Chapter 10 - The Showdown

    The doctor explained, “For a start, she hasn’t always been this powerful. In fact, she used to be a victim of bullying, just like you. During then, she was actually a good girl with a huge imagination.”

    “Wait, why?”

    “Well, let’s just say that unlike all the other raccoon dogs, she has been born with incurable gigantism and myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy, or rapid muscle growth disorder, which clearly explains her huge appearance. During her childhood, when her original name was ‘Tan Tan,’ everyone, even her own kind, and especially her parents, were incredibly cruel to her. They used to call her offensive allegations toward what she couldn’t control and later, made fun of her hand-drawn comics based on some video games she loved dearly.”

    “She drew comics based on her favorite video games?”

    “She did. In order to keep her mind off of her abnormalities, she became a passionate hardcore gamer who played her favorites for hours everyday, and therefore draw comic strips (and later took photos of herself cosplaying) to attempt to honor those games, even though they were of ‘poor quality’. Consequently, when her parents discovered her works, their reactions were so negative that they decided let their neighbors expose them to the internet and then dispose them in a river. In response, Terra had gotten so humiliated and heartbroken that she decided to make a peaceful speech for them, regarding how they all treated her and how they should’ve been civil towards her. As the problem was never settled, the real war began, between her, who then turned bad, and every single bully in her entire home place, whether it was online, or real life. In the internet, she created a total of over 50 accounts, whether it would be in a video website, an art website, or a social network, either to get her back on her trolls’ accounts by bashing their works, or to comfort herself from getting picked on, like if she had so many friends.”

    What about the real world?” I asked.

    While Orbot played suspenseful music on a piano, Eggman continued, “In the real world, there were others who attempted to give her mandatory therapy, but no matter what, they couldn’t stop her, who looked for a way to make herself even stronger than she already was; in addition to endless and intense workouts, for several years, every day, week, month at the very least, she herself some concoction made by strange herbs, fruits, spices, and experimental medications stolen from my old lab. Drinking it gave her side effects, like a more sickly appearance, insanity, departure from reality, extreme anger disorders, and worsened antisocial behavior, but it also granted her massively enhanced strength, endurance, and durability. When it was finally the time, she had a massive 1-vs-all street fight against all those bullies that had picked on her for years. There was a series of brutal animal-like attacks, whether it’d be mauling, scratching, biting, or bone-crushing. And, did you know what happened to her bully-turned-victims in the end? ...She ate them all.”

    Sonic’s jaw dropped. “She was a cannibal? Oh, heck no. You’re lying.”

    “Footage of the fight can be seen in an satirical encyclopedia focusing on her (but made without her permission)...but I won’t show you since it’s overwhelmingly graphic,” Eggman gulped. “Since then, ‘Tan Tan’ changed her identity to her current and then lived in a foster home, followed by the first day high school.”

    “Wow…” I gasped.

    “One more thing: for the record, when she lived here, she wanted to cage fight with one of my robots, Metal Sonic. So she forced me to let her, and I did, and as a result of her berserker strength and hectic mauling combined, (sniffled) Metal was a goner.” Then, he show us a small shard of the blue robot’s body. “Here’s what’s left of him. I’m planning on rebuilding him, though the second time wouldn’t be the same. Anyway, Tails, go see Terra if you must. But be careful; even though the effects of her formula have gradually declined after the fire, she’s still very strong. But like what Scion said in your game, ‘size has nothing to do with strength.’”

    On the following night, I felt like I was ready to encounter that tanuki bully, alone or not; I wore a green hood to pay homage to Horns the Owl, I put on my goggles, got my monkey wrench that I intended to use as a weapon and brought all of my best portable gadgets in my belt, especially my Healing Stick, to heal me during the match, and my Hyper Exo Manifier 2.0, with highly improved durability (since the first one was fragile) and freezing power (this time through ice). By the time I arrived at Unnamed Village, Terra faced me with a very intimidating look.

    “Tails!” cried Willabelle, holding on the cages’ laser bars. “Please be careful! You could get yourself hurt!”

