For a scant few yards Knuckles was ahead of Sonic, fury and desperation accelerating him towards the Flying Fortress. Then Sonic was past him, already leaping into the air and snatching a grip on one of the many protrusions from the enormous, airborne structure. Tails half jumped, half flew to grab on even higher and Knuckles jumped after them both.

As his hands closed firmly on the rungs of some sort of crawlway it was immediately apparent that the others were in difficulty. Knuckles' own hands were wrapped right around the rung and he was secure in his grip but the metal was slick with machine oil and grime and Sonic's hands were sliding. The hedgehog kicked his feet, seeking purchase on anything he could get a sneaker to but his attention wasn't on his own predicament, it was on Tails. Knuckles followed his gaze. The fox had managed to get a whole arm around the rail he was clinging to but the slipstream was battering him against the body of the craft, making him yelp in distress and squeeze his eyes shut.

Knuckles glanced back at Sonic.

"Help him!" Sonic gasped. Knuckles hesitated. Sonic was far less secure in his grip and in any case he had no idea how to help. He had let them follow him into this mistake without any thought beyond getting on board and now they were going to fall or get smashed to bits and that was going to be his fault too and..

He looked about frantically. There had to be a way in. A hatch or a something.

There wasn't.

His jaw tightened.

Then he'd make one.

For a moment he wondered if he would even be able to hold on with just one hand while he smashed his way in, but then Sonic grunted as his hand slipped further and Tails yelled and Knuckles let go.

For a split second he was dangling by one hand, flailing in the slipstream as Tails was, and then he'd hauled himself closer and swung with the opposite fist, ripping two long tears into the metal. He grabbed at the torn section and heaved, peeling it open like a piece of fruit.

"That'll work," said Sonic. "Get Tails."

Knuckles glanced up. Tails was still hugging the railing, eyes squeezed shut and legs drawn up in a protective huddle against the violent wind. He was safe, if uncomfortable.

"You first," Knuckles said, to Sonic. He reached out to pull the hedgehog up.

For a moment Sonic hesitated, and Knuckles could tell if it was reluctance to be helped first, or doubt about Knuckles' ability to hold him, or simple uncertainty over how to let go and transfer his grip to Knuckles without falling. And then the ship entered the clouds and the turbulence was the last straw to his precarious hold and he was hurtling past Knuckles.

Knuckles lashed out his arm and grabbed Sonic's wrist in the single moment of opportunity, suddenly grateful for those running tows he'd been so wary of, because they meant that Sonic at least knew how to hang on without making things worse.

The added weight and drag of the hedgehog, in addition to the icy damp of the clouds that made condensation spring to every cold metal surface was threatening Knuckles' own hold now. They needed to hurry this up. He pulled himself close to the ship once again, arms and shoulders protesting at taking all the effort on one side.

Sonic saw what he intended and struggled to reach the same rail as Knuckles, with his free hand. Something struck Knuckles hard in the back as the hedgehog squirmed. A knee or a foot, whichever it was it made him grunt loudly enough for Sonic to notice.

"Oops. Ouch. Sorry!"

"Don't be sorry. Be done. Move faster." Knuckles snapped. "Get inside. Now."

Sonic practically climbed up and over him and disappeared into the improvised hatch.

"What ab-"

"I've got Tails," Knuckles cut him off, already moving, dragging himself hand over hand to Tails' perch.

He positioned himself forward from the fox, further into the direction of flight, breaking some of the wind beating at the cub.

"Tails."

Tails opened his eyes and stared at him.

"You've got to hang onto me instead and I'll get us inside."

To Knuckles' surprised admiration Tails never hesitated. When Knuckles let go with one hand, Tails grabbed it firmly then immediately let go with the other and wrapped both arms and legs around the echidna.

Knuckles moved cautiously back to the tear in the ship where Sonic was waiting, braced against the wind and reaching out. Tails leaped for him and they tumbled inside and away from the edge. Knuckles hung gasping a moment longer then clambered inside to join them.

