Chapter 4

A long plane flight took them to their destination. They went even further than last time, as mazes of canyons gave way to scrubby desert. A few abandoned buildings dotted the landscape. Tails surveyed every wrecked vehicle and thought about what it was, how long it would take to fix it and how much use it would be. Knuckles slept soundly. Sonic and Amy sat across from each other. Sonic went over to sit next to her.

"About what I was saying earlier…"

"Yeah…"

"Well… I… eh… oh, it just felt right then, and it's kind of awkward now…"

"That's okay… do you want to say it later?"

"Well, I… I just thought I might not get another chance…"

"Don't worry, we'll be fine," She said optimistically. Knuckles raised an eyebrow. He was clearly listening. She shook it off.

"Don't mind him. But anyway, I… just want to say…"

A siren went. Jet, Wave and Storm got up. They grabbed their airboards and prepared to jump.

"Ignore that. Go on,"

"Well… Amy, I… I…" The roaring sound of engines cut him off before he could finish. Both of them looked around in frustration. Jet and his team jumped out of the open back of the plane one by one. A problem with the door closing held him up even longer. They could only watch as Shadow lost his temper with the mechanism and hurt his foot as he kicked it. Rouge sat back and laughed quietly. Tails rolled his eyes and decided to leave him a little longer to figure it out. Knuckles tried his best to stay asleep.

Sonic turned back to his seat and sat in a huff. He waited impatiently for the door to close.

Several minutes later, Tails intervened. He pressed a button and closed the door, much to the black hedgehog's frustration. He sat down next to Rouge, who was in hysterics by now.

Sonic finally got round to saying what he meant to say.

"Amy… I… jeez, this sounds weird after we had to wait so long… Amy, I…" as if contriving to stop him from saying it, the siren went off again. The plane began to go into a gentle dive. Everyone checked their equipment. Amy had the sword, hammer and quarterstaff, as well as a small chain of throwing daggers. Sonic had his trusty pistol, accompanied by four grenades this time. Tails went through all six of his guns. He never used them all, but he liked the choice. Shadow put his hand on his assault rifle and then his home-made machete. Rouge checked the whip and pistol in her belt and the dagger she kept in one of her brown leather boots.

The plane lowered itself until the wheels were touching the ground, but it kept its speed. Shadow and Rouge got into a small buggy. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy got into a bigger four-person vehicle. Sonic looked over at Shadow's somewhat miniature transport, and looked away to hide his laughter. Shadow promptly extended his middle finger in Sonic's direction. The doors that had beaten Shadow dropped again. The end scraped against the dusty ground. The two vehicles revved engines as passengers fastened seatbelts. On the flash of a green light, both vehicles accelerated off the back of the plane. As the wheels hit the ground, they found themselves going backwards from the momentum of the plane. They slammed into reverse as they tried to slow down. Brakes held to the floor, the vehicles slowly came to a stop as the plane flew away. It double backed and headed back to the base. It was mid evening. The sun was low in the sky and the shadows were long, but it was still quite light. Tails got out to inspect the front right wheel, which was now spewing forth smoke. He went back for the fire extinguisher.

"Shit…"

"What's the problem?"

"The brake disc has completely burnt out. It's actually worn away, like, it's not there,"

"Where is it, then?"

"Scattered over a few miles that way," He pointed in the direction they had just come from.

"Can we still use the car?"

"Yeah, but it'll be hell to drive. It'll steer left every time you brake."

"Can you fix it?"

"Given about five minutes, yeah."

"How about with help?"

"Depending on the amount and quality, maybe as quick as ten seconds," Sonic was surprised. He immediately leapt out and got the jack from the boot. Knuckles prepared to lift. Amy sorted through tools. Shadow and Rouge attended to their own buggy.

Tails directed the jacking, which took five seconds. Tails grabbed the drill from Amy and started on taking the wheel off. Four seconds later, he started taking off the remains of the brake disc. He threw it away, and reached for a fresh one. Sonic got the hint three seconds later. Another three and Tails screwed the new brakes on, and screwed the wheel back on. He pulled the jack away and pressed a button on his jacket. He looked at where he had pressed.

"20.78. Not bad,"

"Say what?" Knuckles was thoroughly confused.

"I time how long it takes me to fix things. All the mechanics do it. It's a kind of quality control thing." Tails replied. Knuckles was no more enlightened than before.

"You lost me at '20'."

"Ah, forget it…" Tails got back into the driving seat. Everyone else got back into their passenger seats. He brought the jeep round to Shadow's buggy.

"Need a hand?" Sonic said out the side.

"No, just checking everything still works,"

"Well? Does it?"

"Yeah,"

"Then get going!"