(Chapter Thirty-Two. Starting this one within hours of posting Chapter Thirty-One. And boy oh boy, this is the longest chapter yet. I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be the longest, period.
Also, I changed the Anti-Spiral's dialogue so that I know for certain that everyone can read it. Okay? I even edited the past chapters.)
"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 has been swallowed up by a dark sea in space.
"What saved them from being crushed in that graveyard of Spiral Warriors...
"...was the flash of light given off by the end of Knuckles's life."
仕方ねえ! １分２０秒だけ媚びてやる
Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl's drill-tipped fingers dug deeply into the impossibly large crystal on Myst's nose, fissures erupting along the blue crystalline structure.
Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl clenched its fist, the drills launching off into the crystal and detonating.
The explosions chained down throughout the crystal that would have dwarfed several Möbius-sized planets, shattering it.
The Transcendant Super Spiral Dreadnought Gizoid flew back to a safe distance of about the same length as the dragons' bodies. Pulsating green tractor beams drew the twenty Emerls of the fallen Spiral Warriors in from the diminishing Spiral Sea, into the safety of Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl's docking bay.
All twenty-two Emerls in existence now belonged to the Great Freedom Fighters.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO:
Let's Go, Guys
Slayer's mouth opened, and a blast of red energy erupted and - far faster than light, almost faster than time - completely engulfed Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl.
A box-shaped wall appeared around Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl, the blast curving around it perfectly and leaving the Spiral mecha undamaged.
Myst and Slayer's fingertips split into hands themselves, grabbing the planets that Myst and Slayer did not smash upon their arrival, and hurling them at Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl.
Each planet was at least double the size of the mecha.
Each planet shattered harmlessly into rock and magma within kilometers of that golden body.
"What's happening?" Elias asked, shielding his eyes from the burning light of the smashing planets.
"A Super Spiral Shield is completely nullifying the enemy's attack!" Helen shouted over the din.
"OF COURSE IT IS!" bellowed Tails, appearing on the main screen. "As if little pebbles like that... COULD DO ANYTHING TO HURT US!"
At once, both pairs of Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl's shades glowed green, flew off of the Dreadnought Gizoid's face, and combined into a double-X pair of shades.
"Freedom Boomerang!" shouted Shadow, as Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl took the new pair of shades in hand...
"SUPER GALAXY..." Tails roared.
Super Galaxy brought its arm back...
"MEGA... CUTTER!"
And hurled them at Myst.
It would have taken light nearly eight minutes to reach Myst.
The Super Galaxy Mega Cutter had already sliced the dragon-shaped battleship in two before Tails had finished calling the last word of the attack's name, and by the time he had finished, the red shades had already looped around in a green arch half the size of Möbius's revolutionary arch around its sun, and returned to the hand that tossed them.
What was left of Myst exploded.
Lower jaws hit the floor.
"Is that... Mister Tails's power...?" Cream asked.
"It's... incredible..." Charmy said.
Before the debris had begun to settle from Myst's destruction, countless faces across the rocky surface of Slayer's back - each the size of a city, and too small to be seen at Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl's distance - opened up in silent screams, each firing off volleys of skyscraper-sized missiles.
Tails scoffed, "Didn't you hear me? Those little things won't—"
But the missiles passed through the Super Spiral Shield as planets and supernova-class lasers would not, and Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl shuddered with the impacts.
"What was that?" shouted Elias.
"Unknown!" Helen said, looked baffled. "The Super Spiral Shield is holding steady. According to my monitor, the attack is being blocked completely!"
"Then explain why they're hitting us!" Vector shouted exasperatedly.
"Probability Alteration Missiles," said the Darkoak Head. "They are negating the probability of our Shield successfully blocking their attack."
Cream looked out at the straggling Probability Alteration Missiles uncertainly.
"The Anti-Spiral have weapons that can manipulate probability...? But... isn't that supposed to only be God's domain...?"
And then there was light.
Dreadful, blinding, invisible light which threatened to burn out the eyes of those who dared gaze upon it.
"What...?" Sally gasped.
you would sacrifice one of your own in order to move forward? said the voice from the light.
The voice of the Anti-Spiral.
in order to survive, you destroy without a second thought. such is the past karma of the spiral races. and it is precisely because of that karma that you must be destroyed.
"Get real!" Tails shouted in defiance. "As if we'll accept extinction over a bunch of meaningless junk like that!"
then watch. watch where this universe is headed. see the universe destroyed by the power of the spiral, which thinks only of evolving.
The light projected an image - not onto the screens within Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl, nor onto fields outside the mecha - but into the minds of all those who possessed the power of the Spiral within this artificial three-dimensional universe.
It started with a single human man, standing in the center of the galaxy.
spiral power is the force which binds together lifeforms and the universe. the growth of galaxies is proportional to the growth of life. life developed in search of forms that would let it acquire even more power of the spiral. this... is evolution.
Various lifeforms of every persuasion - legs, wings, flippers, antennae - swirled around the arms of the galaxy, the galactic core centered around the man's stomach.
a single lifeform is capable of drawing forth the power of the infinite universe. however, no lifeform is capable of controlling such power. that is the cold, hard truth of the universe.
The man's eyes and hands began to glow green. As the glow intensified, showing through the man's veins, he clutched his head in silent agony, cracks opening in his skin, beams of blinding green light shooting out of those cracks, as well as his eyes and mouth.
the end result would be a loss of control over spiral power, and the energy that erupts from the lifeform's body would become a galaxy.
The man exploded outward into an actual full-sized galaxy, each star glowing the same emerald hue.
when this spiral energy begins to run out of control, it will instantly spawn as many galaxies as there are lifeforms in the universe.
The lifeforms around the man that was now a galaxy became galaxies as well.
The view expanded. This was all happening on the surface of a planet, which crumbled as every lifeform on the planet turned into a full-sized galaxy at once. The galaxies collapsed into each other, becoming so massive that even the light they projected could not escape its gravity.
But this was not a localized phenomenon. Every planet in the galaxy was suffering this same phenomenon, and every star these planets orbited fell into these galactic black holes. These supermassive black holes then devoured each other, causing the galaxy itself to wink out of existence.
the imbalance of mass would lead these new mega-galaxies to swallow each other, forming an unfathomably large black hole...
And still this was not the only galaxy which suffered such a cataclysmic end. Every galaxy in the universe had suffered a similar fate - some slower than others, some almost instantaneously - and those that did not were being rapidly drawn towards the galaxies that had.
and so this universe would return to nothingness.
All the life...
All the struggles...
All drawn into the nothingness of supermassive black holes...
As though it had never been.
As though it all meant nothing.
Even the Great Freedom Fighters themselves were being drawn in by the gravity of this impossibly realistic simulation, every particle in their bodies being stretched as thin as they could before breaking off, their bodies bifurcating their way into the singularity at the core of this universe-sized black hole...
this... is the spiral nemesis.
