(Chapter Thirty-One. Back to school for me. But I got the entire Grenadier manga, despite its being discontinued, so it's an even trade-off.
Enjoy!
By the way, yes, I was introduced to Mahoromatic at Anime Club's first meeting this semester on Thursday. Why do you ask?)
"This is the tale of a man who blows a hole in the destiny of a universe torn by the endless cycle of violence.
"The Super Galaxy Great Freedom sets sail to put an end to the conflict once and for all.
"The Freedom Fighters' new Star Emeraloid Squadron is killed off one by one by the fierce attack of the enemy fleet, which was lying in wait for them.
"Even the Super Galaxy Great Freedom, hoping to turn the tables by transforming, is swallowed up by a black sea that unfolds in space...
"...and is about to meet its end."
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE:
I Accept Your Last Wish
"The Super Galaxy Great Freedom is sinking!" Chris shouted.
"That's what I'm asking about!" Elias said exasperatedly. "What's an ocean doing in outer space?"
"It's not water," said Rotor, pale at his terminal. "It's the fabric of space-time being compressed until it's ultra-dense. That's why it looks like water."
"Nothing makes sense anymore!" Elias groaned, putting a hand to his forehead. "Get us outta here, Ari!"
"I can't!" Ari yelled, straining against the helm. "Spiral Power output is decreasing!"
ラブコメ
Down in the Star Gizoid hangar, Sally, her sniper rifle Nicole slung over her shoulder, was knocked off-balance by some of the Super Galaxy Great Freedom's shaking.
Knuckles caught her from behind.
"Careful, there!" he said as the rest of the pilots rushed past them to see what the fuss was about.
"Thank you," Sally replied.
Knuckles grinned slightly.
"You must be losing your touch, Sal, to get thrown off by just a little shaking like this."
Sally smiled a little, "Not at all. That was just a matter of filling in the blanks with life experiences."
Knuckles let go of Sally as though she had electrified him - fortunately, she'd regained her balance. "E-experiences?" he stammered.
"What's gotten into you?" she asked, an eyebrow raising.
"Nothing," Knuckles said a little too hastily. Casting around for a different subject to take off of his new awkwardness around Sally, he settled on her rifle.
"So... why are you still lugging that thing around? It's not like there are any Anti-Spiral mechas that a gun would take out."
Sally slung Nicole around so that she held the rifle in front of her. There was a small computer screen by the sniper scope that Knuckles had not noticed before.
"Nicole here is like an old friend to me," Sally said. "I've pretty much owned her for almost eight years now. And that's not all. She—"
The screen began to flash, and Sally, her eyes widening slightly in disbelief, looked down at the screen.
It began to glow steadily.
NEURONAL INTEGRATED CIRCUIT OPERATION-BASED LIVING ENTITY - CODENAME: NICOLE - NOW ONLINE, said a voice remarkably like Sally's from the glowing screen, which showed a pixelated image of a lynx in a spiraling purple dress.
Sally smiled.
"Hello, Nicole. I am Sally Acorn. I am the one who programmed you."
GREETINGS, SALLY. I AM PLEASED TO MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF MY MAKER.
Knuckles mouth opened and closed like a fish. "So... that thing can talk now?"
SEARCHING DATABASES... After a few seconds, Nicole spoke again. 93% MATCH ON KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA OF GAWAIN VILLAGE. CONFIRM.
"Of course! It's me, Knuckles The Echidna, and I gotta say, Nicole, if Sal here really did program ya, she's got a good brain and a great body, too!"
POW
Knuckles rubbed at the lump on his head as Sally lowered her fist.
I THINK THAT DIRTY THOUGHTS ARE BAD, said Nicole testily. Inexplicably, she briefly appeared to be wearing a maid's outfit.
"She's really like you," Knuckles said.
Another tremor shook the Super Galaxy Great Freedom.
"I don't like the sound of that. What the hell's going on up there?" Knuckles grumbled.
I MUST CONFESS THAT I, TOO, AM CURIOUS ABOUT THE CIRCUMSTANCES. WAS THE HELIX KING NOT OVERTHROWN, AS WAS INPUT INTO MY DATABASES?
Sally's eyes met those of the digital lynx on Nicole's screen.
"Looks like I need to explain the changes that happened during your gestation, Nicole."
デススパイラルフィールド
"Enemy fleet is converging on the surface!" Helen said. Ripples made the enemy ships appear to waver above them.
"Firing main cannons!" shouted Bean, slamming the button over and over.
Beams of swirling yellow energy lanced out from almost every area on the Super Galaxy Great Freedom's surface...
Before fading to green, then to blue, then dissipating completely within the black sea around them.
"Main gun beams have died out!" Chris explained as Bean mashed the buttons frantically.
"The Spiral Energy was absorbed?" Rotor breathed.
"How?" Elias asked.
"How could my main guns not work...?" Bean asked in despair, slumping against his console.
"They never work when you use them!" Chris snapped.
"It would appear," the Lucus Darkoak Head said, "That this is a Death Spiral Field."
"Death Spiral?" asked Rotor.
"Within the Death Spiral Field, Spiral Energy is absorbed and converted into mass," the bio-computer explained. "The more Spiral Power we use, the denser this region becomes."
"So that's why it looks like a sea," Rotor noted.
The Darkoak Head nodded. "If we were to sink into the deepest area of the Death Spiral Field, not even the Super Galaxy Great Freedom would survive."
"Then the water pressure—no, the space pressure will crush us flat if we stay in here too long."
"This can't be happening..." Elias muttered as the pilots appeared on warp platforms at the back of the bridge.
