Rings Around the Sun

by TheTrueMrX

"Ivo, the Führer is ready for us." WORLD WAR TWO LOOMS. With Sonic and company warped to Earth, they find themselves in a danger much too great for even them to handle. A world politically, culturally, and economically splintered though years of war, lies, and exploitation. Can they survive the coming conflict? Will they manage to return home?

9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Roche

March 15, 1938

Drake Fifth In C.C. Meet

Drake placed five men in four events to score ten points and earn fifth place in the annual Central Collegiate indoor track meet at Notre Dame, Ind., Saturday. Notre Dame placed in ten of eleven events to top the scoring on its own track, with the advantage of being able to use its entire squad. Other teams brought only possible winners, to compete for individual glory rather than team championship.

With most of the sailors jumping at the opportunity to spend the night on solid ground upon docking at Alexandria, the men remaining on the HMS Devonshire formed a calcium-deficient skeleton crew. This unlucky bunch largely had two tasks: to sleep and to guard Tails and Amy.

"Whatcha reading?" Amy, sitting up against a pillow which had been provided, asked towards the guard assigned for this night's watch.

Without looking away from his novel, the guard responded "Hmm? Just some silly war book."

"Yeah but what's it about?"

"Well I thought it was going to be about the great war," the man answered closing the book down on his index finger. "But it's really just a romance about an ambulance driver who falls in love with a nurse. The book is fine but unexpected."

Amy, clasping her shackled hands on her chest with a grin on her face, stated "Finding love on the battlefield, how beautiful and horrible. Like a sunrise over a bombed city, or a lavender sky before a storm."

"Sounds like how you and Sonic met." Tails joked from the floor.

Pushing past Tails' comment, Amy asked "Why don't you read us some from the book? Maybe it'll help us fall asleep."

"Aren't you not a bit old for bedtime stories miss? What are you, thirteen or so?"

"Fifteen thank you very much." Amy corrected. "It's just that trying to sleep on the wooden floor of a military boat all chained up isn't exactly easy. Besides, the faster we fall asleep the sooner I'll get out of your hair."

"You do make a persuasive argument silver-tongue alien." The sailor flipped the book back open to where he had left off. He cleared his throat and started "It reads 'His wife called me "Signorino" and cried. She wiped her eyes and shook hands and then cried again. I patted her on the back and she cried once more. She had done my mend—'"

Cutting through the air, Amy's thrown Piko Piko Hammer clobbered the man flush with his temple. He tumbled off his chair onto the wooden deck shooting his Hemingway novel flying overhead.

"Nice shot Amy!" Tails congratulated while hopping from the floor onto his feet. "Quick, let's get these handcuffs off."

Amy's arms were still extended from her seated hammer toss. The sailors, despite their thorough and embarrassing searches of both Tails and Amy, had no idea Amy had been smuggling a war hammer on her person this whole time. "Thanks, let's."

The two rattled across the floor like handcuff wind chimes towards the groaning man still flat on the ground. He was clutching at his head but clearly had no idea what exactly happened or was happening. The sailor was ignorant to Tails flipping him over onto his stomach and rummaging around his pockets for the handcuff key.

"You didn't kill him, which is good." Tails bluntly said while pulling out a simple brass key from the man's pants. "You don't see any duct tape, do you?"

"For keeping him quiet?" Amy responded while picking up and putting away her hammer. "Nope, I don't even know if that's been invented yet."

"I'm not sure, but we can't him leave like this." Tails used the brass key to uncuff his own feet and hand. "Here Amy, let me help with that."

"Maybe we just throw him in one of those storage crates. Thanks." Amy rubbed her wrists as Tails freed her. "I've got an idea; you go scavenge the room and I'll handle this guy." Tails gave her a thumbs up and began digging through wooden boxes.

Picking up her handcuffs off the floor, Amy crouched over to snap the cuffs on across the guard's arms behind his back. She was met with a groan which she ignored. Amy rolled the man over onto his back and began unbuckling the guard's belt. She navigated the leather strap through the many belt loops until it was free. "Sorry dude, don't take this the wrong way." After setting the belt on the floor, Amy quickly untied the man's boot laces and tossed the shoe aside to reveal the man's pearly white standard issue crew socks. These too were quickly removed and set aside. The guard's feet were cuffed with Amy's other set of handcuffs to further immobilize the sailor. Amy silently apologized again before picking the sock up, prying open the man's jaws, and shoving the sock into the dazed sailor's mouth. She then slipped the belt around the man's head and into his mouth to keep the sock in place. The belt was then looped through itself and tightened until flush and unmoving. Finally, Amy dragged the dead weight of the man over to a railing running along the side of the wall and used one of Tails' handcuffs to connect the man to the steel railing.

