(Chapter Twenty-nine. Things are starting to wind up, aren't they? Leading up to an apocalyptic final battle! Well, let's go see the battle preps!)
"This is the tale of a man who blows a hole in the destiny of a universe torn by the endless cycle of violence.
"As Möbius's destruction looms ever closer, the reborn Freedom Emerl combines with the Blue Typhoon, and, with the Moon Gizoid under his control, Tails saves Möbius.
"However, Cosmo, the Anti-Spiral's Messenger program, is recalled to the enemy homeworld of Avalon."
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:
Let's Go, This Is The Final Battle!
月落下阻止から４時間
Four Hours Since Prevention of Moonfall
"So... everyone..." Tails cleared his throat awkwardly. "I would like to say that, I've chosen Shadow here, to be the main pilot of Freedom. He will be attending our mission-planning meetings from now on."
Shadow merely folded his arms, looking over the Great Freedom Fighters...
From Bean, whose beak was so slack that it formed a right angle...
To Rotor, who was pulling on black gloves with glowing points on the joints...
To Chris, who was slowly chewing a hamburger...
To Ari, who had folded his arms and was giving Shadow a penetrating stare...
To Big, who was looking at Shadow with piercing yellow eyes...
To Bark, who was glaring sharply at Shadow...
To Espio, whose hands were folded in front of his mouth...
To Mighty, who had cocked an eyebrow as he looked at the hedgehog-shaped Black Arms...
To Lobo, who was giving Shadow a polite and respectful glance now and again...
To Vector, who was resting his large crocodile jaws on a large hand...
To Elias, who was resting a single fist on the table, his thick eyebrows coming together suspiciously...
To Sally, who was wearing a long blue jacket and inspecting the parts of her sniper rifle Nicole...
And finally to Knuckles, who was leaning back in his chair and giving Shadow an unreadable expression...
Shadow narrowed his eyes on them all.
"I don't expect you all to simply let bygones be bygones," he said lowly. "But I do want you to understand that it isn't just you people who want to protect Möbius. It is the home to us Black Arms as well."
"Well, well," Knuckles said, half-grinning and half-glaring. "Listen to you, being all modest. You don't have to beg and scrape. Tails hand-picked you. That makes you the same as all of us."
Sally was staring down Nicole's detached barrel, looking for grains of gunpowder, no doubt. "We gonna launch a full frontal assault on the enemy's stronghold within twelve hours. We can't afford to get hung up on the little details." She blew down the gun barrel, and a small cloud of soot shot out the other end.
"And there are some of us who show up out of nowhere with no word at all for six years who haven't changed at all," Knuckles smirked.
Sally gave him a withering look. "Goodness, whoever could you be referring to?"
Knuckles leaned back to almost horizontal. "I thought you said we weren't sweatin' the details."
Bark slammed his fists on the table. "Yeah! All that matters is that no one's better at being rough and ready than us Möbians!"
"Yeah!" Big put a fist in the air.
Shadow shook his head lightly. "You Möbians..."
"Speaking of which..." Tails looked around. "Where's Silver?"
"He's busy hammering out the Surface Restoration Plan in his provisional office here on the Hellship," said Rotor, flexing his fingers in their viewscreen manipulation gloves. "He said that all further mission planning will be up to us."
Then, Rotor got up, standing at the end of the table opposite Tails and Shadow, waved a hand in the air, and a green screen appeared before him.
"Then, let's get down to business. This is the result of collating all data thus far."
A wireframe model of the Hellship appeared onscreen.
"The Möbius Spiral Flagship, currently in lunar orbit, the Hellship."
The model turned into a perfect sphere with a jack-o'-lantern face.
"The Anti-Spiral stole it and disguised it as our Moon."
A wireframe of Freedom Emerl appeared.
"Freedom Emerl."
The computer POV zoomed out, revealing the Freedom Emerl standing on the deck of...
"The Blue Typhoon."
The POV pulled out even further, showing the Blue Typhoon in the shadow of...
"The Hellship."
Spiral-shaped diagrams appeared around the screen.
"The thing that brings out the potential of each is Spiral Power. That refers to the power of evolution present in us lifeforms which possess a double-helical genetic structure."
Rotor turned around, and saw that his audience was giving him blank, even confused stares. Bean had actually rested his head on the desk; a bubble was coming from one of his nostrils.
Rotor sighed.
"To put it simply," he snapped his fingers, "It's fighting spirit."
Videos of the Great Freedom Fighters' Gizoids doing battle covered the screen.
That did it.
"Oh! Fighting spirit!"
"That makes sense!"
"Shoulda said so in the first place!"
Waving his hand, Rotor made the screen become a blank green again.
"It appears," he continued, "That the Anti-Spiral were themselves a Spiral race once, just like we are. But, they came to believe that continued usage of Spiral Power would lead to the destruction of the universe."
