights reflected in the pool.
"Cosmo...
"Where are you...?
"Was that... really you, Cosmo?"
Tails picked up a small rock at his side, and tossed it into the water. He was normally good at making them skip.
It dropped in without skipping once, sending ripples in every direction.
When they cleared, a silhouette was standing less than ten feet to Tails's left.
A silhouette, with roses on either side of its head...
Tails gave a start. He had not heard her approach.
She was still missing her right glove, and she was standing stiffer than Tails had ever seen her stand before. The light seemed to have left her eyes.
He called out to her.
"Cosmo!"
She did not move for several seconds.
Then...
Slowly...
Lifelessly...
Mechanically...
She half-turned her head to face him.
"Cosmo!" Tails implored, running up to her. "Where have you been?"
"A place unknown to you," said an electronic voice to Tails's left.
Blinking, Tails realized that Cosmo, who was standing in front of him before, was now not there. Regaining his composure, he looked to his left.
Cosmo was standing fifty feet away from him, silhouetted against the city lights. A cold blue light had come into her eyes now.
How did that happen?
"Because I have learned something," she said, her tone flat and cold, so unlike her on an ordinary day. No kindness. No gentility. No love.
"L-learned what?"
"That you and I are completely incompatible."
Tails ran towards her, knowing what would happen, and sure enough, because he refused to blink this time, and Cosmo vanished from his perspective like a light switching off.
"The Spiral Nemesis will bring about the destruction of the universe," said her voice, seeming to ring from every direction.
No. Not from every direction.
Up!
Tails's fox ears guided his eyes to the top of Great MetaRex's middle finger. There, he saw a silhouette against the moon, twin pinpricks of blue light where her eyes were.
"We Anti-Spiral exist to prevent the Spiral Nemesis," Cosmo continued. Even at this distance, her voice carried clearly down to Tails.
Tails was stammering with disbelief.
"Wh-what happened to you, Cosmo? How are you warping around like that?"
"Tails, the Core Drill you bear is the very symbol of the Spiral Nemesis," Cosmo pushed on relentlessly, "Its power, the Spiral Power itself, will destroy the universe."
"Spiral Power is the power of evolution," said the Lucus Darkoak Head bio-computer, "Lifeforms which carry helical DNA; galaxies which take spiral shape; they are amplified to infinite levels by Spiral Power, which magnifies everything. That is the fundamental underpinning of this universe. However, there arose a group which feared this power. I do not know if they were representative of one planet or several, but they called themselves only the Anti-Spiral. My original body, Lucus Darkoak, was but one of many Spiral Warriors who battled the Anti-Spiral to protect the universe."
"Spiral Warriors...?" Silver asked. "And the Helix Generals?"
"Childhood friends of my past life. I was always acknowledged as the leader of our small group, possibly because of my admittedly prodigious Spiral Power level. Indeed, the only person I have met in my entire past life who matched my Spiral Power output..."
"Was Tails?"
"Correct. However, our homeworld, Greengate, was destroyed by the Anti-Spiral's initial attack forces. The modest sceneries and modest hopes I had grown up with were annihilated in an instant. But when hope is threatened, a man rises up to confront it. Many of Greengate's starships fled to other habitable homeworlds - one, incidentally, being Möbius - but myself and my fellow surviving Seedrians began work on countless war machines to counter the Anti-Spiral."
"War machines? You mean...?"
"Yes. The Gizoids - from the Great MetaRex, to the Meta-Gizoids, to the common cannon fodder Gizoids, even the five personal Gizoids of myself and the Helix Generals - were all initially constructed to do battle against the Anti-Spiral."
"So, you're saying that you and your people created Emerl?"
"Exactly. The Spiral Power Magnification Conduit Interface, or Core Machine for short, was one of the greatest weapons we Spiral Warriors of the Universe used against the Anti-Spiral. It is capable of being activated only by Spiral Power, and we found the most reliable method of channeling Spiral Power involved sentient emeralds on the planet Cain G. Thus we created the Core Drills from them to channel our Spiral Power to activate the Core Machine.
