Chapter 6
Totally oblivious to the danger their friends were in, Tails and Knuckles soared over the city in the Tornado, searching for their two hedgehog friends.
"Are we there yet?" Knuckles asked for the sixth time, yawning and tapping the side of the blue-coloured plane impatiently with his fist. Tails sighed.
"No, we are not there yet and I won't know when we will be, so stop asking, just keep a look out for them," Tails replied in mild irritation, getting frustrated at Knuckles' consistent questions.
After what felt like forever in flight, they spotted thick black smoke in the distance.
"Hey, look! Something's on fire!" Knuckles pointed out, his eyes narrowed in the direction of the smoke.
"How observant of you," Tails replied darkly, before he began to worry.
Could Sonic be there?
"Let's check it out," Tails suggested instantly, and headed in the direction of the smoke. When they arrived the smoke was so thick that they couldn't see anything; it did not help that the fire was still spreading.
"CALL 911!" Tails shouted to Knuckles over the loud sound of the flames and tossed his cell phone to Knuckles. The echidna attempted to grab the phone but failed to catch it and clumsily dropped it into the flames.
"IDIOT!" Tails shouted, banging his fist on the seat in anger. He quickly dived as close as he could to the smoke but couldn't see anything.
"I SEE THEM!" Knuckles called, a little humiliated and ashamed at dropping Tails' phone. Tails looked but couldn't see the two hedgehogs through the black smoke.
"How on earth can you see them through that?" Tails asked loudly in the direction of the echidna. He turned around and saw Knuckles staring at the smoke through a pair of binoculars.
"Where did you get that? Tails queried curiously.
"Does that matter? Are we getting them out of there or what?" Knuckles yelled back impatiently; although he and Sonic had a rivalry, he didn't want anything to happen to him. He was still his friend despite that.
"Take a deep breath," Tails instructed and, taking a deep breath himself, dived the plane into the smoke, closing his eyes as he went. He could feel the smoke and heat the moment his head made contact with it but they both took care not to breathe any of it in. Once he landed the Tornado, he got out, laid down and slowly opened his eyes.
He could just see Sonic and Amy, both lying unconscious, through the smoke. Luckily the flames had not yet reached them but the young fox knew he had to hurry. Putting one hand over his mouth he gave Knuckles a punch in the arm, slightly harder than intended, to grab his attention. He gestured towards the two hedgehogs and they both crawled towards them. The ground felt hot and Tails was glad to be wearing gloves as they reached Sonic and Amy's lifeless forms.
Upon reaching them, Knuckles stood up and carefully lifted Sonic, carrying him over his shoulder. He subsequently ran back to the plane.
"Why do you have to be so heavy?" he complained as he lifted the unconscious speedster into the plane. With Sonic out of harm's way, Knuckles laid down to avoid the smoke and crawled over to where Tails was attempting to drag Amy to the plane. However, the fox had very little strength in his arms so Knuckles was made to lift the pink hedgehog over his shoulders and carry her back to the plane while Tails, coughing, dashed back to the plane to start the engines.
Soon, Amy was in the back of the plane, next to the unconscious blue hedgehog and once Knuckles was seated next to her, Tails turned on the ignition.
The plane wouldn't start.
"Oh no!" Tails panicked, trying to get the plane to start in desperation, "Not now!"
Suddenly, a couple of flaming trees crashed to the ground near them with a loud thud.
"HURRY!" Knuckles called, feeling a little frightened though he would never admit it, as the fire began spreading towards them.
"I'M TRYING!" Tails called back as he continued to turn the ignition key.
But the plane still wouldn't start.
"Come on!" Tails shouted, feeling scared and a little frightened as well. As more trees crashed to the ground, the young fox began to cry, fearing they wouldn't get out.
"Please work!" he cried desperately. The plane then flickered into life, its propellers spinning noisily at great speed. Breathing a sigh of relief, Tails steered the plane upwards until they were out of the smoke. Breathing in the fresh air, and steering the plane far from the fire, the fox directed the vehicle to a quiet, peaceful area of the forest not yet taken by the flames, and made a quick landing.
"We need to get them out," Tails informed Knuckles as he carefully dragged Amy out from one side of the plane and laid her gently on the soft green grass. Knuckles jumped out the vehicle, lifted Sonic out and laid him on the grass next to the unresponsive form of the pink hedgehog. Even though they were quite far from the fire, they could still see the smoke in the bright blue sky.
"We need to get an ambulance and fire brigade," Tails declared, before he remembered that Knuckles had dropped his phone.
"Hey, Sonic's got a phone!" Knuckles pointed out, gesturing at the blue hedgehog, where a small black phone was just visible underneath his quills.
Tails removed it from his pocket and began dialling in a hurry.
"I hope he's got credit on this thing," Tails sighed and turned his back to Knuckles as he called the emergency services.
