Authors notes: The story now has artwork. Check it out. :P

Chapter 3

The Egg-carrier blasted off and slowly headed towards home base, which was approximately two hundred miles away and expertly hidden in the mountains where no one could find it.

As the machine flew Robotnik began to rub his hands together and think of how he could get into that bothersome box.

He'd just tried prying it open with a crowbar, obviously that didn't work. He'd tried using jackhammers, hacksaws, power tools and lasers; but none of these methods even scratched it. He tried a battering ram on the door, but all it resulted in was a busted battering ram.

Whatever the heck this thing was made from it was certainly tough. What else could he do? The door was impregnable. The only thing he could think of was to track down where the key was to open the door.

A proximity alarm suddenly blared from around him and Robotnik tore himself away from the box to check what the carrier had detected. He felt his heart rate sky-rocket and he gritted his teeth. No, no, no, no, it can't be, not this soon!

A small prop plane was currently flying after him at top speed. It was a plane Robotnik recognised as belonging to that twin tailed fox freak Tails. Which must mean Sonic is on his trail somewhere. Drat it all, why couldn't that blue fur ball leave him alone? His plans for world domination would happen must more smoothly if that blue rat would just crawl into a hole and die!

Robotnik could put full power to the engines and try to outrun them, but he knew that plane was faster than it looked. Tails was a mechanical genius. Not on his level obviously, but was good enough to out fit that plane with some neat little gadgets to make it faster. But still, he'd shot that antique down once before, he could easily do it again.

A cruel and creepy smile crept along his lips as he maintained current speed and waited for the plane to get with in range. Then he opened fire.

The wind whipped past Amy's face as the plane followed Robotnik's Egg-Carrier. Thankfully Tails had lent her a pair of flight goggles so her eyes weren't squinting against the breeze. Amy was firmly buckled into her seat behind Tails, expecting there to be a dog fight, but Tails had no intention of engaging the Egg-Carrier. Tails didn't want to send the Tornado into another dog fight, not this soon after he'd repaired her, so they were just going to follow Robotnik's Egg-Carrier to home base and then plan how they were going to find and recover the source of Chronitons.

"I still think we should've waited for Sonic!" Amy shouted over the engine.

"How are we supposed to contact him? He doesn't have a cell phone." Tail shouted back. Tails had given Sonic a communicator of sorts but Sonic didn't seem to ever have it on him. He guessed Sonic didn't like to be contacted while he was having fun. Tails had tried to explain to him that a phone has a silent function, but Sonic never seemed interested. Last Tails had seen of Sonics communicator it was propping up his coffee table. Anyway, Tails had a feeling he knew why Sonic didn't own a phone, it was so Amy didn't call him every six seconds. "Besides, you know what Sonic is like. He always shows up when he's needed."

The plane suddenly buffeted as incoming fire struck the fuselage.

"You mean like right now?" Amy screamed. The Egg-carrier had opened fire on them. Tails thought it strange that the Egg-carrier was slowing down, but he was so preoccupied talking about Sonic and Cell phones the oddity didn't register.

"Hold on!" Tails shouted and took the stick to bank left.

He activated a switch and the plane did something no other plane could. The wings split apart and became an X, the tail bent so it had a kink in it. The entire body became more aerodynamic as it transformed so it could travel at a much swifter speed. The underside of the fuselage opened up and two jet engines neatly folded out and promptly fired up.

The transformed Tornado took off with a great burst of speed. Tails raced as fast as he could but it looked like Robotniks computer A.I. had gotten a lot better. Usually Robotniks A.I.'s aim was so bad that the machines always aimed where Tails was, not where he was going to be. But as he looked back he saw that the rain of fire was following them and getting closer. So Tails had to be as unpredictable as possible and not fly in a straight line for any more than two seconds, or else the rain of bullets would get them.

This was like a re-match between the Egg-Carrier and the Tornado-plane. But Tails was worried. He'd just fixed this plane. It felt like he'd just given someone open heart surgery and now he was forcing the patient to go free running.

