Writer's note: Okay, I am deeply sorry about that Chapter 2 that I posted earlier and then deleted. It wasn't until about an hour after I posted it (and after followers received Story Alerts through e-mail, naturally) that I lost confidence in it. Basically, in case you missed it, it was just a lazier retread of Alone Together (another thing I wrote) except that most of the "action" took place over a phone call – which is just lousy storytelling if done through the medium of text. I decided to trash the Sonic/Tails segments completely and start over with something that wouldn't completely blow up the outline I had written. Hopefully the action in this version is a little more…y'know…real.

For anyone confused about the "Part 1: Siege" thing, it's sort of a way to divide the various chapters into their own story arcs, like in some novels that have a "Book 1" and "Book 2". Siege is the first story arc within Supernova, and the plan is for four parts that last roughly 6-10 chapters each. (Each part will be posted in this one story, and not separately. I'm not Warner Bros. and this ain't Harry Potter.) Of course, plans can change, but what is set in stone is that this first part will be the shortest. I hope I'm not spoiling too much here by saying this.

"Knuckles? Can you hear me, Knuckles?"

Deep in the back of his mind, Knuckles the Echidna had to be wondering to himself how he even got caught up in this mess in the first place.

Were it not for a sense of personal responsibility, chances were high that he wouldn't be doing this in the first place. Now, not only was the Master Emerald missing, but he had managed to get himself lost, surrounded by vast monochromatic catacombs of glossy concrete and stainless steel that all looked virtually identical to the naked eye. The echidna relied on his own sixth sense to lure him closer to his destined jewel. Sure enough, throughout his journey, his mind had been receiving signals from beyond.

Unfortunately, they were not the kind of signals he asked for.

A shrill, childish voice entered his left ear, and only his left ear. "Knuckles? It's Tails! Requesting your position! Knuckles, are you there?!"

Perfect. Just perfect. This is exactly what I needed.

Knuckles had forgotten about those silly two-way radios that everybody had been told to shove in their ears. He wanted to raise an objection to them before they launched their last-ditch mission to infiltrate the ESS-1, but ultimately held his tongue. After all, he had far more pressing concerns to address.

One message in, and he remembered exactly why he had the objection to begin with. He figured it would be quicker if he just got this reply out of the way sooner rather than later.

"Eighth deck! No, I haven't found it yet! Over!"

He made sure to shout as loud as possible, as he wasn't sure if the radio would pick up speech at his normal volume. Nor did he care, since he had resolved for this to be the first, last, and only time he would ever use the thing.

Reaching in with the most delicate touch he could handle, he – somehow, with what was essentially an oversized boxing glove – extracted the unit. It was a simple contraption, little more than a foam earpiece with a plastic cap at the end which concealed the electronic components. It was all too easy for someone to crush into dust…which is exactly what Knuckles had in mind when he held the unit above his head, one second away from throwing it to the ground with every bit of his strength.

At the last possible moment, a thought crossed his mind.

No…I might need this later.

Instead, Knuckles opted for the far more sensible solution of toggling the nearly undetectable on/off switch.

With that distraction out of the way, he pressed on, scouring Deck 8 of the ESS-1, twisting his neck at every turn to more effectively scan all possible angles of the route that lay ahead of him. Something deep inside his head told him he was getting closer to his goal. In fact, that "something" turned so painfully loud in its attempts to call out to him that he had to clutch his sinuses in a futile attempt to calm them down. The further he walked, the less control he had of his own basic senses. All sensation of hearing disappeared, replaced by a constant, high-pitched ring that stabbed at his eardrums, as if someone rang dozens of doorbells directly in front of him. No matter which way he turned, the ringing felt exactly the same, throwing off all sense of direction. To Knuckles, this could only be a good thing.

Yes! It's close! I can sense it!

But then, just as quickly as it began…

"No…no…damn it! Stay with me!"

…the sensation vanished. He could hear clearly again. Yet he couldn't see or hear any trace of the jewel he was bonded to by destiny. Once again, he had been led down the wrong path.

By this point, he had lost count of how often he had gotten a trace on the Master Emerald only to lose it within seconds. He did know one thing, however; it was one too many. He looked off into the distance and found nothing but white walls, white floors, grey ceilings, as far as the eye could see. Did this hallway even lead anywhere? Had he somehow been led back the way he came? Was there even an end to this grim death march? He didn't know. He just didn't know.

And this was just one deck. On the flight here, he and the others could make out close to 40. At least.

Not knowing what else to do, the echidna slinked desperately onto the steel floor and pounded his spiked right fist into the surface with enough white-hot fury to leave a permanent imprint. As if things couldn't get any worse for him, he felt the cold, hard press of an arm cannon against the back of his neck.