And suddenly it was over. They were all in exactly the same position they were in when the Anti-Spiral began her revelation about the end of everything...
But tears of despair were streaming down faces wrought with horror.
the uncontrolled process of evolution will destroy the universe in a single instant.
again, i ask you... why does a flower bloom, when it is destined to wither?
Tails was despondent.
"No... It can't be..."
Only Shadow seemed unaffected.
"Fox boy!" he shouted. "Can't you see she's bluffing? How can you just swallow that garbage?"
The Darkoak Head appeared in Shadow's eye.
"Unfortunately, what the Anti-Spiral say is the truth, Shadow," said the bio-computer. "Try to imagine what it was like in that brief time you possessed Spiral Power."
In mere moments, Shadow's eyes widened, his pupils narrowing to slits, his jaw hanging open.
"You see, creatures lacking Spiral Power would not understand," the Lucus Darkoak Head said. "But the Möbians of this vessel understand it completely. And Tails... he has realized at an intuitive level, even before the Anti-Spiral explained the Spiral Nemesis. He knows that the Anti-Spiral speak the truth.
"However..." Now the Darkoak Head's tone took on a more forceful tone. "There is one more truth, Tails. And that truth is... that Cosmo is out there, waiting for you."
Tails slowly lifted his head.
There was Cosmo, the hologram of her nude form being analyzed endlessly and painfully for its data. Tears glistened in her eyes, but none fell.
"She is waiting for you, so that Möbiankind - and all of Spiral life - will not come to an end."
Tails's jaw set.
His brow furrowed.
"Yeah... You're right." He grabbed the controls tightly. "You're exactly right!"
Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl clenched its fists, and golden drills emerged from every joint in its body.
you fool, the Anti-Spiral said, sounding somewhere between disappointed and furious. you would risk destroying the universe for the sake of a fleeting emotion?
"That's where you're wrong!" Tails shouted back. "I'll protect them both! The woman! The universe! Both of them! I don't want fear of a tomorrow that might never come to keep me from acting right now! That's how the Great Freedom Fighters roll!"
Smirks swept everyone on board the Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl. The horrible truth was apparent to them, but with Tails back in action, they were able to climb above the despair of their power.
The drills lanced out, but Slayer already retreated into a dark window, which collapsed into itself.
"Enemy reading has disappeared!" Helen called out.
"Be careful," said the Darkoak Head sharply. "They will use a Random Schrödinger Warp to sneak up on us."
Elias yelled in frustration.
"Have a heart! Would you please talk using words we can all understand?"
"The Random Schrödinger Warp manipulates multidimensional probability fluctuations," the Darkoak Head explained. "Utilizing it, the Anti-Spiral battleship will attack as it shifts up and down the time axis."
Elias rubbed his forehead vigorously.
"How is that any clearer...?"
"Who cares?" Bean shouted. "Let's just cut loose and blast the crap out of 'em!"
"Understood," said the Darkoak Head.
Every eye on the bridge turned to the bio-computer. Did it really agree with Bean - Master of the Button Mash - on a strategical suggestion?
"Preparing for barrage against all possible points on the space and time axes," it continued.
And targeting consoles burst up out of the floor, computer screens at all consoles rotating around to display targeting reticules and data read-outs.
"I am tracing the enemy," said the Darkoak Head, closing its eyes.
Every drill on Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl's body sprouted drills from their grooves, and more drills came from their grooves. The tip of each drill resolved into a cannon.
"You mean, the time range of our attacks can also be broadened?" Rotor asked.
The Darkoak Head nodded curtly.
It opened its eyes.
"Probability space where the enemy unit exists: near past, -10; near future, +8."
"Will the main cannon work?" Tails asked.
"Leave that to us!" said Sally, plugging a wire from Nicole into her nearest console.
LINKING UP TO WEAPONS SYSTEMS, SALLY, she said. ...LINK-UP COMPLETE.
"I don't really care for all this 'probability' stuff," said Meg, sitting at the station next to Bean, opposite Sally, "But I say that we give the Anti-Spiral a message in how stubborn we are!"
"The woman's right!" cheered Charmy, diving into the seat next to her. "Maelstrom Cannon, ready to fire!"
Cream took the seat beside Charmy, "Mega Vortex Cannon, stand by!"
Chris scratched his head at the read-out at his battle station. "Rotor... The gauge is saying something about a 'Planck Time Coefficient'..."
"Just ignore it! Lock onto the targets!" Rotor called back, giving a thumbs-up. "Basically, it means that we can fire at complete random and we'll still get a bull's-eye!"
"Alright!" Tails yelled, his star-shades glinting. "Let's do it to it! Let's punch holes in the past and the future BOTH AT ONCE!"
Before Tails had even finished, the drills all over Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl began to fire off beams of pure green lasers, at random intervals, in random directions. It continued like this for about ten seconds.
As soon as each beam fired, it entered a dark window that opened up a couple hundred-thousand kilometers away from Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl.
Explosions of red rock came from these portals.
"Well, how about that?" Rotor smiled brightly. "There's so much energy in our engine, it's like a galaxy's about to be born!"
A singular dark window opened, and Slayer descended from it again, trailing torrents of black smoke, each rock on its body pock-marked with black craters. Its jaws hung slack.
Tails smirked. "They can't run or hide from us anymore."
Outside of Freedom Emerl, a typhoon of Spiral Power was sending all loose objects flying every which way. Lupe only managed to avoid it by using her mobile unit to fit itself into a small cubicle under one of the Giga Drill Spinners - which, incidentally, was built for exactly the purpose that Lupe was using it for.
"Tails!" she shouted into her microphone. "I know you've been hanging in there for a long time! So don't worry about us, and cut loose as much as you want!"
The extraneous drills retracted into Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl's body...
"I'll take you up on that, Lupe!" Tails shouted.
The drills on its shoulders blasted out in flashes of green light, the straight drill docking into a port in the back of the spiral drill, both golden drills with green-glowing grooves swelling to five times the circumference of Möbius, before docking with Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl's outstretched right fist...
"SUPER GALAXY..." bellowed Tails.
The godly android pointed its latest, greatest weapon directly at Slayer's open maw, the ultimate Giga Drill spinning rapidly, the engines in Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl's knees firing off tornados of Spiral Energy as it launched itself at the behemoth...
"GIGA... DRILL... DRIVER!"
The Super Galaxy Giga Drill Driver punched a hole as wide around as Möbius's sun straight through Slayer, from front to back, before Tails had even finished calling the last word of the attack name.
Behind him, the Anti-Spiral's battleship Slayer detonated, the concussive force of the blast instantly stripping all nearby planets of their atmospheres, reducing them to burnt black husks.