Pausing for a moment, Rotor flicked a finger...
And a news report video from less than two weeks before came up on screen. Tails did not avert his eyes.
For on screen was the one this mission planning session was all about saving.
Cosmo was only a dark silhouette before the Moon, her eyes glowing with blue electronic frost, but she had not yet been completely converted into a Messenger program. She said levelly and coldly, "The Spiral Nemesis will bring about the destruction of the universe. We Anti-Spiral exist to prevent the Spiral Nemesis."
With a flick of that same finger, Rotor clicked the video away.
"By 'Spiral Nemesis', she likely means some hypothetical destruction of the universe only Spiral Power could bring about," Rotor said, calling up an image of an expanding collection of glowing squares forcing themselves into a collection of drills which had coil-shaped lines leading off-screen.
"So, the Anti-Spiral rebelled against the Spiral races. The Spiral races fought back, but were summarily defeated."
The drills were forced into the corner of the screen.
"Why did they fail? Evidently, the Anti-Spiral had hid their stronghold of a homeworld in a universe with a different set of dimensional axes, which has remained undiscovered until now."
A Steadicam video from the Möbian surface of the Moon transforming into the Hell Huenlonix was called up.
"Having emerged victorious, the Anti-Spiral installed Spiral Lifeform Annihilation Systems on any planet that they detected a Spiral Power reading on. The System would be triggered once the neighboring Spiral race's technology reached a point of exactly one-hundred kilometers above sea level."
A seven-year-old video feed from Freedom's databanks showed Galahad Village.
"In order to survive, the Spiral races - well, those of Möbius, at least - were forced to eke out a meager existence underground."
Sally was halfway through rebuilding Nicole. She put up her hand.
"So," she asked, "What's the story of the Black Arms? And the animals that were on the surface when we came up?"
Shadow answered before Rotor could open his mouth.
"We Black Arms were all beings created by the Helix King. He created each Black Arms to be a unique species in and of him- or herself, to keep exact count of our number, and to prevent any distractions from our duties. The animals of the surface, like the Black Arms, are all infertile; our reproduction, if it can be called that, is handled through cloning."
"Basically," Rotor continued, "Since Black Arms don't have Spiral Power, they cannot produce children. It is the genetic diversity resulting from gamogenesis that is the key to evolution. It is in this that the upwardly-mobile Power of the Spiral resides."
Rotor sighed; again, he'd lost his audience in the technobabble.
He put his fingers together, forming a heart.
"Basically, love changes the universe!" he said desperately.
"Oh, I got it!"
"Makes perfect sense!"
"Way to clear it up!"
Rotor swept his hand across the screen, which was showing Sonic yelling at Priest Aurum, and it went blank green again.
"At the moment, the Lucus Darkoak Head is busy reactivating the Spiral Realm Perceptual Teleportation System, so that it can input our recently acquired coordinates for the Anti-Spiral homeworld, and warp there. The Spiral Realm Perceptual Teleportation System has been offline for almost two-thousand years, so it's taking a while to start up again." Rotor sighed again. "Honestly, it's a battleship half the size of our planet, operating on systems simpler than the ones that operated the Parliament Complex, and it can warp through space. Just what kind of monsters were the Spiral races at their peak?"
Tails grinned. "And you're pretty monstrous for figuring out how to work it in just half an hour, Rotor."
Rotor chuckled, "And if I have anyone to blame, it's you, Tails. Seven years ago, I could barely read or write my name, and now look at me! Programming the Moon to jump to another universe!"
Tails nodded, his expression darkening.
"Yeah. We'll find the Anti-Spiral, no matter what. That's where Cosmo is... and..."
Sally gave Tails a significant look. "Oh, come on, Tails. Don't get gloomy. Love changes the universe, remember?" She brought up Nicole, and cocked back her bullet chamber. "So I say let's change it. We'll force it to."
"YEAH!" Knuckles bellowed gruffly. "LOVE AND SPIRIT! LET'S DO THIS!"
Sally narrowed her blue eyes at Knuckles. "It doesn't sound as good coming from you."
"Kiss my ass."
The door to the planning room burst open.
Blaze looked pale.
"Tails! It's Silver!"
"What? What's wrong? Did something go wrong with the Surface Restoration Plan?"
"No, that's gone fine. It's just... well, Silver, he..."
スターギゾイド
Tails and Blaze had run off to go find Silver. Knuckles honestly didn't care what happened to the Pothead; he'd locked Tails away and almost had him put to death for no reason, and abandoned almost all of Möbius to the potential fire and death of Moonfall. If the potheaded hedgehog had thrown himself out of one of the Hellship's airlocks, Knuckles felt it would have been a long time coming.
Stepping onto circles of light on the floor, most of the Great Freedom Fighters found themselves surrounded by light, and before they knew it...
"What the...?" Big scratched his head.
"The room changed!" Bark shouted.