"Tails," Amy called out. "Are you almost ready?"

"Just another second!" Replied a voice from behind a stack of wooden crates.

"Okay, well," Amy mumbled to herself. "Better see what else you're hiding." She crouched back over the sailor now fastened to the railing and started patting at his pockets. Feeling something, Amy reached in and pulled out the man's steel navy-issue jack-knife. "Bingo." She slid the closed knife into her boot.

"Alright Amy we should have enough supplies here to-" Tails rounded back around to see Amy crouching over a sailor shackled in three places with his mouth clogged and blocked. "Is that his sock?"

"I didn't have many options."

"Anyways…" Tails lifted a simple brown sack he found in the catacombs of the hold. "I found some supplies that will help us commandeer that plane, like a screwdriver, some tubing, et cetera. And some of those rations they've been feeding us also." He tied a knot in the bag and slung it over his shoulder.

"Yuck, but I'll take it."

The two made their way to the door leading to the hallway. The guard shift had just happened, but how much of a presence sailors had in the hallway was unknown to the two runaways. Nonetheless, Tails and Amy shared a head nod and opened the gateway to the rest of the ship. Like cartoon characters, they peeked their stacked heads around the door to look down the hallway. It was empty. The familiar synchronized flashing of red emergency lights permeated down the corridor to reveal the ladder leading up to the main deck. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, the two scurried out into the hallway while throwing the door shut behind them. Using the unnatural noises of oil churning and steam bursting produced by the ship as cover, Tails and Amy used little precaution as they ran down the hall towards the ladder. Amy took care to avoid grabbing onto the many sharp protrusions jutting out towards her remembering what happened the first time she went down the ladder. Tails, wanting to avoid that situation all together, simply used his tails to fly up the tight space once Amy reached the top.

"With how few sailors there seems to be around, I think we can run straight to where the plane is." Tails said flying up past the ladder. "Did you see exactly where the plane landed?"

"No, I saw it go down behind some buildings but then I lost it."

"Then we better get searching. Once you crack open this hatch, I'll fly us down to the dock. Then we can run towards where you saw the plane go down."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n Tails." Amy joked while reaching up above her head to grab hold of the wheel attached to the door heading out to the outside deck. Masked by the sounds of crashing ocean waves and deep bellows of the ship, the noises of Amy's clockwise turning of the hatch were not out of place in the dockyard. The door cracked open a pinch, and Tails and Amy shimmied between the narrow space created out onto the deck and into the black night.

Looking around, there were not any guards in immediate sight on the ship. Amy turned back towards Tails and gave a nod. He jumped up into flight, took hold of Amy's outreached hand, and the two immediately flew down off the HMS Devonshire towards the pier below. While flying down, Amy noted that outside of a few spotlights at the corners of the base there was minimal human presence. They landed, Amy pointed towards the main gate leading off the base, and the two took off running.

While Tails and Amy were certainly not as fast as their mutual blue friend, any sailor who happened to be watching them take off would have only seen a smeary shadow enter and escape their vision for but a fraction of a second. They approached the gate, jumped clean over the steel bars with a single leap, and left the naval base without so much as an alarm raised or shout heard.

The streets of Alexandria were unlit outside of the occasional stray beams of light escaping between bedroom shutters of residential apartments. And much like the naval base, the streets had few people loitering about in the witching hours of the morning. While Tails and Amy both wanted to stop to admire the stone architecture, wonder at the diverse cultural styles of buildings surrounding them, and breath in the salty ocean breeze, they had a Royal British Navy sailor hogtied and robbed on one of His Majesty's vessels, so time really was of the essence. They blasted down the street avoiding the occasional obstacle in the general direction where Amy saw the biplane land.

After running for a minute and getting halfway across the city, Tails took hold of Amy and flew to the tops of random buildings next to them until they were overlooking the city. Scanning the moonlit environment below, the two looked for a runway. It did not take long to spot the giant slabs of concrete where normally grassland would be if not for the invention of the airplane. Seeing their target, Tails and Amy jumped off the building and again used the street to head to the air base.

Being as close to the city as it was, the entire perimeter of the base was surrounded by chain-linked fencing topped with barbed wire to prevent bored teenagers from wandering in. Tails and Amy hugged up against the fence to discuss their plan.

"Alright, what's the plan?" Amy asked.

