Fortunately, Sonic and Tails just barely managed to make it under the garage door before it closed and trapped them in the plant. Considering how many explosives they'd planted, they elected to keep running, dodging laser fire from the SWATbots outside, hoping that they had enough time to get to cover.

"Behind the rock!" said Sonic.

Sonic and Tails ducked behind a big rock on the shore and waited. Soon enough, the rock managed to shield them from the effects of the huge blast wave before the loud boom from the charges' detonation came thundering in. At this range, only a few minor bits of debris from the explosion managed to reach them.

"Well, we really blew that one wide open!" said Sonic.

"I'll say!" said Tails.

"All right, let's get these suits off!"

Sonic and Tails removed their CBRN suits and put them back in the former's disguise bag. Tails then took a drink of water from his canteen to replace some fluids he'd lost from sweat and simultaneously wiped his forehead. He then extended the canteen to Sonic.

"Thanks!" Sonic took a swig of water before handing the canteen back to Tails.

"Where do you suppose Robotnik's gone now?" asked Tails.

"For once, I'm not sure. He could be…" Sonic trailed off as he looked up and saw a gigantic warship in the sky. "My guess is that he probably boogied on up to that huge warship."

"But I can't fly THAT high!" said Tails.

"Well…" Sonic hung his head slightly. "…we're boned."

Tails put his hand up to his chin and looked off at an indeterminate point on the horizon. "Not necessarily. If we can acquire some sort of aircraft, then we'll definitely be able to reach that flying fortress."

Sonic threw his arms up. "And where are we gonna get one of those, wiseguy!? I didn't see any airfields here, and it ain't like we can just walk into a store and say, 'hey, I wanna buy an airplane'!"

"That's a good question. I…" Tails' eyes widened when he found his inspiration. "I found one, Sonic!"

"This oughta be good…"

Against his better judgment, Sonic followed Tails to the source of the latter's inspiration: a junkyard full of all sorts of old machines. What the Two-Tailed Wonder was looking for, though, manifested itself in the form of an old, grayish-green two-seater biplane that had clearly seen better days, yet didn't appear to be totally ready to give up the ghost.

"Lemme get this straight…" said Sonic. "You're tellin' me that you seriously expect us to go after Robuttnik in THAT crate!?"

Tails rubbed the back of his head. "Well…not in this condition…"

"Look, I'm just not sure about this thing. I mean, look at it; it looks like it got hit by a tornado or somethin'!"

"It can't be that bad, can it? I'm sure this junkyard has enough parts for me to get it back into working condition."

"Tails, I totally believe ya when ya say you're a whiz with machines, but I don't think we're gonna get this bucket of bolts goin' again."

"But you wanna stop Robotnik, right?"

"Well yeah, but…"

Tails' ears drooped again. "If you help me rebuild this airplane, I promise I'll help you pursue Robotnik to the ends of the planet! Really!"

Once again, Sonic couldn't help but be entranced by Tails. It reminded him of some of the tactics he'd used to get money, food or other necessities back when he was still Sonny. The only difference here was that his friend seemed to have higher – perhaps even more noble – aspirations.

"All right, where do we start, kid?"

With ears perked up, Tails took a look at the internals of the plane, and then pulled out a notepad and a BIC pen from another pouch on his tool belt, flipped the notepad open to the next empty page and began scribbling some notes down. When he was done, he tore out the requisite pages and handed them to Sonic.

"OK, I've written down a list of all the parts I'll need," said Tails. "If you get confused, I also drew diagrams of everything, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding the stuff."

"Hmmm…" Sonic looked at everything that Tails had jotted down. "OK, I can dig it!"

With that, Sonic set out to find the requisite parts for Tails' new project. Some parts proved easier to find than others even with the clear, detailed diagrams that Tails had drawn. Nevertheless, Sonic got everything sooner or later. At a couple of points, the Blue Blur even stopped to watch his new friend working and couldn't help but smile at what a bang-up job he was doing. Granted, Tails encountered a few things that slowed him down, but overall, he had the plane done in a decent amount of time.

"I call it the 'Tornado'!" said Tails. "Pretty neat, huh?"

"Not bad," said Sonic. "There's just one thing missin'…"

"What?"

Sonic pulled out a can of spray paint. "The paintjob!"

After uncapping the can, Sonic shook it up and re-painted the Tornado within a matter of seconds. When he was done, the plane was now painted red with light gray wings, blue and orange stripes towards the wingtips, Sonic's name on both sides of the rear fuselage and Tails' "twin tails" emblem on each side of the vertical stabilizer.

"How ya like them apples?" said Sonic.

"Whoa, how'd you do that!?" said Tails. "Let me see that spray can!"

Without question, Sonic handed Tails the spray can. Upon close inspection, it had a red, color-matched label that said "EMERALD CITY PAINT CO." in bold white letters with "QUIK-DRI SPRAY PAINT" in compact white letters underneath. The Two-Tailed Wonder raised his eyebrows, and then looked up to face Sonic.

"Where did you even get this paint?" asked Tails. "No ordinary paint can do what you just did!"