"Dummies!" Vector snapped. "This starship's so damn big you need to get around using teleporters."
"Better figure out which warper leads to the jogging track, then," Knuckles quipped.
"We have a jogging track?" asked Big.
Looking into the room, Knuckles goggled.
"Th... those things are scary big..."
ヘルシップ内
スターギゾイド格納庫
Inside the Hellship
Star Gizoid Hangar
Lupe smirked at Knuckles and his companions from her console. She had come up to the Hellship as soon as she could find someone to trust her children to - her Wolf Clan.
"They were lying about this behemoth's hangar," she said. "Apparently, the Gizoids you rode around on the surface? Just mobile cockpits for these: the Star Gizoids."
Knuckles's eyes nearly popped out as he looked up at the crimson titan before him. That thing was way bigger than the Great MetaRex, and this thing was on his side. And there were so many Star Gizoids on their side, each a match for the size of Typhoon Freedom Emerl! Knuckles's looked like his King Knuckles, but... darker. More demonic. Its green eyes gleamed like portals into emerald hellfire. Its left arm bore a vaguely koala-shaped shield - Knuckles smirked - and its right arm terminated in a spiral-decorated spear. Looking closely, Knuckles saw what he could have sworn were oversized chainsaws built into its legs.
スターキングナックルズ
Star King Knuckles
Vector looked up at the dark-green Star Gizoid, his jaw hanging slack. It was most certainly more menacing than his own Vector Prime. It had pillars emerging from its shoulders, each finger ending in a laser cannon more powerful by far than the Great MetaRex's Final Nova attack.
スターベクタープライム
Star Vector Prime
Mighty grinned a pig-rolling-in-its-own-shit grin as he stared up at the city-sized double of his Mighty Fists. Its rear legs apparently doubled as rockets for deep space combat, and its two small arms each ended in double Spiral gatling guns.
スターマイティーフィスツ
Star Mighty Fists
Espio gave his Star Gizoid an approving nod. It was, according to Lupe's computer screen, outfitted with a cloaking device that made it invisible in space combat. It looked more like Espio's Espionaj than the other Star Gizoids looked like their Gizoid cockpits, but the Star Gizoid equivalent of Espionaj had a power generator for its Spiral Cannon that quadrupled its body length.
スターエスピオナッジ
Star Espionaj
Big's jaw dropped, and Bark nodded his head in approval, at the sight of their Star Gizoid. The Star Gizoid of Double Bruiser had evolved the look of its cockpit such that its two heads had faced to either side completely now; a third face rested between its shoulders. Its arms and legs were each as thick as the Parliament Complex, and clearly concealed many missile ports.
スターダブルブルーザー
Star Double Bruiser
Lobo smiled at his wife, then glanced up at the dark-yellow knight that stood above him. Large laser cannons were mounted into its shoulders, and into the hilt of its sword.
スターオドネル
Star O'Donnell
Sally set a hand on her hip. The Star Gizoid that her Acorn Cannon served as a mobile cockpit for. It had twin cannons on its head, and countless hatches along its arms and legs - and along the grill that served as a mouth - that could potentially fire off infinite missiles and rockets.
スターエイコーンキャノン
Star Acorn Cannon
Shadow folded his arms.
"I guess this means that we need things that big to fight the Anti-Spiral," he said.
"Say, Shadow," Knuckles said, turning to the hedgehog-shaped Black Arms. "I got a few words to say to you."
"Fire away."
Knuckles punched Shadow.
Twice.
Thrice.
Four times.
Shadow wiped away the green blood Knuckles had drawn from his namesake punching holes in Shadow's cheeks. Five seconds later, they'd sealed up again.
And Shadow smirked.
"I was waiting for this, echidna. Let me guess: payback for your village?"
"And for the villages of the other Wandering Orphans. You know? Feral Forest? Percival? Windmill?"
"I am afraid that, despite being immortal, my memory has not improved. But we're even now, I suppose."
Knuckles grit his teeth. "Not yet. I'm seriously tempted to kick you in the balls for all the villages you glassed, but..." Knuckles gave a nasty sneer. "If what you said is right, you don't have any, so... I guess we are even."
Shadow's glare could have killed if he had Spiral Power.
"S-so..." Sally said hastily, trying to stave off the building tension. "Who's gonna pilot Eliastriker's Star Gizoid?"
"I will!"
The nearest teleporter sprouted a head of chocolate-brown hair with green eyes, then a female torso in a purple dress, and a squirrel's tail. And Sally's sister-in-law, Meg Acorn stepped out, a fiercely determined look on her face.
No sooner did she step off the warp pad when Elias appeared behind her.
"Meg, no!" he begged, stepping forward (Marine, carrying Alexis, appeared behind him, making funny faces to distract the baby squirrel from her parents' squabbling). "Someone needs to stay behind to make sure Allie is safe."
