Hello everybody! Here's the next chapter in this story. Actually, it's kind of the second part of the first chapter, only it's now concentrated on the other main characters of the story. That's kind of why this chapter is here so quickly, because it's basically a continuation of the first chapter. Apart from the sort of serious nature of the first chapter, I tried to make this one a bit more playful and funny.

Anyway, I hope that you will all enjoy this new chapter. Don't forget to leave a review after you're done reading this.


Chapter 2: A Poker Twist of Fate

"Ha, that's another win for us!" a loud and rather obnoxious voice exclaimed with excitement inside one of the few buildings that were lined up along the Robotropolis Harbor and overlooking the horizon line. "That makes it three wins in a row for us and only one for you two. How's it feel to have your money slip away from right before your very eyes and knowing that there's nothing you can do about it?"

This burst of excitement was currently happening inside a building that was situated just pass the baggage checkpoints set up along the entrance to the harbor itself. To be more specific, it was taking place inside the seaside pub that was currently packed with people both waiting for their chance to board the new ship docked outside and those who came to say their final goodbyes to their loved ones. Being that it was a publicly owned building; people who only went to have a drink inside or wanted to see the moment when the grand ship docked outside set off on its maiden voyage were allowed passage beyond the checkpoint.

In a far corner of this crowed place next to a rather grimy window that let in little light sat a group of four hunched around a table filled with cups, bottles of both alcohol and soft drinks, and some simple playing cards. Two of them looked to have been in their thirties or so while the others seemed to almost be at the age of adulthood. It was clear by the good abundance of money seen there that they were currently engaged in a game of gambling that had turned intense at some point. It was also clear that they were playing in pairs, what with one side acting all happy and hoarding in the cash that was at the center while the other two were sulking and had sour looks on their faces.

"So we're right now in a small slump here," one of the losing pair, an echidna with red quills that doubled up as dreads, responded cockily as his sour look was quickly replaced with a smirk. "That's nothing for us to go worrying about. I'm just waiting for the right time to make you two lose big time."

"That's right Knuckles," the echidna's partner, a blue hedgehog with quills that were probably just as sharp, said confidently. "Don't start getting yourselves too cocky unless you want to have the biggest upset of your lives. All we need here to beat you both are the right cards to make their way to us before we can royally beat your butts into the next continent and back with momentum to spare."

"Oh, shut up Sonic!" the other known as Knuckles spat out as he shot a piercing glare at his partner, immediately letting go of his cocky attitude and letting the aggravation in his voice show how he was really feeling. "It's your fault that we're losing a good chunk of our savings here. I told you to let me handle all the bets and raising and just call if you think your hand's good or fold if it's bad. Oh, why did I agree to play this game with someone so wet behind the ears in this game like you?"

"Well, sorry for helping you lose all of your precious money, but they did say it was a two-on-two poker game, and I was the only one nearby that you trusted enough to play with," the hedgehog said defensively with a frown as he brought all the cards in front of him and began to shuffle them. "This is the first time that I ever played this game with someone other than you, you know? Besides, why don't you think of it this way? At least you're losing a good chunk of your money through me rather than some stranger who you might think was purposely throwing that game to them."

"I'm starting to think that's the case with you right now, you stupid poker-amateur hedgehog," Knuckles grumbled angrily under his breath while throwing an evil scowl at his playing partner. He then emphasized, "And that's our hard-earned chunk of money you're losing here."

"Hey, I don't think your partner is stupid," one of the guys from the opposite side responded with a thick Australian accent behind his words. "He's a pretty smart player if he keeps raising on hands that mean nothing to him. I think of it as him being charitable and just giving away his money to us."

"Oh, put a cork in it Dingo before you another stupid comment flies out of your mouth," his partner, a skinny person who looked to be a grayish brown furred wolf wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, said with a roll of his eyes at his playmate that looked to be like an overly large orange pit bull with spots of orange here and there. The other two only watched with raised eyebrows as they watched the exchange unfold. "The only thing you're good for is playing poker, not making comments that don't even make the slightest bit of sense. Just concentrate on trying to drive these two into bankrupt."

