Sonic and the Freedom Fighters
Chapter 4: Catching Up Part 2

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. All characters portrayed in this story, unless specified otherwise, belong to SEGA.

-Eggman's Base-

Bunnie slowly opened her eyes, having recovered somewhat from being knocked out. She was laying on a hard metal floor, in the middle of a featureless, dimly lit room. She slowly rose to her knees, feeling too weak to stand. Eggman's energy blast had left her very disoriented.

"Oooh... Where am Ah?" She muttered, clutching her head.

"So, you finally decided to wake up." A familiar voice called out to her. The lights suddenly turned on in the room to reveal that the one who spoke was none other than Dr Eggman. At his sides were his two robot minions, Orbot and Cubot. Eggman smirked evilly as he walked towards Bunnie.

"Robotnik!" She growled as she tried to get up, only for her to realize she couldn't move her robotic limbs.

"Feeling a little numb, are we?" He taunted.

"Why aren't mah limbs movin'?" She asked him defiantly.

"I'm glad you asked. See, I've planted a microchip on you where you can't reach it." He explained. "As long as you have that on you, I have full control over what your mechanical appendages." Bunnie immediately figured out what Eggman was planning to do with her; he was going to make her attack her friends!

"You wouldn't." She said.

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Eggman retorted looking down at her.

"Sir, it appears that Sonic and Tails are approaching." Orbot called out, interrupting the two.

"Perfect." Eggman said as he took a remote device from Cubot and pressed a button on it, causing Bunnie's mechanical limbs to move on their own and force her to stand.

"This is going to be great! I can't wait to see the look on Sonic's face when I turn one of his closest friends against him!"

-Outside Eggman's Base-

Tails landed the plane on the ground several meters away from Eggman's fortress. When the plane came to a stop, Sally stepped out of the passenger seat and Sonic jumped off the wing of the plane. She looked up at the fortress. The main part of the fortress was a massive dome-like structure with a massive tower jutting out from the middle of it. It had a large wall-like structure surrounding it, with large cylindrical tower-like structures at each corner.

"Tails, stay here and keep the Tornado ready to go when we get out." Sonic said.

"You got it!" Tails replied eagerly. Sonic ran to Sally and stopped next to her as she looked at the large metal door.

"So, what's the plan? Charge in, guns blazing?" Sally asked jokingly.

"Well, if you want to try the sneaky way in, there should be a vent around there." He responded, pointing towards the wall. Nodding, the two ran towards the wall and began looking for the vent. After a few moments of searching, Sally spotted a rather large metal grille.

"Found it." She called out as she used her energy blades to cut the grille off, revealing the air vent. It was big enough to crawl through, but only one of them would be able to go through at a time. Sally crawled in first, with Sonic following her lead after she crawled all the way in.

"You'd have thought Eggman would have sealed this thing off." Sally said to the blue hedgehog behind her.

"Well, I barely ever go this way, so I doubt he'd expect it." He admitted.

"Now, why doesn't that surprise me?" She rhetorically asked with an amused chuckle.

"Hey, the breaking and entering thing works fine for me." He responded matter-of-factly. "I mean, why change it if it works?" Rolling her eyes, Sally decided to focus on the path ahead. She eventually saw another grille on the bottom wall of the vent. She used her Ring Blades to cut it out, and it fell out of the vent, landing on a hapless Moto-Bug patrolling under it, disabling the robot. Sally then dropped down and landed on the grille, crushing the Moto-Bug underneath her. She stood up and pulled Nicole out as Sonic landed behind her.

"Nicole, can you hack into Eggman's security cameras to find Amy and Bunnie?" Sally asked.

"Let me see..." Nicole responded, flicking through several surveillance images before stopping on one that showed Amy trapped in a metal ring that pinned her arms to her body. "I've found Amy."

"And Bunnie?" Sally asked.

"I'm afraid I can't find her."

"Don't worry, we'll find her. For now, I need you to pinpoint Amy's location."

"Right away, Sally." Nicole said as she switch her screen to a map of the fortress, highlighting Sally and Sonic's position with a blue marker and Amy's location with a flashing green marker.

The two ran to the room Amy was in, the door opening automatically as they approached. As they entered the room, they saw Amy trapped ina metal ring.

"Sonic! Sally!" Amy cried.

"Amy!" The two called out as they ran to her to free her.

But before they could do so, someone shouted "Incoming!" from across the room, giving Sonic and Sally just enough time to move out of the way of whatever was flying towards them. The speeding blur rushed past the two before crashing into the wall, revealing that the live projectile was, in fact, Bunnie.