"I trust Blaze and Marine to look after her while we're gone," Meg said irritably. "Besides, Alexis isn't safe. Not anywhere. Not as long as the Anti-Spiral exist. They tried to kill our little girl, Elias, and you expect me to stay on Möbius and hang laundry and let them get away with it?"
"Not every mother on Möbius wants to get revenge against the Anti-Spiral, Meg!"
"Not every mother on Möbius fought the Helix King to make sure their kids would be able to live under a safe sky! I piloted Eliastriker against the Capital, remember?"
Elias hesitated. "That was different... you weren't a mother then..."
Meg looked pained. "I am not going to be told that just because I have a kid that I can't fight if I want to. Besides, you're going to captain this behemoth while Tails goes out to fight, right? Who else can pilot Eliastriker's Star Gizoid? Sally can't pilot two Gizoids at once. You need every good Gizoid pilot you can out there at the edge of the universe."
Elias's fists clenched and unclenched, his eyes never blinking or looking away from Meg's equally steadfast eyes. Finally, his hands going slack, he wrapped her in his arms as tears ran down his face.
"I'm so glad I married you," he sobbed. "Just promise me: come back to me when the fight is over."
Meg smiled. "I'm so glad you understand me, you big dummy," she said. "I'm glad I married you, too. But promise me, that you'll keep safe, too. This ship can't be invincible."
"Yes! Yes! I promise!" Elias shouted through his tears.
"Hey! Stop crying, honey!" Meg laughed.
"Men are such odd blokes, ain't they, Allie?" Marine asked. Alexis clapped her hands against her surrogate aunt's face, smiling blissfully.
"Didja hear Dad, little Allie?" Knuckles said in a horrible baby voice. "Mommy and Daddy and Unkie Knuxie are going to da udder end uh da galaxy. And we'll have lotsa nice stories when we all get back."
"Sounds like a solid plan," said Espio. "Megan is right; every good Gizoid pilot is needed in this battle."
"Nice to have you on board," Lobo smiled.
"The Eliastriker's Star Gizoid..." Meg said, indicating the mecha next to Sally's Star Gizoid.
"You mean the Star Eliastriker?" Lupe asked.
"No," Elias said. "I think that, since I'm not gonna be piloting that Star Gizoid, Eliastriker is kinda inappropriate." He gazed at his wife. "What will you name it, Meg?"
Meg looked up at the Star Gizoid beside the Star Acorn Cannon. Apart from the face that it bore a single Spiral Cannon on its head, and its blue color scheme as opposed to Star Acorn Cannon's purple hue, it was a twin of Sally's Star Gizoid.
Meg smiled.
And said its new name:
スターアレクシストライカー
Star Alexistriker
"Star Alexistriker."
Elias smiled. "Then it's settled. That's pretty much everyone and their Star Gizoids."
"Wait a moment, please!"
"Don't forget us, okay?"
Cream and Charmy appeared on the same teleporter.
"What, you two are coming along, too?" Vector asked.
"Not just them," said Shade, the orange echidna appearing on another teleporter and stepping off.
"At least a dozen other Fremerald pilots volunteered for this, too," said Molly as she appeared.
"We're all in this together," added Frances, stepping off of her warp pad.
"There weren't any super-sized Fremeralds to choose from," Lupe said, pointing her thumb over her shoulder at Typhoon Freedom Emerl-sized mechas that looked like cousins of the Helix King's personal Gizoid. All were pitch-black, with two triangle-shaped eyes (one on the head, one on the chest), and a blank-white cape. "But there were these that your mechas could pilot:"
量産型ホゥエンロニックス
スター・エメラロイド
Mass Production Huenlonix Models
Star Emeraloids
"The Star Emeraloids. Take good care of them, Fremerald pilots."
Cream wore a serious expression. "This is not just about rescuing Miss Cosmo. The fate of Möbius hangs in the balance."
"That is the Fremerald Squadron's mission, after all," Charmy added, "So it's only natural that we should go."
"Mission?" Big pondered.
"This ain't a mission, kids! This is a brawl!" Bark barked.
"A brawl?"
"Yeah, a brawl," Knuckles grinned. "The biggest brawl in the universe, started by Tails finding a little emerald drill in the dirt. And he's off to rescue his flower from the Devil himself." Knuckles shook his head a bit. "Damn it... I know that Möbius itself is on the line, but parta me is excited. I never shoulda held onta that government job, and instead gone runnin' around the world like you, Sal."
"Everyone figures out their path in life at their own pace," Sally said, leaning back against a railing. "It's different for everyone."
Sally subconsciously pulled open her jacket, and Knuckles nearly had a nosebleed. She was wearing a bra with stars over her breasts, a black thong, and nothing else.
After a moment of stunned silence, Knuckles burst out laughing. "You musta been hangin' around too many school teachers! You're saying stuff just like one!"