Thankfully, the only lifeforms in this artificial universe were all in either of two places: on board the Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl, or on the Anti-Spiral homeworld of Avalon, which was hidden in a separate galaxy when the Anti-Spiral detected the Super Galaxy Great Freedom penetrating dimensional space.
The Super Galaxy Giga Drill Driver split back into its two drills, docking with the appropriate epaulets.
Tails took a deep breath.
It was over.
Now...
To save Cosmo.
He looked at her, a holographic projection showing the continuing data analysis.
She looked at him, a holographic projection showing the God of Destruction that the Anti-Spiral feared above all else.
They smiled at each other...
And Cosmo faded away.
"COSMO!" Tails screamed.
The Darkoak Head appeared in Tails's eye.
"The hologram's interference has dissipated, and we are picking up a separate reading," it said. "We can jump to where the real Cosmo is this time."
Tails's heart leapt with joy.
"Alright!"
He concentrated on Cosmo and her ring...
And through closed eyelids, he saw Cosmo, locked in place around her wrists and ankles in a crucifixion pose by strips of frozen nothingness, floating in a sea of still emptiness.
"I see her!" he said.
Cosmo looked up at him.
She looked horrified.
"Tails, run!"
Then a human-shaped window into chaotic nothing appeared between Tails & Cosmo. It vaguely resembled a berobed human girl, clutching a staff of chaotic nothing, five-hundred-trillion pairs of eyes' glints coming from its blank face.
"What the—?" was all Tails could get out...
Before everything froze...
you see beauty in struggling to the bitter end, said the Anti-Spiral. this must be instinctive to those who are bewitched by the power of the spiral... nevertheless, that is an action which has been repeated time and again. now, follow the same fate as the spiral warriors who came before you, and whose core machines now rest in your hands:
A corridor of light appeared in Tails's eyes, and it seemed infinitely more real than Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl, or the threat of the Spiral Nemesis, or even himself.
the extradimensional labyrinth. now... spend the rest of your lives, trapped in the hell of infinite possibility.
And so, the Great Freedom Fighters went tumbling down into the Extradimensional Labyrinth.
Tumbling down.
Tumbling down...
多元宇宙迷宮
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raw! raw! fight the power!
"Ew, look. It's Tails the Digger."
"What's the fun in getting covered in dirt day after day?"
"He's always tagging along with that Sonic. Does he have no shame?"
"He's gross."
"And he smells."
"Oh! He's looking this way! Let's get outta here quick, before he drills a hole in us, too."
The pestering girls had squealed at the innuendo made by the red fox girl at their head, and the orange two-tailed fox boy briefly hung his head in misery at the memory.
But, Tails thought as he resumed his activity - turning the hand drill and lengthening the tunnel he was digging - why was he surprised that no one gave him the time of day? He was covered in dirt all the time, except for the circles around his eyes from his digging goggles, and he rarely had time to bathe because of his constant digging.
Digging tunnels day after day was his job.
When yesterday was, or where tomorrow would be, it all had nothing to do with Tails.
No one cared for him. No one believed in him.
"How's it comin' along, Tails?"
Except the person who had just spoken up.
Just then, Tails's drill stopped abruptly, and he nearly drove his head into the handle. Lifting his digging goggles up, Tails said brightly, "Just a little more, Sonic."
Sonic gave a large, goofy grin. "Cool! Way past! Remember that I'm countin' on ya, Tails. Your drill's the only thing I can count on."
Moments later, the two of them stood in a jewelers, closed for the night. They looked around eagerly at the gold and silver and gems and diamonds and emeralds...
All for the taking.
"This is cool! Way past!" Sonic grinned.
Minutes later, they stood under a bridge, police cars zipping by overhead.
"That went off without a hitch in a way past cool way, Tails!" Sonic said as Tails dropped the two duffel bags heavy with loot and booty on the ground.
By the light of their flashlights, the bags glinted with the gold they'd taken for themselves.
Sonic let out a wolf whistle, sifting through the duffel bags.
"Way past cool work today, Tails! We'll be able to live the high life for a while with this!"
Sonic held out a hand, holding a slender golden ring with a white, seed-shaped diamond set in it.
"Here ya go! Don't be afraid! This is your cut, little guy!"
Tails smiled.
"Thanks, Sonic!"
Later, the two of them had a big meal at the Anima Mangiatore with their recently acquired wealth.
"Well?" Sonic said through two drumsticks. "Wasn't it a way past cool idea to break outta Knothole Village? We're still underground, but we're living like kings here under the Capital, and that's way past cool!"
Tails nodded eagerly.
"We'll never have it as good as the Black Arms," Sonic said, lifting a mug of beer, "But as long as we keep stealing their valuables in secret, we can live way past comfy lives. You dig, and I steal. Here's to a lifelong partnership, Tails!"
Tails raised his own mug of frothy water and smiled brightly.
"Sure thing, Sonic!"
ＰＳＹＣＨＥＤＥＬＩＣ ＳＯＵＬＪＡＭ
The two echidna kids - a boy and a girl, neither of them older than six - cowered under the pink-skinned human man with dark-pink hair curling over his head, his straight-edge blade, already soaked with blood from another soul he'd fed off of, held over them.
"ThE pAgEs Of YoUr SoUlS aRe PoWeR..." he said in a voice quavering with barely constrained power. "nOw..." He lifted his sword up. "I sHaLlTaKe YoUr PaGeS iNtO mY sOuL!"
Just as he brought the sword down, and the children screamed...
"No."
Erazor paused immediately, the blade inches from the children, turning to look up the stairs leading to the nearby Doom City park, the moon shining down on them. The children ran off and hid somewhere.
"Nicole..." said the red-haired squirrel-chipmunk girl, wearing a black ankle-length jacket over a yellow fleece shirt, a plaid skirt, and steel-toed boots. "That's him."
"Yes, Sally," said the brown-furred, black-haired lynx standing beside her, dressed in a spiraling purple dress. "There is no question. His soul is now an Afreet Egg. He is not human. Not anymore."
Erazor raised his blade to his lips, a foot-long tongue licking the blood off of the sword, leaving a trail of saliva.
"Souls that have left the human path run the risk of transforming into an Afreet," Sally said levelly, not betraying any disgust at this latest Afreet Egg's actions. "In the name of Lord Black Doom of the Doom Weapon Meister Academy, purge him, and recover his soul."
Nicole offered a half-smile, "What is the matter, Sally? Just as he is not human, I am a Weapon, even if I usually take the form of a lynx." She held out an arm.
Her arm glowed, transforming into the barrel of a long gun.
"The form is not the issue," Nicole said, her entire body glowing now. "It's the soul that matters most of all."
"I know," said Sally, taking Nicole's glowing form and spinning it rapidly. The light burst off, revealing Nicole's Weapon form:
A sniper rifle.