"I'm sorry," he said as soon as he could draw a full breath through the subsiding adrenaline. "This was my fault. I didn't think about how we'd get in. I shouldn't have assumed you'd come. I should have thought about what would happen if you did."

Sonic shrugged.

"We're here. It's fine. We were always coming. I didn't think about it either."

Knuckles stared at him, almost unable to believe it could be that simple a thing to dismiss. He'd nearly got them killed.

"It's not on you, Knux."

Knuckles blinked, his processing of the cause of the mistake abruptly derailed.

"Why do you do that?"

Sonic frowned. "Do what? Tell you that stuff that's not your fault isn't your fault? That's called: Not. Being. A. Jerk." He grinned "Is the concept new?"

Knuckles ignored the smirk.

"Not that. 'Knux'"

"Oh." Sonic laughed. "Does it bother you? You should have said." Sonic's eyes glittered. "I'd know when to do it then."

Knuckles was too baffled to even rise to the taunt. "Bother me?" He shook his head uncertainly. "No? It's just… I don't know."

"It's a friendly thing, Knuckles," Tails said. "Really."

Knuckles caught himself about to ask why, but stopped. This was not the moment and he was distracted and had lost sight of the problem at hand again.

"Fine," he said. "Can we work on the fact that we're at least ten thousand feet up, and still climbing? We have a finite amount of time here before the air gets thin."

"Good point" Sonic allowed, casting a glance about. "This way?"

Knuckles and Tails followed him. Tails put a hand to the hatchway Sonic had found.

"This isn't a pressure door." A worried look crossed his face. "We need to find one though. What if it's all robots here and Eggman only keeps his section with any air?"

Sonic patted his shoulder. "Then we'll move fast enough to find that section!"

Knuckles swallowed against the pressure change in his ears. "Then we need to move now."

He heaved the door open, finding a vertical shaft ahead. A tiny ladder scaled one wall but the route was clearly intended for gravity-defying robots, not people. They scrambled up it anyway but when Knuckles opened a corresponding hatch at the top the wind nearly took his breath away as he found himself halfway outside again.

He ducked back down.

"What?" Sonic demanded from near his ankles.

"It's back outside this way. There're railings but..."

"Not sure we've got a lot of choice here," Sonic pointed out.

"Can you see another way in?" Tails asked? "Or a pressure door? It'll be heavier, sealed at the edges maybe."

Knuckles stuck his head back out. It was terribly exposed. A metal grid framed a sort of deck with girders and trusses turning it an obstacle course. Machinery moved back and forth along other rails, heavy and oblivious to the slipstream.

Maybe a hundred paces away the bulk of the ship rose again, and there was a door, though he'd no way to identify whether or not it met Tails' criteria.

He ducked back inside.

"There's a door..."

Sonic shrugged as best he could while hanging on to the ladder. "We'll take our chances."

Knuckles nodded tightly – what alternative was there after all – and climbed the rest of the way out. The slipstream snatched him off his feet at once and he grabbed the opened hatch, almost pulling it closed again on Sonic's face. Only the hedgehog's reflexes saved him, and it clanged shut over an indignant protest from Tails and a "Whoops!" from Sonic who was crouched on hands and knees, head lowered into the wind.

Knuckles flattened his spines against his head as best he could, crawled back to his knees, dug his claws into the gridded deck and let go of the hatch for Tails to climb out. Sonic grabbed the fox as he emerged and stood up, head still ducked, leaning into the wind.

He reached out his other arm for Knuckles who frowned doubtfully.

"Bit of a breeze," Sonic grinned back. "Not faster than me though."

Knuckles considered the physics briefly and concluded uncertainly that it was probably correct. He reached up and grabbed the hedgehog's wrist yet again.

