Chapter 51: Finale Part 2: The Power to Protect
(A) Stay and Watch
(B) Check on Cosmo
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(A) Stay and Watch
(B) Check on Cosmo
As much as Tangle wanted to watch Sonic and Shadow save the day, she just couldn't get the image of Cosmo's pendant glowing out of her mind.
So, she turned to Cream and smiled.
"Don't worry kiddo, Jewel and I'll go and make sure she's alright!" Tangle said while patting Cream on her head.
Cream looked up and smiled.
Tangle nodded, before turning to Jewel, who also nodded.
And so, without anyone but Cream noticing, the two left.
"Cosmo!" Tangle shouted as she began to approach the girl.
She was relieved to see that the girl was alright, on the ship with no visible injuries.
The girl however paid Tangle no mind, and watched.
Watched as Super Sonic and Super Shadow began flying towards Final Mova.
The trio then watched, as the two hedgehogs plowed through the Seed, completely obliterating it in a matter of seconds.
"Well, guess that's that." Tangle said. "It's finally over…"
However… when the smoke cleared, Tangle wished she didn't say anything.
Cause now, in the seed's place, was a large, dark orb.
"So… you still resist… the universe still resists?" They head Final Mova say. "No matter… It'll end all the same."
Then… some sort of energy began to pour out of him.
Tangle pulled out her communicator and called Tails.
"Hey kiddo? Any idea what that is?" She asked.
"It would appear… that he's using the Planet Eggs to give himself the power of gravity itself!" Tails said. "That's a massive wall of it! And he's trying to crush himself!"
"Huh?! Why would he do that?"
"Cause he'll also crush the Planet Eggs…" Chris said. "And if that happens…"
Tangle's eyes went wide…
The Universe wouldn't survive that…
Sonic and Shadow tried to stop this, but even in their super states, they couldn't even get past the wall of gravity that had formed, and there even looked like there was a bit of strain on their bodies, that being what was probably stopping their advance.
"Shoot… SHOOT! What?! Not even Super Sonic and Shadow can beat that now?!" Tangle asked. "What can we do?!"
"… There's one choice." Sonic said through the communicator. "The Sonic Driver… fire me out like this, and I should be able to break through and end this."
"WHAT?!" Tails shouted.
The tone of voice he had was… very worrying.
"But… that much power… combined with the fact that you'd be crushed… Sonic! You might DIE!"
Tangle's eyes went wide.
"Sonic… might die from this…?"
"Everyone… please… Let me do this…" Sonic said. "If my life is the cost of saving the universe… then I'll gladly take that trade."
"Sonic…" Tangle said.
A hero to the end…
"… Alright…" Tails said. "Sonic… I trust you…"
At that moment, the ship began to power down, as all the power was being diverted to the Sonic Driver.
However… then something new happened…
Cosmo's gem… began to glow in a bright light.
Then, it shattered.
"Tangle… Jewel… tell everyone… to please win." Cosmo said, giving them one last smile as he body began to change…
She looked… older now, and was floating.
Then, she turned towards Final Mova and…
"HOLD IT!" Tangle shouted before using her tail to grab Cosmo. "Just WHAT do you think you're doing?!"
"… Tangle…"
"What?! You're gonna fly over there and do WHAT?!" Tangle said, tears in her eyes. "TELL ME!"
"Cosmo!" Jewel said. "Please!"
Cosmo closed her eyes.
"Because I am the same species as him… I can use Mover Mode to get through the gravity." Cosmo said. "I'll do that… and when I get there, I'll seal his power away… long enough for Sonic to finish the job."
Tangle's eyes went wide.
"YEAH! AND DIE IN THE PROCESS!" She shouted. "I… I'm not letting you do this!"
Cosmo looked sad.
"There… is no other way…" Cosmo said. "I don't think, even with the current plan, that Final Mova could be defeated otherwise… Please… let me sacrifice myself for you… my dear friends."
"No… Cosmo…" Tangle said. "Please, we're your friends! I… I can't let you just die!"
She then reached into her shirt and pulled out her necklace.
"We… we've been through so much together… these crystals are supposed to be a symbol of our bond! Remember?! Do you want us to look at these and remember that you died for us?!"
Then, Jewel chimed in.
"And what about Tails?!" She asked. "Cosmo… you HAVE to know that you are important to him… to know that you mean the WORLD to him! To us too! Do you even realize what you are asking him to do by going through with this?!"
Tangle's eyes went wide…
The one to pull the trigger… the one who'd end Cosmo's life…
Would be the boy who loved her.
