"Good evening everyone. For those just turning your tv, just arrived at the track, went to the food court or just got distracted: Welcome to the Third EX World Grand Prix. Your host and eyes here on the Sky Fortress Zone, Omochao! I am a little sad to announce that we are reaching the conclusion of our races. However, we are finishing this with a Bang! Why, you may ask? Well, to end this competition we have a few of the best extreme gear riders ever"
"We have the Babylon Rogues, formed by Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow and Storm the Albatross, known for being the pioneers of extreme gear racing; Team Heroes, composed by Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails the Fox and Knuckles the Echidna, the positive boost the extreme gears needed to become this popular; these two teams are easily the most famous and popular of the finalist but other teams such as Team Rose have gained a good following, partly thanks to their newest member Gemerl, though both Cream the Rabbit and Amy Rose have made their proper contributions to the team, after they lack luster introduction to the world of racing in the last Grand Prix; Team Dark has always been unable to keep a third member with them ...*cough* alive *cough* but so far Silver the Hedgehog have been capable of keeping up with Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, known thiefs and G.U.N. agents; Team Chaotix, the least loved team of the finalists, formed by Vector the Crocodile, Charmy the Bee and Espio the Chameleon are better known as detective but they had made it this far ... But they need a miracle if they dream to win; Team Eggman is not loved at all by anyone but his two new robots have proven to be hard to best, gaining Dr. Robotnik's his not so well earned place in the competition. Nevertheless, you know, this only makes the competition even more exciting. What will happen next? Stay tuned and find out!"
As the robot chao did his best to entertain the masses, the many racers waited at the Pit area, using they spare time to get some rest for the next race and tune up their boards to the best of their capacity. All that actually meant that each of the teams` mechanics was doing its best to keep their boards from breaking apart while the rest of the team is doing pretty much anything but rest.
Tails and Wave tried their best to work as they teammates made pranks and trash talked. It was bearable most of the time, but when it was too much, Tails was thankful to have Wave around (and her giant wrench for that matter). She was enough to calm them down for a while.
Amy pretty much spent most of her time chasing after Sonic, in this more confined space she might have actually have a chance to catch him. While all of this happened, Gemerl fixed the gears of his team with the aid of Cream, thought he would have probably being better by himself.
Oddly enough, Cream had a strange effect on the robot, causing it to overheat by her many soft touches and manerism. From what the outsiders saw, he was blushing until it was too much and, just like the machine it was, overheated and stopped to work for a few seconds. Even if it was weird, no one paid too much attention to this detail. Most just shrug it off; those who once cared grew used to it like Tails and Eggman. Wave was probably the only one who actually cared about it and still tried to discover how a little girl could have such an effect on a machine, not having much success in two years since she met them.
Other teams like the Chaotix did not seem to have the slightest idea of what they were doing as the three members were struggling to try to fix their vehicles. Eggman and Wave found hilarous when their boards seemed to be at their perfect shape, just to suddenly fall apart in many pieces. Poor Silver possibly had it the worst as his teammates threw him their extreme gears and left, ordering him to repair them before they were back.
Eggman was the only one that was actually resting, as his red and blue metal sonics were the ones making the maintenance. The heroes had actually attempted to reach him a few times but the two metals he build proved to be too troublesome to handle. Luckily, Espio had sneaked past his defenses and applied the good ol` creampuff prank on him. Since then, Eggman had not tried to fall asleep to avoid pranks.
At that moment, Tails was helping Silver fix his team boards as it was becoming a habit on the competition. The fox felt some sympathy for the white hedgehog. Sonic and Knuckles might have not being as direct and mean as Shadow and Rouge but it did not seem that different sometimes.
Silver was also very smart. In the little time they were spending together, he had learnt to distinguish the flaws on the damaged extreme gears. He was no Tails or Wave but considering he was from an apocalyptic future, it was actually very impressive. In addition, his psychic powers let him find the problems much faster than anyone else. In just a few minutes, the boards were at the best they could.
"There. All ready "Silver said, satisfied. "You know, I could help you fix your teams boards and they would be ready in a sec." He proposed but the fox rejected it politely.
"Don't worry. Besides, my board is the only one that still needs to be fixed. It shouldn't-" In that instant, the famous blue streak passed in front of them and grabbed the shooting star extreme gear. "Wait,
Sonic. I just fix it!" Tails cried
"Exactly. It needs some testing." And, just like that, he and the red echidna left the area.
"I won't let some blue hairbrush best me." Jet shouted, taking his board and following Sonic's steps.
