Project 60 (mentioned in the first and second chapter) will be a topic used in the future, it's a mystery as to what Project 60 is exactly and what it can do. The (*) symbol used once signals the beginning of a new scene while the the (*) symbol used TWICE is the end of a scene.

Chapter 4

*"You guys ready?" Miles shouted over the noise of his ship. Sonic nodded, looking out at the cloudy sky which hung over Spagonia, with a scary realization that this was really it. This was his first mission. This wasn't practice. It was the real thing. A blast from incoming enemy fire struck against the Tour. Sonic looked out the open hatch to see G.U.N. ships flying away from their main cruiser, which the Chairman learned, held Mario in custody.

Sonic looked next to him at his partner Amy. Just seconds after he first met her, he had already decided he didn't like her. She was too overconfident in herself, bragging that her skills outmatched his. Well, maybe in combat skills, but she lacked speed, and speed was a special gift to Sonic that came naturally to him.

"Okay, this is where you get off, right on top of the cruiser," Miles shouted over the noise of enemy fire.

"Where do you pick us up?" Sonic asked. Miles brought up a radar screen showing a map of the cruiser.

"That wide platform near the back of the cruiser," Miles said, pointing at a highlighted spot flashing in green.

"Got it," Sonic acknowledged, and without giving a warning to either Miles or Amy, he jumped off the ship, sailing his body right toward the cruiser. Enemy fire blazed around him and almost singed him once. Sonic did a flip in the air, changing the direction in his fall. A platform on the back of the cruiser was getting closer and closer now. Finally, his feet found the platform, and there were two shocked G.U.N. soldiers with their rifles aimed at him.

"Is that a hedgehog?" One of them asked. They were too bewildered to move, and Sonic easily flipped them into the air and they fell off the ship. Amy landed behind Sonic.

"Would've been nice if you had told me you were going," she complained. Sonic grinned, but he didn't answer, and he continued running across the boardwalk, this time without his gifted speed. Two other men spotted him and fired. Sonic jumped aside onto the railing next to one of them, then sent a powerful kick against him, sending him flying against the other soldier. Alarms were already going off, signaling to security that they had an intruder. Sonic looked over the railing to spot another boardwalk below.

"Amy, jump onto that boardwalk and try to find the prisoner down there," Sonic yelled. Amy quickly nodded and jumped over the railing, raining plasma fire down on any soldiers below. Well, at least she was good at following orders. He continued running across the boardwalk, enemy fire blazed around him. Reaching another group, he swung his foot across two men, tripping them both, then jumped over the railing. His feet landed on a soldier who was about to bite into a nutrition bar but fell flat on the walk from Sonic's impact. Sonic picked up the nutrition bar and flung it at another soldier's face to the left of him. Without seeing if it hit him first, Sonic curled up into a ball and hurled himself at him, which sent the soldier flying right off the boardwalk. This was too easy.**

*Ivo Robotnik stood on the bridge of his cruiser the Tyrant watching the sky battle. The Heroes of Today had sent Miles and his fire squadron The Tails to rescue their prisoner and destroy his cruiser. Yet, something didn't feel right. Just then alarms started blaring, warning him of Hero presence on the ship. Ivo turned on his security screens, revealing different angles of the boardwalks outside. On one of them he saw a blue blur mowing down soldier after soldier.

"What?" Ivo wondered aloud. The door slid open behind him.

"Sir, we have a blue hedgehog trying to get to the detention center," a soldier behind him reported.

"Hedgehog? It's a blasted hedgehog?" Ivo shouted.

"Yes, sir, the other one looks like a pink hedgehog," the soldier added.

"What?" Ivo gasped and scanned his eyes across the security monitors until he spotted one with a pink hedgehog mowing down soldier after soldier.

"Amy? No…" He quickly stopped himself and turned to face the soldier.

"Deploy all troops now," Ivo immediately replied.

"But sir…"

"I gave you an order sergeant, they're here for the prisoner. Stop them and bring them to me," Ivo insisted. Desperate not to provoke him, the soldier turned on his heels and ran off. Ivo smiled. It looked like his plan would have to be put into motion a little sooner than he expected, but, as he always believed, the sooner the better.**

*Sonic ran up to meet Amy, who appeared to be doing just fine on her own. G.U.N. soldiers were coming at them from both sides now, so maybe it was time to play leader.

"Amy, are you ready for some teamwork?" Sonic asked. Amy looked at him like he was insane.

"I was hoping for some of that when we first got here!" She shouted over the noise of plasma fire. Sonic grinned.

"Just follow my lead okay? Now, back to back!" He shouted back. The two of them kicked enemies away off the boardwalk or fired them down, or at least Amy did. Sonic hadn't brought a gun; he didn't need one.

"Alright now, switch sides with me and run on my mark!" Sonic instructed. So they did, Sonic switched sides, kicking and punching oncoming soldiers.

"Go, go! Follow me!" Sonic shouted, running across the boardwalk, hurling a pistol he had picked up at another G.U.N. soldier which struck him against the chest, taking him right off his feet. A fierce grin formed on Sonic's face and he bolted toward the next group of soldiers, flipping into the air and twirling a kick against a soldier's face, and knocking the rest out with kicks and punches to the head except for two.

"Maybe we should've just surrendered," one of them complained, and Sonic didn't give a moment's hesitation before curling up into a ball and sending them flying off the boardwalk. Two long bullets smacked against the boardwalk from a high distance. Sonic followed the trail of bullets to a man with a sniper rifle standing on a platform at the edge of the boardwalk where there was a ladder leading up to that platform.