Sally gave a knowing smirk.
"But still, I'm glad you're back, Sal," Knuckles said. "I mean, we can't rightfully call ourselves the Great Freedom Fighters without you and your figure!" He formed an hourglass figure with his fists, before facing the other Great Freedom Fighters. "Right, guys?"
"YEAH!"
Sally scowled playfully. "Knock it off, or I'll make you stand in the hallway!"
Charmy chuckled, and Cream giggled.
Minutes later, and a small warp later, small dishes filled with small doses of white wine, each decorated with the flaming-skull-with-pointed-shades emblem of the Great Freedom Fighters, was passed around to each member of the Great Freedom Fighters as they stood outside a window overlooking Möbius.
"Still, you gotta wonder," Vector asked, "Just how far are we gonna go?"
"That's an easy question," Knuckles smirked.
They clinked their dishes together.
"As far as it takes!"
Then, as one, the Great Freedom Fighters faced Möbius, raised their glasses, and drained them in one gulp each.
One last toast to Möbius.
シルバーの自己処罰
"Silver... he didn't overthrow you for power," Blaze explained. "The night you were arrested... he cried for hours..."
"I know, Blaze... I know he was doing it because he had to..."
They'd reached Silver's office door.
It was locked.
Tails pounded on the door.
"Silver! Are you in there? Silver!"
There was no answer.
Tails pulled out his Core Drill.
"If that's how you want it..."
何の罪だの？
Silver sat in his office on the Hellship, in his own personal hell.
He'd not been with his father, Priest Aurum, before he died, and it killed him inside that he had not had a more meaningful final conversation with his father.
A year after the fall of Greengate, Silver had returned to Galahad Village. Apparently, after Sonic and Tails left, seeds and pollen of plants drifted down into the moistened soil at the edge of the lagoon of the Face God, and plantlife of all kinds of fruits flourished. The Rule of Fifty was abandoned, and many made for the surface on their own.
Unfortunately, Aurum had eaten some spoiled fruit, and he was very ill. Far iller, indeed, than he pretended.
Maybe Father did not want me to worry, Silver thought. Maybe... he didn't want me to feel sad for him...
"Father, I have crosschecked your holy book against every language in the history of Möbius," Silver had said.
"And...?" his father had replied.
Silver gave a rueful smile. "It cannot be read. It is full of nonsense characters that have not cropped up anywhere else in the history of typography."
Aurum then rested a weak hand on the book's front cover, lifting it slightly to view the front page. "Then... who did write it? And why?"
"I cannot say, Father," Silver had said. "But... someone most likely was staging some elaborate practical joke."
At this, Aurum had actually smiled. "So, you mean, that I was preaching the gospel of God, all while carrying someone's practical joke in my hands?" He let out a weak, raspy laugh. "That's too rich!"
Aurum then descended into a fit of violent coughing.
"So, Father," Silver had asked, once Aurum had recovered, "Why did you impose the Rule of Fifty?"
Aurum had then affixed Silver with an intense gaze.
"I was once like that blue hedgehog. Very much so, Silver. I led my village - my old village, the father of Galahad Village, in essence: Lancelot Village - to the surface. And when we got there..."
"Gizoids were waiting," Silver had said, low.
Aurum only nodded. "I was the only survivor. I fled. I came upon an underground village called Kinesis. In order to atone for my sins, I took it upon myself to take over the administration. I renamed it to Galahad Village, and imposed my Rule of Fifty, to ensure the prosperity of those who lived there." Aurum's eyes darkened. "It was a horrid prospect at times, sending people to die on the surface, but if it helped our village survive, it was worth it as the price for my atonement."
Silver then excused himself to help in the construction of the New Capital.
He later learned that his father's condition had spiraled rapidly out of control, and that Aurum had died mere hours after he left.
He had born himself as best he could on the return to the nascent Sonic City, but he could not sleep for two weeks after that.
The tears would not leave him be.
A long time ago, Galahad was so impoverished that it could not support a population greater than fifty people, Silver thought. Back then, survival was sacrifice. That was all there was to it. On the surface, a world existed for everyone to live, and no one to be sacrificed. That's what I told myself as I fought. I thought that I was beyond my roots as a Galahad Villager. I thought I was above sacrificing people for survival. But I was wrong... in the end, I nearly sacrificed more lives than anyone ever before.
Silver brought the gun up to his head.
That sin must be atoned for.
The door banged.
"Silver! Are you in there? Silver!"
It was Tails.
Silver wanted dearly to pull the trigger and paint the walls with his own brains, but for some reason, his finger would not move.
The lock flashed green, and Tails threw the door open, Core Drill in hand. His eyes darted towards the gun, and his pupils contracted.
"Silver!" Tails cried.
Silver pointed the gun at Tails.