"The Core Machine is a quasi-sentient mecha, favoring whatever Core Drill first activates it, and capable of controlling whatever mecha it combines with. Due to the low quantities throughout the universe of the necessary construction materials, we were only able to make twenty Core Machines in total. With my own prodigious Spiral Power output, I was a natural for a Core Machine; it was shortly incorporated into my Huenlonix. That Core Machine is now lost. I petitioned for Core Machines to be bestowed upon my four friends, but my plea was ignored."
Silver couldn't help asking, "And... the other nineteen?"
"They have likely fallen into the hands of the Anti-Spiral when their respective Spiral Warriors fell, though there is little reason to fear the Anti-Spiral utilizing the Core Machines, or 'Emerls', as you would call them. The Anti-Spiral pathologically fear Spiral Power above all else.
"In any case, the last Emerl to be constructed was never assigned a Spiral Warrior to pilot it; its construction was completed just moments before I departed for Möbius in my Hellship. I launched it and its Core Drill into Möbius in my initial orbital bombardment, burying it beneath the surface. Who would have thought that something sealed underground would have been discovered by you Möbians? The hand of fate at work again."
"But, why?" Silver asked, growing impatient. "Why would you subjugate Möbius, if you were fighting to protect us from afar? Why force us underground?"
The Lucus Darkoak Head's eyes closed.
"We lost," it said simply. "I succumbed to despair in our final battle, and the Spiral races retreated to their respective homeworlds. Mine had been lost, so I fled to the nearest planet with life on it. That world... was Möbius.
"After the Anti-Spiral conquered the universe, they installed Spiral Lifeform Annihilation Systems on any planet that registered with Spiral Power on their sensors. When the aboveground population exceeds a height of one-hundred kilometers above sea level - the generally accepted cutoff point from atmosphere to outer space - the device detects this, and activates."
"And... that's why you drove all of Möbiankind underground?"
"Think what you will of me, but I was trying to preserve you as species. I could not let sentimentality get in the way. I did so by maintaining a bare minimum population underground."
Silver scowled, "So why didn't you come out and tell us all this? Why did you use force to subjugate us?"
The LDH bio-computer closed its eyes for several moments. Just when Silver was wondering if it would not answer, it said five simple words:
"That would not have worked.
"Foolish lifeforms driven by the Spiral instinct blindly strive to reach the heavens. Words and reason are insufficient to curb that drive, and all too often are used to promote it. The only action which can effectively curb that drive... is fear. But still, you rebelled against me. Even as the weight of two-thousand years of boredom weighed down on me, my will was strong enough to keep my Spiral instinct bottled up." Then, the Lucus Darkoak Head, which had formerly been talking and speaking with complete neutrality in both voice and face, began to grimace in anger. "But... as your rebellion so casually picked off my childhood friends and endangered my protection of you people, my control was broken, and my blood boiled."
"...And that is what is so terrifying about Spiral lifeforms," continued Cosmo. "Even Lucus Darkoak could not control his instinct to fight."
Tails waved a fist in the air, upset at Cosmo's words, what she was saying about an Anti-Spiral and Spiral Warriors and Core Machines, and at how she had changed so dramatically in the few hours since they proposed to each other.
"That's crazy! How can me and Sonic's war be the result of that?"
"It has been seven years since you came to the surface. Look at how far Möbian civilization has come in that short span of time." Cosmo spread her arms wide, as though to indicate the breadth of the change that had come over the Capital when it changed hands from Lucus to Tails. "Do you not find the speed somewhat suspicious? That is the potential of a Spiral race. Having achieved capacity for sending machinery into orbit, Möbian civilization will advance explosively. They will become a power that will threaten our own. Ergo, we will destroy you before that can happen."
"That's what the Möbiankind Annihilation System is? That mecha earlier?" Tails furrowed his brow, that urge to fight rising in him again. "No matter what the Anti-Spiral throws at us, we have Freedom Emerl! We'll beat 'em!" Tails's eyes burned, "So please, snap out of it, Cosmo!"
Even from this distance, Tails could make out the downward turn in Cosmo's brow that indicated a cold frown.
"That is impossible," she said. "I am the Anti-Spiral's Messenger program. A virtual lifeform that lay hidden within helical genetic code, awakened when the Spiral Lifeform Annihilation System is activated."
Tails's heart was breaking the more Cosmo spoke.
"Please, Cosmo!" he raised his arms in desperation. "Stop talking like that! Snap out of it! You never used to be so cold before! You were always so warm and sweet, and..." Tears ran free down Tails's muzzle. "So, please, WAKE UUUUP!"
