Author Notes - Yes indeed, fellow Freedom Fighters! Asher Tye and I are indeed still here! Don't tell us you forgot about us!

Let me start out by saying that I hope everyone had themselves a Cool Yule and have so far enjoyed an even better New Year! I know I enjoyed Christmas! Hey, how could I not? I was the lucky receiver of the DVD box set of Death Note ("Just as planned!") and Splatterhouse for the PS3! Let me tell you something, it took my ages to memorise all the attack patterns of the fiendish foes from the original arcade game (included with the remake as an unlockable extra) but it was worth every second of my time! And with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Green Lantern, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides soon to hit the silver screen as well as Batman: Arkham City due to take the PS3 by storm, how the hell can it not be a fantastic year?

I regret to say that I owe you guys an apology. By rights, you ought to have gotten this chapter sooner than now but due to an unfortunate misunderstanding (which I take full responsibility for seeing as it was completely my fault) that didn't happen. I can only blush for this transgression and trust that your patience is rewarded by this funtastic new installment of MBMH. By the way, let's hear it to the brilliant Asher Tye for writing it!

Enjoy!

Chapter 31

Sonic vs Naugus; When sorcery and science collide

Within seconds of his disorientating confrontation with Lieutenant Omega Sonic had managed to reach Command Central, his every sound-barrier shattering footstep driven onward by the desire to see that some well deserved sonic chaos was visited upon Ixis Naugus. He moved like lightning, up the steps, through the entrance, across the hall, and up the stairs, just as so many feet had preceded his. Nothing could stop him, no barrier of man or magic made.

Nothing save for the sight awaiting him at the end of his journey.

In a blue blur of motion, Sonic arrived on the scene, ready to save Princess Sally from whatever devilry her unwanted host may have given her. But what his emerald eyes spied as he entered caused him to come to a screeching halt, an incredulous gasp escaping his lips.

Sally stood in the middle of the room, one of her slender ankles encased in a metallic shackle that seemed out of place in this crystalline world, but hold the squirrel in place nevertheless. Naugus loomed over her, a sinister figure radiating a sorcerous light from his gloved hand as he evoked some spell of no doubt great and ancient power. But the last and most shocking thing of all was Tails.

It was Tails, but not the Tails Sonic had known for almost all of the cub's life. The fox the Freedom Fighters had come so far and gone through so much danger to rescue on this dark night had changed, and not for the better. Wrapped now in a dark blue cloak, his face grinning in a near infinite malice at the trapped and helpless figure of Princess Sally, he seemed more like a little demon than Sonic's little brother.

Sonic had never been what someone, anyone, would call a deep thinker. When given the choice he often preferred "doing" to "thinking." Action solved most of his problems, in far more entertaining ways than thinking ever did.

But just because Sonic was not known for his mental feats did not mean his brain was an untrained muscle suffering from atrophy.

'This isn't possible,' the hedgehog thought to himself, not in a panicked way, but calmly, rationally, and with absolute certainty. 'There's no way my little bro could ever be such a mondo uncool geek like this.' Hedgehog brow furrowed as Sonic made his final conclusion. 'Whoever this little creep is, it can't be Tails.'

Without even a second thought as to the consequences, Sonic leapt in between Sally and her horn-headed assailant. A loud cry escaped the squirrel Princess's mouth as he planted himself directly in the path of danger, but Sonic refuses to move.

Surprise crossed Naugus's face as well since he was not expecting to be so interrupted, but not all surprises are unwelcome and a sharp cackle escaped the wizened wizard's lips as he saw his chance to crystallize two foes with a single spell.

'Oh yes, from afar my magics may not have been able to bring you low, Quickster,' Naugus thought with a grin, 'but at this distance, you cannot help but be overwhelmed by my power!' Emboldened by this prospect, the mish-mash Mobian prepared to deal the final, crushing blow in the conflict between himself and the Freedom Fighters.

But the squirrel and the sorcerer were not the only ones to react to the Hero of Mobius's sudden, unexpected arrival. From where he stood, the disturbing expression of perfidious glee that had so recently graced Miles Prower's face was wiped clean. Indeed now the fox-cub looked as though someone had just slugged him in the stomach, his body breathless and swaying from side to side as though he were on the verge of collapsing. Very slowly his mouth opened and closed, trying to form the name of his anointed big brother only for the first syllable to become stuck in his throat like a chunk of stale bread.