"Stay away!" he shouted, and to Tails he sounded insane. "I will atone for my own sin by my own hand. In the end, I was only dancing in the Anti-Spiral's palm. I walked right into their trap by sentencing you to death, and nearly sacrificing all of Möbius for nothing. I'm a fool of epic proportions!"
"You idiot! What are you saying?"
Silver pointed the gun at his head again. "At least let me face death on my own terms."
"Silver..." Tails breathed.
Then, in an instant that left both Tails and Silver breathless, Blaze walked into the room with her fists balled up, and slapped Silver violently across the right cheek. Silver collapsed, his gun tumbling under his desk.
"What sins?" Blaze shrieked. "Everything you were doing, you were doing to try to save Möbiankind!" Tears began to spill down Blaze's face, hampering her ability to glare at Silver. "You ran yourself ragged trying to think of a way to save as many people as you could. I know that better than anyone! If you call that a sin, then no one in the world is innocent."
At this point, words failed Blaze.
"Blaze..." Silver gasped.
Then she grabbed him by the front of his government suit.
Both Silver and Tails thought she would hit him again. She did, too, for a moment.
Then her lips crashed against his.
It was clumsy and awkward even among the ranks of first kisses, but it was good enough for them.
After ten seconds, they pulled apart.
Blaze, tears still streaming down her face, wrapped her arms gently around Silver's waist.
"You're so naïve," she sniffled.
Silver returned her embrace. "I'm sorry, Blaze."
Tails smiled at the new couple. "Good for you, Silver. You have someone who'll hit you if you make a mistake. I lost my way once. But someone was there to snap me out of it... by punching some sense into me."
A memory came to Tails's mind...
Tails looked up in alarm, and saw Sonic plastered against Emerl's canopy, pulling his right arm back.
"Open the canopy, Tails!" Sonic shouted.
In his fright, Tails didn't need to be told twice.
Sonic curled up his right hand into a fist.
Tails's heart stopped.
"Now, grit. Your. TEETH!"
And Sonic.
Punched.
Out.
Tails.
"Everyone makes mistakes, Silver," Tails explained. "It's to be expected. But when you do, you should be hit by someone else. There's no need to punish yourself. If you do make a mistake, just keep kicking and screaming and fighting like hell, and you'll move forward a little bit." Tails smiled. "Well, that, and you gotta believe in the you who believes in yourself. That's the only way to fight absolute despair. At least, that's what I think." Tails held out a hand to Silver. "But Silver, you tried to do something I never could have done. What's wrong with that?"
"Tails..."
"I believe in you, Silver. I believe you can look after Möbius while we're away. Just believe in yourself."
Silver slowly took Tails's hand.
"Now we can walk on the same path again. Right?"
Silver smiled at Tails and nodded.
Tails grinned widely. "Good. So, you won't have any problems with me slugging you one for locking me up?"
Silver's smile faded rapidly and he looked immediately repentant again.
Tails laughed.
"I was just joking, Silver! Loosen up."
Silver smiled weakly.
Blaze, wiping tears away, smiled warmly at Silver. "Silver, I would like temporary leave once we return."
"Leave? What kind?"
Blaze's smile went sly. "Maternity leave."
Silver looked flustered.
"Me and Marine will be looking after Meg's daughter while her and Elias are fighting the Anti-Spiral," Blaze explained once she'd finished laughing at Silver's reaction, tears of mirth leaking from her eyes now. "We promised her we would. Ms. Mongoose could fill in for me; Ash has been trying to catch her eye."
Silver nodded at his new girlfriend. "Of course, Blaze."
Silver's cell phone rang.
"Silver," he said, answering it. "What? But... where was it?"
"What's wrong?" Tails asked.
"Yes... I think they might need it. Send it up immediately. Me and Blaze will take the vessel back down to Möbius." He hung up.
"Who was that?" Tails asked.
"Ash," Silver said. "He oversaw the return of the refugees on the Blue Typhoon to their homes... or shelters, if their homes were in Sonic City. Apparently, they found something in the wreckage of Sonic City."
"What?"
"The Emerl that was in Huenlonix."
Tails's eyes widened.
今は準備が必要なんだよ！！
The Lucus Darkoak Head smiled at the Core Machine its former body had utilized in his personal Gizoid, as though reunited with an old friend thought deceased. "So it was only temporarily lost. This is fortunate for us. We now have two Core Machines on hand: your Emerl, and my G-Merl."
Rotor and Cobar were holding each other's hands.
"Be careful out there, Rotor," Cobar was saying.
"Who the hell do you think I am?" Rotor replied jocularly. "Look after Möbius, Cobar."
Cobar chuckled, before saying, "I love you."
"Love you, too," they said, sharing a brief kiss before Cobar left for his transport.
Rotor faced the Darkoak Head. "How goes the activation of the Spiral Realm Perceptual Teleportation System?"
"It will be online in roughly half an hour," replied the Darkoak Head.