"Actually, I haven't thought this far ahead."

"That's unlike you."

"I've been thinking about how to escape the boat for the past day, I didn't think it would have been that easy." Tails replied while peering through the many gaps of the fence into the base. "I'm not a betting fox, but I'd wager there's a plane in one of those hangars."

"Sounds reasonable."

"Will it be fueled or in flight condition or remotely similar to the vessels I'm used to flying? Not sure. And I'm not happy I won't have time to do all my preflight checks. I don't even have a fuel tester on me!"

"Well the longer we stay here," Amy took a step away from the fence before jumping clear over the barbed-wire and onto the other side. "The more likely they'll be looking for us. Come on Tails, we can worry about that once we're in the air."

"Yeah if we get into the air." Tails flew over the fence to the same side as Amy.

They, once again, took off running across fields and tarmac until they reached the hangar seconds later. Going to the side of the building, the two found a painted white door with a brass doorknob. Tails grabbed the knob, it was locked.

"Just our luck, and after all the doors in the boat were unlocked." The agitated fox let out while pulling the satchel of supplied off his shoulder. "I have to have something in here I can bend into a lock-pick."

Reaching down into her boot, Amy pulled out the jack-knife she procured earlier from their naval alien-sitter. "Let me have a look at it." Tails moved over and began rummaging through his bag. She unclasped the knife from its liner and plunged the blade between the door and the frame. Running the knife down until she hit the deadbolt, Amy took a second to make sure no one heard the burglary the two were performing before continuing. She pulled the knife out and positioned it where the deadbolt was. Amy stabbed the pocket knife into the soft metal of the deadbolt and used the tip of the blade to start walking the bolt away from the wall. Pulling the bolt back as far as it could go, Amy pull the doorknob towards her and the door opened. "And there we go."

"Hey when did you get so good at breaking and entering?" Tails joked while slinging the bag back over his shoulder.

"A girl's got to have hobbies." Amy said with a smile as she snapped the knife back into place and down her boot.

The two entered the building and closed the doors shut behind them. Tails pulled a flashlight from his bag and shined it around the large hangar. There, in the center of the building, was the Gloster Gladiator from the previous day.

With a smile growing on his face, Tails approached the biplane and placed his hand on the fuselage. "Hi there."

"Careful Tails, I might tell the Tornado about this."

Tails turned back with his smile gone to respond, "You wouldn't."

"Oh my God." Amy let out while grabbing her face. She turned and wandered off to a corner.

Seemingly washed and waxed after its demonstration yesterday, the Gladiator's silver paint brilliantly reflected the light from the flashlight back into Tails' starstruck eyes. His hand smoothly glid across the exterior of the plane sending tingles through his fingers as he felt the gentle bumps of the rivets on the siding. Central to the Gladiator was the British Air Force insignia tattooed to the side. Tails let his finger encircle the symbol while admiring the rest of the planes features. The rounded stabilizers, the sharp cockpick, the straight propeller blade dividing the plane into halves. The propeller blade was, to Tails' surprise, a laminated wood design. Walnut. Reminiscent in hue of fresh copper just pulled out of the earth, the blade was more a mantelpiece than a tool. It was not precision machined in a lab through CNC water jets by team of engineers and aerospace scientists; the blade had been sculpted out of nature. Grown from the ground to be sent into the sky. Even without the aid of a billion transistors running FORTRAN or Matlab aerodynamics sandboxes to calculate perfect angles and pitches for the design, the walnut propeller managed anyways. Tails' could not bring himself to touch it with unwashed hands.

"Tails are these gas tanks? We probably should strap a couple onto the plane," Amy called out from behind some crates in the corner. "I don't see any ratchet straps or whatever you call them to hold them to the plane but we can figure something out." She did not hear a response back, but she heard the gentle hum of Tails taking flight and landing on the plane. Feeling ignored, she muttered "And here I thought I had obsessions."

Tails landed centered on the wings facing towards the shut glass canopy of the Gladiator. He reached down and pulled the release mechanism on the side of the glass to unlock the enclosure. The glass slid back and revealed the cockpick inside. Shining a light inside, Tails was met with an overwhelming assortment of buttons, levers, knobs, dials, bevels, and pedals. He hopped in and set himself down in the pilots seat.

"Wow," Tails let out without noticing. "How the heck does this thing work? Is this the pinnacle of their engineering?"

"You okay Tails?"

"Amy," Tails poked his head out from the cockpit. "I have no idea how to fly this thing."