Sonic ran, feet skidding on the slick metal, the wind pushing him backwards at least a step for every two he took but reached the door in seconds even so. Tails quickly identified the correct release mechanism and Knuckles frowned to discover it unlocked – how confident was Eggman to leave it that way?

"Eggy must want visitors after all." Sonic smirked and heaved the door open.

There was a moment of dumbfounded shock before every robot that had been behind it opened fire.

The three animals scattered as though a bomb had gone off at their feet – Tails vertically upwards, Sonic breaking left and Knuckles to the right.

"Or not..." Sonic shouted sounding positively gleeful at this development. Knuckles wanted to snarl something back, some comment on the utter inappropriateness of his timing perhaps, but had enough to deal with battling both wind and robots alike. Laser fire crackled past his face and as he threw himself clear, the wind snatched him away from the cover he'd been aiming for, dragged him across the grating underfoot and flung him into the air again. He grabbed the nearest handhold and looked up, both feet kicking in mid-air and eyes streaming tears from the wind. Sonic was a blur, ricocheting from one to the other to another of the robots. Tails was piggyback atop one of the larger ones, ripping out wires and redirecting the thing's weapon against more of the same type.

Knuckles ducked his head, looking back towards his feet – what would have been behind him if he wasn't dangling almost horizontally, and was instead down. He was going to have to let go and needed to know what he was going to hit if he failed to get back on his feet.

A movement caught his attention and one of the unidentifiable little machines passed on a rail a few lengths back. He tracked it with his eyes. Perhaps that would do. A ride back into the fight.

He let go, twisted towards the machine and missed by inches, once again underestimating the wind. Distantly he heard Tails scream a warning, but his hands had already closed on the rail and his whole body lit up in pain. Every muscle contracted at once and he couldn't tell if he was screaming, couldn't tell if he was breathing. He knew he had to let go but he couldn't make his body obey him and at least one of the robots must have noticed his helplessness because something hit him hard enough to knock the breath out of him and he was free of the rail but slammed back against a girder. Breathless and shaking, he closed his eyes against the black stars bursting across his vision. Something was hauling at him he thought. Or the sensation was just the protest of over-wrought nerves and over-exerted muscles.

There was an abrupt silence and stillness, which lasted a bare second.

"Knuckles!"

A hand touched his throat, and in spite of everything, that was enough to drive his eyes open and send him jerking and scrambling blindly to get clear.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay, easy. Only me."

Knuckles forced his eyes open. They were inside again. The quietness was merely the absence of the howling wind. Sonic was on his knees at his side, both hands raised, still talking.

"You're okay. I think. I hope. Your pulse is all over the place. Are you okay?"

Knuckles considered the question.

"Knux?"

Knuckles frowned, not even close to completing the mental tally of exactly what had happened before Sonic had spoken again. He felt shaky and sore and there was a burning, growing ache across his torso which he couldn't account for. His hand strayed to it.

"Sonic spin-dashed you to knock you loose," Tails said. "We couldn't just pull you off because of the electricity and you didn't seem like you could let go. There wasn't time to think of anything else."

The fox's voice sounded odd to Knuckles. The same odd urgency he'd heard in Sonic's a moment ago.

He blinked, trying to assemble the new information and apply it to what he remembered. He was interrupted again before he'd finished.

"You grabbed the live rail that was powering the cargo bots," Tails said.

"Live rail..." Knuckles started but stopped because of how faint his own voice sounded to him.

"It was carrying electricity?" Tails apparently felt more explanation was wanted. "To power the bots?"

A shudder ran through Knuckles from top to tail. He closed his eyes but in the darkness behind his eyelids waited the memory of the last time he'd had such a shock – clinging to the Master Emerald as Eggman's machine tore it away, loss, cold metal and the savage, heat-less burn of the electrical attack.

He reached out by reflex to the Emerald, suddenly fearful of discovering a repeat of that awful separation. The contact flooded over him and sheer relief would have knocked him flat on his back if he he hadn't already been there. The contact was warm. Soothing. Healing. So why was he still trembling?