"You HAVE to give us a chance to figure this out!" Tangle said. "If you're not gonna do it for us, then do it for him! PLEASE!"
Cosmo contemplated this… but sighed.
"There is no other way… I'm the only one who could both get to him and seal his power away… if there was another way… I would do it… but there isn't." Cosmo said, before freeing herself from Tangle's grip.
"I'm sorry… Tangle… Jewel… I truly am… goodbye."
And with that, she began to turn…
And everything began to move in slow motion.
'No… NO! There HAS TO BE A WAY!' Tangle thought…
But… there wasn't another way…
In a panic… Tangle began looking around, searching frantically for something… anything that'll let her save Cosmo, Sonic, AND the universe!
… And then… she saw it…
Or rather… them…
And… it finally came to her.
The one possible way to do this…
Something only she could do…
So, she spoke up.
"I have an idea." Tangle said, eyes brimming with determination.
This caused Cosmo to stop in her tracks, before turning back around
"Tangle…"
"Listen, I know you think you have to do this, I get it… but I can't just let you go out there knowing that you're going to die!" Tangle said. "So… I'm gonna do it."
This caused the two girls around her to go wide eyed.
"What?! Tangle you can't be serious!" Jewel shouted. "I mean, that would mean that you would…"
"Hey, let me finish!" Tangle said. "Tikal, can you come out here for a bit?"
Tikal complied.
"I hope this idea of yours is a good one…" Tikal said, arms crossed.
"You're good at controlling Chaos Emerald energy, right?" Tangle asked.
This caused Tikal to tilt her head in confusion.
"I mean, yeah?" Tikal said, confused. "Why do you ask?"
"Think you could help me go Super with those?" Tangle asked, pointing at the still floating and still glowing with Planet Egg energy Chaos Emeralds.
This caused everyone to go wide eyed.
"Wait, so let me get this straight, your plan is to go super and… do what exactly?" Cosmo asked.
"Lemme finish!" Tangle said. "Cosmo, can you make that restraining… thingamabob into something I can stick into Final Mova? Like…. A sword or something?"
Cosmo… didn't like the idea… it felt as though TANGLE was about to sacrifice herself instead!
But… for some reason… she felt as though she could place her trust into her here…
So, despite her confusion, she grabbed a nearby metal pipe that broke off of Eggman's ship.
She seemed to struggle a bit with this task, but Tikal joined in.
"Let me help."
Cosmo nodded, and the two closed their eyes.
"Just relax… and let it flow through you… and into the pipe…" Tikal instructed.
Cosmo did as she was told…
And suddenly, the pipe was wrapped in vines.
Cosmo smiled at her creation, and turned to Tangle
"This would work. But only I could get it there… and by the time I did, I'd be out of energy and unable to escape anyways." Cosmo explained.
"And that's where I come in! I'll get it there!"
The others looked at her like she was crazy.
"Yeah! And die in the process!" Jewel said. "You heard what Tails said, even Sonic and Shadow can't get to Final Mova without probably dying! And they've been doing this super thing for how long?!"
"I know that!" Tangle shouted. "But… I just can't let it end like this!"
Then she looked at the others with determination.
"Those two are out there fighting, Cosmo's going off to her own death, and I'm just sitting here twiddling my thumbs?! Not gonna happen!" Tangle said. "I can do this… I NEED to do this! Cause I am the only one who can!"
The others stared at her in silence, before Jewel sighed.
"You always did have a hard head… you really think it's hard enough for this?" Jewel asked.
"If mine isn't, then no-one's is!" Tangle said with a cheeky grin.
Cosmo seemed to contemplate Tangle's suggestion for a moment, before sighing.
Then, she reached out to hand the vine sword to Tangle.
"Here… but if I feel as though you won't succeed…" Cosmo said. "In the end… I'll just have to…"
Tangle's tail went up to Cosmo's mouth as if to shush her.
"I won't let that happen." Tangle said with a smile.
Cosmo couldn't help but smile back.
Tangle's optimism became something she grew to admire after all this time.
"All right… good luck."
Tangle grabbed the sword, before using her tail to spring herself towards the emeralds.
When she got there, she was in clear view of everyone in the bridge.
"Tangle? What are you doing out there?!" Tails asked.
Sonic, who was on his way back to load the Sonic Driver, stopped.
Tangle however, stayed silent.
Looking out into space, at Final Mova, at Super Sonic and Super Shadow, at her friends in the bridge behind her… she couldn't help but smile.
She then thought back to that first day… the day she and Jewel left Spiral Hill to pursue their dreams.