"What! What do you mean you don't," Amy set her gas cans down and ran over to the plane. "Tails you're the most knowledgeable person I know about planes! How different can it be from the Tornado?"

The fox puffed out his checks and let out a sigh while crossing his arms atop his head. "I mean, it's like ancient. A plane like this was outdated ninety years ago. To us, I mean." He let himself fall back into the plane. "The dials are just haphazardly thrown about, the control column is unlike anything I've used, there's no floor! Amy I can't even see out the thing when I'm strapped in!"

Amy jumped up onto the wing and looked down into the cockpit where Tails was seated. "If there's anyone I place my faith in to fly this thing, it's you Tails." She said matter-of-factly. "Though, you do look small in there I'll admit."

"The principles should be the same. The starter switch is right here, I should be able to just flip that switch and figure the rest out by feel. And if anyone starts giving us trouble I just press some of these buttons on the stick."

"And what would that do?"

"Fire the machine guns."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Amy let herself off the plane back to the ground. Under the wings she saw the two Lewis machine gun barrels aimed steadfast forward ready to obliterate anyone unlucky enough to meet them. "You don't think we'd actually need to shoot anyone, do you?" Tails did not answer. "I'm gonna go grab those gas cans and bring some rope over." Amy pointed over her shoulder despite Tails not being able to see her.

In the cockpit, Tails closed his eyes and felt around the cockpit to mentally map where the dials and knobs were. On every object he would silently speak the name of the instrument and its purpose. Once he had felt each object, he opened his eyes to check how well he had done. Tails repeated this process multiple times until he had memorized the location and purpose of the many flight tools in the cockpit.

Tails pretended to prime the engine with the onboard ki-gass pump, switch the magnetos, slowly adjusting the throttle, trying to learn the ancient aircraft start dance. The moves were foreign, otherworldly. His Tornado had an "On/Off" button to start.

Amy began bringing over tens of standard issue 4-gallon fuel containers. They were big rectangular things with a simple handle diagonally across the top of the tinplate canister. It was bulky and unwieldy to carry but weight wise not a problem for the pink hedgehog. One by one she placed the cans end to end across the bottom biplane wings. Retrieving ropes from across the building, Amy fasted the cans to the wing with her trusty constrictor knot she had learned camping some years ago with Sonic and Tails.

"Tails I'm not fitting anymore cans on this plane, so I'm ready whenever you are."

"Just, give me a moment, please." Amy noted the slight defeatist twang in his voice.

Having a moment to relax, Amy sat up on one of the many boxes scattered around. She nor Tails had slept in almost twenty hours, atypical for her. Amy rubbed her eyes and examined herself. She was already covered in dirt and oil stains; her dress was being thrown out when she got home. Even though she fully acknowledged there were more pressing issues, Amy could not help but hope she could get her dress washed before she saw Sonic again. She let herself lie down on top of the metal box. In her head, she could imagine the goofy grin Sonic would have on when he saw her. How he would probably say a simple one word greeting with a hand wave while Amy tackled him in embrace to the ground. How he would protest but nonetheless lay a hand down across her back. How he would make a witty remark at the expense of a teary eyed Amy who would be hiding her face in his shoulder. Amy suddenly became conscience of the knife in her boot. She pushed off her imaginations for later.

"Alright, Amy?" Tails asked from inside the plane.

"Yeah?" Replied Amy still supine.

"I think I'm ready." He looked over the cockpit at Amy lying down. "You sure you're ready? We can probably lay low on some rooftops for a couple days."

Slowly stretching her tan arms overhead, Amy brought herself forward and dropped down onto her feet. "Sonic needs us more than I need a little sleep." Amy pressed on the small of her back until she felt a pop. "Now how are we getting this plane into the sky?"

"That box you were just on?" Tails pointed behind Amy. "That's a generator. Wheel that over beneath the wings." Amy listened and began pushing the metallic box over. "If I understand correctly, that will rapidly raise the engine's oil pressure and once we reach 70 psi we'll disconnect the generator, throttle up, and we should be golden."

Amy found a simple plug coming out of the generator's side. She pulled it out and looked for an opening to stick it into on the underside of the Gladiator. "Tails there's only one slot this cord will fit into," Amy yelled up. "Should I plug it in now?"

"Yep, go ahead. And then figure out how to actually start that generator." Tails responded while the sounds of him flipping switches and pressing buttons emanated from the cockpit.