"Knuckles? Open your eyes. Stay with us here, okay?" Sonic's voice was too loud but his hand as it landed on Knuckles' arm was also warm. "C'mon. Sit up. Get it together. You're okay."

Knuckles opened his eyes at entirely the wrong moment, the world tilting wildly as Sonic pulled him halfway to upright. He slumped against the hedgehog's side, too dizzy to struggle against the embarrassment of it. Sonic's arm around his shoulders was warm as well. His grip solid. A firm and steady contrast to the slowly subsiding shivers.

"You gotta stop getting yourself shocked, buddy," Sonic said. "Your spines will end up looking more like mine."

Knuckles pushed himself to a more dignified sitting position. Sonic didn't withdraw the supporting arm and Knuckles didn't try to make him.

"That would be terrible," he managed to say.

Sonic grinned. "Right. No one else has a chance of carrying off this a look this cool."

"Are you really all right, Knuckles?" Tails asked.

Knuckles considered it again.

"Yes." He drifted his attention to the flow of energy from the Master Emerald, and then appraisingly, to his own state. He was okay. He'd reached out to check on the Emerald's state but that worked both ways of course. Any injury was already healed, but the contact had also warned him that they were moving every further away from the Island.

"Need a minute?" Sonic asked.

"No." Knuckles slipped out of the hedgehog's grip and stood up. He rolled his shoulders and shook out his spines and stretched.

"Sure? Sonic asked. "That was quite a zap."

"I'm sure."

Sonic gave him a slightly puzzled look but didn't argue. Knuckles looked around, assessing their location properly for the first time. Tails had apparently satisfied himself that Knuckles needed no further help and was also looking around.

"These are very new repairs," he said, pointing. "This whole section, look. But Sonic was right – it's way too soon and fast."

Knuckles looked but without much interest.

"It's not repairing it I'm interested in. It flies right now. That's all that matters."

He stepped over a pile of broken robot parts.

Tails poked the debris with a toe.

"No repairing those," Sonic smirked.

"He's probably built more," Tails didn't seem worried by the fact, Knuckles noticed, only curious. He'd located the next door and gave it a tap.

"Sealed compartments. In case one gets blown out, I guess."

Knuckles tried the door. "Not locked."

Tails nodded. "He's not worried about visitors – Sonic had that right too."

"Two for two," Sonic grinned and joined them. "So which way for controls, do we think, Tails? Front and centre up top?"

Tails nodded. "Probably."

Somewhat to Knuckles' relief there wasn't much scope for Sonic's headlong runs here, though they found themselves needing his speed more than once when their route forced them back out into the wind. The weather was worsening and the wind turned the rain into something that felt more like hail when it hammered against them.

It was a relief to be back inside and they finally seemed to have reached a more open interior although it was still littered with the remains of smashed robots. They accelerated and Sonic cast a glance back over his shoulder to check they were staying with him as he led the way through a headlong, erratic path. At some point Knuckles realised he was relying, at least in part, on Sonic's reflexes to not run them straight into one of the too-frequent sheer drops where the reconstruction work had apparently not been completed. He baulked at the thought, missed a step and had to jump and scramble to stay on his feet.

Tails threw him a concerned look but fortunately Sonic did not look back or appear to have noticed. Knuckles returned his eyes to the hedgehog's back as their feet clattered over the bare metal of a steep walkway.

Knuckles opened his mouth to protest that this was taking them down, not up but bit off the words unsaid as Sonic skidded to a halt, all his attention taken by the need to stop and stay on his feet rather than in an undignified pile-up.

The reason Sonic had stopped was clear immediately.

"Eggman!" Knuckles half started forward but caught himself in time and settled for curling his fists at his side. Between them and the scientist was a flickering, crackling wall of orange-red light, which Knuckles didn't need either Sonic's experience or Tails' expertise to recognise as dangerous to the touch.