She never really thought about it, but it was so incredibly unlikely that she'd bump into Sonic and friends that early into their travels… it was almost like fate wanted it to happen.
And now, she felt like fate dealt her that hand: Meeting Sonic, becoming his apprentice, making friends with everyone, making friends with Tikal, becoming a hero herself, finding the truth of her past, and now, facing down the biggest threat to the universe it might ever face, all just to save that mentor and one of those friends…
She felt that fate brought her and her friends together, just for this moment.
So, with a deep breath, she gave Tails her answer.
"WHAT I HAVE TO DO!" Tangle shouted. "Tikal!"
"Ok! Here goes nothing!" Tikal said.
The emeralds then began to gather around Tangle, and began spinning.
Then, their energy began pouring into her.
The feeling of the emeralds power, it was like a rush that she never felt before.
Then, she began running in place excitingly
"Oh my gosh! We did it! I have a super form!" Tangle said, as she began to float. "This feels so cool! I could get addicted to this!"
Her fur now had a golden tint to it, her eyes glowing a crimson red, and… a red cape had for some reason formed?
"Dunno why the cape, but I ain't complaining, looks cool!" Tangle said.
Super Tangle was born.
The power felt absolutely unreal to her… but for some reason, she had a funny feeling in her chest…
"Eh, can't be too important." Tangle said to herself.
"Uh… ok? So like, what's your plan here?" Eggman asked.
"No time to explain, just watch!" Tangle said as she used her tail as a spring again to launch herself towards Final Mova.
"Tangle!" Sonic shouted, trying to stop her.
It was too late, as Tangle, at an incredible speed, slammed into the wall of gravity.
"… Ok, not as easy as I thought." Tangle said, face squished as she realized that she was stuck.
"Oh… right, you don't know how to fly like this." Tikal said.
"Yeah… help?"
While Tikal was instructing Tangle on how to fly in her super form, Shadow began to float towards Sonic.
"… Is she an idiot?" Shadow asked.
Sonic couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Nah, that's just Tangle." Sonic said. "She probably has something planned with that green thing in her hand… think we should give her a chance?"
Shadow was silent for a moment, before nodding.
"If it works, it'll probably beat dying."
"You got that right!" Sonic said, before the two blasted off towards Tangle to help…
Though, Sonic happened to notice something… strange.
In the spot that Tangle took off from, he saw…
"Are those… ripples in the hull?"
Deciding to leave that for later, he sped off towards Tangle…
When he got there though, things got even stranger…
Having figured out how flying worked, Tangle was somehow able to get herself further into the wall of gravity than Sonic and Shadow managed to…
However, the intense gravity had… well…
Completely flattened her.
When Jewel noticed this, everyone heard her screaming.
"TANGLE!" Jewel screamed.
"Oh… that's not good…" Sonic said, shocked at his friend's state.
"… She's dead Sonic." Shadow added.
"Y-yeah… sorry, just… kinda in sho-"
He didn't get a chance to finish that…
As Tangle's arm began to move.
"… Huh?" Sonic and Shadow both said at the same time.
Her thumb then went into her mouth, and she began… blowing into it?
She was then suddenly back to normal…?
And every single being in attendance reacted accordingly…
"Eh?"
"Ok! This wall of gravity shtick is getting old!" Tangle said as she reached out and…
She grabbed it?!
"EH?!"
Tangle then began laughing to herself.
She then THREW IT AWAY?!
"YEET!"
"EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH?!" Everyone reacted, feeling their eyes pop out of their skulls.
This seemed to do the trick, as the wall of gravity went away.
Deciding to take advantage of the opportunity, Tangle charged full speed at Final Mova, no longer inhibited by the gravity wall.
It tried shooting a pulse of gravity at her, but she was prepared.
"Guess this is what the cape is for!" Tangle said as she grabbed the cape and held it in the way of the pulse of gravity.
The cape then stretched out to tremendous lengths, before snapping back to normal, sending the pulse of gravity right out into space.
Everyone was just stunned silent at this point.
"Hey! Shouldn't you two be getting ready to blast this jerk?!" Tangle asked, tapping her foot on nothing…
That nothing just so happened to be rippling with each tap.
"Oh uh… yeah." Sonic said. "We'll… figure this out later."
The two super powered hedgehogs then sped back to the Typhoon.
Tangle then went towards the sphere, and instead of just sticking the sword in like she should have been doing, she decided to have some fun.
She began bouncing around, dodging around pulses of gravity while taunting him, and just generally playing with the thing.