"Wait for me boss!" Storm ran behind the Hawk, taking the S-type right from Wave's hand.
"Wait, Storm! I am not…" But Wave's scream was in vain as he had already left. "Finished"
"Fuck me" Both Tails and Wave said it, though the Swallow shouted much louder than the fox and rambled on for a little while.
At least, it meant that Tails would only have to worry about his board with little interruptions, and Wave would just relax until the next race. Things should slow down a bit for a while... Until Charmy decided to screw everyone plans.
"Hey guys, look what I found! This should stop our boards from falling apart." The bee chirped happily, holding a pod over his head. However, both Vector and Espio panicked the moment they realized what he was holding. It was a normal orb, like the ones in the race track. However, that contained the gum used by Vector, powerful enough to keep spaceship pieces together and, if not opened correctly, would blow up.
"Charmy! Stop right there!" Vector ordered the bee, a little too late since the kid tripped at seemingly nothing, letting go off the bomb.
Vector observed in absolute horror as the orb went up, just starting going down because of the power of gravity. Luckily for him, Espio made a mad dash and caught the orb before it hit the floor. The crocodile let go his held air and soon joined with the Chameleon and the Bee.
"Don't scare me like that Charmie! You need to be more careful!" Vector screamed, flailing his arms like crazy, a little too crazy since, thanks to the flailing, Espio dropped the ball.
"Just like you Vector?" Charmie quipped, a little disappointed that he did not get an answer. The two adults of team Chaotix were too astonished to move, to even react. They were there, frozen, fixated on the orb that could just blow up at any moment... A good minute passed away and nothing happened. It was then that the two started functioning again.
"Huh, maybe it was-" At that moment the sphere went off, all its sticky content exploding from it, not only totally bathing the Chaotix with the jelly like content, but also splashing many of the other racers with it.
Wave reacted soon enough to protect her board... using her own body as a shield; Gemerl was able to protect the gears and Cream from all the jelly just like Wave, though, the fact that he was a robot didn't help him since now he was shaking and spilling smoke and Amy was left unprotected; Silver reacted fast enough and, thanks to his powers, avoided getting spilled at all; Tails had it the worst, not being able to avoid any jelly on him, as well as his board. A few buzzes and sparks later and the fox understood it was damaged beyond repair, at least, with the little time left he had.
"No no no no NO!" Tails shouted, not believing what just happened. All that hard work, all those late nights, all the effort of participating through the competition could be thrown to the dump because of this stupid accident.
Meanwhile, by a chance that makes no sense at all, the boards of the team Chaotix actually stuck together thanks to the jelly and still worked perfectly.
"Now take a look at that! How about a 'thank you' from you guys?" Charmy commented, earning the stink eye from his teammates.
"I am so going to give you something! But not the thanks!" Vector shouted, soon followed by an attempt to grab the child, though he flew out of his reach, starting a little game of catching. However, both stopped dead on their tracks, when both Amy and Wave passed in front of them, making a throat cleaning sound. Before anything else could get any more complicated, Cream, of all people stepped in.
"Misters! You must help my friend Gemerl!" The youngest of the bunch begged, a glimpse behind her revealed the black robot behind her, a dancing mess of an amazing machine. It was obvious that none of the Chaotix wanted anything with him.
"Why do we have to do anything for you?! It is your bot!"
"And guess who messed him up just now!" Amy added, starting to show her anger.
"Someone better step forward and help fix the robot, before we make you do it." This time Wave talked, earning an odd look from Amy. It was very weird seeing the swallow helping someone but herself or her team.
At that moment, Charmy and Vector took a step back, only Espio remained still, realizing a minute to late of what just happened.
"Wait, I-" Espio was ready to argue but Cream used one of his deadliest weapons at her disposal: she put out her lower lip, which started to tremble; she opened her eyes as big as she could…. She was using the PUPPY EYES! Just a look at the cute rabbit was enough to cut all attempt from the chameleon to discuss. "All right, all right." Espio sighed, giving up and walking toward the robot, fear slowly crawling up to him. After all, this was one of Eggman's deadliest machines ever and was flailing around like a maniac. This was not going to be a fun time for him.
Vector and Charmy both tip toe their way out of trouble, or attempted to do as Amy put herself in front of them and Wave behind them.
"Ladies, let's be reasonable." Vector tried to talk her way out of this disaster, not working as Amy, instantly getting hit by her huge hammer.