Knuckles stared at the unmoving hedgehogs, wondering if they were going to make it. He felt useless standing there but couldn't think of anything he could do. He stared at Amy, who looked like she was merely asleep, before an idea came to him.
He cringed a little as he thought about it, knowing he wouldn't like doing it but he felt it was the only thing he could do. Kneeling next to Amy, he gave a long heavy sigh. He turned around to make sure that Tails wasn't looking, but the young fox was facing the opposite direction, in a conversation with the emergency services, sounding incredibly distressed.
"Here goes nothing," he muttered to himself. He leaned closer to Amy; he could smell her chocolate-scented breath. He instantly began giving her mouth to mouth, trying to get her to wake in desperation. Shortly, Tails finished his call and tucked Sonic's phone in his tails.
"Okay Knuckles, they'll be here in-" he began but stopped dead when he saw Knuckles trying to resuscitate Amy. His blue eyes widened, the fox stared in shock, hardly daring to believe what he was seeing.
Unexpectedly, Amy gave a loud cough. Knuckles jumped back in alarm.
"EW!" He exclaimed loudly, wiping his mouth, almost as if he had only just registered what he had been doing.
"Well done Knuckles! Never knew you had it in you," Tails smiled, impressed at his echidna friend.
"Never… again…" Knuckles stammered as Amy gave another few coughs and began to open her jade green eyes.
"Are you alright Amy?" Tails asked in concern as he slowly helped her sit up.
"I think so," Amy replied quietly in a hoarse voice, still a bit dazed. "What happened?" she asked, coughing and spluttering again.
"There was this fire… you and Sonic was there," Tails replied, unsure of what to say.
"Yeah, and we rescued you," Knuckles added proudly, thumping his fist against his chest.
"Fire?"
Everything was a blur to Amy. She glanced at Sonic, still lying unconscious beside her. In that instant, she remembered and burst into tears.
"Oh no, the fire! It's all my fault!" Amy cried, coughing and covering her eyes with her hands.
"How is it?" Knuckles asked, confused as always.
"I accidentally started the fire! Metal Sonic shot this thing at us and I hit it into a tree and that's what caused it!" Amy confessed tearfully, still hiding her face behind her gloved hands.
"If Metal Sonic shot something at you then you hit it to save yourself. It is his fault not yours," Tails said, comforting his friend. He had momentarily forgotten everything that happened before the fire.
"Metal knocked Sonic out with a boulder," Amy recalled; she turned Sonic's head so Tails could see a large purple bruise on the back of Sonic's head; one of his quills was bent at an odd angle. Tails gave a little gasp.
"That's got to hurt… I hope he'll be alright," he said, scared for his friend.
"How did we get out?" Amy asked, giving another loud cough.
"The Tornado," Tails replied, gesturing to the plane sitting against a tree, "and Knucklesgave you mouth to mouth," he added, gesturing at the red echidna. The guardian merely glared at him. Amy stared at him in awe.
"You did?" Amy asked feeling slightly revolted, surprised and grateful all at the same time.
"Yeah, but don't ever mention it," Knuckles muttered quickly.
"You may have saved her life; she's hardly going to forget it!" Tails remarked in reply, forcing a small grin onto his face. Amy gave Knuckles a small hug around the waist.
"Thanks," she mumbled quietly, before she violently coughed again.
"As I said, don't mention it," Knuckles sighed. They could hear sirens in the distance.
"The ambulance is here!" Tails exclaimed. Sure enough, a large white ambulance appeared from a corner; it stopped next to Knuckles and two black and white cats in paramedic outfits came out.
"What happened?" one of them asked in an urgent tone.
"There was a fire," Tails informed them, pointing to the smoke that was still visible.
"Yeah, we've got fire crew attending to it," the cat replied, waving his hand nonchalantly.
"They were both in the fire, they were unconscious, and Knuckles here gave her mouth-to-mouth," Tails added, pointing from the echidna to the pink hedgehog. Knuckles cringed.
"She said Sonic was knocked out by something," he finished, gesturing to the bruise that was visible on Sonic's head.
Amy was in conversation with the other cat, who told her to sit in the ambulance. As she did so, the two paramedics brought out a stretcher, and lifted Sonic on to it. They wheeled the stretcher into the back of the ambulance. Tails and Knuckles took two seats opposite Amy as one of the paramedics got in the back and closed the door. The sirens sounded as the vehicle took off.
All three of Sonic's friends stared mournfully at the blue speedster. Amy held one of his lifeless hands and Tails gently took the other; both of them were crying a little.
"Is he going to be alright? Amy asked tearfully, glancing towards one of the paramedics desperately.
"We don't know at this stage," the cat admitted, looking solemn.
"I sure hope so," Tails replied.
None of them wanted anything to happen to their best friend.