The South-Winds pt. 2

Rocket pulled Trix in close and held onto her tight.  Tails was at the safe room computer and franticly typing away, doing his best to help.  Charmy was screaming his head off in a high pitch tone that made him sound as if he were a four year old girl.  Knuckles was squirming desperately trying to get out of Mighty's grip, wanting to get to the Master Emerald.


As for the rest, shear panic obviously showed in their eyes.  


Rocket's eyes soon met Sonic's and she called to him, "What're we gonna do?!"


Sonic's expression spoke for him saying "I'm thinking!".  Rocket too creased her brow thinking of some sort of way they could get out of the mess.  'If only we had the engine going...' she thought.  Then an idea crossed her mind and she didn't hesitate suggesting it to the others.


"Tails, how much power do we have in the engines?" She yelled over the screaming Charmy.  


"We have only a little bit, but not even enough to pull us up!" Tails called back.  


"What if we used it to steady our landing?" Rocket replied.  Vector walked over to Charmy and put a big hand over his whole face, muffling the shrill cries.  


"Whataya mean?" He asked, his eyes full of a strange put together of hope mixed with some sort of fear with a tad of concentration.    


Rocket walked over to Tails at the computer, taking Trix with her, and asked him, "Can we control anything from here?"


When Tails nodded she stepped up to the computer keeping one arm around Trix and using the other to search the computer.  Her eyes glazed over the monitor and she started to nod her head.


"We don't have enough power to go up, but what if we don't want to go up? We can just use the remaining power to slow down our crash."


"W-w-we're gonna c-c-crash?!" Ray asked, his voice raising and fear showing in his usually happy face. Mighty put his available hand on Ray's shoulder to comfort the younger boy.


"Not if I can help it, don't worry." Rocket said, then flipped a thumbs up and continued, "I know ship mechanics like the back of my hand!"


Vector nodded, obviously trusting Rocket enough to cooperate, "What can we do to help?" he asked.

  

"I need everyone against the back wall.  I'm gonna tip the the front of the ship so it's facing upward." Rocket ordered.  When everyone did so.  She took hold of a lever on the keyboard of the computer and turned back, "Everyone ready?"


"Are you sure this is a-" Amy started, but never got to finish when Rocket pulled back as hard as she could on the toggle.  


The downward spiral, facing the planet below in a slanted manner, soon turned around and Rocket slowly pushed the engine bars up.  The others' backs were soon leaning against the wall and slowly the floor started to go vertical.  


Rocket's wings appeared on her back and she leveled them so she was hovering in front of the computer, occasionally flapping them to stay put.  


Their back's weren't exactly on the wall, instead they were only slightly above it, since the ship was slightly slowing down.  


"Rocket, we're not gonna be able to stop it in time!" Rouge shouted to her, "We should just get out of here!"


"I'm not abandoning ship that easy!" Rocket replied, and she pushed the switches higher.


Rouge leaned her head back against the wall and hoped that the girl, who in which she barely met and didn't have a liking to in the first place, was as good as she claimed she was.


A sudden shock ran through the ship causing vibrations to scatter and Rocket struggled to keep the toggle bent all the way.  Her nose crinkled in effort and her muscles started to become fatigued.  

Tails pushed off the wall with his feet and flew up to Rocket he grabbed her hands over the toggle and assisted her in her tug-of-war.


Rouge and Charmy also go the memo and flew up to join them.  With all the effort the ships decent slowed and the toggle became more and more stubborn to hold.  


They were grunting with effort until the ship almost came to a full stop, and it struck Rocket as absurd that the ship was still being stubborn.

They were almost completely stopped when the back of the ship obviously hit the planet and sent everyone at the computer down to meet the others.  

Sonic caught Rocket, and almost toppled over when the ship's bottom came in contact with the surface of the planet.  

He gently put Rocket down and sat on the floor beside her.  He let out a loud sigh and let his back flop down onto the metal floor. "I'm NEVER going to go through with that AGAIN."