Author Note: Alongside popular demand the story continues. While this chapter is a bit light on exposition, it is without a doubt my favorite action scene I have ever written. The last chapter, which I finally finished in a night and a day after months of writer's block, should go up next week, by when I should be moved into college.

Have fun reading and try to leave a helpful review.

Obligatory Chase Scene

"Morning." Manic said. Sally blinked open her eyes and began pulling herself up.

"You were supposed to wake me up for the last watch." She said, piecing her mind together after a very disturbing dream.

"Forgot." Manic said, giving a sheepish smile. Sally shook her head and checked her gun. It was still at half power.

After escaping the factory they had found that night was fast approaching, and they knew that their flesh-and-blood bodies wouldn't move as well in the darkness. Manic led the way out of the bombed out bunker they had used as a shelter.

The goal was insane: rescue their captured comrades from Eggman's citadel, something that had never been done since Sonic left. The journey would take days and they would probably die during it.

OOOOOOOOOO

Sally pushed Manic into an alleyway as something flew overhead.

"Mounted swatbots." She said, pointing at a robot on a hover bike.

"Just what we need." Manic said with too much enthusiasm.

"You are not thinking-"

"Why not? It's fast mobile, and I'd only give us a few more hours to avoid being caught anyways. Besides, we don't want to get there too late." Manic straightened his face as he added the last point. Sally sighed and looked down.

"How do you even think we can catch one?"

"Simple…"

OOOOOOOOOO

The swatbot rode over its route again, looking for the two Extreme High Priority Targets. Its processors registered the probability of finding them as low, but then it heard something.

"OH NOOO!"

The robot looked down and saw the green hedgehog it was looking for pointing straight at it. The swatbot put its bike into a dive and chased the hedgehog into an alley. The darkness hid the tripwire that had been placed at around head height.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Why did you even have tripwire?" Sally asked as she pulled in the bike. After the rider was dismounted it had crashed into a pile of boxes at the end of the alley they had chosen for their trap, but was still slightly damaged.

"It can be useful." Manic said, going to work to make sure the bike would run. "Keep an eye out. It'll only be a few minutes before this place is swarming with 'bots."

"Just fix it." Sally said.

"Anything you say." Manic took the time to mentally slap himself for that one, saving Sally the trouble. He could tell she was still thinking of strangling him for the kiss, and did not want to aggravate her any more. On the other hand he still felt it was totally worth it…

Manic shook his head and went back to focusing on the bike. As he started placing the last plate he heard the sound of more hover bikes coming closer.

"I'll drive." Manic said, planting himself on the seat. "Get on back and hold tight." Sally climbed onto the back of the bike and wrapped her arms Manic's chest. He'd better not take this the wrong way. She thought. The swatbots were almost on top of them.

"Here we go!" Manic yelled, slamming tight the bike's accelerator.

The bike shot out of the alleyway and into the air, passing between the two bikers in front of them. Sally's head whipped back to see them collide with a second pair of bikes and explode. Her head was jerked back and forth as Manic weaved through another squadron of mounted swatbots, traveling along a rode large enough to be a highway. The robots' bikes twisted around to pursue them.

"Blast 'em." Manic yelled over the wind. Sally grappled with her gun and turned, holding herself up with one arm still around Manic and the other on her gun. She fired wildly, unable to aim with only one arm. Even then a few shots found their mark, detonating bike engines or sniping off swatbots, leaving the bikes flying wild. It barely dented the mass of swatbots that was now chasing them.

Manic banked the bike and shot off into an alleyway, momentum bringing them dangerously close to the wall. Sally held tight as they passed through the gap in a fire escape. There was a flash of heat and Sally opened her eyes to see the smoke and debris from where a swatbot had not been as lucky.

Manic turned out into a narrow road, and immediately another pack of swatbots was upon them. Sally yelled as she fired into them, getting louder with each hit she managed to score.

"Trouble!" Manic shouted. The city blurred as Manic twisted the bike around as sharply as possible, turning to face the pack of swatbots chasing them. Sally's eyes widened as she saw the hover skiffs in front of where they had been heading. The skiffs were open-topped and covered in egg pawns with missile launchers. They took a second of simply pointing at the bike, and then launched a salvo of missiles that twisted around to hit it.

"Dodge!" Sally yelled, shaking Manic.

"Can't." Manic said. "Concentrate on the ones in front." She couldn't think of how it could be any worse. Grudgingly, Sally turned around and wrapped her around Manic to brace her gun and fired forwards. The machines in front of them exploded and fell away, opening a channel through the horde. Manic drove straight through, with Sally destroying everything in their way. The horde of swatbots quickly closed behind them to surround them.

The missiles hit them square, blowing out the back of the horde. Survival protocols went on the fritz as the swat bots tried to balance the Extreme High Priority Targets with the seeming attack from their own forces. Manic and Sally left their pursuer behind as the robots started to attack each other, and the road stretched clear before them.