Cosmo did not move a millimeter.
"What you see now is the real me. If Möbian life had remained sequestered in their underground villages, I would not have been awakened, and the Möbiankind Annihilation System would not have been activated. Responsibility for my birth, and for the inevitable annihilation of all Möbian life, is entirely upon your shoulders, pilot of Freedom Emerl."
"The Anti-Spiral hid a virtual lifeform within the genetic code of the females of aboveground Spiral lifeform races most likely to produce beautiful daughters," the bio-computer continued. "As the Helix King, I had the most beautiful women of every race - human, anthro, and Seedrian - gathered into a single village, and the most sumptuous of each were brought to me at the Royal Capital. I lavished them, and gave them my children, whom I also gave whatever they desired. When they began to show signs of self-awareness, I would have them disposed of, in the event that they would manifest Messenger traits. It was difficult initially, but grew as easy as breathing over two-thousand years."
"And Cosmo is the Anti-Spiral's Messenger?"
"It is ironic, and unfortunate. I had hoped that, by this time, I would have purged Möbius of anyone who carried the Anti-Spiral Messenger gene, in the hopes that the Möbiankind Annihilation System would be crippled in the unlikely event that I was ever toppled."
"But Darkoak, tell me!" said Silver urgently. "What is the Möbiankind Annihilation System?"
"What does it do to annihilate Möbiankind?" Tails asked through his tears.
In the LDH bio-computer room deep underneath the Parliament Complex, and on top of the Great MetaRex Memorial Complex, father and daughter gave the same cold message in the same cold tone:
"In three weeks' time, the Moon will leave its orbit, and impact Möbius. And that will be the end of it."
Silver went white.
"Th... the Moon...?" Silver's right hand went to his head; he felt faint. "Word of this cannot get out to the populace! There will be widespread panic in seconds!" Silver recomposed himself. "Darkoak, this matter is of highest confidentiality. You are to discuss it with nobody but me."
The door slid open behind him.
"Silver, this is where you've been?"
Knuckles and Elias were standing there, both looking rather clammy in the green light of the LDH bio-computer room.
"Don't enter without permission!" Silver said angrily.
Knuckles grabbed Silver's arm, not noticing the Lucus Darkoak Head.
"You dumbass Pothead! That don't matter now!" he said angrily, running past Elias, who glanced warily at the Lucus Darkoak Head before following.
"Check out the TV!" Knuckles said, pointing at the television monitor that took up the entire wall in the main control room.
Cosmo was semi-silhouetted against the Moon, her glowering eyes giving a cold blue glow.
"What is this...?" Silver asked.
"It's been running live on TV for a few minutes now," Elias explained.
"She says the Moon is gonna fall!" Knuckles said.
Silver's heart stopped.
"No..."
"That little princess said it plain as day!" said Knuckles. "It's hard to believe, but after what happened to the moon probe, who knows?"
"Can we believe her, Silver?" asked Elias. "She says that we were driven underground by some war between the Spiral races and the Anti-Spiral. It's just like Darkoak predicted: 'The Moon will become Hell's messenger'. It's coming down on top of us!"
Silver, losing the feeling in his feet, grabbed the computer console before him to steady himself.
"I was too late... My worst fears are coming true!"
Steadying himself, Silver made for the nearest elevator.
"Citizen Affairs Bureau Chief Knuckles. Provisions Chief Elias. Follow me to the Defense Planning Room."
デジタル変換
Cosmo closed her eyes as the process began.
It started at Cosmo's feet. Pixels of light like the cold glow of a computer screen spread from the tips of her toes, inching up her body, disintegrating her clothes, the red jewel in the center of her dress shattering into red dust, leaving a skin-tight black suit with red lines of data glowing through... or, Tails thought in horror, was this Cosmo's skin that was black with glowing lines like veins?
"It is ironic that the female whose genes carried the Anti-Spiral Messenger factor would be born as Lucus Darkoak's daughter." There was no humor in Cosmo's voice. Nothing. Not anymore. Just electronic coldness.