Tails appeared on the main monitor. Freedom Emerl and Typhoon Freedom Emerl appeared on separate monitors around him. Their Giga Drills were spinning faster than anyone had ever seen; green energy was actually glowing through the drills' grooves.
"Leave it to me, Elias!" he said, wearing a grin that barely hid his strain. "The key is to rev the engines faster than our energy can be drained. Our power source is infinite! Just as long as our hearts don't give in!"
On Tails's screen, a screen showing Shadow appeared.
"You spout a lot of crap, fox boy." Then a shadow of a grin appeared on the Black Arms's face. "But this is crap I can get behind. Leave the fine-tuning to me!"
Rotor hastened to the main screen, waving his arms in protest.
"Listen, Tails! Don't kill yourself! Remember that you're the power source!"
"That's why..." When Tails looked up, a golden light was in his eyes. "That's why I can't... why we can't... AFFORD TO GIVE UP HERE!"
The Super Spiral gauge peaked at 27%, the highest it had been since they entered the Death Spiral Field.
And it was still climbing. Slower than it ever had, but climbing nonetheless.
"Take us up, Ari!" Elias said, a relieved grin appearing on his face.
"That did the trick!" said Ari, pushing forward on the helm, and the Super Galaxy Great Freedom rumbled, its engines struggling against the fact that its own energy source was dragging it down, before...
Slowly...
Surely...
Making for the surface of the Death Spiral Field.
It could only get easier from there.
"Enemy units have entered the Field and are headed this way!" cried Helen.
All about them, Kishes and Arasens and Wutthuhs descended, unimpeded by the ocean of pure mass.
"Bean! Switch to physical ammo!" Elias ordered.
"YOU GOT IT!" Bean yelled, mashing one button, then several others. "CHEW ON THIS!"
Lances of smoke and fire streaked out from the Super Galaxy Great Freedom, smashing Anti-Spiral robots into metal shells that then collapsed into themselves under the weight of the Death Spiral Field.
"The missiles are working!" cheered Mighty.
"Yay!" Big cried.
"No," Espio said warily. "There are more enemies than we have missiles."
Sure enough, even though the sea's surface above was completely blocked from view by a curtain of smoke and flame, countless Anti-Spiral mechas descended towards the Super Dimensional Fortress Gizoid, pressing against it and forcing it back down.
"They're trying to force us to the bottom!" Chris cried.
ＢａｆＢａｆ！そんなに燃えるのが…好きかい？
"Can't we do something to shake them off?" said the monitor in Elias's voice, showing the enemy mechas pushing the Super Galaxy Great Freedom down further into the Death Spiral Field.
Knuckles turned to Sally.
She nodded in silent agreement.
Most of the Star Gizoids had suffered some sort of debilitating damage in their first gambit against the Anti-Spiral. Only their Star King Knuckles and Star Acorn Cannon were fit to re-enter the fray so soon.
It was a good thing they were the only pilots who had loitered so long in the hangar.
"Aren't you scared?"
Not the only ones, as it turned out.
Charmy stood before Knuckles, Cream just behind him.
Not hovered.
Stood.
As though Charmy could not draw enough energy from the universe to flit his wings.
And Charmy's eyes had a light - or lack thereof - in them that Knuckles had seen once before:
In Tails's eyes, just after Sonic died.
"Aren't you scared of dying?" Charmy said. "You'll be fighting a ton of enemies in an ultra-dense region of space. How can you go out there... in your... in your smashed-up Star King Knuckles..." Charmy sniffled. "Knowing what could happen?"
Knuckles blinked. Was this the same quirky Charmy he'd known for seven years? And Knuckles realized that perhaps he himself was not the only one to have gotten older in that time.
"Charmy, you..."
Charmy stared down at the floor, where raindrop-sized circles became darker. And wetter.
"It's no fair," Charmy croaked. "I want to be able to go out there and go out in a blaze of glory just like you're gonna..." Charmy's fists shook. "But I just can't get my body to move!"
Cream took one of Charmy's fists in her hands.
"Charmy..." she said.
Knuckles was more direct in his answer.
"What are you, some kinda MORON?"
Charmy blinked up at Knuckles with red, puffy eyes.
"Show me the person who ain't afraid of dying!" Knuckles challenged Charmy, looking back at his King Knuckles, then beyond, to his Star King Knuckles. "But I got no choice! This is all I know how to do! We're doing this 'cause we want to. You gotta keep moving forward, all the time, and that goes double when you're scared!"
Knuckles scratched the back of his head.
"Basically, it's like... you know..." Knuckles kicked bitterly. "Damn it, I can't get it out right!"
Sally chuckled slightly to herself. Nicole, on her screen, gave her maker a peculiar glance.
Sighing, Knuckles climbed into King Knuckles's cockpit, but before he closed it, he faced Charmy and Cream again.
"I'll just say this:" Knuckles said, firmly. "The reason that Molly helped you two, even if it meant sacrificed herself, was because she wanted to. So don't go feeling like you owe her! Got it?"
King Knuckles stepped backwards into Star King Knuckles's mouth.
Charmy and Cream's eyes met.
They nodded.
Charmy's wings buzzed to life.
Charmy brought down his pilot's goggles.
Inside King Knuckles, Knuckles was rubbing his face with his hand.
"Damn it, I can't get the right words out..." he mumbled.
Sally appeared in his eye, Acorn Cannon appearing in the corner of the monitor.
"You think so?" she asked.
"If he were here, he'd've had them fired up in no time flat," Knuckles grumbled. "When he talked, his words just went straight to your heart. I really envy him for that."
"'He'..." Sally sighed.
Apparently, she knew who Knuckles was talking about.