    “Willabelle, you know that this is the only way to save you guys,” I replied bravely.

    “Tails,” Terra said, “It’s been nearly seven years since we’ve last seen each other in person.”

    “And after nearly seven years,” I replied coldly, “you haven’t changed one bit.”

    “Neither have your two tails, freak.”

    “So, how did you find my friends? Answer me, now!”

    “To have you pay for what you’ve taken from me, I hacked into their private info on Talk-a-Lot, in which I decided to look for them and take them away from you without warning. You deserved it.”

    “Terra, we can settle this peacefully, or we’ll have to do it the hard way. Either you move on, once you make up for all the damage you’ve done to me, my friends, and especially my game and Zooey, or I can make you get your smelly butt out of here.”

    “Not only have ya stolen my popularity with your games, but you also stole Zooey, my former girlfriend, from me!

    “You were being a jerk to her, which was why she left you. But I guess you would’ve acted better if YOU weren’t bullied before then.”

    “Huh, what in tarnation are you talkin’ about?”

    “Haven’t all your bullies including your own type picked on you for being different from others?”

    “You don’t know nothin’ about growin’ so big that you turn out to be completely different from others!”

    “Actually, it’s kind of like how no one accepted me in the first place, all because of my twin tails. Eventually, when I proved my potential, that was when people began to accept me. As for you, however, you did embrace yourself and your abnormalities, but all for the wrong purposes. As much as getting bullied is terrible, it is not an excuse to become an even bigger bully in return! Either we could’ve prevented this in the first place, or you could’ve chosen to continue being a nice girl by settling with others the proper way.”

    “No, even if I was good, no one gonna like me! Now why are we talkin’ ‘bout this while we should’ve begun now!?”

    “That shouldn’t be a problem.” I pointed my Hyper Exo Manifier at her. “It’ll only take a few seconds before this gadget freezes you.”

    Terra showed me her remote. “But I can push the button dadgum quicker, where ya say goodbye to your friends! Just when did I say y’are allowed to use any weapons in this here hand-to-hand fight? Dispose every one of them, NOW!”

    “Tails,” convinced Fingers, “Just do exactly as he says. There is no other choice.”

    Out of distress, I put down all of my gadgets and left them behind, while my Healing Stick continuously rolled far away from me. As I took a deep breath, “Alright, I’ll fight for my friends, fair and square.”

    “That’s right.”

    And the fight began when Terra punched me right in the face, so firmly that I was sent flying. POW-WHOOSH! Despite a blackened eye, I got back up and returned by spinning my tails and then brought multiple punches in return (BOP, BOP, BOP…), though they inflicted less damage than what she gave me. Next, she used her huge claws (SLING) to quickly scratch my stomach, leaving some furless scars on it. Nevertheless, I spun into a ball and did a high pitch-sounding Spin Attack to hit her three times. PEW, PEW, PEW! However, she successfully blocked those hits with her big bare arms. Then, she brutally kicked me in my thin legs three times (POW, POW, POW), in which the third time sent me flying again, but this time, far, far away. WHOOOOOOSH!

    “Y’are weak as a sick old dog, Fox Boy!” she barked. “Just like your lame game full of playable freaks! I knew dipwads like you ain’t got no guts to get me real good!”

    Sweating like a prostrate pig, and huffing like a weakened wolf, I got up and slowly limped back to her. “Okay, you’re really strong.”

    Meanwhile, Sonic ran back to his friends to warn everyone about my fight with Terra. “Guys, you wouldn’t believe this. Tails is battling with that bully who started everything!”

    Without anyone noticing, Zooey stuffed her purse with pool balls and ran off to save me.

    “He is doing WHAT!?” yipped Amy. “He’s going to get really hurt real soon!”

    “Ironically, if we try to save him, Terra will push the remote, and his friends will get shocked to death, literally.”

    “What do we do? We can’t just leave him vulnerable to her!”