Sonic himself was not idle as he watched the mystical spell form, seconds away from engulfing both himself and his chosen mate. Against such power, he knew there was only one hope to defend them both. A last resort that has never failed them before and, he hoped, will not fail them now.

Inside Sonic's new brown backpack, acquired as a replacement for the older one necessity had forced him to vandalize, sat their hoped for salvation; a Power Ring. The hedgehog had known he'd been extremely lucky to find one just in time at the grotto before leaving for this mission, and now his favored talisman was revealed. In the split second before the barrage of mystical energy could swallow the two Mobians whole, his gloved hands thrust forward the golden ring, holding it out like a protective shield.

That Naugus was a powerful wizard was a fact no one could dispute, but that power had been limited most severely when the old creature had escaped the confines of the Void. While within that glittering prison of a dimension Naugus could with a snap of his misshapen hand entrap someone in a shell of unbreakable crystal, here was a different story. On this plane, ruled with an iron hand by the laws of physics, his spells were forced to be far more direct in their approach to take their proper effect, making physical contact to achieve for their master victory.

And it was this that the teen hedgehog sought to prevent, as indicated by the golden glow of the now activated Power Ring.

Before astonished eyes the shining power of the ring and the dark magic of the sorcerer collided, bathing the crystal-lined throne room in a yellowish silver strobe light. It was clear this was a battle, a conflict, old as time itself; the fruits of science against the spawn of magic, the hope of freedom versus the despair of tyranny, the champions of light fighting those of darkness.

What was not clear was which would prevail this time.

And amid the influx of dazzling light, a pair of wide blue eyes took in the scene, their owner's fate lying at the heart of this blistering conflict.

Meanwhile, at his lonely post, Rotor suddenly spun around, his shocked gaze taking in the sight of an intense light sweeping across the rooftops of Robotropolis. Despite the fact that he was not able to see its source, the walrus inventor's capricious gut tells him that it can only be Command Central. And in his heart he knows one more fact for certain, whatever had happened, his friends were even now in the thick of it.

A screeching roar rippling through the air drags most, though not all, of Rotor's attention. A glance skyward revealed Dulcy gliding about overhead, still being pursued by Stealthbots. The shadows of the dueling fliers cause the streets below to seem all the gloomier in the darkness.

Then the sound of Dulcy's tail striking something was heard, and a word unfit for polite society escaped Rotor's hairy muzzle as a Stealthbot came spinning down into the street. The battered machine careened into the side of a roof, bringing debris tumbling down in a roaring cascade of stone, dust and metal. Only barely was the normally slow moving walrus able to escape being flattened.

"Too close," Rotor coughed out, rubbing himself off with one of his now tender paws. As sparks dance around the ruined Stealthbot, the walrus turned to look back at the foreboding spire of Command Central. "Well, whatever's going on over there, the others can't be in any more danger than I am here."

Back in the glittering throne room of Ixis Naugus, two monumental powers continued to clash, energy cascading about the crystalline surfaces of the walls and furniture to create a spectacular light show. It was a show watched intently by a certain small, orange fox, a crucial player in this contest between science and sorcery.

Tails had spent the last few tense minutes staring intently at the hedgehog with the golden circle of power, closed off to everything going on around him by an invisible wall of emotions. A hoarse grunting sound escaping the sandpaper dry windpipe of Ixis Naugus pulled the cub back to reality and shook the apprentice's head free of all distraction.

'Now is not the time to be lost in pointless memory. I have made my choice to stand by Naugus and it is not a choice I will ignore.' Sharp canines ground together as young jaw muscles clenched in determination. 'It is time to end this dispute, permanently.'

Grimly Tails stepped forward, straight towards the two intruding pieces of dreck who would prevent he and his Master's beautiful dream of a glorious new world order from coming true. In his tight paw the crystal dagger glittered murderously, its intended mark the pounding heart of the courageous hedgehog.

Aware of the danger, Sonic's head tilted to the side, the vision of a single emerald eye spared to watch the sharp tip of the unsheathed weapon as it approached. There was nothing he could do and he knew it. Every ounce of his strength and will was already being expended turning back the tide of dark magic being focused upon Sally and himself.

'So this is how it's gonna end, huh? Not at the business end of a SWAT's laser or the trapped in some crystal prison, but by my own little bro…' Angrily Sonic's brow furrowed at that unwelcome thought. 'No! That ain't Tails! That's just some joker made up to look like him. It's not my little brother who's doing this!' But even with that conviction in his heart, the sight of someone who looked so much like someone he loved preparing to do him in was enough to make his very blood run cold.