Manic and Sally laughed. Laughed at the ludicrous plan that let them escape, laughed at it working, laughed at still being alive. Sally fell and let Manic's body support her.

There was a crackling as speakers throughout the city cleared. The laughter stopped.

"I'm afraid I can't let you go any farther, kids." The voice was familiar, distorted and multiplied though it was, filled with ego, ambition, and mild annoyance: Dr. Eggman. The road opened up onto a bridge and the two rebels saw a shadow fall over them. "Egg Eagle, attack! Show them your fury."

It was huge and, predictably for the mad scientist, actually shaped like an eagle. Each wing held a pair of gun turrets on the under side, a rack of Missiles lay on the back, and the open "beak" held what could only be called a Gatling cannon. A swarm of smaller bird drones surrounded it, each no bigger than a mobian but clearly not roboticized. As Eggman gave the sound to attack the smaller machines moved away from the eagle and dove toward Sally and Manic.

Sally turned and fired, but the drones were nimbler than the mounted swatbots had been, and Manic's movements with the bike were even more unpredictable as he tried to dodge the drones' fire. After twenty shots she had only hit one, but she counted at least ten, maybe more, left. The Eagle itself had slowly been diving lower after they passed the highest point of the bridge, and its wing-mounts pointed down and opened up on them, raining streams of bullets after them.

Sally grinned as she shot to the left of a drone and it dodge directly into the Eagle's line of fire. The sound of it being shredded to pieces in seconds made Manic dodge all the more quickly, especially as the entered onto a confined city street once again, ruining any chance Sally had of aiming. She held the trigger down and sprayed laser bolts at the bird drones, getting one, then a second, then a third before her gun suddenly stopped.

"I'm out." She yelled to Manic as she dropped the now worthless gun into the streets below. Manic cursed and jerked them into a side alley as the Eagle's fire nearly surrounded them. The drones turned to follow, but one caught the corner of a building and lost a wing, spinning and exploding as it hit the ground. The "Alley" sloped up into an overpass, leaving them out in the open.

Manic jerked the bike wildly as the Egg Eagle swopped in closer behind them, coming down as low as they were, finally unleashing its full fire power. The remaining drones were torn apart by the bullets and missiles that filled the air.

"Take my gun." Sally bit back a blush as she reached between Manic's legs, grabbing his gun from where he had stashed it. She turned and took careful aim, confident that the Egg Eagle's armor would be too strong for the gun. The missile rack, however… Sally squeezed the trigger and let loose a shot. It was too low, hitting the Eagle's head and leaving a smoking hole going straight through.

"Well, dang." Sally said. She fired again and again, worried only about hitting something. A turret broke off, and one of the wing tips started smoking. Then there was the sound of thunder in the distance.

"I can see it." Manic yelled. Sally glanced back to the tower that dominated Eggman's fortress, made in his own image. The turrets that surrounded the fortress also happened to be firing at them. Explosions rained around them, and Manic did his best to dodge.

"What are you doing?" Sally yelled in frustration. "It's artillery. It's inaccurate to begin with, and if we just move straight forward we'll outpace anywhere it aims at.

"What about-" Manic's coming question was rendered moot as an artillery shell landed directly on the Egg Eagle's missile rack, transforming it into a single gargantuan explosion. Manic took the hint and hit the accelerator as hard as possible, sending them flying straight forward, off the over pass and into the final approach to Eggman's fortress, artillery shells raining down around them.

The gate was before them, closing rapidly. Manic grit his teeth as they finally became too close for the artillery fire, and it was only the rebels and the ever-closing gate. The gap seemed to be too small to make it through, but Manic pushed forward heedlessly, pressing down the accelerator in the vain hope of even a fraction more speed. Sally closed her eyes and held him tight to brace for the impact.

There was a dissonant screech of metal on metal, and then Sally felt as they were thrown wide and hit the ground hard, tumbling over until she came to lay on her back. Sally waited a second until she opened her eyes, surprised to be looking up at the smog filled clouds that showed she was still alive, and inside Eggman's fortress at that. Manic had already gotten back up to his feet, and gave her a hand as she stood up.

"You made it?" She said, still rather shaken and elated at being still alive.

"Yep." Manic said.

"That was amazing." She said, leaning over and pecking him on the cheek. "Where'd you learn to-" Sally's hands shot over her mouth as her head translated what she had just done.

"Not my fault!" Manic said quickly.

"If you tell anyone…" Sally began, leaving the actual threat to the imagination.

"Only if you let me off for mine." Manic said.

"Fine." Sally said, desperate to cover up her gaff.

"Well now that that's all settled," Manic said, looking up at Eggman's tower.

"Here comes the hard part."