"Ah, I got it from a guy who got it from a guy who got it off the back of a truck," said Sonic. "But who cares? As long as the artiste did his thing with it, that's all that matters! Now, where are we gonna take off from?"

Tails handed the spray can back to Sonic. "Help me push the plane and I'll show you."

Sonic and Tails pushed the Tornado to a long, straight stretch of beach, and then turned their hand-held radios on.

"We better hurry up with the takeoff," said Sonic. "I think the tide's risin' a bit…"

Tails hopped in the cockpit. "No problem, I'm getting there!"

After buckling up, Tails flicked a bunch of switches on and started the plane. Sonic hopped in the observer's seat, which had a Browning AN/M2 .30-cal machine gun on a swivel mount. Now buckled in, Ol' Blue kicked back and relaxed as his friend taxied down the makeshift runway. Fortunately, Tails had just enough distance to bring the Tornado up to speed and get a proper takeoff. Soon, they were flying high.

"Sonic, this is Tails. Everything OK back there? Over."

Sonic picked up his radio. "Everything's just groovy! How's this crate runnin'? Over."

"It's running just fine! If it keeps up like this, we should catch up to Robotnik in no time, over!"

"Gotcha. So, suppose I make it onto his airship and you start goin' down? What do ya want me to do? Over."

"Don't worry, I'll find a spot to land and call you when I've landed safely! Tails out!"

"10-4! Sonic out!"

Thus far, Sonic and Tails' flight was nothing fancy. Ol' Blue wasn't particularly scared of heights. After all, he'd been on the observation deck of Emerald Tower – the tallest building in Emerald City and the world – a couple of times and had gotten a kick out of the view, so this wasn't too far removed. Granted, he didn't feel the wind going through his quills like this, but it was enjoyable all the same. Eventually, Sonic's Hedgehog Sense tingled again, and shortly thereafter, he saw a couple of robots speed past the Tornado, these resembling miniature versions of contemporary fighter jets, but painted red and with birdlike beaks and eyes.

"Did you see that, Sonic? Over."

"Yeah, I saw it. Don't look now, but they're comin' back around, over!"

Sure enough, the bird planes came back around for another go at the Tornado. However, Tails pulled up and managed to dodge them, although he was mindful of the fact that they might just have more friends coming for his and Sonic's way.

"Sonic, you're gonna have to use the machine gun! Get it ready, over!"

"Personally, I wouldn't be caught dead using those things, but since we're dealin' with robots, I guess it's OK here! How do I use that bad boy? Over."

"Pull the handle on the right! The trigger's on the back! Tails out!"

"Right! Sonic out!"

Sonic cocked the AN/M2 and wrapped his hands around the rear grips, placing his thumbs on the trigger.

"Sonic, here comes more of them! Tails out!"

Sonic swung the machine gun around and prepared to take aim at the bird planes. Sure enough, they missed the Tornado again, and when they did, Sonic pushed the trigger down and let loose with 1,200 rounds per minute of .30 caliber death. While having no prior experience as a machine gunner, he nevertheless managed to shred both bird planes.

"Got 'em!" Sonic pumped his fist.

"We got more company!" said Tails.

Sonic turned and saw more robots coming for the Tornado. These were spherical green robots with stubby arms, exposed inner cores and a single propeller on top of each robot. Once again, Sonic opened fire and dropped them out of the sky. Eventually, more new robots swooped in, these resembling flying robotic turtles, each one with a baby robot turtle flying it. However, when Sonic tried shooting them down, he found that they were impervious to .30-06 bullets. Instead, the pilots were the ones who bit the dust, while the turtlecraft kept flying on without their pilots. More turtle bots vectored in on them, as did the bird bots. This time, one of the turtle bots opened its mouth as if it was going to open fire on the Tornado, but in his haste to shoot it down, Sonic ended up firing a couple of rounds into its gullet, thereby causing it to explode. Sonic laughed.

"NEXT!" said Sonic.

While keeping his eyes peeled and his Hedgehog Sense sharp for any further threats, Sonic thought he heard a booming propeller sound over that of the Tornado's engine.

"We're almost there!" said Tails. "Just keep holding them off!"

"Gotcha!"

Seeing more of those flying sphere robots, Sonic opened fire on them and made mincemeat of them. A couple more of the bird bots streaked by, so he took aim at them, too. Unfortunately, when he opened fire on them, his cockiness got the better of him, and he ended up shooting the vertical stabilizer, and then fired a couple of short bursts before stopping firing altogether. The general frame of the stabilizer was still intact, but not enough to keep the plane stable.

"Sonic, are we hit!?"

"More or less! Tails, I'm sorry…they got us!"

At that point, Tails froze. Granted, he knew there was a possibility they'd get hit, but that still didn't dampen the shock much. Nevertheless, he did his best to keep the Tornado airborne, but it was all for naught; the plane was still losing altitude.

"Hang on!" said Tails.

Sonic unbuckled his seatbelt, got out of his seat, climbed up on the top wing of the Tornado and made the biggest leap of faith he'd ever made in his short career as a hero. It was now or never…

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.