"Mass murderer Erazor Djinn..." Sally glared down at the pink-skinned human. "Your soul... is mine!"
Erazor let loose an inhuman roar, two pairs of purple arms emerging from his sides, bolting up the steps and leaping at Sally and Nicole.
"The Weapon and Meister are two in one!" Sally shouted, dodging to the side, firing off a shot of her soul's wavelength at Erazor.
He deflected it with his blade, charging again.
He cornered the Weapon-Meister duo, swinging his blade at them.
Sally ducked.
The pillar beside her was sliced through like a knife through hot butter.
Erazor let loose a rapid-fire flurry of swings.
Thankfully, Nicole's Weapon form was extremely durable, and parried the attacks as well as a sword or, say, a scythe.
But Erazor had backed Sally to the stairs now. His four other arms were blocking her path to either side.
Only one way to go now.
Sally leapt bodily onto Erazor's head, bounding over him.
Erazor was knocked off balance.
Sally landed fired at him again with Nicole.
Erazor leapt into the air.
Sally leapt at him, Nicole pointed directly at Erazor's heart.
"This will be our 99th Afreet Egg soul!" Sally shouted.
She pulled the trigger, and her aim was true. The wavelength of her soul blasted straight through Erazor's chest and out the other side. Erazor Djinn let loose one last roar of defiance, before his body resolved into a red orb of light roughly the size of a softball, partly covered in black hexagons.
Sally and Nicole landed, Nicole returning to her lynx form.
The Afreet Egg soul that was once Erazor Djinn floated down in front of them.
Nicole took it into her hand, clenched her fist, and the Afreet Egg soul disappeared into her body, her eyes briefly glowing red.
"And that's number ninety-nine," Sally said, smiling.
"One more soul, then," Nicole smiled back. "Once I have devoured ninety-nine Afreet Egg souls, and a Witch's soul, I shall become a Doom Scythe, a weapon worthy of being wielded by Lord Black Doom."
"We should report this to Lord Black Doom as soon as possible!" Sally said, running back down the steps, Nicole following her.
The moon cackled overhead.
魔導師マリーナ
Kukku flitted onto the bridge from the nearest warp pad. Tails was acting all funny and weird and staring into space even when Kukku blew in his eyes, and so was Miss Lupe, and now that he was on the bridge, Kukku could see that everyone else was just the same as Tails.
Except one.
The Lucus Darkoak Head looked about uncertainly.
"What is this...?" it said.
Kukku's ball began to repeatedly turn into a ?.
Every member of the Great Freedom Fighters was staring into blank space, as still as though they were cadavers.
But the Darkoak Head's sensors told it that their vitals were normal.
"What in the world is going on...?" it said.
A thought came to the Darkoak Head.
"It can't be!"
but it is.
Kukku's ball turned into a !.
A silhouette opening into chaotic nothing shaped like a berobed human girl appeared before the Darkoak Head.
it is exactly as you surmise, lucus. these spirals are currently being held prisoner in extradimensional space. they are trapped in a series of universes created moment to moment as they are perceived. so long as they have the intelligence to distinguish possibility, they will never be able to escape, much less invoke their spiral power.
"I know you," growled the Darkoak Head. "You're the Anti-Spiral, aren't you?"
yes, she said, turning to face him. we are. and one of us recognises you, head of lucus darkoak. so, the greatest spiral warrior the universe had to offer, is now reduced to a bio-computer? it is clear that your companions will stoop to any low to achieve their aims.
"Even so, you defeated me not with any show of force, but with the revelation of the Spiral Nemesis. Me and my dead comrades failed to protect the galaxy from you. So, I am grateful to these Möbians for giving me the opportunity to face you again in battle.
"But one thing you said intrigued me."
what?
"You said one of your kind recognizes me. I can think of only one who that could be. Would your last President be present in your collective consciousness?"
The Anti-Spiral's quadrillion eyes drilled deep into the Lucus Darkoak Head's pair for a very long moment...
Then the chaotic silhouette of the Anti-Spiral resolved into the faintest of outlines of a young girl with long magenta hair tied into a single large braided ponytail, wearing ornate purple robes. The golden staff she clutched ended in a large blue-green gem, and she had blue-green eyes set in round, cherubic features offset only by long, pointed ears.
'I am,' she said, losing the chaotic, ear-bleeding echo of the rest of her race. 'I am Merlina daughter of Marlon Merlin's son. I am the Overmind of the Anti-Spiral, and the last President of the Avalonian race.'
"So, Avalon's populace is the sole component of the Anti-Spiral race?"
Merlina nodded.
'Yes.'
"And... you were the one to discover the terribly inconvenient truth of Spiral Energy?"
Merlina cocked a magenta eyebrow.
'"Terribly inconvenient"? That is a curious choice of words, Lucus. But, answering your question, no. That was my grandfather, Merlin.
'Grandfather was a renowned scientist, and Spiral Power his area of expertise. One day, he stumbled upon the horrid truth of Spiral Power, but his mistake was telling no one; evidently, its scale terrified him into silence. He only told his son - Marlon, my father - when he was old enough to understand, and Father told me... when Grandfather passed.'
Merlina held a flower to her nose, her eyes closed in sorrow for a moment. The flower was not there moments before.
"I knew your grandfather," said the Darkoak Head. "Or at least, my former body did. He always seemed morose when I knew him."
'Because of his discovery of the Spiral Nemesis,' resumed Merlina. 'From the moment Father told me of Grandfather's great mistake, my sorrow at this universe's ruin ran deeper than the depths of the Underworld. Neither my father nor my grandfather had the resolve to tell anyone else of the Spiral Nemesis.' A steely glint entered Merlina's eyes now. 'But I did. Once I became President, I told all the people of the discovery my grandfather had kept from the world. Our own Spiral Power was prodigious, as our population was in the hundreds of trillions, and the planet Avalon itself almost completely mechanised and expanded to several times larger than the size of our star. So...'
"So you sealed yourselves away? Along with your Spiral Power?"
Merlina nodded again. 'And I sent a message of this to the notorious galactic warlord N'Schohmmoxell as well. He was infamous for his ruthlessness against those with tremendous Spiral Power to call upon, and a worthy comrade. He even stripped himself of his Spiral Energy and destroyed his entire Spiral-ridden race in tribute to our mutual cause.'
"'N'Schohmmoxell'?" the Darkoak Head said, momentarily confused, before realizing, "You mean, Black Doom?"
'That is what you call him? If so, then yes. I noticed that the hedgehog in your engine bears his mark: black and red skin, and red eyes. Tell me of him.'
"The Black Arms were spliced from Black Doom's genetic material and samples from Möbians around the planet. The Black Doom DNA was to keep their Möbian Spiral instinct bottled up, and was also intended to prevent their numbers from increasing due to off-duty intercourse."