The glowing data traveling up Cosmo's body did not stop at her neck, as Tails feared; it continued up her face, encompassing those beautiful roses of hers and flowing down her hair, turning it all the same consuming black. Were it not for the glowing lines cutting deeply into her skin which now resembled black rubber - her hair bearing lines of glowing green data, the roses on either side of her head now jet-black with pink lines glowing at the edge like rose-colored fire - Tails would have thought her a silhouette.
Cosmo's eyes opened again. They had no warmth in them, glowing with a cold blue fire, the red lines of glowing data below her eyes gleaming sinisterly. They were the only colors left on Cosmo's face.
And when she spoke, her mouth showed blank whiteness inside, with no teeth or tongue or anything inside her evidently now-hollow physique.
"However, now that the Möbian Annihilation System has been activated and I have been converted into the Anti-Spiral's Messenger program, I can never be made into a living being again."
Cosmo floated up into the air unsupported.
And behind her, a glowing square appeared, expanding outwards with several more squares that formed a portal.
Through the portal floated a mecha, identical to the one which attacked mere hours before.
Followed by another, identical Anti-Spiral mecha.
"Cosmo!" Tails shouted up to her.
Cosmo ignored him, floating back to the closing portal.
"No! Cosmo! Where are you going? COSMOOOO!"
But Cosmo and the portal were already gone.
The two Anti-Spiral mechas opened fire immediately, blue bolts of digital lightning in every direction, tearing up skyscrapers, wrecking cars, searing streets.
The Blue monday e"r"ectrical parade
Charmy heard the alarms blaring through Buzz Buzz's sensors, and saw the swarms of Fremeralds swooping past him and Cream in the opposite direction as they carted Freedom back to the Parliament Complex.
"Molly! What's going on?" Charmy hailed one of the passing Fremeralds.
A human girl with orange-red hair in a ponytail replied, "Zoah have appeared again!"
"Zoah?"
"That's right. The Anti-Spiral mechas have been codenamed 'Zoah'."
"Move it, Charmy, Cream!" cried out Tails's voice.
With barely any time to register Emerl at all, Charmy and Cream had only just enough time to release Freedom before Emerl slammed into it drill-first.
Freedom Emerl stood reborn.
"Commander!" said Molly's Fremerald.
"Mister Tails, if you attack the Zoah carelessly, it will cause a giant explosion!" Cream warned. "We need a plan!"
"I'll come up with one while we're fighting!" Tails growled as Freedom Emerl tore off towards the Zoah.
"See, Cream? This is what I was talking about!" Charmy said, sounding exasperated.
Nonetheless, the three Fremeralds flew to back Tails up.
In the Parliament Complex's Defense Planning Room, Silver, Knuckles, and Elias approached Rotor and Cobar at their respective computer stations.
"Rotor," Silver said immediately upon entering the room, "Have you and Cobar uncovered an effective means of attacking it yet?"
Rotor pulled up a computer model of a Zoah.
"This is the information we've collated from Charmy and Cream's observations during the battle a few hours ago," Rotor explained as a polygonal sphere appeared briefly around the Zoah. "It looks like a powerful energy field is erected around its body. The Absolute Threshold Field, as we call it, is capable of absorbing almost any attack." On Rotor's cue, computer models of Fremeralds descended around it and fired on it with digital rounds from their virtual rifles, leaving only spurts of pixels where the bullets and shield met.
"So we just need to hit it with more energy than it can handle!" Knuckles shouted.
"That won't work," explained Cobar. "You saw that explosion, right? A Zoah is effectively comprised entirely of explosives. When its AT Field goes down and stops functioning, the entire Zoah's body converts from matter to energy in an instant." The Zoah computer model showed a computer-generated beam of light penetrating its shield, the Zoah's body turning into polygons, and bursting apart.
"Its molecular structure is that unstable?" Silver mused.
"That would make spatial transference easier, wouldn't you say?" Rotor postulated.
Meanwhile, Knuckles and Elias folded their arms.
"Any clue what they're saying?" Knuckles asked his almost-brother-in-law.
"Don't look at me, pal," Elias replied.
Back on the battlefield...
Dozens of Fremeralds surround the twin Zoah, blasting away at them with their semi-automatic pistols.
The Zoah responded with bolts of lightning from their right arms and their four collective Cores. Half of the Fremeralds disappeared in flashes of fire and smoke.
