Chapter 13
Flights and Friendships
"Aww, man! How long is this gonna take?" I said as I sat in the back seat next to Court. "Dylan, Hillsboro is on the other side of the world, it's gonna take some time to get there." Tails answered my question. We were only in the plane for about three hours. But I really hate being stuck in places and not being able to have freedom. I glanced out the window, all I saw was water. We were over an ocean. "A lot of water down there." I said, staring at the glittering water. Sonic shook, "The faster we get over the ocean , the better."
"Don't worry, Sonic, we are almost across, not too much longer." Tails told Sonic. I turned to Court again; I've been talking to her the entire time. I talk to Court a lot. She is one of my best friends, and I love her to death. I know I could talk to her about anything. Me and Court are different in a lot of ways though, she is a lot more quiet than I am, but she has her moments of wild loud wackiness, while I am crazy and nuts all the time. Either way, we will be best friend until the end of time, and I know we will.
Me and Court normally talk about Sonic stuff, but I think we both felt awkward talking about Sonic when he is sitting about three feet away from us. So we played rock paper scissors, had staring contests, laughing contests, and played I Spy. I Spy wasn't too much fun because the only things outside the plane were the sky and the ocean. "Hey guys, we have about 20 minutes until we are over land!" Tails said excitedly. "Woohoo!" I said excitedly. I decided to take a nap; we weren't going to land for a while anyways.
"I'm gonna take a quick nap," I told Court, "Alright, I'm probably going to in a minute too, all this flying has made me tired." She said as she yawned. So me and Court closed our eyes, laid back, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
I woke up about an hour later. The sun was going down. "Hey Tails, how far are we from Hillsboro?" Tails looked at some meters on the panel of the Tornado, then at a clock in the center console. "About three more hours still." Tails said with a sigh. "Man, I should of stayed asleep longer." I said as I sat back into my seat. I looked out at the sky, which was still blue, but had a little red tint to it, on account of the sun set. I could see the ground, we were flying over trees. "I know what to do." I tried to get a connection with David again.
Still no answer. "Crap." I said to myself. I looked out the window again; nothing has changed, except our location. I decided to start fidgeting with my fingers, singing in my head. I looked over at Court, still sleeping. Its really boring without talking to her. I debated on waking her up, but I didn't, I thought it would be best for her to get as much sleep as possible. I then looked over at Knuckles, who looked like he was asleep, but I think he was meditating, or something.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something. I looked out the window. "Oh no, Tails!" A red battle ship was lowering from the high skies to our level. "Huh? Uh-oh!" Tails turned the plane, out of the giant battleship's path, but the battleship stayed on us. I could see the side of the ship, and a giant white Eggman insignia was on it. "It looks like we are going to have to take it down!" Tails said. I turned to wake up Court, who to my surprise, was already awake and looking out the window. Sonic and Knuckles were both looking out the window also. The turrets on the ship turned and aimed.
"Tails… They're going to fire!" I said to Tails nervously. "Seatbelts everyone!" We all strapped in. The cannons fired, Tails turned the plane a sharp turn to the left, avoiding three missiles, then made the plane ascend. "Alright, hold on!" Tails warned us. Me and Court grabbed each others hand, and the seats. Tails ascended and made the plane go upside down. "Now Sonic!" He said as he pushed a button which opened the cockpit. Sonic jumped out and landed on the battleship. "Whoa!" he said as he slid with the wind. "It's too high! He won't be able to stay on there very long, Tails!" Knuckles said watching Sonic.
"I can't get him with these turrets firing at me!" Tails said as he avoided more missiles. Tails brought the plane down the same level as the battleship; Sonic took the chance and jumped onto the body of the plane, right behind the cockpit. Tails flew down under the battleship and opened the cockpit. Sonic quickly jumped in. "Well, that didn't work." Sonic said to Tails. "Uh, Tails." Court said as she stared at the battleship descending, and aiming turrets at us again. "Hold on!" Tails said as he pulled away from the ship again. "How are we going to take this thing down?" Sonic asked Tails. "I'm not sure; it has to have a weak spot."
Tails flew us around the ship, we all closely examined and it, "I don't see a weak spot anywhere in that thing!" Knuckles said. Just then, the plane shook. "Ah!" I said as I held tightly to Courts hand and the bar on the back of the seat. "We're hit!" Tails said as the plane wobbled, but maintained flight. The Tornado's left side began to smoke a little bit. I looked out the window again, "Sonic, I have an idea." Sonic turned and looked at me, "Anything will help, whatcha got?" I pointed out the window. "We have to take out the turrets first, right? Well, what we could do is you and Knuckles could jump out, you could spin into a ball, and Knuckles could throw you at the turrets, and if you fall, he could catch you!" Sonic looked at me and thought for a second. "Hmmm, sounds like this might just work, lets give it a try Knuckles!"
Knuckles unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped up. "Let's go!" Tails opened the cockpit again, and Sonic and Knuckles jumped out again. Sonic jumped on Knuckles' back, and the glided over towards the battleship. Sonic then spun into a ball, and Knuckles hit him towards a turret. Sonic flew towards the turret and smashed straight through it. "Haha! Got em'!" I said as I watched the turret explode. The plane shook again. "Ah! We were hit again!" Tails pressed a few buttons quickly. The plane maintained flight still, but was shaky. Sonic and Knuckles kept smashing through the turrets, as we kept dodging the missiles.