"Tangle, I know you're having fun, but maybe you should focus on saving the universe?" Tikal said.
"Oh come on, we pretty much got this in the bag!" Tangle said. "What, he's just gonna sprout one of those dragon heads again and blast me or something?"
And Final Mova did just that.
"EEEEHHHHHHH?!" Tangle shouted as her eyes popped out of her skull and her tongue stretched out to incredible lengths…
Also a beam of energy blasted her.
Everyone looked at this in horror, but Knuckles just face palmed.
"Really?"
When the dust settled, an annoyed looking Tangle, covered in soot was floating there.
"You really are the rudest dude alive!" Tangle said before shaking off the soot.
She then flew over… though she looked as though she was running through the air, and began blowing into her thumbs.
Her hands grew to an enormous size, and she used them to grab the dragon's neck.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT IS TO MAKE MY FUR LOOK THIS NICE?! THE TAIL TAKES HOURS!" She shouted, a fire lit in her eyes…
Final Mova responded by blasting her in the face.
When the dust cleared, she just looked madder, as she puffed out her cheeks... At least, she tried to do that, but her whole head just grew instead, with steam shooting out of her ears.
"OH! NOW YOU'RE GONNA GET IT!" Tangle shouted.
Final Mova wasn't about to give her the chance, as he sent her flying back with a pulse of gravity.
Her body stretched to tremendous lengths a moment later, and snapped back to shoot the gravity into the face of the dragon.
This seemed to make Final Mova angry, and began to charge up a massive beam of energy.
Tangle was NOT about to let that happen though.
She began to inhale, and she began to grow…
And grow…
SHE'S STILL GROWING?!
HOW IS SHE STILL GROWING?!
She FINALLY stopped growing, and began grinning.
She was about the size of Final Mova now… probably a bit bigger even.
This didn't deter him, and he fired the energy right at Tangle's head.
She grinned, before opening her mouth, the beam going inside.
Her mouth began to move, like she was chewing on the energy, before she spat it out.
"EW! GROSS!" She shouted, her voice echoing.
At this point, even Final Mova was a bit flabbergasted by her antics.
She then began to wind up a massive punch...
Final Mova responded by blasting her foot.
This threw her off balance, as her punch completely missed and she essentially face planted on Final Mova.
She then began to exhale, and she went flying upwards.
"WAAAAAAAAH!" She screamed as she vanished from sight, with the twinkling of a star signifying that she had left the area.
"… Is she… gone?" Knuckles asked.
Final Mova didn't think so, and fired another large beam of energy into the air.
And a moment later… it was coming back down.
With Tangle holding it…
She was also, just… stupid levels of buff now… she must of inflated her muscles or something.
The first thing she seemed to do was grab the energy beam (an absolutely absurd concept.)
She then seemed to… reshape it like a rubber balloon (even more absurd.)
And finally, she began to wield it like a giant hammer.
Final Mova began firing off a flurry of energy beams, firing wildly trying to hit her.
Tangle smirked, and began to avoid the energy, even going so far as to jump off of some, and sliding down others.
She flew down rapidly, landing right in front of the Dragon Head…
She then proceeded to bash it on its, well, head.
"Gobackgobackgobackgobackgoback GO BACK!" Tangle said rapidly as she rapidly swung the hammer down.
Before long, the dragon head was buried deep into the dark sphere.
"Ok, no more jokes, eat plant sword."
Just as she was about to stick it into him, a pulse of gravity struck her in the stomach, sending her flying back up again.
This didn't deter her, as she began flying back down.
Final Mova in a last resort began rapidly sending pulses of gravity at her, much like he did with the energy a moment ago.
Tangle responded by using the sword, slashing some away from her while avoiding the others.
When she was close enough, she raised the sword, ready to thrust it downwards into Final Mova.
Everyone could have sworn they saw Cosmo holding it as well, but she was only there in spirit.
"IT'S!"
Tangle shouted as she thrust the sword downwards.
"OVER!"
Tangle then thrust the sword into the Dragon's head, right at the top of the sphere.
Roots then sprouted out of the sword, and it began to grow rapidly.
She then flew away and watched as the sword began to morph, the roots spreading across the sphere as a massive, quite beautiful tree began to form.
"Wow, she really made that thing look beautiful." Tangle said as she began floating back.
"Tails! Fire now!" Cosmo shouted.
"Right!" Tails shouted back, before pulling the trigger.
While Tangle was playing around with Final Mova, Cosmo had explained what the plan was with the sword.