    “Hmm, I think we’ll play it in stealth mode and save his friends without her knowing. And then, we’ll defeat Terra and end her scheme once and for all. With style.”

    “What do you mean by ‘with style?’” asked Knuckles, scratching his head. “Are you referring to clothes, or a way of doing, um, uh, stuff?”

    Sonic grinned and rubbed his hands. “Both.”

    “Beating her up would’ve been easier, but whatever. This is for Tails, ri-i-ight?”

    In the meantime, after getting mauled, I got covered in a good amount of sweat, bruises, lumps, and scars all over my body. My breath was also running out after using up my energy to fight. As for Terra, she remained pumped up, despite having minor wounds here and there. “Fox Boy, just give it up, for Pete’s sake,” she laughed. “I knew you’d only punch and kick like a gun shooting cotton balls at me. You’re as pathetic as a sick coyote cub that hasn’t eaten for weeks! Face it, you’ll never prove yourself worthy as Sonic the Hedgehog, EVER!”

    “Shut up and go eat a prickly cactus, filthy Fukushū!” cried the confined Tim.

    “Tim!” whispered Tom, covering his counterpart head’s mouth. “You’re going to get us in trouble!”

    Once I heard Terra’s last phrase, regarding Sonic, I started to bubble up, my teeth were closed real tight, my fists started shaking like motors, my breaths turned more rapid, and my face turned red! Immediately, I unleashed all my anger and delivered one great punch in her face, inflicting a great deal of damage. Then, I brutally hit him several times with my spinning two tails, and then brought a big amount of heavy Spin Attacks. Bam, BAM, BAM…BAM, BAM, BAAAM! As a result, my encaged crew were amazed of all the anger I used to take on her.

    Unfortunately, this was when the noticeably bruised Terra got filled up with rage. “Ya don’t know when to QUIT no more, do ya!?” She began clench her fist so hard, that it shook harder than any engine I have ever known. “With my most powerful punch, I AM-A KILL YOU RIGHT HERE IN THIS ROAD, RIGHT NOW!! AND I MEAN, NOW, NOW, NO-O-OW!!!” But right before she punched me, an angry Zooey was unexpectedly behind her, where she forcefully spun her purse, now heavy as bricks, and threw it with all of her strength, in which it hit her right in the head. B-A-A-A-NG!! After the unconscious bully fell down on her abdomen, I took the opportunity turn off the laser cage (with the remote Terra stole from Eggman) trapping my crew and remove their collars, while the young vixen took a good look of my glaring injuries.

    “Tails,” she said softly, “You don’t look too good.”

    “I’m okay, Zooey,” I replied quietly. “Terra won’t be waking up for a while, so thank you for saving me.”

    “There’s something that I need to tell you; for the way I avoided you like that, I realized that it wasn’t so just, for me and you; it’s only because I’ve been taking romance very seriously in which I wanted everything to be perfect; I can’t bear to feel the pain of being left out after having a few past boyfriends, each who left me too soon. But then, I’ve learned that I need to be more considerate to others’ situations and feelings, even if it means major self-reliance.”

    I looked down. “And I’m sorry too, Zooey, for prioritizing tasks over you and others all the time; especially when I let my game, Blades of the Rebellion get into my head, far too much than it should, whether it’d be post-game content, dealing with a deranged hater/troll, or addressing fan complaints towards bugs I haven’t even caused. With that said, not only have I failed to spend consistent time with you, but I also didn’t go to my concert to play with Sonic and Knuckles either; you and the two have really counted on me, until now.”

    “You know,” added Willabelle, “This kind of reminds me of the time when I haven’t spent a lot of time with Chris T., who’s my younger boyfriend who he enjoys a lot of quality time being a ‘villain’ with Dave the Intern. One time, I simply decided that he would’ve been better off without me, since I didn’t have intentions of being like him; so I spent time doing other things like yoga or anything involving my flexibility. After some time, I regretted my decision when I realized that he had actually been looking for me with the help of his blue friend, in hopes of getting our relationship right. In the end, the Chris and I kissed, hugged, and made up by pretending to be evil together. Today, he is still as weird as Dave, but as always, he still loves me dearly. So my point is, Tails and Zooey, even in a deep relationship, you don’t have to totally accept or love people for what they like to do, just who they are.”