After attaching the plug to the underside of the plane, Amy inspected the generator until she found a pull-cord tucked into a divot on the side of the box. She took it into her hands and firmly tugged the cable back. The motor inside sputtered briefly before dying back down. With another pull with purpose, the generator cackled to life and began flowing electricity into the Gladiator. It was, especially compared to the two aliens talking, extraordinarily loud.

With her voice rising as a pit in her stomach fell, Amy asked, "Tails, how long is this going to take?"

"I don't know, like five minutes maybe?" Despite the uncertainty of his answer, Tails' voice remained steady and sure. "Go peek outside and see if anyone's noticed yet."

Amy quickly nodded, not that Tails could see her, and fumbled away from the plane towards the door. Grabbing the simple rounded knob, Amy keep pulling on the door until she remembered they never actually unlocked the door. She exhaled, unlocked the door, and stepped out.

Immediately Amy noticed the temperature drop. The difference in temperature, the delta, was significant. With no trees or structures around besides the hangar, the March winds were free to slice into Amy's sleeveless arms. Without any objects to vibrate, the wind was mostly silent. The generator was not. The sounds of electrical generation inside the hangar were pronounced, a mechanical rumbling.

The base was divided into many small identical buildings. A light turned on in the nearest building. A shadow slunk across the window and obscured the light behind it. It was motionless and featureless.

Seeing this, Amy darted around the corner of the hangar and crouched against the galvanized steel walls. "Damnit." She said without thinking. Suddenly, the feeling of exposure began setting in on Amy. No cover, no hiding. The hangar was in the middle of a military base producing rock-concert level sounds from inside. And no amount of darkness could obscure that.

Slowly bringing her head around the corner, Amy saw that the light from the building had vanished. The status of the body inside, however, was unknown. Pulling back, Amy let her head thump back against the metal hangar wall. Remaining motionless, she waited to hear if any alarms were to be raised or spotlights were to be pointed at the hangar. The only commotion Amy noticed was the one they were causing after a minute of waiting. Raising back to her feet, Amy gingerly peaked around the corner to confirm for no prying eyes. Not seeing anyone, the hedgehog took the opportunity to slink back around the building and return inside.

"Well?" Tails immediately asked hearing the door shut.

Amy, now leaning against the closed door, admitted "Well I dunno." Reaching back, she re-locked the hangar door. "When I went outside some light came on and there was definitely someone standing there," she said rapidly in a single breath. "But like there's no alarms, and nothing else happened." Amy started bouncing her head against the door. "So I don't know. Let's just get out of here already. Is this thing done charging up or whatever you said."

"Just about!" Tails proclaimed while still inside the cockpit. "The last thing I need from you is to go figure out how to get those sliding doors open."

Pushing herself off the door, Amy began trudging along to the huge 20 foot sliding doors which the Gladiator was facing. At the far left end of the door appeared to be some sort of handle. Walking over, Amy found a hefty lock connecting the door to the hangar wall next to a simple rod jutting out. The handle was ergonomically placed to be chest level for pilots. This unfortunately meant for Amy the handle was just over her head. She reached up to grab the handle, pushed the rod forward towards the wall, and unlatched the lock to free to sliding door.

"Alright Tails, we're good over—"

The doorknob to the outside jiggled. The futile pullings on the door rang out through the room rendering Amy mute.

A key slid into the lock. Amy bolted back across the room in an instant. The key turned unlocking the door. She pressed against the wall next to the door in anticipation. The door pulled open, a beam of light cut through the darkness illuminating the Gloster Gladiator.

"Hullo?" A voice from outside spoke into the hangar. It was inquisitive, male, and audibly shaky. The flashlight darted around the room, flashing over the plane, generator, the many boxes in the back of the hangar. "Is there anyone in'ere?" The light stopped for a moment, and then the voice became a body as a deliberate step was taken into the building. The man entered and immediately started to turn the light to scan his blind corners.

Once full inside, Amy lunged forward and thrusted her hands against the man's chest sending him stumbling backwards towards the sliding hangar doors. While he was flailing back, Amy grabbed the open door and slammed it shut.

"What the hell!" Shouted the guard catching himself. Pointing the flashlight up at his assailant, he saw a pink hedgehog twisting the lock on the door before turning to face at him. Not having time to discriminate, he pulled out his straight baton from his hip and struck forward towards the girl.

She was too fast. As his body lurched forward following the motion of the baton swing, Amy struck into the guards stomach with a right-handed uppercut. Impulsively, he grabbed where he was struck while dropping his flashlight to the ground. Now off balance, he stumbled towards the girl. Amy grabbed his baton arm, turned her body, and hip tossed the man clean over her head and onto the concrete floor below.