"I feel it more and more as I get older," Knuckles said. "Sonic was one hell of a guy."
"You're overlooking something, Knuckles," Sally said, smiling slightly. "The Great Freedom Fighters never would have made it this far without you. Tails pulled us from above, and you pushed and shoved us from below. That's how we managed to make it this far. At least... that's how I feel. That's a job to be just as proud of as encouraging people to action, isn't it?"
A mini-screen, opposite Acorn Cannon, appeared. It showed a digital lynx.
I AGREE COMPLETELY WITH SALLY, said Nicole. THEN AGAIN, SEEING AS I AM DERIVED FROM HER MENTAL WAVELENGTHS, THAT SHOULD NOT BE ALTOGETHER SURPRISING...
Knuckles gripped the butterfly controls of King Knuckles.
"We're wasting time here," Knuckles growled as Star King Knuckles mouth clamped shut in front of King Knuckles. "Let's do it to it!"
The Blue monday e"r"ectrical parade
A minute later, Star King Knuckles and Star Acorn Cannon had blasted out of the hangar and where blasting holes in the Kishes and Arasens and Wutthuhs.
"Knuckles...?" Elias gasped as Star King Knuckles blasted by overhead. "And Sally? Their Star Gizoids work in this space soup?"
Lupe appeared on the main screen.
"The Star Gizoids' Spiral Engines aren't their only sources of power," she said, sparks occasionally lighting up her face. "They ran on electricity when we were on the surface, remember?"
"Oh, so they have backup generators as well!" Elias replied.
Outside, Star Acorn Cannon picked off two Kishes with its twin cannons.
And an Arasen was coming up from behind.
Sally gasped. She could not turn in time to blast it.
"Get outta the way!" shouted Star King Knuckles, pointing his lance - the computer monitor called it a Gáe Bolg, whatever that meant - at the Arasen. "Don't screw with me!"
The Anti-Spiral robot exploded.
Star King Knuckles's left arm was blown off.
"Are you alright?" Sally asked anxiously.
"It's just an arm," said Knuckles nonchalantly. Thankfully, he had shut off the sympathetic pain algorithm beforehand. "It's no big deal."
"That was a rookie mistake," Sally said. "Sorry."
Knuckles grinned. "Don't sweat it. After all, you're just 'filling in the blanks with life experiences', right?"
Even more enemy mechas descended from the Death Spiral Field's surface.
THE ANTI-SPIRAL MECHAS ARE COMING IN MUCH GREAT NUMBERS, SALLY, Nicole said.
"I see that, Nicole," Sally said, gripping Acorn Cannon's butterfly controls more tightly.
"Hey, Sal," said Knuckles in Sally's eye. "When we get back to Möbius, how's about introducing me to those kids of yours?"
Sally gasped.
"I may be tough on the outside, but I get all gooey inside for kids. So, once we waste these guys, kick the Anti-Spiral's ass, and head back to Möbius, that's when I'll—"
The enemy mechas opened fire all at once, and Star King Knuckles and Star Acorn Cannon scattered.
"DAMN IT, LET ME FINISH, YOU FUCKERS!" Knuckles bellowed.
The enemy robots suddenly were struck by several bolts of energy, and exploded.
A pair of Star Emeraloids appeared, each wielding a pair of Helix Polearms. One had orange-colored eyes and cape; the other's were in cream.
スターブンブーンⅡ
Star Buzz Buzz II
スターチーズⅡ
Star Cheese II
"Are you two alright?" called out the orange-eyed one in Charmy's voice.
"We got two new Star Emeraloids and got out as fast as we could!" said the other in Cream's voice.
"You two pipsqueaks?" Knuckles shouted. "Show some common sense and scram, why don't ya?"
Charmy appeared in Knuckles's eye, grinning the Sonic Grin. "Hey, c'mon! We kick common sense out and go beyond the impossible! Isn't that how the Freedom Fighters roll?"
"Yeah, but..."
Cream appeared beside Charmy. She was smiling gently.
"We're doing this because we want to. So please, allow us to fight at your side one last time."
Knuckles's grin returned, looking weary. "Unbelievable... Kids and women, I just can't say no to 'em."
Star King Knuckles turned its gaze back to the Super Galaxy Great Freedom.
"Okay, you three! We're gonna rip those monsters offa the ship!"
Star King Knuckles blasted off, followed by Star Acorn Cannon, Star Buzz Buzz II, and Star Cheese II.
"Roger!" the three others called.
コスモの決意
"Dear Sonic," Cosmo said, staring down at the dark space ocean below, the Anti-Spiral battleships Myst and Slayer hovering over it.
Tails was down there.
Tails was her lover. Her friend. Her leader of the Freedom Fighters.
And she, Cosmo Darkoak, was his lover. His friend. The former Helix Princess. Daughter of Lucus Darkoak, the Helix King, whom Tails had slain.
There. Cosmo could identify herself with that.
It was all she could do to hold onto her own personhood like that, and chant I am Cosmo in her heart - or did she even have a heart, being a program now? - so that she would not lose herself to the Anti-Spiral's analysis.
"The tomorrow that you pointed out to us has given us strength," Cosmo said, continuing her letter to Sonic. "That is why I am able to believe." Cosmo strained to hold herself - her self - together. "That Tails, and the others, will build a new tomorrow."
And Cosmo delved into her heart, delving through the memories of her past life as Cosmo Darkoak - the lover of Tails; the daughter of Lucus Darkoak; the friend of Sally Acorn; the last scion of the planet Greengate...
"Father! My dollie is broken! Can you fix her?"
"I have a question to ask... of my father."