'Genius, Lucus,' said Merlina, the tips of her fingers becoming transparent portals to chaotic nothingness again first of her clear form. 'But you failed to keep your end of the bargain - keeping Möbius sealed, and now you've come to the space between the tenth and eleventh dimensions, just so we could finish you off. Merlina - now the Anti-Spiral race once more - raised her staff at the Darkoak Head, the tip glowing blood red. you are more foolish than we remember, lucus darkoak.
The Darkoak Head's eyes narrowed.
"I must say, though... All this time, you have been very considerate. Too considerate, one might say."
The Anti-Spiral's head cocked to the side.
"Why would you employ such elaborate, indirect methods as the Death Spiral Field, and the Random Schrödinger Warp, and the Extradimensional Labyrinth? If you fought with all your might, rather than taunting us with your scout ships Myst and Slayer, annihilating us Spiral races would seem a trivial matter to you, wouldn't it?"
we detected an unknown source of spiral power, said the Anti-Spiral matter-of-factly. gaps in our analysis could potentially ruin everything.
The light was all pretty and it made Kukku sleepy...
But before Kukku's eyes slid out of focus, he forced them open again, and threw himself into the path of the red laser beam that was intended for the Darkoak Head, green flames leaping around the Chao, and the Darkoak Head glowed green and screamed, sending out pulses of green light that touched Kukku, bolstering his stand against the Anti-Spiral.
The Anti-Spiral stumbled back, goggling at the small Chao.
what...? the unknown source of spiral power we detected was you...?
The green light began to resolve into Kukku's body, whose eyes snapped shut, and he collapsed to the floor, sliding in and out of consciousness - or did he ever leave it? - and then...
Torrents of green flames shot up from Kukku's body as he let out one last Chao!, and vanished, the flames forming an onion-shaped coccoon.
When the flames faded, a humanoid figure made entirely of water, a brain floating in his head, was standing exactly where Kukku had landed. His round black shades had been replaced by a metallic visor.
The newly evolved Kukku raised a watery fist, disbelief clear from his body language.
it took... humanoid form?
"I see," said the Darkoak Head. "You converted your individual growth energy into species evolution energy? But... it should be impossible for an individual to undergo such an extreme transformation."
Kukku faced the Darkoak Head, and his visor doubled as a vocabulator, broadcasting a boyish voice that said:
"It was because of your Spiral Power, Lucus."
"My... Spiral Power?"
The Anti-Spiral began to giggle.
Kukku put up a hand in defiance.
"Get back, Anti-Spiral!" he clenched his other fist, gathering much of his mass into his fist - which grew to three times its original size - and green flames erupted from it as he charged and yelled, "I won't let you lay a finger on Tails!"
And the Anti-Spiral's collective consciousness was shattered, and the conflict ended.
And Kukku put up his fist and snickered in victory.
Now no one could say he was just a mascot.
進化の錯視
that chao has showed us an interesting phenomenon, wouldn't you say, irregular? the Anti-Spiral said, gesturing to the image of the Chao Kukku lying prone on the floor of the bridge, seeming to flicker with after-images. The Darkoak Head behind Kukku had suffered the same fate, staring into nothing. Beside that image was an image of a watery humanoid figure destroying the Anti-Spiral race with a single punch. it has evolved mentally, but that was a fatal mistake. the instant extradimensional space is perceived, it is made real. and evolving to sentience means that that chao has become trapped itself in the labyrinth of extradimensional space.
the last gaps of that particular analysis are filled in. they will never generate spiral power again. your so-called saviours are finished.
"What do you plan to do with me?" Cosmo demanded. "You can't hold me hostage if you think no one will come to save me!"
our battle against the spiral races is fruitless, said the Anti-Spiral, the entire race sounding very weary. we inflict absolute despair again, and again, and again, yet some other fool will awaken in some obscure corner of the universe. möbius was not the first, and will certainly not be the last. we are, every one of us, tired of this state of affairs.
A series of tentacles emerged from the Anti-Spiral's staff.
but if we are able to decipher the resistance factors within you, irregular...
The tentacles made contact with Cosmo, filling her body with electric current, red data lines appearing all over her body as the tentacles invaded her orifices.
it will be possible to determine how best to arrest resistant behavior in spiral races, and even terminate instinct itself.
Cosmo gasped in agony.
now, we are going to read all of your information... take you into us, and determine the onset of instinct.
Cosmo felt as though something inside her was going to explode. The Anti-Spiral were penetrating her body, reading her from the inside out, and it was killing her.
She could not contain it for long.
She screamed.
"TAILS!"
お前のＸＸＸで天を…
"We're sorry! We know what we did was wrong! It was mondo uncool! Forgive us!"
Tails looked numbly down at Sonic in his shirt decorated in hearts, bowing over and over again before the Black Arms in police suits, guns pointed at both Sonic and Tails. Their latest heist was in a bag labeled EVIDENCE by the nearest Black Arms. They were standing in a foggy valley - Sonic's latest hiding spot - and white metal boxes stretched off into the distance.
"Okay, look! I'm on my knees! We'll do whatever you ask! If you say to bow a million times, we'll do it! We're sorry, we're sorry, we're sorry, we're sorry! So, please, don't kill us! Just spare our lives! We're sorry, we're sorry, we're sorry..."
At this point, Tails was distracted from Sonic's incessant babbling for forgiveness by the nearest metal box.
Its seams were glowing green.
As was an indentation shaped like a drill in its front.
Instinctively, Tails's hand went to his throat.
Something should have been there.
Something important.
It wasn't there.
Somehow, this troubled Tails, even though he couldn't for his own life figure out what it was.
"What's wrong, Tails?"
Tails turned, numb, from the Sonic prostrate on his knees, begging not to be killed by the Black Arms...
To the Sonic sitting on top of that same metal box that had distracted him mere moments before, intricate tattoos on his arms and chest, wielding a katana made for someone double his height, pointed red shades set atop his head, a tattered red cape tied around his neck. He was smirking at Tails.
"You lose your drill?" he said.
The small fox boy gasped softly.
"Th-there's another Sonic behind me..."
"Dumbass!" Sonic stood up on the metal box, somehow unnoticed by the Black Arms police force and the other Sonic, pointing his katana to the heavens, pulling his shades over bright green eyes.
"The bad reputation of the Freedom Fighters echoes far and wide in Knothole Village! Its badass leader is a man of indomitable spirit, a paragon of masculinity, a sample of hedgehog perfection!" Sonic grinned widely. "As if there could ever be more than one Sonic The Hedgehog!"
Tails pointed back and forth between the two.
"But, but look... there's two of you here."
This didn't phase Sonic in the slightest.
"Exactly!" he said. "Pick the one you prefer."
Tails flapped his arms like a cuckoo bird.