"Good," Elias said. "So... how does this all work again?"
"The Spiral Warriors battled the Anti-Spiral Rebellion viciously about two-thousand years ago," said the Darkoak Head. "However, we were unable to locate their base of operations, and were summarily defeated. We could not find their homeworld, because no Anti-Spiral battleships returned there once they were dispatched to this dimension."
"Dimension?" Knuckles repeated.
"As we know now, the Anti-Spiral have eluded Super-Spiral sweeps for the past two-thousand years," explained the Darkoak Head, "By creating an imaginary oscillating time-space located between the membranes of the dimensional universes we refer to as the tenth and eleventh dimensions."
The Great Freedom Fighters - now standing on the bridge - whirled rapidly on Rotor, waiting for his laconic explanation.
But Rotor shrugged.
"I can't make heads or tails of it, either, fellas," said Rotor, as an image appeared on the main screen. "But this is definitely the Anti-Spiral homeworld."
A gold ring with a white, seed-shaped diamond set in it.
"Isn't that... Cosmo's ring that Tails gave her?" Knuckles asked.
"But why?" Elias asked.
"What we call the universe is constructed on ambiguity," the Darkoak Head explained. "It only becomes a fixed reality when observed. That is a fundamental law of the universe. Even in a pocket dimension, an object that has been observed at one time can be picked up on a Spiral scan."
Once more, the Great Freedom Fighters rounded on Rotor for an explanation. All this big talk was downright terrifying.
"This isn't like you people," Shadow said, smirking. "Who cares about the explanation? We know where the enemy is, so we're going there!"
"That's right!" Rotor said brightly. "It basically sounds like you can go somewhere if you know something you had once is there!"
"With a fixed set of perceptual dimensional coordinates," the Darkoak Head continued, "Instantaneous teleportation is possible. That is how the Spiral Realm Perceptual Teleportation System works."
"So, basically, if you think of someone, fighting spirit sends you flying into their arms!" Rotor said.
The Great Freedom Fighters made noises of comprehension and assent.
"We should also assume the enemy has warp capability, too," Elias said darkly.
"Good point," Rotor noted.
"Which means that we should act as soon as the System is online!" Elias smirked.
"We know where the enemy stronghold is, so we're gonna smash it," Sally added, a smirk of her own that was identical to her brother's. "It's worked for us so far. Right?"
"YEAH!" everyone cheered.
The Darkoak Head said, "It is nearly time."
"Alright, then," Elias turned to Helen. "Fire the Dimensional Anchors at the predetermined point!"
"Roger!" Helen said, pushing a few icons on her screen.
A pair of drills fired out from behind the Hellship. They vanished into holes in space, trails of green Spiral Power connecting them to the Möbius Spiral Flagship.
"Dimensional Anchors have penetrated imaginary space," Helen said. "They have latched onto the Moon."
"Elias! Give the word!" Rotor called out.
"Engine output, 50%. All ahead slow," Elias ordered.
"Engine output, 50%. All ahead slow," repeated Ari, setting the engine to stated speed.
Green light poured from the Hellship's engines, and gradually, a gray orb of rock was pulled out from the alternate dimension.
An enormous gray orb of rock.
One which bore enormous dark-gray seas of long-dried lava.
One which, for some odd reason, bore a large scorch mark across it.
This must have been where Tails punched the final Zoah.
"Whoa, something really came out!" Bean squawked.
"So, that's the real Moon, huh?" Elias wondered.
"This way," Rotor explained, "The Hellship can leave Möbian orbit without worrying about affecting it."
Knuckles and Sally stood side-by-side.
"You know, anything could happen right now - anything at all - and I wouldn't be surprised," Sally said.
"Me, neither."
お前のＸＸＸで天を衝け！！
"Sorry about this," Tails said as Silver & Blaze entered the last ship back to Möbius. "I know it's a big job I left you."
"You can count on us," Silver replied. "Even if you don't come back, I will make sure that Möbius and Möbiankind survive." Silver smirked. "We'll kick and scream and fight like hell."
Tails gave a brief chuckle. "Yeah. I'm counting on you, Silver."
"I'll be able to do it. I believe in you and in myself."
Moments later, after their final farewells, Silver & Blaze met Marine, carrying Alexis, at a window looking back at the Hellship. Marine passed the baby to Blaze. She looked very bitter.
"They're leaving me behind again," Marine growled, before taking a very deep breath.
Silver & Blaze only had a moment to understand what Marine was doing.
Marine cupped her hands over her mouth.
"OY, MATES!" she shouted after the Hellship at the top of her lungs. "MAKE SURE YOU COME BACK SAFE, A'IGHT?"
Alexis started crying.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Marine squeaked.
On board the Hellship, Tails reached the No. 1 Bridge. For a brief moment, he looked out of the bridge's transparent canopy to Möbius, and said in such a low voice that only his own sensitive fox ears could have picked it up:
"I'll be back, Sonic."