Terrific. Just terrific.

"HALT. STATE YOUR BUSINESS." said Egg Gunner model #E-P455XLY, in its distinctive monotone.

Fortunately, Knuckles' years of martial arts training on Angel Island hadn't gone to waste, as he detected the looming shadow before it even said a word. The security droid could not get a shot off before the echidna twisted his upper body toward the right, and a massive spiked fist flew from nowhere to knock the gun into the air. Without even turning his head, Knuckles bent backwards and grabbed the Gunner by its torso, tossing it over his head in a classic wrestling move.

The Gunner's sturdy construction ensured that it stayed intact even as it hit the ground. That was just fine by Knuckles. He needed it alive. Just to make sure that it wouldn't escape, he grabbed the droid's head and pinned it to the floor with an unflinching grip.

Knuckles chose to get straight to the point. "Where are you hiding the Master Emerald?!"

Even though the echidna held the robot by what would be considered its throat, its internal speech processor was not affected. "CLASSIFIED INFORMATION…CANNOT DIVULGE UNDER PENALTY OF DESTRUCTION…"

"I'm not asking twice, punk! Tell me! Or meet a fist!"

As Knuckles tightened his headlock, the bolts holding the robot's head to its shoulders grew more fatigued by the second. A total structural failure was imminent, and the machine's on-board diagnostics ensured that it could sense its own demise. Regardless, the Egg Gunner simply could not do something it was programmed not to do.

"CLASSIFIED INFORMATION…CANNOT DIVULGE UNDER-"

Okay, that's it.

Knuckles wouldn't even wait for it to finish its sentence before burying a spiked glove deep within the robot's back. Whatever secrets it carried inside its internal memory would go with it to the junkyard regardless of what he did or didn't do.

"Well…that was a waste of time," he said, as he struggled to free his hand from the sparking and sputtering carcass of what used to be Egg Gunner #E-P455XLY.

The stubborn subordinate had given him absolutely nothing of value, except for what little satisfaction he could muster in destroying it. And even that meager reward brought him no closer to the Master Emerald. He was short on time, and even shorter on leads. There was no choice. He had to go back the way he came, back to the original "sweet spot".

There was, however, one small consolation in all of this. This time, Knuckles didn't need to hold back his speed to check every possible route, angle, or hiding place. This time, there was one route, one angle, and one target.

"I swear…" said Knuckles, under his breath. "…I will bring you back home. No matter what it takes." The guardian set off, waiting for the nauseating sensations of the Master Emerald to consume his consciousness once again.

"Come on…come on..."

Like the two tails of his that unconsciously jabbed and slammed into each other as they wagged to and fro, two sides of Tails' brain were locked in a brutal struggle. The cold, brutal realist in him said there was next to no chance of a successful trace, that Eggman just wouldn't be that careless. The curious, inventive side of him, the side responsible for the creation of the MilesElectric portable tablet currently in his hands, was simply eager to take its newly-programmed "signal interceptor" function for a test drive. So far, the test looked like a certain failure, if the static blue screen and the blinking white words "SEARCHING FOR SIGNALS…" were any indication.

Certain thoughts ran through the fox's head. Perhaps the problem wasn't that Eggman was one step ahead. Was his machine even working? Could there be something wrong with the program he wrote for the signal interceptor? There was no way to tell at this point. The noises emanating from the device were no louder than those from before he started the test. The urge to quit out of the program further enveloped him with each second of inaction. And yet, each time he hovered his finger over the back button whose touch would have ended the process, he could not bring himself to do so. He had to let it go on. After all, a scientist cannot validate the results of his experiment if he backs out while the experiment is still in progress.

Instead, he stood on that spot in front of the engine control room, shutting out the entire universe around him, staring unblinking at his screen as the words "SEARCHING FOR SIGNALS…" seared itself into his retina and into the rather cheap LCD screen he had procured with what little resources he had at his disposal.

All of a sudden, something came from behind him and twice tapped a finger on his left shoulder.

Tails reacted accordingly to the rude destruction of his personal bubble, emitting a piercing shriek that echoed off the walls of deck 6. When the shock finally settled down, animal instincts took over as he turned around and spread his legs in a fighting position, swinging his two tails in front of him like a furry shield, only to find…

"Sonic?" he asked.

The hedgehog had been standing right behind him for God-knows-how-long, tapping his foot at the speed of a sledgehammer as he waited for any semblance of a response. Now he had it. Tails disarmed himself when he finally realized he was a few seconds away from tail-striking his own friend's head clean off without even knowing it.