Charmy ran away in the opposite direction, not realizing the bird girl was just there and thus getting hit by Wave and her wrench. The bee felt his head throbbing, petting the sore spot. The kid looked at the bird woman. Seeing that her wrench was much smaller than Amy's hammer, he thought he was probably better than his partners were, but when the wrench suddenly grew in size and started emitting electricity, he knew he was in a mess.
The chameleon observed with a bit of distance. Seeing how his friends were chased and being pummeled, Espio felt a little relieved just having to clean the robot with Cream. Sadly, the sudden flailing from the robot hit him, literaly sending him flying a few meters.
"Mama I wanna Haman" Espio mumbled before losing consciousness.
Cream paused the cleaning work, observing her surroundings for a bit, absorbing all the chaos that was happening just around her. "This is going to be a long day"
"Excuse me; are you positive about what are you saying?" Rouge talked to her watch, asking for a confirmation from her superiors at G.U.N.
"I repeat, the Babylon Rogues ship is emitting a strange energy signal. We didn`t notice it at all when the races began but it has growing steadily stronger with each passing race. The air vehicle is using a camouflage system, hiding itself from any look as well as most of our scanners. Rouge`s orders are to infiltrate the zeppelin, quietly, while Shadow continues through the race to draw less suspicion. Verify whatever that energy is and what its purpose is and eliminate it if it is dangerous. Is it clear, agent?" The agent re-explained in the same monotone voice
"Understood. We will get into it." Rogue responded before turning of her communicator. "Got that, brooding boy?" She teased to his partner.
Shadow barely reacted to her, merely saying, "Initiate mission" Before speeding toward the Resting areas.
"Why do I bother?" Rouge sighed, opened her wings and glided toward her objective. In mid-flight, Knuckles came flying on his extreme gear and almost ran her over. "What is your problem?!" She screamed in anger. Her hassle was not over as the other escaped riders followed him and almost ran her over too. Rouge barely avoided being ran over by the riders.
As expected, Sonic and company had raced each other in their spare time. However, something unexpected happened: Storm`s board had suddenly started emitting smoke, as well as losing control over his. Now, they both struggled just to get back to the pit area. Luckily, for Storm, the extreme gear game up just a second before reaching a safe place, landing face first but not in any real danger.
Somehow, being the first to arrive to the area, the first thing he attempted was trying to reach Wave and explain the problem. He entered running and didn`t noticed that the jelly all over the place until he stepped on it. Immediately, he and the others noticed this sticky thing all over the place and their friends. They also noticed how Charmy was literally stuck to the ceiling, thanks to whatever that was, and Vector was nail through the floor, struggling.
"Geez, did we miss the party? We only left for a little while!" Sonic joked but everyone turned to him with a face of anger and frustration. "Just saying." Without another word, Sonic directed to their area, noticing that Tails was still working like a complete maniac.
"What`s the matter buddy, I thought you would be done by now."
He continued to work without paying much mind to his best friend. However, after looking at it thoroughly, he knew he wasn`t going to be ready any time soon. "It`s no use." Tails sighed.
At that moment, Silver used his psychic powers to hold the yellow tail, thinking that his powers could easily solve the problem. "There is still use until the psychic says otherwise".
"Silver, let go of it in this instant!" The fox shouted though it was too late. Silver received a powerful electric shock, along that; the board also was electrocuted, exploding thanks to the excessive energy. Now it was completely out of order. Silver was knocked down, although he got back quickly.
"What the heck just happened?!" He screamed, more pissed off than hurt, the burnt and darkened hair seemed worse than it actually was. Tails was looking at what was left of the board, tears seemingly about to come. Silver calmed down himself before moving closer to the fox,
While all that happened, Storm made his best effort to convince Wave to repair his board before the next race. "Wave, look at the board. It just exploded!" He said while raising his arms to the air. "Can you fix it? Please?" The big bird put his best cute face, thought to be honest was more horrific than his normal expression
Wave stood there, checking the S-Type board, completely fixated at it. Then she started striking his partner with her wrench. "What the hell did you do to my baby?! Each of my gears is a masterpiece but it seems you grabbed it and smashed it against a wall over and over and over! And you have the nerve to demand me having the board ready before the race AFTER you took it without it being remotely finished and brought it in a far worse state. AND if you actually believe I will even try. YOU! ARE! DEAD! WRONG!" Wave roared, not taking a single breath of air during that whole speech. And then, she walked away, wanting to take a shower to remove as much gum as possible.
