Tails breathed hard, bracing his body against the back of the cockpit seat. Radar warnings blasted around him throughout the ship.
Three of them. They had guns.
Tails had managed to shoot down six air cruisers before they caught on to the fact that he wasn't one of them. Robotnik's programming was getting better.
He arched the cruiser upward, curving overhead so his enemies would be within the nose gun's range.
Tails made a face. Who in their right mind would not build a rearguard gun into a cruiser's defense system? He had to reposition himself every time he made a shot and it wasted precious time—
Probably because Robotnik had built the cruisers to fire down on people running away, not the other way around.
Bullet fire crashed into the port side, from up above him.
Tails yelped, looking upwards.
A fourth alert appeared on the radar, above him.
Tails spun his cruiser, shooting downwards at a diagonal, wincing.
He glimpsed his target below, already adjusting for his position. Tails fired at its rear thrusters. The cruiser lurched, hit, but not destroyed.
Tails dove again, just missing fire from a third cruiser.
His cruiser jumped out of course, just barely out of sync—the shot must have hit one of his gills.
Tails grit his teeth. He righted, swooping just over the edge of the city—
And then Tails saw the cluster of air cruisers bearing down on a figure below-a blue blur streaking across the city outskirts, towards the forest.
The cruisers could shoot Sonic easily from that height.
"Coming, Sonic!" Tails shouted, and he shot the cruiser into overdrive, swerving down towards the blur.
Below on the ground, Sonic dodged, a stream of bullets approaching behind him. Dirt spat at his heels, stinging his back as the bullets thudded into the ground.
He charged over the remains of a pleasure house, weaving around the pillars.
A wall exploded next to him and he shot through the falling rock.
Sally screamed in his arms.
"Woah!" he blurted and his whole body jolted in mid-run.
He was running out of juice. If he pushed any harder, he'd snap, if he ran any slower, he'd toast.
He'd rather snap.
Sonic fixed his gaze on the tree line outside of Aero.
"C'mon, Sonic!" he ordered to himself.
Sonic's Speed reverberated through his body. A sonic boom cracked behind him.
Pain raked through his gut, up his lungs into his throat.
Sonic snatched for his first ring, ready to put up a Mobium shield—
And behind him, the closest air cruiser exploded in midair.
The hedgehog gasped, nearly tripping. He darted a glance back over his shoulder.
One lone air cruiser whipped straight towards the remaining five cruisers, head on, bullets spewing from its nose gun.
Tails.
Sonic smirked.
He hit the tree line.
Up above, Tails flipped the cruiser, preparing round fifteen of his shot. He growled hard and yanked back on the trigger control.
The gun fired and the bullets slammed into the incoming air cruisers. He'd hit at least two of them—one whirled back entirely, its N-ethyl packs leaking, spinning to the ground.
Tails took a breath.
And the alarm went off on his radar.
He turned his head and heard the missile screaming.
Bullets slammed into the belly of his cruiser. The whole craft lurched, spinning and flipping backwards.
Tails yelped, snatching the control board for dear life.
The ground spiraled miles below.
Sonic raced from tree to tree, deeper into the forest. The trees would blind their location for a matter of seconds, but it was enough.
Sonic's gaze fixed on a rock out-cropping at the base of an embankment. He caught his breath.
He shot over the rock outcropping, into the cave and skidded to a stop, dirt spewing out around him in a dust cloud. "There's a cave entrance here, Sal, get to the Underground! I'm going back for Tails!"
He dumped Sally out of his arms, wheeled around and whipped out of the cave.
Sally caught her balance, breathing hard. For a second she stared after him, panic bolting through her eyes. Then she glanced over her shoulder and stumbled towards the back of the cave.
Tails knew the controls were useless, but he kept trying, desperation in his eyes.
The cruiser was dying.
And he had seven enemy cruisers on his tail—the ones chasing him and the one chasing Sonic-plus a missile.
"Don't lose your head, Tails!" he burst out to himself, trying to swerve the cruiser, and failing.
Something exploded at the end of the craft.
He ripped off his safety belt and shot out of the cockpit seat, half running, half flying with his tails through the whirling, falling cabin.
Below him, Sonic watched the missile strike the falling air cruiser, his eyes growing wide.
He ran faster.
The cruiser exploded. Mangled debris twisted free and crashed over the forest below.
Enemy cruisers shot overhead.
Sonic's vision sharpened, his heightened senses fixing on an orange spec diving down towards the ground.
He smirked.
In the sky, Tails closed his eyes, tumbling and spinning through the air, pressure burning against his body. He didn't know how hurt he was, and he didn't care.
The fox wound his tails together and whipped them free again, propelling as hard as he could. He opened his eyes.
The remains of his cruiser struck the ground below with a crash. Not far from the site, a blue hedgehog charged into view.
"Sonic!" Tails screamed for all he was worth, his eyes lighting up.
Sonic stared up at Tails, tapping his foot hard.
The air cruisers began to circle, roaring overhead.
The fox half dove, half propelled to the earth, fighting for breath.
Before Tails was a foot over Sonic's head, Sonic leapt up and snatched the fox into his arms.
"Nice blow up!" Sonic shouted. He tossed the fox over his shoulder and charged back towards the rock out cropping.