"Oh my gosh, Sonic! I am so sorry! I didn't—"

But much to his relief and surprise, Sonic just laughed the whole thing off. "It's okay, big guy! It's just that sometimes you get a little…uh, howdoIsayit…focused every now and then, dontcha think?"

Tails had no reply, simply staring at the ground as his face turned red. The two made a silent agreement to not discuss the incident any further and shift the conversation toward business.

"So…what were you just lookin' at?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, yeah! It's a long shot, but I thought I'd try and save us time by tracing the origin of any wireless signals that pass through here. Basically, it works by a crude system of echolocation wherein the device transmits its own carrier signal, which I encrypted with a special…"

That's "basically" to this guy? Sonic felt like blurting out, but managed to hold it in the back of his throat.

Watching Tails ramble on about his inventions was almost as much of a wonder to behold as the inventions themselves. Somehow his sapphire blue eyes seemed to glow brighter with each long, technical word that Sonic hadn't even heard of, let alone knew the definition. Under normal circumstances, the hedgehog could have let Tails finish the way he planned to finish…assuming he ever planned to finish at all. However, these were not normal circumstances. The two were on a time crunch. Knowing this, Sonic stuck his open hand out in front of his body, indicating 'stop'.

"So, did you get any of that?" asked Tails, not even stopping to take a breath.

"Well…" said Sonic, his hand cupping his chin as he struggled to come up with an answer. "I did get the 'save time' part. That's for sure."

Tails buried his face in his right hand. Yet again, he realized that he had failed to take into account what different worlds they both came from.

"Okay…" said Tails. "…In short, this program could help lead us straight to the server room!"

"Now that's what I wanna hear!" said Sonic. "At this rate, we'll be in and out of this trash-heap in no time!"

"If it works," said Tails, waving a finger in the air. "Like I said, it's a long shot."

"Hey, if you built it, I'd bet my life on it! And if it doesn't?"

Tails hissed at the most likely possibility. "Well…we'll probably have to search each deck one by one."

"Hey, what's wrong with a li'l' more exploring? I'm always game for that!"

"Uh…" Tails had no real answer to the question; after all, he really didn't have a choice in the matter.

Suddenly, both were taken off-guard by a series of beeps from the MilesElectric that came with such abruptness and volume that it nearly caused the fox to drop the machine. When he looked for himself, he noticed that the monotonous blinking message had finally, mercifully, disappeared from the screen.

"What's going on?" Sonic asked, as he rushed over to take a peek at the screen. "Don't tell me somebody's making a phone call all the way up here!"

But Tails paid no mind to his friend's attempt at humor. His eyes were locked on the screen, toward the wealth of information that scrolled by him. At first, mere vocabulary escaped him. He wasn't sure whether to believe its authenticity or not, and kept any thoughts of the notion tucked away to quash any false hope. But when the final confirmation appeared, the words finally came to his tongue.

"We…we got one. Sonic, we've got a signal here! Look at this!"

Slowly, Tails turned his gaze over to Sonic, who stood silent, more than willing to let his younger but far more technologically capable partner take the reins for the moment.

"It's…I've got a lock on the location!" said Tails, half-gasping each word. "It's…yes…"

The MilesElectric's speakers gave off a single, sustained beep, this one even louder than those that came before. Sonic and Tails both leaned in to see what action this noise represented on the tiny LCD screen. A set of three numbers appeared, all changing with every infinitesimal tremor of Tails' clammy gloves. Like the conductor of some electronic symphony, the fox waved the device back and forth, side to side, up and down, keeping his eyes fixed on the screen to make sure the numbers changed according to his movements. They did.

"Th…these are the coordinates…X, Y, and Z, right here!" said Tails, trying to keep himself together. "According to this, the signal's coming from…" He looked toward the ceiling, making an effort to estimate its height from sight alone and compare the estimate to his readings. "…I think it's two decks above us! The server room must be right there!"

"You did it, buddy!" said Sonic, leaping into the air. "I told you it would work!"

Tails only stared down at the shimmering floor of brushed steel, struggling to think of something to say as he absorbed a fur-ruffling pat on the head from the hedgehog. "Heh…I guess today must be our lucky day!"

As Tails' head was still pointed toward the floor, Sonic reached over and grabbed his hand,

"You ready for this?" Sonic asked.

Tails' head shot up. As soon as those sapphire blue eyes of youth and innocence locked onto fiery emerald eyes of passion and determination, any lingering doubts within the fox gently washed away.

"You bet I am!" said Tails.

"Let's make this fun! Last one there pays for lunch!"