"There must be over 30 turrets on that thing!" Court said. "Tails, how are you doing?" I asked. "I'm fine, thanks." He said as he quickly maneuvered us through missiles. Tails is an excellent pilot, I thought to myself. Sonic and Knuckles kept smashing turrets, one by one, they kept exploding. "Tails, don't you have any weapons on this?" Court asked. Tails closed his eyes. "Oh duh!" Tails pushed a button, and flew above the battleship. "Thanks for reminding me Court!" Tails said with a smile, as he started shooting at the battleship. The missiles from our plane blew up and caused little damage on Eggman's ship.
"Watch out for Sonic and Knuckles!" I said quickly, seeing them barely miss being shot down. Sonic and Knuckles landed back on the Tornado, "Tails! What are ya doin'!? You almost hit us out there!" Tails gripped the controls of the plane. "Sorry Sonic, hold on!" Tails said as he swerved the plane, missing even more missiles. I gripped Court's hand, "I have a bad feeling about this." I said to her. "Tails!" Court screamed as another missile hit us. "Rrrgh! That's it, Eggman! You're going down!" Sonic growled as he and Knuckled jumped and glided off the plane again. The plane was shaking horribly.
Tails maintained control, even though the plane was severely damaged. "Hold on guys, this is going to get worse!" I watched as Sonic and Knuckles destroyed more turrets, but not enough, we still had too many missiles being fired at us to avoid. Tails quickly made the plane go up, then down. "You're going to have to do better than that to take me down, Eggman!" He cheered. "Tails, don't celebrate too early!" I cautioned him. I turned and saw Sonic land on the battleship, then bounce back up to Knuckles again. "Come on guys…" Court said. Just then, another missile hit the plane.
"Wah!" Tails cried out. The plane began to shake tremendously. "I can't move the controls!" The plane started spiraling in the air, I held on to Court's hand with a death grip, as she did mine. The spinning was terrible, Tails hit a switch which caused us to regain balance. "That was clo---" Tails was interrupted by another missile hit, which hit the left wing, knocking it out, causing us to spiral downwards. "No!" Tails said as he hung on. "Ahh!" Court screamed. The glass from the cockpit shattered. "Huh!" I held on with all my might, the plane was going haywire, we were going down.
"Court! Hold on!" I screamed to her, the noise of the engine was so loud, it was all I could here, that and the screams of my friends in the plane. I never let go of Court's hand, but as I looked down, I notice something wrong, her seatbelt. The belt, it was being ripped from the seat. "Oh no…" I said as it began to pull out of the seat, "Court! Hang on!" The seatbelt completely ripped out, the only things holding Court were my hand holding hers, and her holding onto a bar attached to the back of a seat. "No! Dylan!" I held on to her hand as tight as I could, but it wasn't tight enough to withstand the spiraling momentum pulling her out of the Tornado.
Our hands slipped, he only thing holding her was the bar on the back of the seat. I reached up as far as I could to grab her hand again, but she was being pulled out of the plane. I began to reach for the hand that was holding the bar, my plan was to grab her wrist, and pull her in. The bar was not strong enough, it began to bend, and right as I grabbed her wrist it broke. "No!" I screamed as I held on with both hands. "I'm not letting this happen!" My seatbelt that was holding me in hand an enormous amount of pressure, and it was hurting my ribs and stomach, but it was holding. The seatbelt was the only thing holding us to the craft. I saw another hand grab Court's arm, it was Tails. "Tails!" I said in astonishment. Tails could fly us out of here, if we could get away from the plane. "Hold on! I'm coming back there!" Tails said as he unbuckled his seatbelt with his free hand. He immediately grabbed his seat, and was planning to jump, but he lost his grip. "Wha!" He said as he got sucked out of the plane. "Tails!" I screamed as I tried to grab him.
"The only way we would have any chance of survival is if I unbuckle my seatbelt!" I screamed to Court. It was my turn to make a life-or-death decision. Court looked at me, and nodded. But before I could unbuckle, my hand slipped, Court got sucked out of the plane. "No!" I said as I unbuckled my seatbelt and lunged out of the plane. We both were in free fall now. She was over ten feet below me, I had to reach her. I put my arms at my side, and I aimed straight forward. My speed began to increase, and I was right above Court. I reached my hand out for hers, she reached hers out for mine.
Our fingers barely touched, "Grr!" I said as I reached farther. Out hands clamped on to each other. "Gotcha!" I said as I pulled her towards me. We were going head first towards the earth. "Dylan, is this how it's going to end?" Court asked me as we got closer and closer to the ground. "I think so, Court…" I said sadly. We were approaching the earth rapidly; I looked higher in the air to see the plane spiraling, the giant battleship smoking, and specks floating in the air far above us. I clenched onto Court, thinking this would be the end, the end of my adventure, the end of everything.
I held on to Court, she had closed her eyes and it looked as if she was crying. "This is it!" I said. We very close to the ground, to crashing, and dying. Thinking of that made me begin to cry. I didn't want it to end this way, everybody in Hillsboro was counting on us, the world was counting on us, and we failed. It was over.
I saw a flash of bright light, and then everything went black.