In her way, she noticed that Tails is at the brink of tears and pissed off at the white hedgehog. She actually thought that maybe the fox would lash out at him, seeing that his board was in a horrible state. However, the angry boy seemed to calm down, more depressed than anything else. "Sorry Silver, it is my fault that. During all of these competitions someone messes with my teams boards and we end up losing the first place because of that, so I put safety measures on our extreme gears, meant to give anyone a powerful shock if they were authorized, even if that person was a technology esper." Tails explained.
Wave had to admit that she was feeling a tiny pinch of regret from what she heard. She had messed up Sonic's board twice to ensure their teams victory, taking the first place in the original competition, thought then Sonic kicked his tail in a fair race. On the other competition, Jet once again won thanks to her interference and while they competed again and Jet still took the victory, there was still some shady stuff behind them, even if Sonic himself had accepted defeat cleanly. Still, she rarely cared about people opinion, she cared about getting results and if cheating became a need again, she would do it once more.
Silver then left, just telling him sorry for a last time before moving toward Shadow. Now that Tails was alone, Wave used the opportunity and threw at him a can of soda she had reserved.
"What is this?" Tails asked
"It is a drink you buffoon. Seriously is there anything up there?" Wave insulting while pointing out at her head. The boy just huffed his frustration. However, Wave´s posture changed a bit after her comment. "Consider it congratulation, for actually looking like you are starting to show some foresight and being more careful with your stuff." Wave commented in a much less mean fashion, but she reversed to her normal self before Tails could even give her an answer. "Don't get too excited yet. You are still ten years too young to be anywhere as competent as me." And with that she just left to the showers.
Watching Wave being mean one minute only to be nice the next always left the fox confused. It had happened with more frequency than more time they spent but he still had not gotten used to it. Anyway, feeling very thirsty all of the sudden, he decided to open the can. And started screaming as the contents on the can sprayed him all over. "Waaaaaaah" He shouted in surprise, feeling all the sticky substance all over his hair. In the distance, Wave laughed at him, to what Tails answered by glaring daggers at her,
"Still too naïve." She said before finally entering the showers. He still drank it, and it was really good.
Little time later, Omochao appeared toward the guys and noticed how messy everyone and everywhere looked. "Um, there are only five minutes left. We better start moving toward the track." He explained.
"Finally! Had I spent one more minute with this vermins, I would have gone crazy." The mad doctor complained and moved, followed by his two metal Sonics.
"Let´s get going Cream." Amy told her, but the little girl only tightened her grip on the robot.
"I can´t leave him behind, not like this." Cream said between *sniffs*, ready to burst into tears. She felt like she shouldn't leave the bot until he was safe and sound.
"Cream *bzztt* you *bztt* enter the *bzzt* win it. For us, *bzzzt* for the *bzttt* team." Gemerl told her, the best he could due to its malfunctions. He had grabbed Espio again, holding him in a tight.
"But-" The little girl began but the bot interrupted her again.
"No *bzzt* buts!" He said. "Give it *bzzt* all!"
The scene would have looked as if Gemerl was some kind of very sick person at the edge of death and Cream was seemingly not ready to tell him goodbye, or it could have looked like that, if he wasn't an incredibly dangerous bot that could kill anyone around.
"I will take care of him." Tails offered to the girl.
"Are you sure about that little bro?" Sonic asked. He knew how much Tails wanted another chance at a race against the Babylon as well against everyone else.
Tails still looked upset about what happened before, but he still smiled the best he could to reassure everyone. "There is nothing to be done about my board. It is best if I work on something else. But you must promise me you will give it all you got out there." Tails said.
Sonic smiled back. "That's the spirit little bro. I will win." And with that, he left with Knuckles
Watching Tails trying to stay strong for his team, Cream felt that she needed to be strong to. Gemerl had helped them get this far to victory, so now, she needed to arm herself with courage, and go. "Please rest, we will give all out there." Her voice remained relatively steady but tears were flowing across her face. She and Amy left, thought tears didn´t stop flowing.
The other two members of the Chaotix team moved close to Espio, looking at him with pleading eyes and their hands together. The Chameleon immediately knew what they wanted. "Ok guys, go win the race." Espio said. His partners shouted hurray and took off.
"Hey, where is Rouge?" Silver asked Shadow, as it looked like they were going without her.
"Don't know. Don't care."
"But she is your partner."
"If you want to get all concerned about your team wellbeing and getting all nice and together, go join Sonic and the others. We might be partners but we also don't need all that." And with that the rest of the journey went silent for them.
Wave and Jet told their goodbyes to his stuck partner, who went to the corner and put himself in a fetal position or something. And so, every team member that was still capable of racing headed to the competition.