"Ha! You're on! I'd like to see you fly up two floors!"

"Oh ho! Well, if it's a challenge you want, it's a challenge you'll get!"

With their eyes locked on each other, both crouched and lowered their hands to the floor. Tails revved up his twin appendages until they reached such a speed that they seemed to the naked eye to create one solid, gyrating form. Soon, his tails generated their own field of wake turbulence as he held himself in place, waiting for the right moment.

At the same moment, as if an imaginary starter's pistol had fired, they set off.

Somehow, Sonic had a gut feeling that the end his latest adventure was waiting for him at the hypothetical finish line on Deck 8. One more battle with Eggman, one more trashed baddie, and he would have things wrapped up in a neat little package. Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted. Still, he closed his eyes and enjoyed the ride. He would make every remaining second of this adventure count.

None of this made any sense.

Knuckles returned to the spot that gave him the most fleeting hope of recovering the Master Emerald. He fully expected the first encounter to have been a glitch, his mind simply playing tricks on him…or worse, Eggman playing tricks on him…with his Emerald. But one step into the "sweet spot" undid all of those theories. The very same signals flooded his mind upon re-entry, flooding his ears with shattering noise.

But why? Knuckles had searched this entire area piece-by-piece, and searched it again. He couldn't even see any device or shrine that could harness the power of the Master Emerald, let alone the fabled jewel itself. There had to be something he was missing here.

You're hiding from me…I just know it.

However, finding a place where one would hide a four-foot-tall emerald proved to be a daunting challenge. Without a conscious thought of the action passing through him, he turned his head toward the floor while he contemplated this theory…leaving his eyes to stumble across an unremarkable maintenance shaft that rested against the far side wall.

A lightbulb went on over Knuckles' head – a flickering lightbulb, but a lightbulb nonetheless. He could remember seeing maintenance shafts just like that one, usually in pairs that stood directly across from each other against the walls. A closer look at this one told him that it ran through the floor, up the face of the wall, and directly through the ceiling. Much to his surprise, if his theory held true, it was just wide enough for him to snuggle his body inside and through.

It was worth a shot. As far as the Master Emerald was concerned, anything was worth a shot.

The echidna hardly expected anything special to happen as he trundled uncertainly toward the maintenance shaft. But with each step he took, he listened intently as his unlikeliest theory was confirmed. The monotonous ringing in Knuckles' ears grew gradually into a static-like roar of white noise that reduced all other sound around him to meaninglessness.

With the sensations of the Master Emerald rejuvenating his spirit, he charged at the shaft with reckless abandon, fists swinging back and forth. With one step to go before reaching the target, Knuckles delivered a charged punch at the steel piping, shifting all of his body weight into his right arm at that exact moment. A solid chunk of steel broke away, driven all the way into the back of the shaft by the sheer force of Knuckles' blow. The end result was a hole just large enough for an echidna to crawl through to enter the surface.

Not wasting any time, Knuckles shoved his head through the opening, letting his eyes behold the utter blackness below. He had left just barely enough room to slide his left hand through, but as soon as he was ready to force his right hand through, he saw something out of the ordinary. Indeed, to even be able to see anything was out of the ordinary in a narrow shaft with almost no sources of light…but this was different.

The back of his left hand emitted a faint, yet noticeable glow. A green glow. A shade of green that Knuckles was all too familiar with.

The Master Emerald! It's here!

No sooner had Knuckles made the realization than he heard the familiar sounds of metal feet clopping against the floor, echoing from both sides of the shaft. The buzzing and ringing from the emeralds had persisted long enough for him to develop a temporary tolerance to it, enabling him to briefly hear other sounds again while still detecting whether the sensations were present. Though he was in no position to turn his neck to see it for himself, he could sense the danger regardless.

More of them?

"YOU HAVE ENTERED A RESTRICTED AREA," said an Egg Gunner, charging after the echidna with its own built-in weaponry.

"THE PENALTY IS DEATH," its identical partner added.

Seriously? What's the penalty for jaywalking here, then?

His only option for survival was a daring escape through the maintenance shaft. But there was a bit of a problem with that scenario, as most of Knuckles' body was still trapped outside, exposed to enemy fire.

The footsteps drew closer and closer. He frantically tried to shove his right hand through a crack in the opening. However, with each attempt, his entire body rocked back and forth, pushing the hand out of the shaft and undoing any progress. Knuckles growled and seethed with each second that went by with him stuck in the threshold.

"YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO COMPLY," one Egg Gunner said. The next thing Knuckles heard was the familiar sound of the Gunners' arm-rifles being readied for fire.