    Soon, Zooey began to shed teardrops, ran towards me, and we both hugged tightly. “I’m sorry for being hard on you in the first place,” she weeped. “And thank you for the necklace you sent me!”

    “And from on, I’ll spend more with you without anymore interruptions for good,” I sobbed in return. “Because as I know, I love you always.”

    “(sniffled) I love you, too.”

    While we weren’t looking, Terra slowly opened her eyes, weakly got back up, and brought up an elixir, the same one created by Eggman. “No, NO, NO-O-O!” she roared. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to end! NOW, THE REAL BATTLE IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!!” And so she drank every last drop of the formula. As a start, she gained a nasty tummy ache, but then, we noticed that she began to glow brighter than the moon and slowly turned scarier. First, her fur began recovering from her scars and burns, but turned long, prickly as fur tree leaves, and pale as salt.  Her muscles individually grew like a balloon being overly inflated with hydrogen. Jagged dinosaur spikes came out her back, legs, tail, arms and head. Her claws blackened and became sharper and larger. And her whole face turned much uglier, with her fangs becoming longer, sharper, and sturdier than daggers, her ears getting jagged and extended, her nose and snout turning “puffy,” and her eyes now demonic as an oni’s and red as rotten tomatoes. Then, she felt flat on the floor and grew very slowly at first, but when her heart start kept beating harder than a bass drum and faster than a rabbit stomping his foot, her rate of growth boomed, expanding quicker than a pufferfish and causing the ground to rumble harder than Eggman’s giant robots stomping, until her shadow covered three and a half houses. In the end, she became what defined her true nature: an overwhelmingly freakish, powerful, 35-foot mad mass murderer!

    “Holy SMOKES!” exclaimed a jaw-dropping Mic, staring up. “We didn’t see this one coming!”

    “Guys, run, now,” I firmly advised to my crew.

    And so we all ran, but while my crew managed to run for safety, the monster Terra quickly grabbed me and Zooey with her enlarged bare hands. “YOU TWO AIN’T GOIN’ NO-O-O-W-H-E-E-E-E-ERE!!” she bellowed in rage, emitting a great heap of vibration.

    “Tails!” cried Zooey.

    “Terra, please, put us down!” I ordered.

    “NO, I’M GRUBBIN’ FOR YOU HERE FOX CASSEROLE, AND Y’ALL CAN’T STOP ME NOW!”

    “Terra!” shouted Sonic’s voice. “You heard Tails, put him and Zooey down! You mess with our best buds, you mess with ALL of us!”

    Zooey and I looked below, and much to my relief, there came Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks in their trademark fighting stances. What surprised me, however, as that they wore familiar clothes; Sonic was wearing a ninja belt and a scarf to cover his mouth, Amy wore metal armor and a pigtail, Knuckles wore a horned hat and kilt, and Sticks wore a bandana on her head and a leaf eyepatch, similar to Bonnie Bones the monkey. So what did their costumes remind me of exactly? It was hard to remember after my glaring head injuries.

    “Y’ALL GONNA GET MASHED INTO MUSH!” roared Terra.

    And so the deadly battle between my four friends and the demonic giant began with Sonic swiftly Spin Dashing to the beast (VROOOM), rotating in circles around her, and running a spiral on her big, shivering body until he reached her head, where he struck her with his trusty homing attack. POW!

    The Monster Terra fought back by roaring out supernaturally mighty soundwaves to knock him down to the ground. “R-A-A-A-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-R!!!”

    “Sticks,” ordered Sonic, getting up, “Now’s your cue!”