"OUTTA THE WAY!" cried Freedom Emerl in Tails's voice, bolting through the ranks of Fremeralds. "GIGA... DRILL... DRIVER!"
The Giga Drill impacted against the nearest Zoah's AT Field, sending a shower of rainbow pixels flying.
Its two Cores lit up... and in a crack of thunder, Freedom Emerl went flying out of control towards the city streets.
Citizens below screamed and ran as the Gizoid who was their hero seven years before fell towards them...
And stopped less than six feet from the ground. The humans had to duck to avoid being crushed.
"Oops!" Tails said nervously.
"Don't say 'oops', you bastard!" shouted a red fox girl who looked vaguely familiar to Tails.
"Don't you think you've done enough damage already, mate?" hollered a skunk, shielding his cat wife.
Putting this out of his mind, Tails blasted back up to meet the Zoah.
Back up with the Fremeralds, Charmy's, Cream's, and Molly's were among the two-dozen still active.
"Normal attacks don't effect it... When we do destroy it, it goes up in a huge blast..." Charmy mumbled, squeezing the trigger. "What are we supposed to do?"
"Keep cool, Charmy!" said Cream in his eye. "Our first order is to drive them out of the city!"
"Or halt their advance, either one's good!" added Molly.
Freedom Emerl emerged from below them, its Giga Drill absorbing both Zoah's beams.
"Tails!" Charmy cried out.
The Giga Drill glowed blue from the Zoah's energy.
"Supreme Commander!" called out Molly's Fremerald. "At least lure them out of the city first!"
"We don't have time for that!" Tails roared, hurling a burst of blue energy at the nearest Zoah, penetrating its AT Field. The Zoah turned into a bundle of polygons and burst apart.
Freedom Emerl faced the three remaining Fremeralds.
"Guys! Shoot down the fragments! All of them!"
Comprehension dawning, Charmy, Cream, and Molly all smiled as they said, "Roger!"
With three Fremeralds firing on the falling spheres, cubes, and tetrahedrons, all of whom were excellent marksmen (with Cream being the best of the trio), it was relatively simple. Not a single explosive polygon got within twenty feet of the nearest buildings. Fire and smoke filled the sky like a fireworks display.
"One down, one to go!" screamed Tails, throwing the rest of the energy at the remaining Zoah, which also reduced itself to polygons and exploded.
"Tails!" Charmy tossed a spare pistol to Freedom Emerl.
"Thanks, Charmy!"
With four firing on the falling fragments, it was even simpler. Within moments, the only sign that a battle had taken place was the damage that the Zoah directly inflicted.
With a small chuckle, Tails tossed Charmy's pistol back to him.
"And that's how it's done," Tails smirked.
Back in the Defense Planning Room, Knuckles put a fist in his hand.
"Now I get it! We just gotta detonate the fragments before they hit the city!" he grinned. "I knew Tails could do it!"
"That is, assuming the Zoah only come at us in pairs," said Cobar in a grim sort of amusement.
Knuckles's grin fell.
"What do you mean?" Elias asked.
"If they attack in larger numbers, that won't be a viable strategy," Rotor said.
"And... the populace would not see it that way," Silver finished.
メガネで決めよう
Freedom Emerl and the three Fremeralds piloted by Charmy, Cream, and Molly descended onto the steps in front of the Parliament Complex.
There were crowds surging there, shouting and cheering.
No.
Not cheering.
Jeering.
"What's going on?" Tails wondered.
Shouts came at Tails from the mob:
"YOU BASTARD! IS TRASHING STUFF ALL YOU'RE GOOD AT?"
"It's all your fault! Get the fuck away from us!"
"THE MOON'S GONNA FALL ON US! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"
"Go away! It's your fault they're attacking us!"
Cream hung her head in her Fremerald's cockpit.
"I don't believe it..." she breathed.
Charmy appeared in the corner of her right eye, "He really should've listened..."
Tails was numb with shock. He had fought to protect these people, and instead of venerating him, they were denigrating him.
"This is... This is what my fighting has caused?" he said, jaw slack.
In the City Square not a hundred meters away, Tails saw another gut-wrenching sight:
People were pulling down Sonic's statue with slings of rope!
"It's this guy's fault, too!" came a shout. "TAKE IT DOWN!"
With a great heave from the rioters, the statue collapsed, crumbling as it hit the Square.