"Get…in…there!" said Knuckles, swinging his right arm back and forth as far as it would go, hoping to somehow will his massive hand through the tiny crack. Eventually, with his mightiest swing yet, he forced four fingers to squeeze through. To his dismay, however, the rest of the hand did not seem to want to follow. He tried pushing once. Twice. That didn't work. He tried swinging his arm backwards to prepare for another attempt. That didn't work either. Knuckles was now well and truly trapped.

"YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS TO COMPLY."

It wasn't long before the pinch of the tiny opening began to take its toll on Knuckles' blood circulation. No longer could he even make the attempt to force his hand through. He couldn't feel its presence. He didn't even know where it was. Pins and needles stabbed at his body from all angles, and they weren't coming from any Egg Gunners.

With no other ideas, and his body locked in a position where any other maneuver was out of the question, Knuckles played his last roll of the dice. It was an idea so simple he wished he had thought of it earlier, when he didn't have a mere five seconds to live.

He simply shoved his head forward.

"THREE."

Miraculously, with that one massive exertion of force, Knuckles felt the pinch released from around his torso. In the split-second between the moment and the realization of the moment, he braced for an onslaught of pain from the sharp steel edges of the hole, only for it not to come. The low blood circulation throughout his body numbed him beyond all feeling.

He had more important things to worry about.

"TWO."

His spiked gloves had embedded themselves in the inside of the shaft, leaving his entire backside open to fire. With Knuckles carrying two dead arms, one dead hand, and a body ready to give up the ghost, there was only one strategy left in his bag.

"ONE."

It took more effort than he felt was necessary, but with just milliseconds to spare, Knuckles managed to free his gloves from the wall. Nothing held him back now. It was all up to gravity to ensure Knuckles' safety. And gravity can only carry someone so fast.

"FIRE."

A barrage of bullets burst forth from behind Knuckles' position. The echidna shut his eyes and braced for the searing pain of white-hot lead.

But when the first shots were fired, the only impacts Knuckles could hear were inches above him. All he could feel was the sweet, sweet feeling of air rustling his dreadlocks. With each second that passed, the jarring metallic pings of .44 caliber striking against steel receded off into the distance above him.

Somehow, some way, he had gotten out of this one alive.

As soon as they reached the first dead end, Sonic and Tails forgot about their supposed race. Both figured that they were better off working together than against each other. (More to the point, neither of them carried any Rings to pay for lunch in the first place.)

Two scorching skid marks on the floor gave away the spot where he slammed on the brakes – and helpfully gave away his location to Tails. When the two reconvened, they closely examined what kind of spot they had gotten themselves into. They had left the cramped, color-coded monotony of Deck 6 behind, only to find themselves in a wide-open jumble of steel beams, pipes, and rotating gears that must have been placed there purely for the sake of intimidating decoration. There seemed to be no end to this room – whatever it was meant for, it was as wide and as tall as the ship itself. It felt like the two had stepped through a portal into another dimension.

Tails stood fastened to the ground and gawked at the ceiling. Somehow, the fact that the room was this vast just didn't translate well in the fox's mind. He could see a ceiling, and depth perception gave him an idea of how high it was, but the rest of his brain refused to accept it. Eventually, the clash between senses took its toll on Tails, causing his head to go light. He stumbled backwards and consciously had to prevent himself from falling over.

Meanwhile, Sonic kept his head pointed straight ahead.

"Uh…Tails?" asked Sonic. "You sure your signal's coming from here?"

"Huh? Oh, right!" said Tails, recovering from his bout with dizziness. Once again, he pulled out the MilesElectric to perform a quick check. "Uh…yeah, looks like we're getting closer."

"Does your Electric thingy come with a map of this place, by any chance?"

"What?" Tails asked, speaking in a manner as if Sonic had just told him he swallowed a whole can of lighter fluid. "Um…no. Why?"

In lieu of a verbal answer, Sonic pointed straight ahead, at the crimson-red wall that stood where an open pathway was supposed to be.

Both inched backwards in order to get a better view of the top of the wall. Staring at them from above was a series of overhanging ledges that led to the decks above, but from where Sonic and Tails stood, there was no way to access any of them directly. There was no turbo-lift, elevator, escalator, spring, magic cloud, or even so much as a bloody staircase that could help them advance. They could even see directly into some of the lower floors, as if the very architecture of the ESS-1 was mocking the two interlopers, teasing them with the promise of access only to yank it away like a carrot on a string. The only alternative now was to turn back and go against the directions from Tails' device.

"Who designed this place, anyway?" Sonic asked.

"Um…Eggman did?"

"Rhetorical question, kiddo."