Behind it Eggman's attention was on a screen in front of a wall full of robots designs and notes. He barely glanced up at them, his face a picture of amused unconcern and tapped a button.

Behind them, blocking their retreat, another light barrier flashed into being. Sonic's eyes darted about the room and then he assumed a pose of calculated nonchalance.

"So," he said. "What's up? New toys? Let's see them then."

Eggman's smile broadened unpleasantly.

"No."

He pressed another button and Knuckles felt something shift under his feet a split second before he was falling. Broken bots hit him in the air as they fell around him, and he smacked hard into a rail which he almost managed to grab before tumbling again, to land asprawl on a pit or tattered metal and loose parts. Sharp edges dug in everywhere he was in contact with the debris and he struggled painfully back to his feet in time to see Sonic touch down, dangling by one wrist from Tails' grip.

All three of them looked up in time to see a set of hatches swing shut and an unidentifiable mechanism slide out along the rail Knuckles had nearly broken his ribs against. The device threw off electric blue sparks every few seconds and Knuckles watched it warily, edging away to keep from becoming caught underneath it. Sonic also eyed it, but made a leap for it anyway although he fell well short. Tails took to the air and hovered just out of range, peering at it.

He fell back startled, as it lit up with an audible crackle, and landed back on his feet just in time to be thrown off them by a collection of robots pieces soaring into the air towards the device.

Sharp pincers snatched the pieces out of the air and, moving like lightning, reassembled them into something that hurtled straight at the three of them as soon as it was released.

Sonic yelped, but still leapt towards instead of away from the new robot, smashing it easily. Two more were already airborne however and the machine was still turning out more. Knuckles knocked down the next one that came at him and looked around trying to keep eyes on all of the other at once. There was something unnerving about them, regardless of how easily they fell. Something eerie about how damaged they already were while still attacking.

"Zombie robots," Sonic called out cheerfully.

Tails made a face as he bounded past and leapt back into the air to deliver a determined kick to one arm of the device assembling them.

"They're creepy!"

A grinding sound drowned out Sonic's answer, and Knuckles realised with alarm that it was coming from behind the walls, which were slowly moving inwards.

Knuckles ducked a robot but had to sacrifice swinging back at it in favour of scrambling to keep his feet on the shifting pile of broken parts being forced inwards and upwards by the moving walls.

Sonic jumped on to of the growing pile of debris and landed his first blow against the actual mechanism.

"Always an upside!" he grinned and smashed into it again.

Tails laughed and landed in a tangle with a bot he'd just taken out in the air. The walls moved again and the debris shifted and the fox's laugh abruptly turned to a squeal of pain.

"Tails!" Sonic was at his side instantly. Knuckles glanced over, while still trying not to lose track of the unending stream of hastily built attackers. Tails' foot had become jammed somewhere in the pile of debris as it shifted. Sonic was pulling at his arm but to little avail.

Knuckles shoved Sonic's shoulder.

"Keep them off." He pointed vaguely. "I can get Tails out."

Sonic hesitated but nodded and took up station beside them, intercepting anything that got close.

Knuckles dug into the pile with both hands, trying not to think too hard about the odds of slicing his hands to pieces on the broken edges. Or about what they may have done to Tails' foot and ankle.

It only took a few seconds before he found the wedged piece and tore it in two in lieu of bothering to work out how to get it loose. Tails scrambled free and Knuckles pulled him the rest of the way clear.

"Injured?" Knuckles asked shortly, eyes already back on the airborne robots.

Tails rotated his ankle. "Nope. Just scratched up. Thanks."

Knuckles nodded absently and leapt back to the attack, only realising that Tails had grabbed him for a lift, when his jump took him considerably higher than he'd expected. He swallowed his surprise and struck the device with both fists. The momentum sent him almost into the rail above and he landed, staggering, to find Tails staring at him looking almost as startled as Knuckles felt at the unexpected effectiveness of the move.