Then strode to the head of the bridge.
"Sorry I'm late, guys," he said brightly. "Silver's doing just fine."
"You're just in time, actually, Tails," replied Rotor.
"Spiral Monitor, activated," Helen said.
"Spiral Realm Perceptual Teleportation System, dimensional coordinates verified," Chris said.
"Tails, that's your cue," Rotor said. "Focus your perception on Cosmo."
Tails closed his eyes, a pensive look appearing on his face.
A hazy image of a ring appeared on screen.
"I still don't really believe it..." Charmy mused to Cream, just low enough so that only she could hear. "Can we really just warp there? I mean, Cosmo's really far away. How can we get there with just Tails's memory of a ring?"
"All that talk goes over my head as well," she whispered back, "But I can understand it if I think about it as Mister Tails & Miss Cosmo being connected by feelings that transcend time and space."
Charmy turned it over in his head...
And it still made no sense.
Honestly, the things girls think of.
"Maybe you're right," he told her.
The image of Cosmo's ring became sharp and crystal-clear.
"I have confirmation," the Lucus Darkoak said. "Coordinates locked."
"Tails, we're all set and ready to jump at any time!" Rotor said.
Tails opened his eyes...
And grinned.
"Alright!" he said. "Super Galaxy Great Freedom, prepare for launch!"
"Super Galaxy Great Freedom?" the bridge echoed.
"Yeah," Tails said simply. "She's the Super Galaxy Great Freedom."
"It works for you people," Shadow said, a half-grin on his face. "Certainly a better fit for the Möbian races than 'Hellship'."
Tails nodded. "You got that right."
He turned his eyes to the blackness of space, his expression going stern.
"Listen up, everyone!" Tails said, his voice resonating throughout the Super Galaxy Great Freedom. "We're gonna be warping to the Anti-Spiral homeworld, Avalon, in just a few minutes. I don't know what's gonna be waiting for us when we get there, but no matter what happens, we can't afford to lose. We have to protect our Möbius. That's why every one of you on this ship right now are officially members of the Great Freedom Fighters! And I'll make sure every single one of you comes back to Möbius alive!"
And Tails did a brief Great Freedom Fighters roll call.
"Knuckles..." Knuckles gave a thumbs-up.
"Rotor..." Rotor nodded.
"Elias..." Elias nodded.
"Meg..." Meg nodded, a slight frown on her face.
"Vector, Mighty, Espio..." Vector rubbed his nose, Mighty waved vaguely, and Espio nodded.
"Big, Bark, Lobo..." Big waved, Bark nodded, and Lobo folded his arms.
"Chris, Ari, Bean..." Chris smiled faintly, Ari nodded, and Bean flapped about energetically.
"Charmy, Cream..." Charmy did a mid-air loop-the-loop, and Cream bowed slightly.
"Frances..." Frances rested her hands in her pockets.
"Shade..." Shade nodded curtly.
"Molly..." Molly rested her hands behind her head.
"Amy..." A pink hedgehog girl smiled and winked.
"Tommy..." A turtle smiled and nodded.
"Ray..." A yellow flying squirrel grinned slightly.
"Antoine..." A coyote nodded curtly.
"Shahra..." A pink-haired human girl smiled brightly.
"Chip..." A small red-furred critter gave the peace sign.
"Griff..." A goat man crossed his arms and nodded.
"Shorty..." A squirrel nodded.
"Julie-Su..." A pink echidna girl, metal rings around one of her dreadlocks, nodded.
"Helen..." Helen raised a hand from her wheelchair.
"Lupe..." Lupe nodded from the computer terminal showing the Super Spiral Engine (which consisted of Typhoon Freedom Emerl, a Giga Drill from each limb).
"Sally..." Sally nodded.
"Shadow..." Shadow crossed his arms and nodded.
"Lucus..." The Darkoak Head closed its eyes and nodded.
"And Kukku..." Kukku flitted around over Tails's head and squeaked 'chao!'.
"As long as the Great Freedom Fighters stand united," Tails finished, "we have nothing to fear, because we will never be defeated!"
It was time.
"Engines at full!" called out Ari.
"Spiral Realm Perceptual Teleportation System, activated," said the Lucus Darkoak Head.
"Alright!" Tails grinned. "Let's go, this is the final battle!"
And so, less than twelve hours after the Hell Huenlonix had been deactivated, the newly christened Super Galaxy Great Freedom vanished in a flash of green light as bright as the sun...
Departing to do battle with the Anti-Spiral.
つづく
To be continued...
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Even if an infinite number of enemies will appear, we indomitable outlaws will absolutely never give way!
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "I Will Never Forget This Minute, This Second".
[9-4-10 UPDATE: I added in the other nine Star Emeraloid pilots to Tails's last-minute roll-call.]