"Sorry. Sometimes I can't even tell with you."

This was hopeless. It was almost as if Dr. Eggman had designed the ESS-1 to be inaccessible to any outsiders unless they happened to have a private plane or a helicopter at their disposal…

…which Sonic did.

Without warning, Sonic reached his right arm behind him and held out his hand, exactly in front of where Tails stood at that moment. The fox didn't need Sonic to say anything. Years of experience told him exactly what this gesture meant. He clasped hands with Sonic and held on tight as if their lives depended on it. With one swish, Tails set his brushes into a gyrating motion that gained speed with each rotation, eventually growing powerful enough to lift him and Sonic off the ground.

The ascent was slow and methodical, as Tails had to account for a weight imbalance in flight. The MilesElectric was nudged in his left armpit for safekeeping, immobilizing that side of his body for the time being, meaning he only had the use of his right hand to carry Sonic. Despite Tails' efforts, the hedgehog swung perilously from his arm like a pendulum.

"Steady…steady…" said Sonic.

The danger only provoked Tails to push himself harder, if only to get the ordeal over behind them as soon as possible. With each foot they gained, the radius of Sonic's oscillation only grew wider, pulling Tails along with him. The fox closed his eyes and kept his mind on the flight, compensating for direction and speed. The more he thought about who was dangling from his arm, the more chance there was he would lose his grip.

Hold on…just hold on…how much longer can this go on?

"We're here!" said Sonic.

Tails opened his eyes and let out a contented sigh. Just above him, he could see the beginning of the floor of the eighth deck, and its obvious lack of any walls or bars that would separate anyone from accidentally falling over the edge. Then again, if any of Eggman's robots were faulty enough to just walk over that edge, they were a lost cause to begin with.

Just inches from the landing spot, Tails sensed trouble on the horizon.

"Um…Sonic?" Tails asked.

"What's up?"

"I think someone's beaten us here."

A crackly monotone blared over the sound of Tails' whirring blades. "PRIORITY ONE: HEDGEHOG."

Draped across Sonic and Tails' entire field of view were the distinct shadows of five separate Egg Gunners, all spread out in a "V" formation along the ledge of Deck 8. That was the extent of the information they could glean before everything descended into chaos. The combined voices of five Egg Gunners formed a discordant, yet all-too-understandable command: "FIRE."

A hail of bullets burst forth, all converging on one pre-programmed target. The fact that the Gunners had managed to hit nothing but the floor in their haste to destroy the target made little to no difference. The mere sound of the gunfire caused Tails to flinch. Every muscle in his body expanded and contracted within a millisecond. Unfortunately for Sonic, that also included Tails' fingers.

As soon as he realized there was nothing pulling down his right arm, Tails took a quick look below him to make sure that the last thing he could've hoped to happen hadn't happened. It had. He'd let go of Sonic.

Luckily for him, Sonic's reflexes were even quicker than his own mind. Using his other hand, he'd managed to grab ahold of Tails' outstretched wrist. The momentum of the sudden reconnection dragged the two of them back down, forcing Tails to rotate his namesakes faster and faster to correct for the sudden plunge.

The dull ache in his vestigial muscles quickly spread to the surrounding tissue in his upper legs and lower back. He pushed his body harder and harder, straining and tearing against the ever-growing agony, huffing and puffing with every inch of his lungs. And yet all that effort failed to translate into any tangible movement. No matter how hard he pushed himself, ascent just did not happen. He might as well have hit an invisible ceiling. He could practically feel his heart, his lungs…heck, his entire circulatory system bursting at the seams now.

And that was before he noticed his left arm had also been jarred loose of something important.

The MilesElectric!

"No!" Tails shouted at the top of what was left of his lungs.

If he didn't already feel like throwing up, he certainly did now. The success of the entire mission rode on that one little device. And yet…he couldn't just swoop down and retrieve it, at least not with Sonic in tow. Not even a circus contortionist would be able to perform that act. If he really wanted to get the machine back, he would have had to drop Sonic to do so, and that was never an option.

He closed his eyes and cringed for the inevitable fate of his hard work…only to feel Sonic kicking, tossing, swinging wildly on his arm. He was up to something.

The next sound he heard could only be described as a plastic "thunk". When Tails opened his eyes, he saw his device still in the air, still in his direct line of sight. Sonic had swung off to perform a bicycle kick to the MilesElectric as if it was a soccer ball, just to keep it within his arms' length. The machine was just about to fall toward Sonic's only free hand. With no time to spare, he flung his arm forward and…

"Gotcha!" said Sonic. He had saved the MilesElectric, quite literally by the tips of his fingers.