Unfortunately the stress started to show on the plane as bullets pierced the hull, but thankfully missed both of them. The Tornado was in no shape to fight so Tails took the flight stick and retreated. He dived straight down and pretended like he had been hit and was out of control.

A spray of lasers from behind him told him Robotnik wasn't fooled by this trick, and he wasn't going to let him just run away. He'd sent several drone-badniks after them. Badniks being the name they gave to the robots Robotnik built to protect himself and fight off Sonic. They looked like three spheres joined together with the two outer spheres with spinning helicopter blades on top, while the central one housed the weapon.

If Sonic was here he could just spin attack them, but right now all Tails could do was run.

He dived his plane straight down towards the rocky ground below. But the drones still followed him. Clearly they weren't going to go away until Tails, Amy and the Tornado were just a smear of scrap on the ground.

They needed cover, and fast. From up here Tails noticed a long and narrow chasm in the rock where a river was flowing. It was the perfect spot and he dived straight towards it. The chasm was so narrow though that one wrong turn and they'd be smashed across the cliff face.

"Are you nuts?" Amy shouted at Tails. But Tails wasn't listening as he began weaving in and out of stone pillars created over millions of years of erosion, and brought down in a few seconds as Tails released metal shards from the Tornado's aft, which confused the drones sensors causing them to fly into the stacks, the stacks then collapsed.

Unfortunately they still had three on their tail, and one would be enough to bring them down.

Bobbing back above the chasm Tails punched it towards an approaching forest. Still staying low he hoped the dirt the engines threw up would be enough to blind their pursuers enough for what he was about to do.

"Tails, you can't fly in there. The Trees are too tightly packed!" Amy screamed.

"Yes, I know." Tails shouted.

"That means we're going to crash!" Amy screamed again.

"Yes, I know. Just hold on!" Tails said.

"Tails, Tails, Tails, TAILS!" Amy screamed.

Just as he was about to enter the trees, he lowered the nose and banked slightly to the port-side so the tip of the wing dug into the dirt. Then, quickly he forced the stick hard to port, the extra turning force of the wing being dragged into the dirt allowing the Tornado to turn on a dime and it blasted off in front of the trees.

The drones were so blinded by the dirt they couldn't tell they were about to fly into an obstacle until it was too late. Explosions rang out in the forest as they were destroyed.

Tails suddenly felt Amy bash him on the head. "Don't you dare do that again! You're as bad as Sonic!"

But shots were fired again and the pair ducked down to shield themselves. There was one drone left.

"Leave this one to me." Amy said, unbuckling her seat-belt and standing up. Tails didn't have to say how incredibly dangerous that was, but Amy seemed determined and confident in what she was about to do. "Just keep the Tornado steady." And she pulled out a big, red hammer. Her Piko Piko hammer, her signature weapon. Tails understood what she was going to try so he eased off the throttle to slow the Tornado down, and the drone came right at them.

Amy tensed, raised her hammer behind her back and swung it. It smashed into the drone so hard the thing shattered into a million pieces.

"Good work." Tails said, opening the throttle again as Amy got back into her seat and they began gaining altitude. He shot up over a cliff face and found himself face to face with the Egg-Carrier! Robotnik must've been following them to make sure they were finished off.

The proximity alarm suddenly went off, and Tails didn't have time to react as a missile struck the Tornado, blasting the tail off. Tails now had no control over the Tornado as it just began falling out of the sky, and Amy's screaming didn't help him concentrate.

He still had control of the wing aileron so he tried to pull the nose up just enough to soften the landing. They were heading straight for the Egg-Carriers deck, and it was no good. The Tornado was going to crash and burn.