"But that's crazy!"
Sonic leaned down to Tails's level, glaring now.
"Don't you remember? You were the one who was the method to my madness! The one who made my big talk more than words! Your drill oughta be totally different..." He pointed at the other Sonic, who was still apologizing and bowing, with his thumb, grinning sadly. "From that pebble over there."
Now he pointed at Tails's heart.
"Your drill is right here! You can't be wandering around in here forever, big guy." He narrowed his eyes at Tails behind pointed red shades. "What's that drill of yours supposed to do, anyway?"
Tails's eyes burned now...
And he remembered.
"Sonic...? Is it... really you...?"
And the other Sonic - the fake Sonic, the virtual Sonic - grabbed Tails by the shirt and pulled him down.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Tails saw that the fake Sonic had a wide, anxious grin on his face as he forced Tails's face down to the earth.
"You start bowing, too! Bow and beg and scrape and pretend to apologize to get them to turn a blind eye, and we'll get outta this!"
"My..." Tails murmured.
"If they let us go, we can always come up with something else! Look, just keep your head down and apologize, little guy!"
"My... drill is... My drill...!"
Tails's hand, digging into the dirt, made a fist...
And.
Punched.
Out.
The.
Fake.
Sonic.
"IS THE DRILL THAT'S GONNA PIERCE THE HEAVENS!"
And with his other fist, Tails slammed the fake Sonic into the dirt. The Black Arms did not so much as bat eyelids at this peculiar turn of events.
Sonic grinned, and leapt down from the white metal box, standing beside Tails.
Tails clenched his fist, resting it against his heart.
"My drill is my soul," he said.
Green light glowed from between his fingers.
Opening his fist, Tails had found his drill.
His Core Drill pulsed in the drab light of the fog-filled valley.
Tails knew what to do now.
He'd done it once before.
He inserted the Core Drill into the drill-shaped slot in the white metallic box Sonic was standing on.
And twisted.
The latch unbolted, and the box opened up on its hinge, white smoke and light pouring out. Beams of light shot out from the cracked earth around them.
The light shot like a laser beam up into the clouds overhead. The clouds and fog parted and vanished, showing a sunless sky that was in perpetual sunset in every direction... or was it sunrise?
Sonic looked down at Tails.
"Get going, Tails," Sonic said. "Don't let all the what-ifs of life slow you down. The one thing that you choose for yourself to believe in, that is the truth of your universe."
Tails, who was no longer the small child he had been in this imagination - or at Knothole Village - but was now a tall, lean hero, grinned back.
"Yeah. You're right. You're exactly right."
Sonic and Tails locked eyes.
"Don't forget," Sonic said, "That my universe is the universe that's in here."
He pointed at Tails's heart.
"Sonic..."
"Hey, hey! Don't go forgettin' about me!" said a red echidna, sitting on the white metallic box.
A long moment passed.
The echidna's eyebrow twitched.
Sonic tilted his head. "Who are you again?"
Knuckles lost it.
"KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA OF THE WANDERING ORPHANS! DID YOU FORGET ME ALREADY?"
Sonic slung an arm around Knuckles's shoulder.
"Idiot! How could I forget someone like you?"
Knuckles looked momentarily grouchy, then shook his head vigorously and grinned again.
"And it's not just me and Knux," Sonic said, gesturing at the beams of light around them. "It's these guys, too."
And from each beam of light stepped Jet, Storm, Wave, Shorty, Chip, Antoine, Julie-Su, Ray, Shahra, Griff, Frances, Tommy, Amy, Shade...
And Molly.
Each they were all laughing, chuckling, chortling, giggling...
They were all happy for him.
Knuckles went to stand with the other fallen Great Freedom Fighters, leaving Sonic and Tails some alone time.
"Whoa..." Sonic looked up and down Tails's body. "When the hell did you get taller than me?"
Tails smiled. "Wow, you're right!"
They laughed together; softly at first, then boisterously, as they never had when together in the living world.
Tails sighed.
And faced Sonic.
"Time for me to go, Sonic."
Sonic nodded, giving Tails a significant look, "Yeah, and this time, it really is good-bye." He gave a thumbs-up. "Get going, big guy!"
Tails smirked. "It's not really good-bye." He pointed at his heart with his thumb. "You're always with me, right?"
Sonic grinned. "Yeah."
And he joined the three Freedom Fighters who died fighting the Helix King, and the thirteen Freedom Fighters who died fighting the Anti-Spiral, and they all gave Tails a loud cheer as they vanished into the light.
Tails grinned at where they had been for a few more moments, then turned on his heels...
The beams of light now showed him different lives.
An infinity of different possibilities.
What if I grew up without Sonic?
What if Sonic piloted Emerl from the start?
What if Sonic hadn't died?
What if I died instead?
What if the Anti-Spiral didn't exist?
What if the Anti-Spiral was really my mother in disguise?
What if I was the Anti-Spiral Messenger?
What if Sonic was?
What if Sally had fallen in love with me instead of Sonic?
What if me and Cosmo did not love each other?
What if I was an astronaut?
What if I was a student at a school in a foreign country?
What if me and Cosmo...
Tails was transfixed this beam of light. He was holding a turquoise-haired baby that looked just like Cosmo, six hydrangea buds on her head, clapping her tiny hands on Tails's cheeks as though she thought her daddy's cheeks were warm and tickly.
What if me and Cosmo have a kid?
Tails closed his eyes.
No, he thought. Don't get distracted. Focus on what only you can do right here and now, Tails.
He held up his Core Drill...
And clenched it in his fist.
A green sun was born in Tails's fist.
And the beams of light resolved into a drill at the end of Tails's fist, engulfing Tails's body in light...
And Tails's body resolved into that of Freedom Emerl.
"Alright!" he shouted. "Let's go, guys!"
With a blast of Spiral Power from his levi-pack, Tails blasted off, turning from Freedom Emerl into an emerald comet.
Time to collect his comrades for the final battle.
"Libera me" from hell
"Sensei!"
The two kids Sally and Nicole saved from Erazor the Afreet Egg ran out to greet them and congratulate them.
"Sensei...?" Nicole pondered.
"But, I'm not your teacher..." Sally said.
"Arigato, sensei!" the boy echidna said, smiling widely.
"Alicia-sensei!" the boy and girl said together.
"But... Alicia isn't my..."
"Your teacher is a much finer lady than her," said Sally behind Sally. Sally spun around, shocked at the sight of another Sally behind her.
Then everything but Nicole beside her turned to static.
And she herself appeared again, wearing a bright-blue dress, smiling a wide, fake smile.
"This year's winner of the Miss Acorn pageant is, once again, Sally!" said an announcer.
But that wasn't really Sally, Sally thought. She was a different person from that.
Static again.