"Father... why was I born?"
"Good day to you."
"So this is rain!"
"Tails... That is a nice name."
"Hello, everyone. My name is Cosmo. It is wonderful to meet you all."
"Do you see, Salasine? Möbians may be small creatures indeed. But inside every chest of every Möbian beats a tremendously huge heart! They are not dolls! And neither am I!"
"Thank you, Tails."
"A Gizoid... for me?"
"I will name it... White Seed."
"Farewell, Father... I will head towards tomorrow."
"Tails... I... I love you!"
"This is a wonderful statue, Tails!"
"My... my flowers have bloomed!"
"Mister Knuckles? What exactly is a 'period'?"
"A letter... from Miss Sally? She's a teacher now?"
"...Our bond is sealed now, Tails... for life..."
"This diamond, Tails? You... want it back?"
"My dream is to cover all the land in flowers."
"Tails, we are different people. Very, very different people. Different people do different things from each other. But because we are different, we try to understand one another. I want to know you more, Tails. We will always be together, and I will still want to know more about you. And, Tails... I want you to want to know more about me, too."
"I will marry you, Tails, but will you marry me?"
"Will you come and rescue me?"
"I knew... you would keep your word."
how fascinating, irregular, said that dreadful Anti-Spiral, appearing before Cosmo in the space before her, above the hologram of the Death Spiral Field. She - Cosmo identified the Anti-Spiral as a she, based off of its vague appearance as a berobed human girl clutching a staff - was a blank silhouette, a human-shaped window into chaotic nothing. The glint of eyes - twin glints of five-hundred-trillion eyes each - could be seen on her otherwise featureless face.
Cosmo only glared at the Anti-Spiral.
you are reintegrating your data by recalling past memories? most impressive. but your effort is wasted.
"Tails will not let the Death Spiral Field keep him trapped! He will break free, and then you'll be sorry!"
even if they escape the abyss, the Anti-Spiral said darkly, examining the tips of her fingers, they do not yet know of despair. and if that does not impede them...
A quadrillion eyes, glittering with menace, met Cosmo's.
there is always the labyrinth.
デススパイラルマシン
Meg was the last pilot on the bridge now; the others had returned to the hangar to await further orders.
And she was shaking.
"What is it, honey?" Elias asked.
"Why did I come?" Meg was crying. "Oh, why did I come? I'm so far away from Alexis now... I can't take care of her... I can't protect her..." She threw herself into Elias's arms. "The Anti-Spiral were right! I'm a horrible mother!"
Elias patted her back. "There, there, Meg. We left Allie in good hands. Blaze and Marine will look after her till we get home." And if we don't, Elias thought, not daring to voice that particular line of thought. He smiled slightly, "Besides, I can't think of any other mother who would pick a fight with someone a dimension away for threatening her kid."
Meg wiped away her tears, returning his slight smile, her eyes shining with endless, unspoken love.
"Thanks, Elias. That was just the darkness getting to me."
"All enemy units pushing down the Super Galaxy Great Freedom confirmed destroyed!" called out Helen brightly.
Meg gave Elias a quick kiss on the lips, before walking off to the warp panel to the hangar.
Charmy appeared on the screen.
"Everyone, look at this!" he said, his image quickly being replaced with an image of what looked like a field of stars... if it had been cut out like a circle of paper and laid out across the pitch-black of the Death Spiral Field.
And there were about a dozen and a half glints amongst the stars that looked a little green...
"Zooming in," said Helen, and the image swelled, becoming pixelated as it focused on those green blips.
"Increasing resolution." The image resolved into...
Everyone gasped.
"Hey, those are Emerls!" gasped Elias.
So they were. Eighteen or so miniature Gizoids, identical to Tails's Emerl save for their pale-green colorization, were hovering amongst the countless Gizoids that formed that so-called field of stars. The Emerls alone seemed unaffected by the gravitational effects of the Death Spiral Field.
"What the hell's going on, Rotor?" asked Knuckles, appearing on a secondary screen on the bridge.
"It appears," said the Darkoak Head, "That those are the remains of the Spiral Warriors who battled against the Anti-Spiral Rebellion." Suddenly, the Darkoak Head's eyes narrowed. "Curious... It appears that there are twenty..."
Two more Emerls, these ones gun-gray with blood-red eyes, had drifted into view from behind a pair of inert Gizoids.
"It would appear that the Spiral Warriors had enough resources to create two more Core Machines after Möbius was subjugated by my former body, Lucus Darkoak."
Sally, Charmy, and Cream appeared on screens beside Knuckles's. Said echidna from Gawain Village looked troubled. "So... this means that others besides us made it this far?"
indeed it does, foolish people of the spiral, the voice of the Anti-Spiral said. Everyone gasped and looked around; Helen's hands flew to her ears. do not believe yourselves to be special. in the battle between the spiral races and us, the anti-spiral, that has crossed the eons, you so-called freedom fighters are paltry, truly insignificant beings.
Inside Emerl, Tails was breathing heavily, blood dripping out of his nose. The closer their ship got to that field of derelict Gizoids, the more his body cried out in pain as it tried to force out more Spiral Power.
And if what the Anti-Spiral said was true, then he wasn't the first to suffer this agony.
And probably not the last, either.
now...
White clouds appeared around the Super Galaxy Great Freedom.
behold the history of the spiral races' defeat.
Images appeared on the clouds...
Images of Gizoids being torn apart by Anti-Spiral mechas familiar and unknown...
Images of the Hell Huenlonix performing a Giga Drill Driver with its shoulder drills through its own forces...