Tails heaved a gaping sigh of relief. "Thanks, Sonic," he said. "You're a lifesaver."

"Don't mention it," said Sonic. "Here ya go!"

The hedgehog handed the device back to Tails, who examined it for any signs of severe damage from whatever miracle Sonic had performed to keep it within reach. Aside from a minor dent in the plastic surface, which matched the curvature of Sonic's shoe, nothing important had been damaged. The screen continued to flash vital information as if nothing ever happened.

For a few uneasy seconds, the two hovered in place just inches away from the wall, moving neither up nor down. The two weren't nearly high enough to see who wanted them dead or how many there were, but they stayed just low enough to conceal themselves from gunfire. That was, until they noticed the visage of an arm-rifle peeking over the ledge. Then another. Then another. Before he knew it, Sonic could feel the searing heat of three separate laser sights, all aimed at the exact same spot on his forehead.

"Tails, now!" said Sonic.

Perhaps it was the adrenaline of the moment, or maybe it was a deep well of strength he never knew he had. But much to even Tails' own surprise, the next great push of his tails catapulted him upwards like a rocket, straight into the Egg Gunners' line of fire.

"Uh-oh…" said Tails, surveying the scene. "Sonic, pull in! Swing up! I dunno, do something!"

"Aye aye, cap'n!" said Sonic, giving a hearty salute. Hoping not to mangle his friend's clavicle into gelatin in the process, he gently swung on Tails' right arm, keeping his legs tucked in to provide as small a target for the firing squad as possible.

He is having way too much fun with this… Tails thought.

Now with visible targets, the Egg Gunners fired at will, but Tails' flight was just too fast for their built-in weapons to catch up with. He dipped. He dove. He dodged. He did whatever it took to keep Sonic out of the way of the merciless and incessant gunfire, almost taking visual cues from the stunts he put his own plane through on a daily basis.

Soon, enough was enough. Sonic realized he was putting Tails in more danger by hanging on for the ride. Now was the time to strike. With his one free hand, he held up his middle and index fingers, arranged in the traditional V for Victory sign – a signal the two of them had arranged before arriving onboard. Operation Special Delivery was a go.

With one final push, he swooped up toward the nearly unreachable ceiling of the cavernous hall, his flight path forming a tall arc. Just before the apex of the arc, he gently released his vicelike grip on Sonic's hand. The hedgehog descended into unrestrained, terminal free-fall. All five Gunners stood rooted to their spots, firing blindly at a blue dot off in the distance that took the form of Sonic's super-spin.

The unlucky Egg Gunner that stood at the front of the "V" formation was the first to go, standing right in the line of fire. A single spin-dash to its steel frame reduced the once-formidable machine to a pile of junk. Sonic sprang upward from the momentum of the collision and uncoiled himself from his deadly cocoon, taking a brief moment to seek out the next target before curling up again. Just as quickly, in an act that defied all known laws of physics except his own, he burst out of the arc of his bounce and propelled himself toward the nearest Gunner. It met the exact same fate as its brother.

Regardless of the surviving Gunners' attempts to disrupt it with their rifles, the deadly cycle continued. Bounce. Uncoil. Aim. Recoil. Fire. Rinse and repeat. After the fourth knockout left only one droid standing, Sonic – purely on a whim – uncorked and executed a dizzying series of twists, flips, and somersaults unfathomable to any other athlete, all the while laughing to his heart's content as bullet after bullet harmlessly brushed him.

By the time he hurtled back toward the ground, he planted his foot toward the one surviving Egg Gunner. A focused kick to the head disintegrated it upon impact, sending the hedgehog tumbling through the ensuing junk pile. One effortless handspring later, Sonic regained control of himself and landed without a hitch.

Once he finally got the chance, he rose to his feet, observed the smoking ruins of the Eggman Empire before him, and let out a brief whistle. Sometimes he even impressed himself.

With the job done, he turned around to look for Tails. He spotted the fox lying face-down on the floor several yards away, hyperventilating, utterly devoid of energy, his face turned a bright crimson. Despite the gradual development of his special ability over the years, his tails were never meant to withstand that kind of physical torture. The first thing Sonic did upon seeing him was help him to his feet and stabilize his wobbly stance.

"You okay?" Sonic asked, rubbing sweat off his friend's brow.

"I'll…" Tails stopped to cough when his windpipe constricted. "…live." Despite his weakened state, he did hold up his hand for a high-five, which Sonic enthusiastically accepted.

"Hey, don't quote me on this, but I think Eggman tried to pull a fast one on us!"