"Fighting evil by moonlight... Winning love by daylight..." said Sally's own voice, as the Sally on the screen cast magical spells while wearing a sailor fuku uniform. "Never running from a real fight... I am the one called Sally Moon!"
But that wasn't really Sally, Sally thought. She was a different person from that.
From this.
Static again.
Sally was holding Nicole the sniper rifle in the air, standing in a desert terrain.
It looked rather familiar for a few seconds...
"It's time for Sally Littner, the best shot in the galaxy, to take her turn!" said the female announcer. "She demonstrated absolutely flawless technique in the preliminary round!"
Sally gasped. It was becoming clearer.
This was all wrong.
Static.
Knuckles was taking her hands.
"That dress looks nice on you," he said, with no small hint of lust in his tone as he leaned in close for his first kiss as her husband...
Static.
Tails's eyes were sparkling with boyish joy as Sally admired the white, seed-shaped diamond set into her engagement ring.
"That ring looks wonderful on you!" he said brightly, leaning in for his first kiss as her husband...
Sally reached up and shut off the television in Sonic's arms.
She was standing in the spot where she and Sonic shared their first - and last - kiss.
"Thank you," she said to him.
"Thank you, Sonic," said Nicole, standing next to her. "I never knew you, but thank you."
Green light glowed from between Sally's fingers. And Nicole's.
Both of them were now holding Core Drills.
Sally smiled at Sonic.
"Well, I'm off."
Sonic was giving Nicole a politely puzzled look.
"Who's your new friend, Sal?"
"I am Nicole. I am the recently born artificial intelligence of Sally's weapon. I was intelligent enough, it seems, to fall into this trap as well."
"Cool," Sonic grinned, looking up into the sky. "Look."
Sally and Nicole looked up.
There was a green comet streaking across the sky, through the clouds of volcanic smoke.
And everything went green.
"See this, Allie? See how Charmy and Cream are kneading the dough?" said Elias, rubbing Alexis's hands through the bread in the bowl. "You need to knead the dough."
"I need to knead the dough," repeated Alexis, the little squirrel girl doing as her daddy told her.
"You're gonna be a great baker, just like your parents someday, Alexis!" smiled Meg, carrying the tray of loaves to be put in the oven.
A green comet streaked through the sky outside. The dough in the bowl turned into a Core Drill in Elias's hand, as did the dough that Charmy and Cream were kneading, and the tray that Meg was carrying...
Aware of their imprisonment now, they ignored the enthusiastic virtual program that was pretending to be Elias & Meg's daughter, clenched their Core Drills tightly...
And everything went green.
"Dammit! Espio, stay with them!" Vector shouted into his radio microphone.
Vector watched as Espio prepared to make the turn into the alleyway behind them, then - inexplicably - stopped. "Vector, what's that? Up there!"
"We've got no time for this, Espio! Sonic and Manic stole my Mustang and—"
"Vector, look!"
Bitterly, Vector looked to the sky...
And saw a green comet soaring by.
And in an instant, he woke up.
A small drill made of emerald was in his fist where his radio microphone was before.
He clenched it, and Espio did so with his own Core Drill...
And everything went green.
"Ready for the implosion, Bean?" Rotor called out, a wrench in hand.
"Implosion?" Bean said, leaning on the plunger. "Why don't we just do explosions do get old buildings outta the way?"
"It would be really messy," said Ari, holding his lunch box.
"So, you really ready, quackers?" asked Mighty.
A green comet soared overhead...
The wrench, plunger, and lunch box became Core Drills...
The four clenched their Drills tightly...
And everything went green.
"Board chairman Darkoak, welcome to our school," said Lobo, bowing to the man who wrote his checks. And his wife's. And everyone else's at the Raison D'Être High School.
Darkoak held a pen tightly in his hand, looking over Lobo & Lupe imperiously.
"Now then, let's get this out of the way, you two..."
A green comet shot by overhead...
And Darkoak's pen turned into a Core Drill, identical Core Drills appearing in Lobo & Lupe's hands...
And everything went green.
It was a windy and sunny day, and Big could hear the faint sound of distant waves. The past weeks had been going so fast, and it was all the same, the bright sky and shining sun.
But Big had a feeling this was going to be a fun day.
Just him, and Froggy, and fishing.
Just as he brought his fishing rod back to catch a big fish...
A green comet shot by overhead.
The fishing rod was suddenly a Core Drill...
And everything went green.
Bark was having a tough time against this cat-girl. She was a good fighter, even though her black hair was tied into two huge pigtails, and her outfit - a poofy red dress - hardly allowed for good mobility.
Her angel wings probably helped.
But, as far as Bark was concerned, a tough fight was a fun fight.
Suddenly, a green comet shot over the Sunset Town arena, and a green-glowing drill made of emerald appeared in Bark's fist.
Suddenly aware of his predicament, he clenched his fist around the Core Drill...
And everything went green.
"Chris. It's time."
Chris was so intent on his programming of the portal to Sonic's world that he hadn't even heard his fiancée roll up on her wheelchair. He spasmed, then faced her, standing up from the cardboard box he'd been using in lieu of a chair.
"Oh, yeah! That's right, we're supposed to meet Danny and Frances for lunch today." He bolted around Helen, taking the back of her wheelchair. "Let's go!"
"Whoa! Easy, Chris!" She smiled warmly up at him as he pushed her down the hall. "They know you're always late."
Moments later, they were in their car, and then moments after that, they were on the freeway.
"Why don't you let me drive for a change?" Chris asked.
"No way!" Helen teased. "Chuck designed this car especially for me, remember? And besides, riding while you drive is too... nerve-wracking."
"What does that mean?"
"I'm a much better driver. I've never gotten a parking ticket, which is more than I can say for you."
"It's not my fault someone turned that 'One Way' sign around."
The conversation would have continued, but at that point a green comet zipped by in the clear blue sky above...
And a Core Drill appeared in each of their hands.
Chris & Helen, their unspoken feelings for each other now clear because of this illusion, nodded at each other...
And everything went green.
Kukku saw a glitter of green light inside his translucent fist.
Opening it, he saw a Core Drill floating at the surface of his palm, and he realized that he had not evolved physically, and that this was an Anti-Spiral trap...
And he looked up at the green comet soaring through the infinite virtual space overhead...
And everything went green.
"Here, Daddy..."
Shadow smiled warmly as his little Maria placed a ring of flowers around his head.
Then he picked her up and spun her around, his daughter giggling brightly, her dark-pink eyes shining with mirth.
Shadow set her down on his hip, facing his beautiful wife...
But she was looking up into the sky.
He looked up...
Saw the green comet...
And knew.
"Oh. I see."
He set Maria down, and the little girl ran over to her mother, and Shadow gave one last look of mingled joy and sorrow at the family that he would never have.
"I was having a sappy dream, too, it seems."