There was a screeching of metal as the device came to a stuttering stop on its rail and a sudden silence as the walls also came to a halt.

"Okay," Sonic said after a second. "Now how do we-"

And then they were falling again.

Knuckles fought again to get clear enough of the debris around him to glide, but hadn't managed it before something hit him. Hit him and held him. Bots fell around him and there was daylight again and a wildly exposed view downwards but he wasn't falling, which would have been great were it not for the crushing pressure around his chest of whatever was keeping him from falling.

"Uh, Knuckles?" Sonic's voice made him twist to look for it and the hedgehog passed him, dangling confidently from Tail's grip. "Um. Hold on. I mean… well just..."

"Don't say 'hang in there', Sonic," Tails said.

Knuckles frowned, unable to make sense of the humour in their voices when the situation was so clearly unfunny.

He looked up. The device that had grabbed him was hanging from the underside of the ship, running, like the device they'd just destroyed, along a rail there. A protruding loading dock passed below him and before he could decide what to do about his predicament the device had let go.

He dropped, caught himself, and kept his feet on landing. The device accelerated back the way it had come before he'd decided whether it was worth the risk of attacking it.

Tails and Sonic landed beside him.

"Come on," Sonic said at once. "Eggman might be up on a higher deck, but it was this direction he was going."

Knuckles nodded and the three of them resumed their hair-raising transit across the exposed walk-ways and in and out of the cargo areas of the ship. The rain had stopped but the exposed areas of wet metal were treacherous underfoot. Eventually their way was blocked by another vertical shaft, this one lacking even the token effort of a ladder.

Knuckles slammed a fist into it once to see if it was climbable, then a second time in frustration at the fact that the first blow had left no trace other than two small divots.

Sonic put a hand on his shoulder and it took every iota of Knuckles' self-control not to land the third blow on the hedgehog's jaw.

"It's okay," Sonic said, apparently oblivious to his narrow escape. "We'll find another way."

Knuckles squeezed his eyes shut, fighting weariness and frustration and an uneasy, gnawing restless sense that in spite of their headlong speed and constant movement they were making no progress. Managing his own reactions to his un-chosen allies as well was a challenge he could have willingly done without.

He sighed and resisted the remaining urge to strike Sonic's hand away. Instead he simply walked out from under it, back the way they'd come.

He'd only gone three paces, with both Sonic and Tails back at his side when a crash from behind them made all three spin round. Knuckles raised his fists as Sonic dropped into a racers crouch and Tails also ducked, ready to spring. But for a moment all three merely stared.

"Zombie robots, now giant spiders?" Sonic demanded, staring at the multi-limbed metallic creature lashing back and forth into front of them at the end of a huge cable. "He's really playing the creepy card heavily this time isn't he?"

Knuckles didn't answer, and although no one else spoke again, all three of them moved forward at once to the attack. This time Knuckles didn't need warning about the hazards of the leaping sparking electricity that arced between the spider-bot's jaws. He didn't falter when the walkway beneath their feet shifted and started to rise. He divided his attention between the attacking robot and Sonic and Tails, determined not to make any further mistakes in coordinating their attacks.

The robot made a grab for Sonic and caught only air as the hedgehog jumped aside. Metal claws clattered on the walkway before withdrawing and resorting to another electrical blast. Knuckles dodged it but was forced to close his eyes against the flash. He heard the crunch of a spin-dash against metal as Sonic, leapt in to attack in his place, but apparently with little effect since when Knuckles reopened his eye it was to find the thing plunging at him. He rolled to the side but metal jaws closed on his ankle, with enough force to whip him into the air and fling him across the shaft.

The world blurred but he struck a tangle of bodies and fur instead of the wall. Metal spikes rushed past and it took him a split second to realise that both Sonic and Tails had leapt to intercept his tumble towards them, and collided with each other as well as him in the process.

All three of them had gone done in a heap, but giddy adrenaline drove Knuckles back to his feet and he pulled both of the others up with one hand each.

