Chapter 2 – Covert Operations – by RedFox

            "I'm telling you, this is my mission!"

            "Sonic, c'mon." Tails reasoned. "You can't do this one alone. We have absolutely no clue as to what we're going us against. It's not like I'm going to screw this one up. All that I'll be doing is flying overhead, looking out for you. There is no way that Sally would want you doing this alone. I'm already keeping this secret, which I seriously do not think is right. You are not going by yourself."

            "If Sally knew about this, she wouldn't let me go!"

            "Which she would probably be right about. This is incredibly dangerous, Sonic. You know nothing about what those explosions left behind. For all we know, Robotnik has rebuilt his base by now! It's been three days; his robots move fast."

            "Aw… little Tails is acting so grown up. You're going to make a great father someday with an attitude like that. I've kept secrets for you before, haven't I? What about the time –"

            "No need!" Tails said quickly. It was a home shot all the same; he did most definitely not need any reminders of his somewhat more rebellious times. He still carried a small scar on his flank from his last little adventure. He now resorted to the only way that he could ensure that his friend was not going alone. "I hate to be like this, Sonic, but you're letting me come or I'm telling Sally."

            Sonic sighed. "I never thought that I was going to win this one anyways. All right, you're coming. But only to look out. Unless I'm seriously in trouble. Other than that, this is my job, okay?"

            Tails nodded and set off for Knothole Hanger. He hoped that nobody would see him headed that way; there was no way he could come up with a fib to explain why he was taking out the Tornado right about now. The entire story would have to come out, and Sonic would be annoyed with him again. It happened all too often now. Something was definitely wrong with Sonic lately.

            Having made it to the hangar, Tails ran a gloved finger over his pride and joy: his Tornado. Having gone through a series of planes with different names, like the Tornado II, the Cyclone, and the Cyclone II, all which had been destroyed in one way or another, Tails had finally decided to rebuild his original Tornado and repair it when it got smashed up, instead of having to deal with the name changes.

            He had just barely gotten his pilot goggles out of the drawer when Sonic came racing in. "Are you a total idiot?" Sonic cried. "How the crazy hell are you supposed to get out of Knothole unnoticed in that thing? The noise will wake up half the town! You, my friend, are coming along on the strength of your own two tails!"

            Tails gulped. "You're right. I didn't think of that. All right then, but I will have to land occasionally. I can't stay in the air indefinitely."

            "Just don't screw up." Sonic growled. "If I get caught for this, Tails, mark my words…"

            Tails sighed. His old friend was acting very strangely.

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            Sonic could cover the distance to Robotropolis in fifteen minutes, as he had proven many times. One of the reasons that he had been hesitant to let Tails come was that he could only move half as fast in the air. Sonic kept having to control his speed, and he was not happy at all about it.

            Flying through open air was a task that, when you had been doing it all your life, didn't require too much concentration. As long as Tails kept up maximum speed and didn't run into a stray tree, he could usually let his mind wander. Sometimes his best ideas came to him in mid-air.

            Today, Tails's topic of reflection was Sonic. Could something seriously be wrong with him? Could the blue blur below him not even truly be his hedgehog pal? Tails made a mental note to ask Sally to run a scan on him and make sure that he was not an imposter. Then again, could that really happen? And how? If Robotnik had ever captured Sonic, he would simply throw him in a robotizer and be done with him. Tails knew; it had happened before.

            Seeing the tall skyscrapers of the dreaded city rise in front of them, Tails flew down and confronted Sonic. "You wouldn't happen to have a plan, would you?"

            Sonic looked indignant. "Of course I have a plan! What are you implying? You think that even I would just rush into a mission as important as this without thinking about it first?

            "Yes," Tails answered simply, "but apparently I was wrong. So what is this wonderful plan of yours, pray tell?"

            "I approach the city, sneak through the alleys, find out what happened to the base, see if I see anything strange, and then cause a little chaos with this little doodad that I happened to have the insight to bring along with me."

            Sonic pulled a large stick of dynamite out of a pouch that he had been wearing around his waist.

            "Sonic!" Tails exploded. "This is a spy mission, not an attack! You'll set every alarm in the city off with that thing! Every SWAT-bot for five miles around will have guns trained on you within a minute! What's the purpose of sneaking around then? I do not feel like swooping down there to save your –"

            "Cool it, little buddy." Sonic said. "I don't feel like it either. We'll be pitching this backwards on our way out. They'll never know what hit them."

            "Sonic, this goes against every rule in Knothole's entire history. All of this without Sally's consent, the King's consent, anyone's consent – we could be sued, we could get jailed, we could even lose our positions as Freedom Fighters! I thought you didn't want to get caught! Do you think that Sally is going to think that another explosion in Robotropolis was a coincidence?" That gave Tails an idea. "Speaking of your half-girlfriend, what do you think she'll think of you if you go breaking laws?"