Sonic had never been afraid of death. He'd never even given it a second thought. Death was something that could happen to others, not to him. And even if he did die, so long as he went down protecting his friends and family, he didn't care. But, as his eye cast backward a bit to glance at the red headed squirrel who took shelter behind him, he knew he did not have the luxury now of meeting the Grim Reaper with an audacious bow and a pithy one-liner.

With a final step Tails came to stand next to the hedgehog and squirrel, the knife in his paw raised to deliver the death blow. It was a blow that never came. The arm and shoulder refused to move, refused to deliver the ruthless fate the evil blade would promise.

From her vantage Sally watched as Tails stood frozen, locked in the grip of some internal struggle. A basic fear gripped her body, but at the same time her face was serene.

'"And if you move again without my permission, I swear I'll carve you up like a Halloween pumpkin and send your head back to Knothole as a warning to everyone else!"'

That horrible threat made by Tails only a few moments ago echoed in Sally's mind, along with the following taunts as to just how short-lived her faith in the cub had been. Now that same faith was being tested again, a test the Princess of Acorn was determined to pass this time.

'This time will be different,' she swore to herself. 'This time I will not give in. I know, with all of my heart and soul, that the cub I raised, the boy I loved as though he were my very own, would never descend into evil and murder. Let sooner it be me who would become such a monster.'

Emotion, either positive or negative, had drained from Tails's fuzzy face, just as it had mere moments before. Inside the kit's mind a thought surfaced, the same thought that had resonated inside of his mind when he witnessed Sonic come running in.

'Sonic is not dead. He's alive. My big brother is alive. I'm so… so…'

In his paw the dagger trembled as the kit wrestled with the emotion pouring over his very being like water through a riverbed. Without conscious thought, Tails's head tilted to the side, his eyes meeting those of Sally Acorn. Loving warmth radiated back at him from those gentle depths, helping to soothe the deeply conflicted cub, letting him know that all would be okay.

With her faith in the child vindicated, Sally reached out to once more take possession of the evil blade, this time finding no resistance as she did so.

Still smiling, the Princess of Acorn began to pry open the remaining shackle around her leg, content in the knowledge that her first assumption had been right. This was not Tails, but rather the pure rage that had burned for so long in his broken heart. Someone had just needed to calm the flames, a task best suited for a mother's touch when the time was just right. Sally was not deluded enough to think they had completely passed through this infernos of resentment, but they had passed the worst part, and with that knowledge her soul soared on wings of joy. Her Tails was indeed still there within that awful shell; he simply needed the undying love and faith of his family to rescue him.

In the next moment, two things occurred. The first and most immediate was that the shackle between Sally and freedom snapped open with a loud pop, releasing the squirrel from Naugus's evil thrall. The second and more important event was that the contest between Sonic's Power Ring and Ixis Naugus's malignant will reached its final climax.

The glow of power and magic faded and died as Naugus collapsed back into his thrown, panting wearily, his will denied and his magic defeated.

"So that was what all the ruckus was about," Ari stated from the entryway to the control room. Though by no means sensitive to any sort of magic, the ram could not help but notice intense battle going on, and had simply followed the glow, believing that any such contest would have Sonic at its heart.

The Power Ring now drained, Sonic lowered it, turning from his foe to stare at the blank faced Tails and finally at Sally, unsure of what next to do. In all truth, and in direct contrast to what he would most likely tell his adoring public beside the campfire later, the hedgehog had not expected to survive. He had merely focused on how much he needed to win, not only for Sally's sake, but for everyone's. And somehow, he had miraculously succeeded.

'But what's our next move?' he wondered.

Ears of hedgehog and squirrel began to twitch as a familiar beeping sound rang out from Tails's right paw. N.I.C.O.L.E. was receiving a signal from another Freedom Fighter's communication device, the one belonging to Bunnie.

"Sally-girl… are ya… are ya there?" the cyborg asked in a voice that trembled in unbearable anguish.

"Bunnie. Yes, I'm here," Sally responded, taking hold of N.I.C.O.L.E., Tails not even trying to stop her.

"Ah… Ah have somethin' ta report, Sally-Girl. Ah've… Ah've… … … … Ah've found Tails, but he's…" The sound of hard sobbing overtook the rabbits voice, preventing her from completing her message.

End of Chapter