Sonic and Shadow were then shot out of the Sonic Driver at an incredible speed, before crashing into Final Mova, completely obliterating it.
Tangle then landed back onto the Blue Typhoon, and put her hands on her hips.
"Welp, only one way to celebrate winning a battle to save the universe!"
She then started breakdancing while humming a victory tune.
Everyone else was simply flabbergasted.
"… What a weird way to save the universe…" Rouge pointed out.
"Remind me to never let her get the Chaos Emeralds…" Eggman commanded Bocoe and Decoe.
"Yes sir." The two robots responded.
Tangle then watched as Jewel and Cosmo began to run towards her.
"Tangle that was… that was…" Jewel started.
"Good? Great? Awesome? Outstanding? AMAZING?!"
"The WEIRDEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN YOU DO?!" Jewel said.
"Yeah, how did you do all of that?" Tikal, who popped out of her mind, asked.
"Oh! Uh… I dunno." Tangle said as she began bouncing in place. "I mean, it just felt like stuff I could do I guess."
Suddenly, there was a bright light behind them, with a bunch more shooting out of it.
"… That doesn't look good." Tangle said.
Deciding that just standing around… or in her case, bouncing, wouldn't solve anything, she began flying towards where Sonic and Shadow were.
Suddenly though, she saw Sonic, no longer super, falling.
"Whoa!" Tangle shouted as she sped up and caught him.
"CHAOS CONTROL!" She suddenly heard coming from above her.
Looking up, she briefly saw Shadow, before he was enveloped in a bright light…
And just like that, he was gone, along with the bright light from before…
Or rather, it was much farther away now.
"What… did he do?" Tangle asked.
Sonic just sighed.
"Smart aleck… said my Chaos Control was terrible..." Sonic said. "He probably teleported us away from the Planet Eggs releasing their energy… I don't know what happened after that."
"… He'll be fine." Tangle said, earning a surprised look from Sonic. "He's too stubborn to die like that, don't you think?"
After a moment of being surprised, Sonic smiled.
"Yeah, you're right about that." He said.
They then watched as all the Planet Eggs flew off throughout the cosmos, probably returning to their homes.
End of Finale Part 2
Ok, I am just gonna address the two elephants in the room first: Yes, Super Tangle is just Gear 5 from One Piece, though a bit less giggly. And yes, Cosmo lives!
So, lemme start with explaining why I decided to let Cosmo live. I decided that this would be a thing mainly cause I wanted to just… write her more. Yup, that's really it. I mean, I guess also because I wanted to write her and her relationship with Tails more, but you'll see that in Act 2.
As for Super Tangle being Gear 5, that is a bit of a journey. See, one day I was getting caught up on the One Piece anime since I skipped a few episodes, and I saw Gear 5 in action a bit. Then I thought: "Man, that oughta be really fun to write for… but I don't want to write a One Piece story…" And then I realized that I could absolutely just make it Tangle's super form and yeah… it just kinda snowballed from there.
It also helped that I had already decided on Cosmo living, but not how I would get it to happen. Like, it would take more than her getting a super form I felt, but when I thought about doing it like this, the ideas started pouring in…
I wanted to also make it clear that it was a BIG team effort to save Cosmo, Tangle and Jewel trying to convince her there was a better way, Tangle's plan, and Tikal even being needed to carry out the plan! Everyone that wasn't present in the original story had a role in this, that is something I really wanted and am happy I was able to pull off!
Also yeah, wanting to get to this point was a big motivator for getting this story written. :)
Another thing, you might of noticed something weird with how the narration was going during the Super Tangle stuff… yup, the wildness of that form even got the Narrator flabbergasted LMAO
I had to, I'm sorry. Not gonna lie, every time I came up with something for her to do, I started laughing to myself at how wild it was. It really was just, fun to write this.
Also, if you think that it was… anticlimactic for the final battle of the story: It's not the final battle of the story. Remember, there are two more acts of this story after this one ends!
I will say this though, I HAVE written the final battle of act 2 already! I honestly think it might be the best fight scene I have written! Stay tuned!
The title of this chapter is based on Tangle's vow she made at the end of Chapter 47, "I may be weak now… but one day, I'll have the power to protect everyone that's important to me!"
Also, I never really talked about certain things from last chapter. In case it isn't obvious, I wanted to tie up a LOT of loose ends with this finale, so having Tangle get her rematch against Dark Oak was something I really wanted to do. The Yellow Cyclone was an idea that came from that, as something to even the playing field.
Anyways… tomorrow is the final chapter of this story! I'll see you all then!