"Use a sniper!" Sonic ordered. He watched Amy unhook a sniper from a fallen soldier's back and jump towards the platform, firing off one round, which downed the shooter on the platform. Amy's feet landed on the platform that had a structure, which led to the detention center. Sonic did the simple thing to get to the platform by going up the stairs.

"I'll go in and look for their prisoner, you stay here and tell me if anyone is coming," Sonic ordered.

"So, I'm supposed to follow your orders huh? Was that established behind my back or something?" Amy asked. She did have a point, Sonic was giving orders, and he was just as much a super soldier as Amy was. He was no commander or general. Just a soldier.

"Hey, at least these orders are keeping you alive," Sonic pointed out, and left the subject at that. Without another word, he wrenched the door open and cautiously walked in. The detention center was a thin hall, each cell guarded by a ray shield. As he walked along the hall, he realized that all of them were empty.

"They're all empty," Sonic said, looking around

"Empty? I don't understand, this was the place that the Chairman said their prisoner would be," Amy said from the doorway. Sonic narrowed his eyes as he thought.

"Or maybe he was taken away from this place before we got in the room," he thought aloud. Just then, he noticed something small in one of the cells. The ray shield was down since there was no one inside, so he easily walked in and picked up the thing, which happened to be a rock with a note scratched on it. In sloppy words it said: beware the spy. Without a doubt, the warning was from Mario. Tapping the comlink on his wrist, Sonic contacted Miles.

"Prisoner's not in the detention center Miles, I think we may be too late," Sonic informed.

"Yeah, I think you are. I just saw a large vessel come out the ship's hangar bay and is fleeing quickly," Miles replied.

"Ivo," Sonic guessed.

"Probably."

"He took the prisoner."

"Okay, well, meet me out here and I'll try to finish destroying this cruiser," Miles said. Suddenly, the cruiser shook so violently it took Sonic and Amy off their feet.

"One of the cruiser's engines has exploded, wait…wait…oh no…get off the cruiser now, the whole thing is tipping over!" Miles shouted over the comlink.

"Acknowledged!" Sonic yelled, and he ran out of the detention center, grabbed Amy's hand, and pulled her along with him.**

*Ivo rode his own ship away from the sky battle, uncaring about what happened to the Tyrant. His prisoner, Mario, had been forced into the cargo hold and was his…unlucky passenger. He punched a code-signal to a certain location. He had to speak with the man that was hosting a…special operation.

"Doctor, are you successful so far?" Ivo asked.

"I'm making good progress yes, but I need time," a voice said back.

"Well you won't get to have that much doctor, I want to see that you have gone very far in this by the time I get there," Ivo snapped.

"Yes, sir," the doctor replied.**

*The cruiser was so dangerously tipped on its side by now, that Sonic and Amy were practically skidding across the boardwalk rather than running on their feet. Fires were springing up everywhere, and everything was coming apart. They headed as fast as they could for the open platform at the back of the cruiser, but Miles was nowhere to be found. Waiting for him was not what Sonic had in mind. Once they were on the platform, Sonic, still holding Amy's hand, rushed to the end. And jumped over the side. Sonic took a deep breath as he felt the cold rush of wind whip against his face. He looked at Amy, who looked strangely okay to have been thrown off a cruiser and falling through the sky in the middle of a ship battle.

"Can I let go of your hand now?" Sonic shouted over the wind and missiles.

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead!" Amy shouted back. Without hesitation, Sonic let go of Amy's hand, and the two began to fall further apart from each other. Just then, an enemy ship came shooting by, but Sonic grabbed hold of it, quickly grabbed onto Amy as it passed by her, and the two of them were on top of it. There were two pilots inside, and they both noticed that the two hedgehogs were on top. The passenger grabbed a pistol from his holster and opened an emergency window in the door to try to shoot them off. His pistol blazed at them, but Sonic flipped and ducked from them all, finally kicking the pistol out of his hand and then sent his foot flying against the window, which slammed against the man's cheek, knocking him out cold. Several ships were starting to fire missiles at them, which Sonic and Amy both dodged, then jumped off just as the ship exploded from its own team's fire. Just then, they found themselves in the passenger compartment on the Tour. Miles had backed his ship up to catch the two of them.

"Let's get out of here!" Miles shouted, spinning his ship in the air for fun, and he ordered his squad to follow him out of the battle. The Tyrant was destroyed, but the main objective, unfortunately, had failed.

"That was…that was awesome!" Amy squealed, yanking her helmet off, staring in awe at Sonic. Sonic grinned, but wearily this time. He really was feeling tired.

"I've never met anybody like you in my whole life Sonic," Amy said. She walked up to him, gave him a brief hug, and started walking toward the co-pilot seat next to Miles. She stopped and looked back at him.

"Thanks," she simply said. Sonic had nothing to say. He had a feeling he and her were going to get along. He was, however, nervous about the warning he found in the cell. Should he tell the others? He was afraid that if he did, no one would trust each other, and they would spend too much time looking for a traitor in their midst. Sonic decided to keep it to himself for a while, and keep an eye out for himself, so that maybe he can find out who the traitor is, report it to the Chairman and have the traitor arrested without any conflict between everybody else.**

NOTES: I didn't want to show Sonic and Amy having a perfect friendship since the minute they meet each other. I felt it was important to show them having to cope with each other and learn to work together, allowing their friendship to grow. You could think of the structure of Ivo's cruiser to be almost exactly the same as Eggman's cruiser from Sonic Adventure.