            Sonic looked deflated. "Okay, you win. Again. Nothing but spying. However, let me remind you that we already are breaking laws. So you had better not make any mention of this to Sally, because you'll be in just as much trouble as me."

            "If you can't even tell Sally what you saw, then what's the point in going in the first place? We can't use any information that we gather to help plan anything else! This "mission" has no point? Why did I even let you go in the first place?"

            "Why did I even let you come? You're being a real pest, Tails, you know that? I seriously ought to –"

            "Now you want to fight? We can't afford this, dammit! We're on the same side, remember that? Look, this entire thing is going wrong. Just get in there and check it out, then get the hell back here! Go! We're wasting time!"

            Sonic ran off at top speed, while Tails took to the air.

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            From his vantage point, Tails could see everything that was happening down at the outskirts of the large city. Now that Sonic had pulled up at the city edge, he did his best to move slowly and stealthily. Hedgehogs, however, were unfortunately not designed for sneakiness, and Sonic was far from the exception. The result was the equivalent of a normal person racing at top speed through the streets trying to stay close to the sides of buildings.

            Had Sonic been racing through the streets, he would have made far less noise. When trying to move slowly, however, he ended up clomping his shoes very loudly against the cement. Badniks, Robotnik's robotized animal minions, heard the noises easily and went to investigate.

            What Sonic lacked in furtiveness, however, he made up for with spin moves. Any robot that got in his way was torn to metal shreds in an instant. Though Tails couldn't see them, he knew that each robot busted meant a small Mobian animal freed from Robotnik's cruel enslavement.

            There was one thing that Tails couldn't see, though. He knew where Robotnik's former base was – there was a huge explosion crater around it – but certain buildings kept getting in his line of sight. That was why Sonic was down there. Obviously the explosives had worked, but what remained? And, more importantly, was there any more diamond glass?

            Tails stopped dead. Two SWAT-bots had discovered Sonic, and were obviously more intelligent than most of their comrades. They were following him, and so intent was he on his crusade that he didn't notice. Tails wanted to scream, to warn his friend, but before he could do anything, SWAT-bots had two plasma guns pointed directly at Sonic's skull.

            Never should have worried, thought Tails, as Sonic launched a double back kick directly into his captors middles. When the cloud of dust faded, all that remained was scrap metal and Sonic was nowhere to be seen. It took Tails a few seconds to find him. He was sprinting full blast for the exit, which either meant that he was spooked or that the mission was accomplished. Tails hoped that it was the latter.

            Suddenly, he realized that he had his own problems, as two large missiles were headed directly at him, and moving quite quickly through the air. Veering off to the right, Tails saw with a surge of terror the missiles also change course and speed after him again.

            Luckily, Tails never traveled airborne anymore without a small pouch which held, amongst other things, a flare or two. Quickly firing one of these, he was relieved to see the missiles be attracted to the intense heat and collide in mid-air. With luck, Robotnik might even think he has scored a hit and eliminated his target.  It was always good to have the element of surprise on your side.

            Looking down, Tails was horrified to see Sonic dig the dynamite out of his pouch. He struck the explosive against his shoe, creating enough friction to light the fuse. Not looking back, Sonic threw the dynamite over his shoulder into the crowd of robots behind him.

            The huge explosion was deafening. Metal was superheated, circuits were fried, shards of robots were blown in every direction. The helpless, miniscule animals trapped in the robotic shells were vaporized in an instant.

            Sonic was now in terrible danger. There was an advancing wall of fire behind him, plus, now, burning pieces of debris had flown over his head and ignited numerous objects in front of him. He was trapped between the two blasts, which were quickly advancing on him. Worse yet, the wall across from him had three gasoline barrels leaning against it, perfectly stacked.

Sonic had disobeyed a direct order from his friend and killed numerous hapless hostages. However, scandalous as that may have been, Tails wasn't going to watch Sonic be incinerated in that inferno below him. Plunging downwards, Tails began to calculate how to pull this one off. He screamed to Sonic, who apparently heard him over the noise and looked up. Tails saw terror in his eyes.

Spotting Tails, his expression turned hopeful and concentrated. Leaping up on top of the gas barrels, Sonic timed his jump perfectly so that Tails caught him in mid-air. If Tails had had muscles in his tails, every single one of them would be straining to get him up. Pull, c'mon, dammit, pull!

The final explosion threw the two of them ten feet upwards. Regaining control, Tails flew away with Sonic securely in his grasp. They set down about a half-mile from the city and watched the explosions.

"Don't say anything, Tails. Don't say a thing. It was the only thing that I could do. I was trapped. It was all that I could do."

Tails didn't. The two Freedom Fighters turned and began back to Knothole.