Completely discombobulated and unaware which way was up, the man hardly registered Amy getting on top of him in a full mount and placing her arm under his chin against his throat.

"Tails, for the love of God can you grab some rope or something." The agitated hedgehog spoke out. And then to herself in complete monotony, "Tying up two men in one night, first time for everything I guess."

"What the, hell?" The man repeated, this time instead in confusion. "What are you?"

Amy, grabbing the rope Tails handed her, threatened "I'm going to be a problem if you don't shut up and stop squirming." The man barely noticed himself getting hogtied as Amy began looping the fiber ropes around his arms and legs. "The nice thing about robots," Amy began speaking towards the man while tying a knot around his wrists. "Is you don't need to deal with all this crap." She got off of him to admire her craftsmanship. "You just smash 'em to bits."

"That's dark." Tails let out while flying back into the still running plane.

"Whatever."

The man, now coming back to his senses, began to slur out, "What in God's name is going on here! You untie me right now you dwarf!" He spat out while squirming on the ground.

"Whoa, let's simmer down with the insults, dude." Amy unenthusiastically replied. "What are you going to do? Bite my ankles?"

From behind Amy, the Gladiator's engine roared as Tails engaged the starter causing the turbine to spin to life. The sound in the enclosed building as deafening.

"Let's roll Amy!" Tails screamed from inside the cockpit. "Just toss him in the back, disconnect the generator and get the door open!" Giving the plane some throttle, a cloud of exhaust spewed into the room.

Amy reached down and slung the tied man over her shoulder without asking for permission. He tried fruitlessly to bang his head against Amy's skull in protest, but she quickly shut that down by aggressively jostling him around. Reaching the back of the building, Amy set the man down next to the remaining fuel canisters.

Looking down at the man, Amy spoke "Sorry about punching you by the way." This was inaudible over the engine noises, but it was good enough to clear Amy's conscious.

Running back, Amy slid underneath the plane to where the generator cord was plugged in. She ripped the cord out before reemerging to push the generator clear away from the plane. After carefully dodging the wooden spinning blade that would cleave her in two, Amy approached the towering sliding hangar door. She reached up above her head to grab to rod sticking out of the door and tugged it back with all her might. The door gave way from the wall, and the soft moonlight of the night began to race into the dark hangar. Amy swung around the handle to start pushing the door directly. She stomped her feet into the ground and began to brutishly shove the door open. A rush of cool Egyptian midnight air flooded into building where it collided with the scorching exhaust of the Gladiator. In this cacophony, the plane began to inch forward towards Amy and the hangar door. The door moved slowly but steadily. Turning her head to look outside, Amy watched as lights around the base began to turn on in rapid succession. Focusing back on her task, she continued to alternate between ramming into the door shoulder first and using both hand to shove the door away from her. Off in the distance, an alarm began to ring out.

"Oh, to hell with this!" Amy stepped back away from the door and let her hammer materialize in her hands. Swinging like a baseball player, her weapon smashed flush against the door propelling it further open. Still not open wide enough to fit the plane out, Amy jumped at the door and slammed against it with an overhead strike. This second strike both knocked the door even further back and created a nasty bend down the center of the steel frame. Quickly eyeballing the distance, Amy prayed the gap was wide enough for the plane to squeeze past. "Come on Tails!" She shouted while running back towards to the Gladiator. "That's as wide as we're getting!" She leaped onto the wing of the plane and rapidly tapped on the glass of the cockpit. Without looking up at her, Tails gave a single nod.

Further engaging the throttle, the Gladiator emerged out the hangar at the speed of a light trot. Not having time to taxi onto a runaway, Tails decided to increase the throttle right there. The trot increased to a jog before increasing to a run. Looking out towards the buildings, Amy saw men emerging. Men emerging with guns. Tucking her face against the wing, the plane kept increasing in speed until the wheels began to lift off the ground. The friction of tarmac went away, they were flying.

Gunshots rang out from the group of guards, bullets whizzed around the pristine plane. From the bottom wing of the biplane, a sharp PING! spread through the air as a bullet embedded itself the side of one of the fuel canisters strapped onto the wing. But their efforts were in vain. Tails pulled the control stick back and the plane began to sharply increase in altitude. It cleared over the buildings and began to sail into the black sky.

Lifting her head up and looking back, Amy watched as the features of the base disappeared into a nondescript dark blob on the ground. Peeking at Tails, she saw a grin stretching across his face. The fox looked down at the plane's compass, and began adjusting the plane to head north-west.