Images of an Emerl's pilot being ripped out and - Chris retched - being torn limb from limb before their eyes...
you are in the galactic spiral abyss. the spiral graveyard.
"High-order energy reading detected from the deepest area," said Helen, the image of the sphere of derelict Gizoids and inert Emerls giving way to a computer grid version of that image, showing a white object shaped like a heart in the center. It pulsed every second or so, and whenever it did, a barely noticable wave of nausea swept the crew of the Super Galaxy Great Freedom. Helen gasped, "We're being slowly pulled in!"
"The Death Spiral Machine," said the Lucus Darkoak Head. "That is what is generating this Field."
銀河螺旋海溝
Galactic Spiral Abyss
"It's killed that many Emerl pilots...?" breathed Elias.
"So, while the tears of women find the oceans of the world, this space ocean is where the tears of the Spiral races end up..." sighed Rotor.
"This is no time to get all poetic on us, Rote!" snapped Knuckles. "If this keeps up, the whole goddamn ship is gonna be crushed!"
"Don't give up, everyone!" Tails's voice echoed throughout the ship. Hearts leapt at the sound of it; Tails had never sounded so strained before. "We won't let the Anti-Spiral have things their way! Our dead comrades... The Spiral races that fell in battle... We'll take in all of their regrets. We'll take it all in, and turn it into strength! We can't let it end... NOT HERE!"
The Super Spiral gauge barely budged. This was clearly taking its toll on Tails far worse than any of them. Not only was he their greatest source of Spiral Power - making him especially effected by the Death Spiral Machine's pulses of Spiral-Energy-to-mass wavelength, but he was also inside Emerl - which magnified Spiral Power, thus magnifying the effect on Tails, worsening as they got nearer to the heart of the machine.
"Ari!" Tails appeared on the main monitor. Half of the bridge gasped. Tails looked terrible. Not only was blood dribbling out of both of his nostrils, but he was also sweating blood from the forehead in his strain to produce Spiral Power. "Turn us around! Take us to the core!"
"What do you have in mind?" Elias asked unsteadily.
"What else?" Tails glared, a golden light in his pupils. "We'll fly down the Death Spiral Machine's throat and destroy it! That's how the Great Freedom Fighters do it!"
Rotor stroked his chin, before shrugging. He looked like he would not smile again in his life. "He has a point. We've always rolled the dice on Tails's drill."
Elias nodded. "Up until now."
A half-smile crossed his face.
"And from now on, too. Right?"
He faced Ari.
"Ari! Bring us about 180, full speed! Point the bow towards the Death Spiral Machine!"
"I'm on it!" said Ari, a little warily.
But when Ari turned the helm, the Super Galaxy Great Freedom did not budge.
Inside Emerl, Kukku noticed that the Spiral gauge was falling down, even as his master pushed himself into weariness and beyond.
So he decided to pitch in.
"ChaoooOO~!" he cried, the ball over his head turning into a spiral as his body glowed green.
The Spiral gauge filled.
Tails's eyes popped out.
"Kukku has Spiral Power, too?" Rotor asked, in wonder at the green-glowing Chao on the screen.
"Möbian sentients are not the only Spiral lifeforms on Möbius," explained the Darkoak Head. "Perhaps it mutated, or evolved. Perhaps it is responding to Tails's Spiral Power. In any case, that Chao has stored up an inordinate amount of Spiral Power over the years."
"Kukku! Keep it up!" Tails smiled, gasping for breath. "You're a Great Freedom Fighter, too, you know!"
Kukku cried Chao!, his shades glinting green, and with a great heft, Ari swung the helm around.
Now, the Super Galaxy Great Freedom's bow pointed towards the core of the Death Spiral Machine. Its engines fired off, the increasing mass behind it as its Spiral Power faded into darkness actually pressing it down towards the Death Spiral Machine.
"The Death Spiral Machine is surrounded by a region of ultra-super-dense space," explained the Darkoak Head, an image of a dark-blue heart, pulsing once a second, appearing on the main screen. "Even the Super Galaxy Great Freedom will be lucky to last more than 300 seconds at that proximity. A Spiral Conversion Field is in place around the Machine. This field protects the device by converting mass and matter into Spiral Power."
"So it negates the pressure and generates energy at the same time," Rotor said. "Two birds with one stone. A technological marvel, really. What a shame it had to be put to such sinister use. Even so, it has a potentially fatal flaw."
"Yes," said the Darkoak Head. "A massive dose of Spiral Power from outside the Field will disrupt that process, leading to a localized collapse of the Spiral Conversion Field."
"We then lob as many Spiral missiles as we can into the gap," Rotor said, a faint memory of a smile gracing his face. "And that's the end of the Death Spiral Machine... so we hope."
From his vantage point in the hangar, Bark grinned, "Well, that don't sound as tough as I expected!"
"I guess it means that the Anti-Spiral didn't count on there being anyone crazy enough to dive towards the Death Spiral Machine," Sally quipped.
Lobo faced a screen which showed Lupe in the Spiral Weapon Generation Room.
"How are the Super Spiral Missiles coming along, honey?" he asked.
Lupe looked grim.
"Tails is really running himself into the ground up there," she said. Behind her, pure Spiral Power was being fed into a machine; a heavily armored, drill-tipped missile emerged from the other end. "Two Super Spiral Missiles will be all we can make."
"Two shots will be all we need!" shouted Bean from his station.
A crash echoed through the Super Galaxy Great Freedom.
"What was that?" asked Elias. There weren't any enemy mechas nearby! ...Were there?
"There's flooding in block 5826!" Chris yelled.
"Flooding?"
"We're taking on ultra-dense space," explained Rotor. "So, technically, we're not flooding, we're spacing!"