"Uh, what does bankrupt mean Sleet?" the big animal asked with a questioning look on his face as he tried to scratch an itch through the tough material of his well-worn denim jeans. Apparently, he was not the sharpest of needles when it came to having knowledge of everyday words and such, yet he seemed contempt enough to win in a game of poker as testament to the medium-sized stack that sat in front of him. "Does that mean that we're going to go and disrupt a bank or something?"

"Oh, never mind," the wolf named Sleet sighed in clear frustration as he picked up a cup filled with some kind of brownish liquid and gulped it down in one go. He then picked up a bottle marked "Whiskey" and poured himself another cup of the stuff as he said, "Let's just hurry up and get on with this game. Mind you that we probably only have enough for one more game though since Dingo and I will be boarding that wonderful ship docked out there, the well acclaimed Titanic."

"Aww, you guys got tickets to go on it?" Sonic asked as he began to pass the cards around to everybody until they all had two with them. He then added as he set down the deck and poured himself a drink from another bottle marked "Pepsi", "Man, you guys are really lucky to have gotten your hands on them, you know? I hear that the tickets for any class level sold out quickly within the first week they were on the market."

"Well, it's only fitting that two of the best Texas Hold'Em poker players here in Robotropolis would have more than enough money to afford a ticket on a ship that's said to be quite brilliant and lavish," Sleet said in a goading tone as he took a look at the cards in front of them before once again hiding them on the surface of the table after placing a dollar in the central cash pool as the ante price. "That and we felt it was high time that we move onto a different continent and try our luck at the game elsewhere."

"Uh, I thought you said that you wanted to visit your mother back in Port Mobius," Dingo responded, enticing small chuckles from both Sonic and Knuckles that they kept hidden behind their cups after they threw in their respective antes. He did not seem to notice them or the very embarrassing comment he just made as he took the bottle of alcohol and poured some into his cup, "You told me that you wanted to surprise her by showing up unannounced in front of her doorstep."

"You best shut that inferior mouth of yours right now before I shove this bottle of Whiskey straight down your throat, bottle and all!" the yellow eyed wolf growled as he violently ripped the bottle out of the big orange dummy's hand and brandished it threateningly in front of his face, earning him a small flinch from the other. The other two continued to laugh as they placed their cups down and looked at their respective cards in front of them to see what they were playing with.

"How about we hurry up with this last game so you can go home to mommy dearest?" Knuckles asked with another small bout of chuckles as he poured himself a cup of Pepsi. "I'm sure she wouldn't like it if you missed your ship back home because of a holdup in this poker game."

"Oh, I doubt that you'll be laughing by the time we're done with this last game," the man said as he looked at his cards one more time and gave off a rather secretive smirk that looked to have been combined with a very annoyed scowl. "In fact, let's see if you'll continue to laugh once you see how much money I'm forcing you both to commit to!"

With that said, he picked up a few bills from his pile, all of them marked as fives, and threw them to the center of the table. He also took the liberty of "helping" Dingo put his portion of the ante in at the same time. Being that the round itself had barely even started, such a big bet took both of the Pepsi drinking guys by surprise. They even did a double take with their cards and looked at them to see if they were confident enough to play along with such a bet right at the start of things.

"You're seriously putting in twenty-five dollars at this point of the game?" the red echidna questioned after counting what was put in while his partner began counting what little he had left in his personal cash pool. "That's a lot of money to be throwing in pre-flop during an economy as bad as this. You're either still steamed at your partner, or you're real confident with those two cards under your name there. Which is it?"

"As if I'd ever tell you what I got on me here. If you really want to figure out what I have on me, how about putting some of that money into the pot and see whether or not I'm making a stupid call."

"Damn, what am I supposed to do here now?" he mumbled under his breath as he scrunched his eyebrows together and thought hard and carefully at the situation in front of him. "This is my last chance to try and at least mitigate my losses here. Oh, this is the most infuriating thing you guys have done to me!"