Hot fury rose up in Tails. If he could see himself, a green light would have been visible in his eyes.
"You bastards..." Tails growled.
Freedom Emerl took off towards the people who'd pulled down Sonic's statue, a Giga Drill appearing from its right fist.
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU JUST DID?" he bellowed.
Rioters screamed and ran from the sight of Freedom Emerl, which swung its Giga Drill in a great arc, scorching the pavement and setting several trees ablaze. Miraculously, everyone had avoided the Spiral flames.
Tails prepared to swing again, blind with rage...
When he saw a young human girl, shaking with fear, tears in the corners of her eyes. She had to have been at least five years old. She could not have known Freedom Emerl as a hero personally; her parents likely told her the stories of Freedom Emerl, King of Braves, the emblem of the Great Freedom Fighters' determination.
And here it was, going berserk and attacking the people it had fought so hard for.
Tails's wrath assuaged, the Spiral Power meter on Emerl's console went dark, and Charmy, Cream, and Molly's Fremeralds grabbed Freedom Emerl by its extremities and hoisted it away. By this point, the riots had resumed, and they were hurling garbage up at their former savior.
At the front gates of the Parliament Complex, Chief Adviser Silver emerged, flanked by armored, masked security officers, each armed with a machine gun.
"Please, everyone! Calm down!" Silver called out. "Please listen to your government!"
"Look, guns!" cried a female Black Arms with dark-purple skin and black hair with natural red stripes.
"They're gonna shoot us!" shouted a yellow squirrel fearfully.
"No, we're not!" replied Silver truthfully, a note of panic emerging. "We have no intention of-..."
A shout of "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" rang out from the crowd, but that was not what silenced the rioters.
It was the rock which hit Silver in the forehead.
Shock, sheer stunned shock ran through the crowd like a shockwave, Silver putting his hand to his forehead in disbelief. He looked at his palm.
Blood.
The troops stepped forward, brandishing their weapons.
Silver put out his arms hastily, stepping backwards to hold them back.
"No! Don't fire!"
The troopers held back their weapons, but the damage was done. The riots resumed, new shouts ringing out:
"First your robots, now your guns... Are you trying to kill us?"
"GET THEM BEFORE THEY GET US!"
Silver and his men retreated into the Parliament Complex. Blaze and Ash were waiting for him.
"Chief Adviser Silver!" Blaze produced a handkerchief, dabbing Silver's cut. "Are you alright?"
Silver blushed in spite of the situation - in spite of himself - because of her closeness. "Yes. It's nothing, Blaze. I had worse during the War for the Surface."
Blaze's look of concern did not change.
"An injury is an injury," she said sagely. "You should get it treated."
"We can only hope that news of this fiasco does not spread," Ash said anxiously.
Silver shook his head, keeping Blaze's handkerchief pressed to his forehead. "It will. Such actions spread like wildfire, in the blink of an eye. Just like when we defeated Darkoak. Except, the feelings are being directed somewhere else: At us."
Blaze gave Silver a worried look. "Silver..."
A fierce determination stole over Silver.
"Someone must be made accountable," he said. "That is how a government functions."
お前なんか信じられっか!
On the peak of the Parliament Complex, Tails, Charmy, Cream, and Molly stood out of their mechas.
Never before, not since Sonic had died, had Charmy or Cream seen Tails look so defeated.
"The Anti-Spiral..." Tails breathed. "Who... are they?"
He turned his head down.
"Cosmo..."
Tails fought to keep the tears back.
"Chao..." breathed Kukku on Tails's shoulder.
The sound of marching footsteps drew their attention.
It was Silver, with a bandage around his forehead. He was followed by about a dozen masked soldiers, each with a machine gun.
Each pointed their machine gun at Tails.
Tails faced Silver.
"What's this all about, Silver?" Tails asked flatly.
Silver only glared at Tails.
"...Silver?"
And in eleven words, Silver struck a dagger in the hearts of everyone present:
"Supreme Commander Miles 'Tails' Prower, I hereby place you under arrest."
つづく
To be continued...
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Right now, all the "primitive animals" pray in unison, asking for three things:
Prosperity,
Happiness,
And...
...No, right now, they only pray for survival.
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "We Will Survive, By Any Means Necessary".