"Bunnie? What are you doing?!"

"Hold up! Ah can explain everythin'!" Bunnie called out, before her arm morphed into its blaster form and fired an energy blast on its own. The two had just enough time to jump to the side to avoid it.

"Are your cybernetics going haywire again?" Sonic asked.

"Uh, ya could say that!"

Out of nowhere, the four heard an evil maniacal laugh. They all turned their heads to see Dr Eggman standing in the open doorway.

"Eggman! What did you do to Bunnie?" Sally growled

"Simple, I placed a microchip on her that allows me to remotely control her cybernetic limbs. So as long as it remains on her body, I'm the one in control of her actions." He gloated, unaware that Amy was staring at Bunnie with a strange look on her face. "And the best part? None of you have any idea where it-"

"It's on the back of her jacket!" Amy suddenly shouted, causing Sonic and Sally to turn around and spot a small, grey object on the back of Bunnie's jacket. Bunnie was trying to turn her head around to see it.

"Do you have to ruin everything?" Eggman shouted, fuming. "Ah, no matter. Bunnie, ATTACK!" He shouted, pressing a button on his device, causing Bunnie to suddenly turn around and face Sonic and Sally before charging at them. Sonic jumped over the incoming cyborg while Sally jumped to the side to avoid her. When Sonic landed behind her, Bunnie's legs forced her to turn around while her arm changed into its blaster form and aimed at Sonic. Before it could fire, however, Sonic kicked the blaster arm away so that it was aiming in the other direction. The blaster fired, and the energy blast shot past Eggman, who flinched as he was nearly hit by it.

"Hey, watch it!" Eggman shouted. He pressed another button on the controller, and Bunnie's arm and legs sprang back into actionThe two resumed fighting, Sonic being able to avoid any attacks that Bunnie's haywire limbs could attempt, while Eggman watched with great enjoyment.

Fortunately, Eggman was so focused on the fight that he didn't notice Sally sneak past him and approach the still imprisoned Amy. Amy opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when she saw Sally put a finger up to her lips, signalling for her to keep quiet. She went behind Amy and activated her Ring-Blades.

"Stay very still." She whispered as she dug her Ring-Blade into the metal ring keeping Amy imprisoned. Sally had to be very slow and careful, as if she made a mistake, she could end up hurting Amy. Amy could feel the intense heat given off by the Ring-Blades cutting through the metal ring on her back and tried her best to not make any sudden movements.

Meanwhile, Sonic managed to avoid a sweep kick from Bunnie by jumping over her, but Eggman anticipated this and had Bunnie's arm swing round in an attempt to punch him while he was in the air. Sonic, either by an absurd amount of skill or just sheer luck, managed to land both of his feet on Bunnie's metallic fist and propelled himself off of it. He spun around in the air before landing on the wall, defying gravity for a split second to jump off of the wall to spin dash into Bunnie. Her robotic arm managed to catch the spinning hedgehog, completely blocking his attack before tossing him out of her grasp. Sonic managed to land on his feet after being thrown by her. Bunnie couldn't help but be impressed by Sonic's incredibly quick reflexes.

One of her legs spun round to kick him, but Sonic countered with a kick of his own, the two colliding by the ankles and stopping each other. The two stayed in that position for a few seconds, before Sonic suddenly started hopping up and down while holding his ankle with a pained looked on his face.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Sonic cried out. "That was a bad idea!"

Sonic managed to recover in time to avoid another kick from Bunnie by ducking under, and he sweep kicked her right leg, causing Bunnie to lose her balance and fall flat on her face.

"Ow!" The poor rabbit cried out as she held her right hand up to her face. "Could ya please be a bit more careful?"

"Sorry." Sonic muttered sheepishly as Bunnie got back up.

As Eggman prepared to have Bunnie attack again, the three of them heard a metal clang, and they turned their heads to see that Sally had freed Amy from her metal bindings, and Amy now had her hammer in her hands.

"Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me!" Eggman groaned. "Well, no matter. Now that I have your strongest fighter, I can easily crush all three of you." He said as he pressed another button on his controller.

"Oh, here we go." Bunnie said in a deadpan tone as the rocket boosters in her feet forced her to move, this time towards Sally and Amy. Amy swung her hammer and it collided with Bunnie's metal fist, sending the cyborg flying backwards into a wall. Bunnie was genuinely surprised at the young hedgehog's strength. Before she could get up, Sonic raced behind her and pinned her arms behind her back. Amy rushed over to help Sonic restrain Bunnie while Sally took Nicole out of her holster.