Sighing sadly, Shadow clutched the Core Drill in his hand...
And felt power within him.
His Spiral Energy was unlocked now. For good.
But even if he found a woman with whom he was genetically compatible, being immortal, he would outlive both her and their child.
But that was only a possibility.
Shadow focused on what he needed to do now...
And everything went green.
お前のＸＸＸで天を衝け！！
your actions are baffling, irregular. why do you resist us?
Cosmo was spent. She had no energy left to resist, but she tried to force the Anti-Spiral off and out anyway. Even as chunks of her body vanished, Cosmo held the severed parts in place by remembering where they were in relation to her body.
you are a virtual lifeform that was spliced into the genomes of spiral races. when the remnants of a spiral race would rise up in rebellion against our limitations set against them, you would awaken as our messenger. that is your sole reason for being. the fact that you were born to a spiral warrior - and loved by another spiral warrior - is nothing more than coincidence. there is nothing special, or unique, about you.
it is rare indeed for a messenger to be this recalcitrant. but it is pointless to resist, irregular.
"No matter how deeply you probe my body," Cosmo gasped, blinking sweat out of her eyes, "You will never understand!"
we do not need to understand, the Anti-Spiral said. we only need to know.
"Then you might as well give up," Cosmo snarled, "Because you will never be able to defeat them!" The Irregular narrowed her eyes at the Avalonian race. "He will come. You can be sure of that."
At that moment, Cosmo's ring - on her left hand which was now floating a foot and a half to her side - began to pulse with green light. The Anti-Spiral's tentacles retracted from the light, which seemed to burn her.
The light pulsed brighter. And faster.
Cosmo smiled.
Tails was coming.
Cosmo set a glare upon the Anti-Spiral and, with a great effort, moved her hand which was now floating in empty space and no longer attached to her body by a corporeal arm, and pointed the ring at the gestalt Avalonian.
A Giga Drill emerged.
Followed by a yellow arm.
Then a yellow torso with a crowned head and a black levi-pack.
Then yellow legs.
Freedom Emerl had arrived. It held a pale-green Emerl in its left hand.
The binds around Cosmo faded, and she fell, the vanished parts of her body reappearing in an instant.
And Tails caught her in his coat, covering her indecency.
And his smile and eyes were full of love for her.
"I'm here, Cosmo," he said. "Just like I promised."
Cosmo's eyes swam with tears of relief and affection and every positive emotion all at once, and she nodded.
They glared down at the Anti-Spiral.
Twenty Emerls - one jet-black with a yellow triple-crest, seventeen pale-green, two gun-gray - emerged from flashes of green light in every joint on Freedom Emerl's body. Drills emerged from their lower torsoes, and impacted in the ground before the Anti-Spiral.
Their canopies rolled back.
Inside each was one of the surviving Great Freedom Fighters. Each wore a Core Drill around their neck.
From the Anti-Spiral's perspective, down the left side was Sally, Nicole (her Core Drill was tied around her barrel, and her screen glowed green, projecting a green-tinted image of a lynx in a spiral-decorated dress), Big, Bark, Charmy (in one gun-gray Emerl), Cream (in the other gray Emerl), Bean, Lobo, Lupe, and the Darkoak Head (its pedestal sat in G-Merl's seat, the Core Drill resting on the pedestal). Down the right side from the Anti-Spiral were Shadow, Espio, Mighty, Vector, Rotor, Meg, Elias, Ari, Chris, and Helen.
Each one had their arms crossed.
And each one wore the same expression of fierce determinacy.
impossible! the Anti-Spiral said fearfully. sentient lifeforms should not be able to escape from the extradimensional labyrinth!
"Don't underestimate us!" shouted Tails, Kukku flitting about his head. "We don't care about time or space or alternate dimensions, so they can't do a thing to stop us." He brought his fist up, Cosmo resting a hand on his chest. "Force your way down a path you chose to take, and do it your way! That's how... THE GREAT FREEDOM FIGHTERS ROLL!"
Cosmo, wearing Tails's coat to cover herself, leapt down into the Emerl in Freedom Emerl's hand. Cosmo's Emerl lifted off with a blast of Spiral Power, as did the twenty piloted by the other Great Freedom Fighters.
And Freedom Emerl was engulfed by Typhoon Freedom Emerl, which appeared around it in a flash of green light.
And Typhoon Freedom Emerl was engulfed by Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl, which clenched its fists.
And the twenty-one Emerls impacted themselves into various areas on Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl's body.
And with all of the Spiral Power channeled through all those Spiral Power Magnification Conduit Interface Core Machines into a single Gizoid...
An unbelievably large burst of green flames surrounded Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl, expanding outwards, engulfing the entire Anti-Spiral homeworld of Avalon...
Then the entire system that Avalon was located in...
Then the entire spiral arm of the galaxy that Avalon orbited in...
And an impossibly large black knight - with a tall golden crown atop its armored head, a crescent moon-shaped pair of crimson shades across its chest, large black epaulets guarding its head completely from the left and the right, the face of Huenlonix the Helix King's personal Gizoid clenched in the jaws of the face on its chest, and eighteen skull-like faces along its epaulets, arms, legs and feet - burst from the rim of the galactic arm, trailing green fire from its back.
And it whirled around faster than light, as fast as thought, to face the exact spot where the Anti-Spiral homeworld of Avalon was, now smaller than a speck of dust to the ultimate evolution of Freedom Emerl, which itself dwarfed a galaxy as a mountain dwarfs a sand-castle.
The enemy had no chance now.
None at all.
"Even when trapped by the cycle of karma..." Cosmo shouted, the galaxy-sized knight king's head speaking with her voice.
"The dreams we left behind will open the door!" Sally continued, the knight king's right epaulet shouting in her voice.
"Even if the infinite universe were to stand in our way...!" yelled Rotor, the opposite epaulet broadcasting his voice.
"The burning of our blood will determine what will be!" continued Shadow, the king knight's chest bellowing his words.
The head spoke again, but in Tails's voice this time:
"We will break through time and space..."
And the entire galaxy-sized mecha clenched its fists, shouting in every Great Freedom Fighters' voice:
"TO GRAB HOLD OF OUR OWN PATH!"
And it turned its head to the infinite universe wheeling with a near-infinite number of galaxies overhead, and roared its name in Tails's voice so loudly that all of existence shuddered in awe,
"TENGEN TOPPA FREEDOM EMERL!"
天元突破
フリーダムエメル
Tengen Toppa
Freedom Emerl
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?" the Great Freedom Fighters yelled.
つづく
To be continued...
次回予告
Next Episode Preview
This is the large tale of a tiny man from a small blue planet on the edge of a whirling galaxy.
If you were to start it now, the sun would rise on the next day before you finished.
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "Who The Hell Do You Think We Are?"