    While Sonic resumed fighting, Sticks the Badger began with her battle cry. “A-A-A-R-R-R-G-G-G-H!” Next, she threw her trusty boomerang at the beast’s hands, to attempt to release me and Zooey, but failed, since they were too rugged. So, instead of the boomerang, she brought out and cocked a strange gun, resembling a hollowed-out log with a moderately thick twig sticking out of it. “I made this myself for three days! Be alarmed; it shoots coconuts!” Indeed did she fire cannonball-like coconuts at her (Boom, boom, boom, boom, BOOM!), which managed to hurt the monster pretty good. “I’ve got so much power. You can’t eliminate me, because I am in-elimini... in-elemen... in-eliminatate... “ Right before she could finish, the beast performed a devastating red shockwave stomp and knocked out the poor badger.

    Meanwhile, to rescue me and Zooey, Amy used her great agility to leap from Terra’s right foot to left knee to right hand first, which she tried to pound with her Piko Piko Hammer to get me released. POW! But it was still no use, and Terra violently shook her off his hand, causing her to fall down, though she landed perfectly on her feet while sliding. After that, she repeated her same actions, but this time, she landed on the beast’s left hand, which she hit with her mallet TWICE as hard (POWWW!), thus successfully releasing Zooey.

    “GRRR! FRACK YA, FOR STEALING MY GIRLFRIEND!!” snarled Terra.

    When Zooey was falling down screaming, the pink hedgehog cried, “Knuckles! Catch her!”

    After throwing a tree at Terra, the red echidna found Zooey in the air and used his red, serrated, rope-like Enerbeam to catch her and reel her in like a fish until she landed safely on his arms. “I got you, Zooey.” He winked his right eye. “After all, I’d do anything for a girl like you.”

    “But what about Tails!?” She asked anxiously.

    Eventually, an injured Sonic, along with Amy, and Sticks, stood on their knees, taking heavy breaths. “It’s no use,” wheezed the blue hedgehog, “She’s just too powerful for us to handle!”

    “We aren’t fighting a giant robot this time,” Amy huffed, holding on to her hammer to stay up. “Terra’s FAR worse than that!”

    “YA FOUR ARE ALL FRACKIN’ PATHETIC L’IL DIPWADS!” roared Terra, still holding me, and suffering from little injury. “FOR THE WHOLE FRACKIN’ TIME, Y’ALL THOUGHT YOU COULD DEFEAT ME AND SAVE FRACKIN’ FOX BOY, BUT THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE WINNER IN THIS DANG FIGHT, AND THAT’LL BE ME, AND ONLY ME!”

    “Man, you’re one foul-mouthed monster,” Sonic pointed out.

    Eventually, what I realized was that this battle was a clear parallel to the Robogre fight scene in the trailer of Blades of the Rebellion, especially with what my friends were wearing. Sonic represented Scion the cheetah, with his speed, Amy symbolized Amoroso the wolfdog, with her agility and courage, Knuckles shared some similarities with Nucleus the grolar bear, like strength and love for girls, Sticks was Bonnie Bones the monkey, due to her knack of hunting as well as her new coconut gun she built, and finally, Terra was definitely the enormous Robogre, with a little bit of the power-hungry oni Fukushū! And now you know how I got my inspiration for the playable characters, though it’s vice versa for the boss.

    Later, all of a sudden, behind us was a huge crowd of my fans, bringing various weapons like those commercial Enerbeams, my invented “Enerbeam Hookshots” with pointed heads, pitchforks, etc. and marching towards the great white beast. Their leaders were none other than an angry Willabelle, and surprisingly, Eggman, both who had successfully convinced all of them to aid me and my friends, once and for all. With that said, I was relieved with the fact that they still have cared so much about me, despite what had happened to my game.

    “So, you want to go to extreme lengths to pick on innocent individuals, Terra?” shouted the human girl. “Then we’ll all go to extreme lengths to bring you DOWN, for Tails and Freakware!”

    “YOU!” roared Terra, pointing at her. “If burnin’ down your sanctuary wasn’t enough, I should’ve also destroyed ya and all of your freaks in the first place, when my old gang ‘n’ I had the chance! But now, I have a second chance to devour you all up, like how I grew large enough to eat my own kind for bullyin’ me!”