"You know...you may be on to something!" To test the theory, Tails pulled out his machine, now that he was sure it was safe and sound.

The results flummoxed him. He pulled at his bangs, conceiving numerous possible scenarios that could explain away the inconsistency. But he was just as soon able to debunk each one of them. Nothing made any sense.

"No…" Tails muttered. "No, this isn't right."

"What's going on?" asked Sonic, peeking at the screen even though he knew he had no idea what any of the numbers were supposed to represent.

"If Eggman wanted to lure us here, then the signal would have been tied to those robots. But...you destroyed them all, and yet I'm still picking up the signal! In fact…" He looked more closely at the numbers. "It's counting backwards, and we're just standing still. This is supposed to be a geolocationary system!"

"Gee-oh-what?!"

"It means that the output of the program depends entirely on the location of the device. In this case, when the device gets closer to the signal, the numbers printed out by the program should be lower, and vice versa! But for some reason, all I'm getting is some sort of countdown sequence!"

"A countdown sequence, hmm? So, if I'm getting this right…" said Sonic. "...We were never moving towards this signal at all. The signal was moving toward us!"

"Exactly!" said Tails.

Sonic's face swelled with pride. For once, he could keep up with Tails. Heh. Sonic having to keep up with Tails. Now there's something that isn't said every day.

"Which means one of two things have happened," said Tails. "Either there's been a catastrophic mistake in my original program, or…" He took one more look at his screen to make sure thing number two held up to scrutiny, and what he saw caused his face to melt in shock.

The countdown on all three coordinates - X, Y, and Z - was nearing zero.

Tails' command to Sonic was short, but effective.

"Run like hell."

Before either of them could carry that out, a tremendous crash shattered the surface of the floor where the two of them stood, sending them flying in opposite directions.

Both Sonic and Tails hit the steel-reinforced walls head-first and crumpled to the floor on their respective side of the corridor. Before either of them could take so much as a second to comprehend just what was going on, Sonic saw an undefinable silver mass rocketing towards him. Noticing the weapon, he rose off the canvas and made his move. But with his vision clouded by a thick curtain of vivid, color-changing stars, he didn't notice the object until it was too late.

Sonic managed to dodge the missile, allowing it to strike the wall head-on. But like in the game of horseshoes, being close enough actually counted for something. The resulting fireball consumed Sonic, embracing him in its warm, searing arms, scorching every exposed atom of his body and clothing, until the shockwave propelled him back into the outside world. The force of the explosion threw him along the floor, limbs flailing from side to side like a ragdoll.

Grunting and screaming as he did so because his mind told him he had no other choice, Sonic struggled to lift himself. His weary arms and legs struggled against his valiant attempt, but the attack had reduced their will to perform even the most basic functions, putting them into a deep sleep they were reluctant to wake from. There was no chance. It was like hauling a cement truck with only a shoestring. Even as his mind focused on the slowly-growing distance between his face and the ground, his muscles gave up the fight, propelling Sonic back toward the floor where he started.

And then, off to his right, he could swear he heard a familiar voice shouting his name.

As he tilted his head forward, the first thing he noticed was the vague silhouette of a fox emerging through the smoke...no, fanning the smoke in all directions. A gloved hand reached out of the abyss, and Sonic knew right away that he had to take it. In one instant, he was pulled up from the tangle of muscle and bone that was his body. He could stand again. Not without pain, but he could stand again.

"That was close!" said Tails, examining Sonic's body for any external signs of physical damage. Regardless of his friend's concern, Sonic couldn't contain his chuckle. At least he knew Tails was safe.

For the moment.

"Get back! Now!" Sonic shouted. When he was only met with a mild "What?", Sonic forced the issue by shoving Tails behind his back himself.

"What's going on...here?" asked Tails, his breath escaping him on the last word. He only needed to look above the hole in the floor to see the culprit.

At the center of it all, floating effortlessly like some kind of holy apparition, was something oddly familiar to Sonic…yet different. He could tell it was roughly his height, but covered head to toe in gold that reflected every surface around it. Its form factor resembled Sonic himself – from large head to smaller body to rod-like legs to larger feet. Yet where normally Sonic's hair would protrude downward, the spikes on this entity rose toward the heavens, almost defying gravity were it not for the fact that these "quills" were clearly constructed from a metal alloy.

"Is...is that..." Tails said.

The glowing red eyes, stabbing into their souls each time they flashed against a murky black backdrop, provided the final piece to the puzzle.

"You…" said Sonic, the very word slithering from his tongue.

"Well, Sonic?" said the entity. Even its voice was Sonic's, only with a distinct electronic tinge to it. "Are we game for that…rematch?"

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