"Do you think you could hurry it up before we miss our ship?" Dingo asked as he began to space out and look at the many people inside the bar with them. Some were even starting to leave with pieces of papers in their hands that were most likely tickets allowing them to board the Titanic.

"For once, I agree with Dingo here," Sleet agreed as he too watched the crowd in the bar slowly lessen. "You either play the hand or forfeit it altogether. It isn't that hard of a decision for you two to make."

"And now you're setting a time limit on us, huh?" Sonic asked as he took a quick sip of his drink before looking at his money pile again. He had just finished counting it and discovered that he had thirty dollars left to his name. "If that's the case, then one of us has to make a move sooner or later. In other words," he added as he made a move to get the desired amount of money out of his pot and into the cash pool, "I'll go ahead and call."

"Sonic!" Knuckles exclaimed when he saw what his amateur partner had done. "I'm trying to mitigate our damages here. You just threw all that effort down the toilet, you know that? I swear that I'm going to kill you the moment we lose this game!"

"Do you really have that little faith in me on this?" the blue hedgehog asked with a smirk on his face. That quickly disappeared when he saw the angry snarl on his partner's face. "Never mind, don't answer that. Look, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing here. I know that I'm not the best of players when it comes to this game, but please just try to trust me on this for once. I'm sure that I can win this for us if things end up working out."

"Well, it looks like we have two cocky people ensnared by the tangles of this game," the wolf said as he began to lick his chops. "With your partner in, you might as well commit yourself into the game as well. Knowing how terrible your partner has been playing, you're probably the only one able to save both of your monetary asses."

All the hot-headed echidna could do here was growl in frustration as he began to calculate how much money he had in his personal stash. After confirming that he had fifty on him, he spent another second thinking before unwillingly parting with half of his pool and putting it into the betting circle.

"Heh, this looks like it's going to be a fun game," Dingo said as he eagerly accepted himself into the game without hesitation. "One of us is going to be leaving with big money after this game."

"Looks like we're about to find out, aren't we?" Sonic replied cockily as he picked up the deck of cards and threw down the first three cards on top face up on the table surface. They were revealed to be an ace, a six, and a five, all of them diamonds. "Here's some new cards to play with. What are you going to do now?"

"I think I'm going to put some more pressure on you two," Sleet said slyly as he dipped into his pool of cash, clearly the biggest out of the four of them, and placed a fifteen dollar bet into the betting pool. "Are you willing to risk every single penny under your name here, or are you going to chicken out?"

For a few seconds, the blue hedgehog shifted his eyes from the pot now twenty dollars more expensive and the measly five dollars left in front of him. If he wanted to commit to the game, he would be forced to forfeit what little he had and ride the monetary wave to the bitter end. He took another sip of his Pepsi as he ran the only two choices in his head. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Knuckles pleading with his own eyes to just fold the hand and be done with it. He was clearly concerned with how bad things might turn out.

"...Alright, I accept your little challenge Sleet," he answered after a few seconds of suspenseful silence around the table as he placed his final bill into the pool. "I'll put my whole self into this last hand and hope that I'll get real lucky."

"Oh, Sonic," the red echidna said with a groan that sounded borderline sickly. To be quite honest, he was looking quite pale and seemed to be ready to keel over at any moment.

"And how about you Knuckles?" Dingo asked as he seemed to completely ignore the sickly look the other was showing. "Are you smart enough to play like your partner is right now?"

"I hardly call his style of playing smart," the echidna managed to squeak out with another sickly groan leaving his lips. He then placed his hand into his cash pool hesitantly and placed the necessary amount into the cash pool saying, "I don't think I have much of a choice but to play this hand if I want to reverse the damage a certain hedgehog has done here."

"Well, this thing is starting to get bigger and bigger," the orange dog exclaimed happily as he once again placed his amount into the pot without any hesitation.

Without saying anything, Sonic took the next card from the top of the deck and laid it face up next to the other three. Once he took his hand off of it, it was revealed to be a seven of hearts.