    “We’ll see about that, you huge hobo!” yelled Dave the Intern. “We’ve bringing you something good for picking on our most favorite game developer of all time!”

    And then the Gogoba chinchillas from crowd threw dozens of various trash, torches, and pitchforks at her, who then chased after them running through almost the whole village. “I’m gonna skin y’all and use your skin to make boots, ya tiny twerps!” she growled, swishing away the projectiles. What she didn’t know was that from a distance, some of them have planned a strategy.

    “Butwearejusttoosmalltobemadeintobootsyoursizeandyoulackthetoolstoskinallofus!!!” screamed the sprinting Gogoba Chief fast-paced. “Ahhhh!!”

    Meanwhile...

    “Is the energy rope ready?” asked Perci the bandicoot.

    “Pulling it as tight as possible,” replied Mike the ox, heaving and sweating. “Couldn’t we tie this to a tree?”

    “Like it there is one nearby,” groaned Salty the hippo, pulling the long rope as well.

    The bandicoot warned the bystanders, “Everyone, stand back! Terra is coming towards us before you know it!”

    After everyone obeyed, the Gogobas who threw their weapons arrived, but split up and hid in opposing areas whereas the giant monster continued running between their actual directions. “WHERE ARE YOU PIPSQUEAKS? YOU CAN HIDE, BUT YOU CAN’T ESCAPE!” Afterwards, while not paying attention, Terra tripped over the strong two’s Enerbeam and slowly fell down like a chopped-down tree, causing the ground to shake. As a result, I was released from her giant hand, which gave me an opportunity to find my freezing ray to finish her off.

    “Now, get your ropes ready!” ordered Perci.

    Similar to a scene in the book Gulliver’s Travels, the villagers shot their pointy, “spring loaded,” and energy-based ropes over Terra to tie her down, with the spearheads attaching firmly to the ground, in which she was unable to break free despite her brute strength. “I can’t get up!” she moaned, attempting to jerk off the tethers. “Whoever’s sellin’ these oughta be creamed to death!”

    “That would be me,” I answered, flying above her head. “I invented these ropes to restrain anything giant like you! Now, for the record, you learn that when it comes to game making, copyright infringement especially for hurting others is a crime, so the next time you make another game, use your own resources from now on.” Then, I brought my Magnifier and shot a cyan beam to freeze her hideous head in pure ice, complementing what would happen next, as I called, “Knuckles, finish her off!”

    “You bet I will!” replied Knuckles, jumping off a cliff and then dive bombing in the air like a fiery meteor. “I knew you were that pepper-spraying robot for the whole time,” he indicated to Terra. Finally, he delivered an overwhelmingly powerful strike Terra’s frozen and enfeebled head and defeat her once and for all. BOOOOOM!!!

    Eventually Sonic, Amy and Sticks showed up, and Zooey got a hold of my healing rod, unharmed even though I’ve accidently forgotten about it. Once she pulled its trigger to heal me, Knuckles, and the rest of my team with its blue aura, we fully recovered in the blink of an eye, and the six of us all gave fives, like in the end of my game’s trailer.

    “Great work, guys,” complemented Sonic. “With the help of Tails’ still-loyal fans, it looks like there’s no one, not even a cruel overgrown mutant, to stop Team Sonic after all!”

    The big red echidna argued, “You mean, Team Knuckles, or should I say Team Nucleus. After all, I clearly inspired him, who was the CAPTAIN in Blades of the Rebellion. Plus, I did do the finishing blow.”

    The blue buddy sighed, “Alright, Knux, you win...for tonight.”

    While my team and all the villagers/my fans were celebrating their victory, I found Eggman at a bench, moping about not getting my game he wanted. For some reason, I actually felt kinda bad for him, so I decided to give him a free copy of BotR, especially after he and Willabelle gathered my fans. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this is for you, Dr. Eggman. I assume that you’ll go back to being evil on the next day, but after you once admitted affection and later redeemed yourself tonight, this is what you’re earning.”