"Thanks," he told the still slightly glassy-eyed pair.

Sonic blinked at him. "No problem."

Tails glanced back at the robot, withdrawing up its cable once again, planning the next move perhaps. "That was one of the plans on the wall, y'know. It's brand new. It's not quite right yet. It's not very accurate."

"Are they ever?" Sonic smirked.

Tails grinned. His eyes went to another set of spikes as they rushed past. "I think we can make it even less accurate..."

"Oh yeah," Sonic grinned. "Betcha Knuckles has never played conkers. We should totally fix that."

Knuckles frowned but Tails was already explaining.

"When he swings for us, we're all going to go for him, right?"

Knuckles backed up for a better angle. "Okay."

Sonic and Tails joined him, choosing their spot.

"Into the spikes would be fav," Sonic said. "Wait for it..."

The spider swung at them the cable lashing then tightening as it did.

"Now!" bellowed Sonic. Knuckles was already moving, the timing was clearly right with or without the hedgehog's yell and all three blows landed, the ringing of the metal as they hit it almost deafening and the shrieking tearing crunch as the spider-bot impacted against the spikes was even louder.

Bits flew everywhere and the sounds of mechanical distress peaked and then cut off abruptly to be replaced by sparks and the smell of burning insulation.

"Whoo!" Sonic cheered.

Tails eyed the robot. "I don't like the noises that's making." he said. "I think we should… move back. Fast."

Sonic glanced up. "I can see the top."

Tails followed his gaze. "I can't carry you both."

Knuckles gave the robot another look. Smoke was pouring from it and increasing instead of reducing, but the cable was intact.

"Tails is right. Move. I can climb that." He pointed.

"Nice!" Sonic beamed at him then at Tails. "Outta here!"

Tails jumped into the air, snatching Sonic's proffered wrists and accelerated upwards. Knuckles jumped up over the tangled remains of the robot and grabbed the now limp cable, pulling himself up hand over hand and trying not to breathe the acrid smoke.

On the top deck they paused to re -confirm their direction but had barely started running again before an almighty explosion threw them all off their feet. Getting back up was harder than it should have been. The vibrations didn't seem to be dying away and the deck canted alarmingly sideways. A lightness in Knuckles stomach told him they were descending. Fast. Almost falling.

"Tails?" Sonic asked wide-eyed.

"Uh. I don't know. That bot was on the plans he had on the wall. It's new. But I don't know whey the bang would be this big."

Knuckles looked between them, at a loss for event he right question to ask.

"It's damaged this ship?"

Tails nodded. "I… think so?"

Smoke rose from further aft than the site of their most recent fight.

"Whatever it damaged, it's spreading."

Sonic made a face. "Right. Abandon ship!"

Knuckles stared at him, feeling the frustration rise all over again.

"No..."

"Sorry, Knux," Sonic shrugged though his tone was less casual than his expression. "This thing's going down not up, even if we could take control now."

Knuckles wanted to argue. Wanted to demand they try something, that Tails pull some of that technical gibberish out that would make this work after all, wanted to deny the evidence of his senses, wanted anything rather than to give up and return to the surface.

But when had wanting ever been enough?

He sighed and followed Sonic aft, looking for a safe place to get clear. Bots were heading that way too, did they have enough sense to know when to leave a failing airship?

Apparently they did, because they were equipping themselves from a stash of wing-like contraptions stacked there, presumably for such a purpose.

Tails' eyes lit up. "Look at those! That'd be way easier than carrying you down, Sonic!" We should definitely pinch some!"

Sonic grinned back. "Robot hang-gliders for the hijacking. I am all over it."

One jury-rigged harness later, Tails was running along the wing as Sonic wrestled guided it along the deck and off into the air. Tails jumped after him, and Knuckles gave a last regretful glance at the disintegrating ship, the best hope he'd had of flying back to the Floating Island.

He turned away and jumped into the turbulent sky.