Chris's computer screen flashed red twice more.
"And block 280! And block 447!" A third flash. "Block 2391, too!"
"Close all bulkheads!" Elias ordered. "Don't let any more space get onboard the ship!"
Clunks of slamming steel echoed about the ship as every bulkhead in every hallway slammed shut.
The Darkoak Head turned slightly to face Rotor. It looked mildly concerned. "The probability of this operation's success is—"
"You don't need to tell us," Rotor waved his hand. "We know it's crazy. We'll have five minutes to carry out the operation once we get into firing range. If we don't make it in that time, we'll be crushed flat."
Down inside Typhoon Freedom Emerl...
The Giga Drill sprouting from Freedom Emerl's left arm snapped off in a shower of green sparks.
Tails and Kukku screamed at the top of their lungs, clutching their left hands.
"The Giga Drill... broke?" Elias gasped.
Rotor addressed Chris. "Chris, let Helen take care of this from here. Give Lupe a hand replacing that drill!"
"Gotcha!" Chris said, vanishing in a push of a button and a flash of green light.
Lupe's mobile unit was carrying the Giga Drill, presenting it to the one Chris was in.
"Get it replaced ASAP!" she said. "We don't have a lot of time!"
Tails breathed heavily, clutching Emerl's controls for support.
His cheeks puffed out...
And he vomited blood.
Shadow looked up, looking very concerned. "Fox boy, what's wrong?"
Tails collapsed against Emerl's Spiral gauge. Blood coated his teeth. "It... It's alright," he wheezed. "I can... still make it..."
But the Spiral gauge had gone completely blank.
The Super Galaxy Great Freedom quaked more violently, and a dozen alarms began blaring.
"Spacing has grown more severe!" Helen shrieked, her console flashing red. "Bulkheads are failing throughout the ship! Gates 589 through 779 - and Gate 3264 - have all been destroyed!"
"Step on it, Ari!" Elias ordered, panicking.
Down in the hangar, Knuckles gazed up at the ragged looking drills that Chris had set down, aided by his mobile unit.
"What is...?"
"This a Giga Drill that broke off of Freedom Emerl," Chris explained.
"It broke off...?"
"Yeah. We haven't seen it happen often, have we? At least, only against really big enemies. This is really taking a toll on Tails."
Knuckles could only nod darkly.
"Approaching the Death Spiral Machine. It will enter firing range momentarily," Helen said, her voice hoarse from fear.
"I've been waiting for this!" shouted Bean.
"Status on Super Spiral Missiles?" Elias asked the main screen.
Lupe appeared on the main screen, giving a swift thumbs-up.
"Ready to fire."
On the Super Galaxy Great Freedom's prow, a missile port emerged. The middle cannon adjusted its aim, directly at the field surrounding the Death Spiral Machine.
"Enemy mechanism is now within firing range!" Helen said.
Bean slammed the fire button repeatedly.
"FIRE!" he screamed.
The Super Spiral Missile fired, on a beeline course for the Spiral Conversion Field, set to detonate as soon as it made contact. The Spiral Power within would cause the field to collapse in the vicinity, and then the second Super Spiral Missile would be fired to destroy the Machine...
At least, that was the plan.
The first Super Spiral Missile collapsed into itself before it even got halfway to the Spiral Conversion Field.
"But... but we ran strength calculations for the missile casing!" Rotor said, his jaw slack.
"The density was even higher than we calculated...?" Elias breathed.
All the lights flickered out almost instantaneously, before turning a low red.
"What happened?" Elias asked.
"Spiral Power levels have reached zero," said the Darkoak Head. "We have switched to back-up electrical generators."
"What... what happened to Tails?" asked Rotor, running up to Chris's vacant station and keying in the video feed for Emerl.
It was pitch-black.
And Rotor heard a sound that made his breath catch:
Tails's breathing had become ragged and uneven.
"Tails!" Rotor shouted. "Tails, can you hear me?"
Shadow appeared in the corner of the screen.
"Don't worry," he said, looking more anxious than anyone had ever seen him. "He's still alive... but the enemy's Spiral Power absorption rate is greater than his ability to generate it."
Though no one would have been able to see it, Tails managed to pull himself up and grasp at Emerl's controls, but at this closeness to the Death Spiral Machine, the Spiral Power was practically solidifying inside his body, making it almost impossible to even move.
And when he pushed himself, his nose bled and his chest ached - blood was probably in his lungs at this point - but the Spiral gauge did not even flicker.
But Tails would not give up.
Cosmo was waiting for him.
"I'm sorry, Tails," Shadow said solemnly. It was the first time anyone could recall him ever calling any Freedom Fighter by name; even Sonic did not have that honor. Shadow hung his head. "If only I had Spiral Power..."
Shadow slammed his fist against one of Freedom's computer screens, shattering it.
"GODDAMN IT!"
The Super Galaxy Great Freedom's shaking had become continuous now.
Helen turned on her wheelchair.
"Spacing is rapidly advancing!" she screamed. "Time remaining, 4 minutes, 10 seconds!"
The main screen was overtaken by a singular image:
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
04:07:97
Rotor hailed Lupe, down in the hangar.
"Lupe, beef up the Super Spiral Missile's casing! You have one minute!"
"I'm already on it!" Lupe said, looking quite harried. Tensions were running high on all ends.
The sounds of what could have been rushing water were beginning to fill the hangar.
Vector growled, "Shit... Are we gonna die here without having done anything?"
Sally stood up from her pensive stance, looking up at her Star Acorn Cannon, then down at the Acorn Cannon set in front of it...
And grit her teeth.