"Don't worry, Bunnie." Sally said. "I promise this won't hurt."

Sally held Nicole in front of the microchip, and a small green spark appeared between Nicole and the device. Bunnie felt her legs and left arm deacivate as the device lost its control over them. Once the spark disappeared, Sally took the device off Bunnie's jacket, threw it to the floor and stomped on it, crushing it under her foot. As she did so, Bunnie regained feeling in her arm and legs and moved her arm around. She smiled, ecstatic that she could control her actions again and that she would no longer have to fight her friends. She got up and hugged Sally tightly.

"Thanks, Sal!" Bunnie cried.

"You're welcome." Sally replied.

"Uh, guys?" Amy called. The others turned their attention to the horde of robots that had now surrounded them, and got into their battle-ready stance.

"So, what now?" Amy asked.

"We got what we came for. Now let's get out of here." Sonic said. Without warning, he picked up Sally and sped out of the room, with Amy and Bunnie following and the robots attempting to give chase.

Outside, Tails was sitting in the pilot's seat of the Tornado, playing a game on his Miles Electric. His focus was quickly broken by the sound of metal doors opening, and he turned his head to see Sonic and the others quickly running towards the Tornado.

Quickly putting the Miles Electric away, Tails started the Tornado's engine. Once they got to the plane, Sonic turned to Amy.

"Amy, you go in the seat behind Tails." He said. As Amy climbed into the passenger seat, Sonic turned to face Bunnie. "Bunnie, you okay to fly?"

"Should be." Bunnie replied.

"Wait, where am I-" Sally couldn't finish her sentence as Sonic picked her up, jumped onto the wing of the Tornado, and set her down.

"Sonic, are you serious? What if I fall off?" Sally shouted, a touch of panic in her voice.

"Just hold on and you'll be fine." Sonic assured her, one hand gripping the edge of the wing.

Not wanting to argue, Sally complied and held onto the edge of the wing with both hands. As if on cue, the Tornado started moving and took off.

Once the Tornado was in the air, Sonic turned to Sally, who still had her eyes tightly shut, and chuckled.

"You can open your eyes now." He said to her. She opened her eyes, but she still kept her tight grip on the wing.

"See? It's just like sitting in the passenger seat, except you don't have someone's head in the way." Sonic told her.

Sally adjusted her position so that she was sitting on the wing.

"This is... actually pretty fun." Sally gasped.

-Tails' House-

The Tornado had landed back at Tails' house, and the group was currently standing next to the plane, relaxing after tense confrontation.

"Don't you think the Tornado will be very inefficient if we need to carry the whole team?" Sally asked.

"Well, Rotor and I are designing another method of transportation that will be able to carry the entire team." Tails replied. "It's still being built, but it shouldn't be too long before it's ready."

"You know, I sometimes wonder where you get the materials to build all this" Sonic said.

"Destroying Eggman's robots for more than two years does give me a lot of scrap metal to work with." Tails responded.

As Sonic and Tails continued to talk, Sally noticed Amy on her own. She went over to check on her.

"Are you okay?" Sally asked, surprising Amy.

"Of course." Amy replied. "I've been in far worse situations than that."

"Well, thanks for your help back there." Sally said. After a few seconds, Amy suddenly gasped in shock

"I have to go. I promised Cream I'd take her to the park. I'll see you later." Amy said as she suddenly burst into a run. "Bye, Sonic!" She called as she left.

After Amy left, Sally stood still, completely deep in thought. She couldn't help but think back to earlier that day, when Amy mentioned in full detail her feelings for Sonic. Did Sonic feel the same way? Sure, he said that they were just friends, but there was still a little part of her that was still unsure. And then there was Sonic's claims of Amy's 'temper'. Would they have to keep their feelings for each other a secret?

"Ya'll okay there, Sal?" Bunnie asked. Sally jumped at the familiar voice of her friend. She hadn't even noticed her appear next to her.

"I'm fine. I was just lost in thought." Sally claimed. "I should be asking you if you're okay. You've been through quite a lot today."

"Ah'm fine. Ah've had far worse than that." Bunnie replied, before rubbing her forehead. "But now that ya'll mention it, Ah am pretty exhausted. Ah think Ah'm gonna lie down fer a while."

"Ok then." Sally said as she allowed bunnie to walk past her and into the house. She looked up at the sky, which was now beginning to grow dark as the sun began to set.

"It has been a long day." She said to herself.