Quickly, he pulled on a lever and both he and Amy were ejected from the plane. While in the air he grabbed onto Amy's arms and held his tails high as he began to demonstrate one of his party pieces. His tails began to spin back and forth, back and forth, back and forth rapidly until they produced the upward force of small helicopter blades, which slowed their fall significantly. Tails had to grip onto Amy's arms tightly, she was heavier than she looked but he didn't want to voice it just now, he hoped the strain on his face would be clear enough. He guessed it was because Amy stopped looking scared long enough to look up into his face and say. "Hey! I'm not that heavy!"

"Yes you are." Tails said. He was sure he felt Amy's hands squeeze his arms even tighter. "It's your hammer, that's what's heavy!" Tails added quickly, but Amy did not look convinced.

Tails watched as the Tornado finally admitted defeat, crashing into the deck and was ripped into a million pieces as it exploded. Tails just watched, dumbfounded. He'd felt like he'd just watched an old friend die.

Setting Amy down and gently landing himself they unfortunately didn't have much time to react or come up with a plan as Badniks came out of every corner, every small cubby-hole and surrounded them. Their weapons all pointing directly at them. Amy held up her hammer but Tails could tell they were outmatched. There was no way they could defeat all these Badniks.

"Ah, it seems I have a few rats on my ship." Came Dr. Robotnik's voice over a loudspeaker system.

"Rat?!" Amy cried indignant, "You come here and say that to my face Egg-man!"

"I've got more important things to do than deal with pests." Robotnik said, laughing. "Where is Sonic? I'm sure he's not very far behind."

"Sonic will come for me!" Amy shouted, "Just you wait until he gets here!"

"Haha, I don't doubt it, you prissy little princess." Amy looked angry, but rather than bite back she just looked like she was seething. She was brought back to reality when a Badnik robot grabbed her wrists and held her tightly. Another Badnik did the same with Tails.

"Show our 'guests' to their quarters" Robotnik said, "I could use some more 'test subjects' for what I have planed. Wmhahahaha!"

As the Egg-Carrier flew away it didn't notice over the horizon a long blue streak rolling across the meadows. Through forests, across rivers and through solid boulders, blasting them apart. This was an almost unstoppable, powerful force.

It zoomed past a tall mountain, but it came to a grinding stop, before spinning around, heading back and climbing up to the peak of the mountain. Over rock and through snow the force just ploughed straight through it. Circling the peak he came to the very tip and the blur of blue began to spin around at its tip. The spinning slowed to a stop and the creature that caused this power stood perched on the peak of this mountain, the soles of his red shoes were bigger than the tip of the peak, but he stood there with perfect balance despite standing tall.

The creature crossed his arms across his chest as he looked out at the massive air-ship starting to move away. Whenever Robotnik moved he was always likely to run across him. At the speed he could run he could cover the planet in a day, and with how large and grand old Egg-head Robotnik liked to build his air-ships it was difficult to miss him.

Leaping off the edge of the peak, he skidded on the soles of his shoes all the way down the edge of the cliff. He was coming towards a lip where the mountain flicked upwards. Leaping up and raising his arms, he brought them down towards his knees sending him into a fast spin, curling up into a ball like a hedgehog would. When he came to the lip he was flung high into the air and the creature unfurled his arms and legs out as far as he could and just felt the breeze blast past him and pretended for one second that he could fly.

He was still high above the ground, but that didn't concern him. He knew how to land so he took little to no damage. Tails could probably explain it scientifically using diagrams and maths, but it worked, that's all he needed to know. He impacted the ground and rolled into a spin, transferring the momentum from falling to rolling. The ball unfurled again and the creature began running after the Egg-carrier.

Clearly Dr. Egg-man was up to something and he was going to find out what.

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: Though I hate the name Egg-man, I've made it so Robotnik is his real name and is the name he actually goes by, and Egg-man is the name Sonic gives him to annoy him. Come on, would you take anyone seriously who calls themselves Egg-man?

I know it's a tad convenient for Sonic to run across Robotnik now. But honestly throughout the whole series Sonic always seems to stumble upon Robotnik's plots before he can get any headway with them.