SALLY? Nicole asked. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING, SALLY?
Vector looked up, "Sal, your gun is talking. Why is your gun talking?"
"I programmed her to talk," she said shortly, before walking towards Lupe.
Her expression was set.
"Lupe. Attach the Super Spiral Missile to my Star Gizoid."
"No way, Sal," said Knuckles, laying a large mitt on her shoulder. "But that's my job."
The Great Freedom Fighters' Gizoid pilots grouped behind Knuckles.
"No, let me do it!" shouted Mighty.
"I should be the one to do it!" demanded Espio.
"My Star Gizoid is wrecked; this'll be its last mission!" Vector reasoned.
"I'll do it!" Big shouted slowly.
"I can handle it!" yelled Lobo.
"I'm the one who'll handle this!" Bark barked.
"Don't do it, Knuckles!" Meg implored.
Knuckles only grinned at them.
"Sorry to disappoint you guys, but..." he faced Lupe. "So, Lupe, which Star Gizoid is the toughest?"
"Star King Knuckles's Titanium Head Driver mode," she said matter-of-factly.
The advancing space was all that could be heard in the silence after.
"There you have it," Knuckles said, with no smugness in his tone at all. "This is the last Super Spiral Missile that Tails nearly killed himself making. We can't afford to waste it. Plus, it'd be quicker than beefing up the missile casing."
He faced Sally, who was looking away.
"That's what you had in mind, right, Sal?"
She turned to face him...
And he grabbed her shoulders, pressing his lips to hers.
When he pulled away ten seconds later, Sally was stunned.
"Sorry," Knuckles said. "That was just me thinking of myself, same as always."
Sally smiled, before resting her hands on his back.
"Thank you," he whispered in her ear.
"You're doing this because you want to," Sally breathed back. "I can't stop you."
"Libera me" from hell
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
02:50:74
Star King Knuckles, its five dreadlocks locked around the Super Spiral Missile, missile silos locked onto its right shoulder and in its left arm socket, blasted at top speed out of the Super Galaxy Great Freedom's prow, on a direct course for the Spiral Conversion Field.
"See ya, big guy!" Knuckles bellowed over the main screen. "That's exactly the kind of showy crap I'm not gonna say!" He shouted, "I'll be back soon, ya crackheads!"
The main screen cut out, showing the emergency timer and a live computer simulation of what was happening out between the Super Galaxy Great Freedom and the Death Spiral Machine.
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
02:16:43
The pilots gathered on the bridge again. The only members of the Great Freedom Fighters who were not present on the bridge were Tails, Shadow, and Kukku.
"Please..." Elias whispered. This man was practically his brother-in-law; Elias only wished that Knuckles would do what he had to do, then come back in one piece.
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
01:57:26
Star King Knuckles, weaving through the field of collapsed Gizoids and inert Emerls, disengaged from Titanium Head Driver mode, and guided the Super Spiral Missile into the Spiral Conversion Field.
It detonated.
The field collapsed in a perfect circle around where the missile exploded, exposing...
"So, that's it, huh?"
The Death Spiral Machine looked like a large heart made of dark-blue flesh. It pulsed every second, and Knuckles felt a desire to be sick sweep him every time it did.
He held it back.
"Now... FIRE THE MISSILES!"
Red screens showing the missile silos with X's over them flashed across all of King Knuckles's screens.
Apparently, the gravitational forces had crushed them shut.
"Damn it... why'd they have to bust now?"
THU-THUMP
Star King Knuckles's dreadlocks buckled.
THU-THUMP
Star King Knuckles's torso collapsed into itself.
THU-THUMP
Star King Knuckles's missile silos fell inwards...
And detonated, destroying the Star Gizoid.
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
01:34:65
"Explosion confirmed inside the Spiral Conversion Field!" Helen shouted.
"Did he do it?" Elias asked.
"No..." Helen looked pale. "The Death Spiral Machine is still intact and active."
Rotor looked shocked. "Knuckles..."
Bean slammed a feathery fist into the console. "You went and died for nothing, you dumb bastard..."
"Wait!" Sally called out. "What's that energy reading?"
A small blip had emerged from the wreckage of Star King Knuckles and was moving steadfastly towards the heart of the machine.
JUDGING FROM THE SIZE, Nicole said, IT WOULD APPEAR... THAT IT IS THE GIZOID THAT WAS INSIDE THE STAR GIZOID.
"What?" the bridge echoed.
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
01:12:46
Knuckles appeared on the main screen again. His eyes, pupils and all, were glowing green, spiraling emerald light emerging from his pupils. His fur had also gone green, his dreadlocks flailing on their own.
"MY KING KNUCKLES IS STILL KICKING!" he bellowed. "I BORROWED ONE OF FREEDOM EMERL'S DRILLS AS A GOOD LUCK CHARM!" His tone turned dark and vengeful. "AND BELIEVE ME, I'M GONNA PUT IT... TO GOOD USE!"
"KNUCKLES!" Tails shouted in shock and fear. The Great Freedom Fighters had already lost enough good men and women today. It couldn't lose one of its most senior members, not after having come so far!
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
00:53:94
At that point, the gravitational discrepancies between the locations of the Super Galaxy Great Freedom and King Knuckles had shut down all communications, so Knuckles's last stand was lost in the annals of history.
King Knuckles held up Freedom Emerl's Giga Drill.
"THIS IS TAILS'S SOUL!
"THE GREAT FREEDOM FIGHTERS' SOUL!
"MÖBIANKIND'S SOUL!
"NO! THIS IS MY SOUL!
"DO YOU REALLY THINK IT'S GONNA BE WIPED OUT BY THE LIKES OF YOU?"
The Giga Drill bonded to King Knuckles's right hand...
"THIS IS THE KEY TO VICTORY!"
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
00:38:73
"KING KNUCKLES..."
King Knuckles pointed its borrowed Giga Drill into the air, the drill expanding to five times the size of the Gizoid...
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
00:33:57
"GIGA..."
Then to ten times the size of King Knuckles...
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
00:27:86
"DRILL..."
Then King Knuckles pointed the Giga Drill at the Death Spiral Machine, the drill spinning rapidly as green energy shot like a twister out of the Gizoid's levi-sphere...
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
00:22:43
"DRIVEEEER!"
And King Knuckles, faster than it had ever moved before, dived on the Death Spiral Machine.
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
00:17:56
King Knuckles's Giga Drill Driver made contact. And its pilot's last words were:
"So, this is the Power of the Spiral, huh? It ain't half-bad..."
EMERGENCY!
TIME UNTIL TOTAL COLLAPSE
00:08.52
The emergency timer had frozen at that exact number as the Spiral Conversion Field turned into a ball of fire.
The waves of nausea, which were now threatening to make people vomit, had now ceased.
The weight inside Tails's body diminished, and so dissipated.
Neither Sally nor Meg did anything to stem the flow of tears, both women choking back gasps of sorrow.
The Great Freedom Fighters could do nothing but gape at could have nearly crushed them to dust.
The Lucus Darkoak Head was the first to regain speech:
"This operation's probability of success was exactly zero percent."
Speechlessness persisted.
PERHAPS, Nicole offered, THIS CONSTITUTES FURTHER PROOF THAT LOGICAL CALCULATIONS ARE POINTLESS WHEN SET AGAINST THE GREAT FREEDOM FIGHTERS.
The Darkoak Head nodded slightly, a mild smile on its face.
"Yes. Perhaps you are right."
A pervasive green glow began to glimmer outside.
The emergency timer faded away.
"What's going on?" Elias said.
Helen gasped.
"It's... unbelievable... an unbelievably large Spiral Energy reading...!"
The Darkoak Head explained, "With the destruction of the Death Spiral Machine, this dark sea is being converted back into Spiral Power. It is the logical outcome."
"You shoulda said that before we got started!" Bean snapped.
The Super Spiral gauge appeared on all monitors, and filled up more rapidly than anyone could have imagined.
"Our Super Spiral gauges are climbing," Rotor said, in awe. "Ten-thousand... A hundred-thousand... One-million! TAILS! We're ready to go!"
In Emerl, Tails breathed, "Knuckles... I accept your last wish."
He pulled down his goggles.
"Shadow. Kukku. Let's do it to it."
"Chao!" squeaked Kukku.
And Tails shouted one word, as loud as he could,
"TRANSFORM!"
Below, Shadow smirked. "That's the word I was waiting to hear!"
Swirling through two-thousand years of Spiral Power, the Super Galaxy Great Freedom itself began to glow emerald-green.
Plates shifted...
And the transformation began.
The main weapons platforms on either side of the Super Galaxy Great Freedom's body glowed green, sprouting an arm from elbow to shoulder, hand emerging from the opposite ends. A pair of gargantuan drills - straight grooves down the left drill, spiraling grooves down the right drill - formed from pure Spiral Energy on each shoulder. The main body rotated around, the engines' external turbines becoming engulfed by drills - straight down the left, spiraling down the right - and becoming the knees of legs which formed into lustrous gold from pure Spiral Power.
Inside Emerl, Tails's digging goggles turned into pointed red shades, identical to those worn by Sonic in life...
Then sprouted three more points, becoming red star-shaped shades.
As the chest-face of the new Gizoid half the size of Möbius settled into place, its purple eyes glinting, a set of X-shaped shades appeared over its eyes.
The plates that made up Super Galaxy Great Freedom's stern collected onto the space between its shoulders, forming a head like Emerl, an upside-down five-pointed star forming its crest (giving it the appearance of horns). And X-shaped shades covered its amethyst eyes as well.
Above the former Death Spiral Field, Cosmo stared in joy and awe as the dark sea turned to glowing green liquid, twisters and tornadoes - essentially, drills - of green energy spinning around on the roiling surface...
A cross-shaped beam of Spiral Energy lanced out from the Spiral Sea, annihilating the Kishes and Arasens and Wutthuhs instantly...
And an illustrious golden Gizoid half the size of her home planet emerged, its arms crossed, red energy flowing like tears of blood from all four of its eyes. Green light glowed from the grooves in the four large drills on its body, as though the gilded surface concealed a sunlike being of pure Spiral Energy.
"Our friend's hopes and dreams are etched into its body..." it growled in Tails's voice. "Transforming the infinite darkness into light!"
超絶螺旋
超弩級ギゾイド
Transcendant Super Spiral
Dreadnought Gizoid
"UNMATCHED IN HELL AND HEAVEN!" it bellowed now. "ONE MACHINE... EQUAL TO THE GODS!
"SUPER GALAXY FREEDOM EMERL!"
超銀河フリーダムエメル
Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl
Tears of blood spilled from Tails's eyes.
"We're gonna show you the power..." he roared at the twin dragons which hovered over him, contemplating this tasty morsel. Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl lunged at Myst, drills many times the size of Typhoon Giga Drills emerging from its fingertips. "...of MÖBIANKIND!"
つづく
To be continued...
次回予告
Next Episode Preview
A super-galactic god-machine given to us by our friend's dreams... But even when trapped in a multi-dimensional hell, all roads lead to the Spiral Path!
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "Let's Go, Guys".