"My, this is an interesting card you put down for us," Sleet said as he was clearly seen hesitating upon seeing the card. However, it only lasted less than a second before he returned to his cocky game attitude. "Hmm, I suppose this is a sign that I should slow down a bit. Then again, I've already got you committed into this pot all the way, so I might as well follow it."

With that said, the wolf simply took one five dollar bill from his pile and placed it gingerly into the pot as if it were some kind of bomb.

"I guess I should take the fact that you're finally starting to slow down as a good sign," Knuckles said with some newfound confidence as he carefully considered the new card in front of him. Being that Sonic had nothing else to bet with and was already forced to play through the entire game regardless of how he felt about the new card, his turn was skipped. He then raised the stakes by shoving his entire pool into the pot, which only held ten dollars in it. "Then how about I go ahead and put a raise and an all-in on my end here? I have a feeling that you just lost out on whatever it is you had planned. And to make things more interesting," he added as he began to dig into the small travel bag he had at his side and pulled out something that looked like a gold pocket watch, "I'll put this into the pot for the taking. I'll put this up for twenty dollars if that's alright with all of you. That puts my raise up to thirty."

"Kn-Knuckles?" Sonic questioned with a raised eyebrow at his partner's sudden change in attitude. "Uh oh, I think the thought of losing so much money has gotten to his head and turned him insane."

"Oh, the bet's now thirty dollars," the big orange dog said as he had his eyes on the shiny gold pocket watch before digging into his travel bag and took out a couple of papers. "Then how about I do the same thing as you and put all my money in along with these?"

"W-wait a minute Dingo!" the wolf exclaimed as he tried to stop his playing partner from putting both the money and the unknown piece of papers into the pot, but he was one second too late. He then asked slowly as if he were getting ready to blow, "Please tell me honestly just what it was you put into the pot along with your money."

"Oh, I only put in our ship tickets into the pot," the other explained calmly, seemingly not knowing what he had just done or noticing the seething gaze that was now on him. "It only seemed fair to do that since he put his gold thingie into the pot."

For a moment, the entire table was silent. The two young players were surprised at what had just been put into the pot, while Sleet was busy breathing heavily through his nose as steam started to blow out of his ears.

"...You...idiot!" he shouted so loud that everything inside the bar stopped and directed their attention at the scene unfolding. "What in damn hell's name were you thinking? I paid good money for that, and I'll be damned if that's being put up for the pot! You better take those papers out of there before I kill you!"

"Uh, I might not be the greatest of players here, but I don't think you can take back a call once it's been made," Sonic cautiously said as he fiddled with the edges of the cards in front of him.

"Anything that's been put in the pot and officially out of the hands of the caller is forced to stay in the game," Knuckles confirmed, his voice reflecting the same kind of shock his partner was feeling. "It's only fair."

"Only fair my ass! Oh, you better hope that the next card that comes out of this is a godsend for me. Otherwise, I'll be taking out the cost of those tickets out of your ass Dingo! Now hurry up and get that last card out of here before I punch in your nose, you annoying blue squirt."

"Hey, I resent that, you big old wolf!" the blue hedgehog countered cautiously before quickly regretting what he said. He was now the target of a gaze that could have possibly burned him to the ground if it had laser vision. In hopes of appeasing the other's anger, he quickly took the final card from the top of the deck and revealed it to be an ace of hearts.

Once the card had been revealed, whatever anger Sleet was exuding had all but disappeared, and a grand smile suddenly replaced his angry frown. Apparently, this card was the godsend he was ranting on about just a few seconds ago.

"Well, talk about having the Devil's luck," he mumbled under his breath, slightly freaking the people around the table sans Dingo a bit at his sudden mood change. "I'm sorry to burst your bubble boys, but I'm afraid that this game is all mines. Being that you all now have no money on you, I'll just go ahead and check this turn. Now who wants to reveal what they have first?"

"For some reason, I don't like where this is going right now," Knuckles said as he regained the groan he thought he had abandoned back when the fourth card made its appearance. "I guess I'll just get it over with and show mines first."

A second later, he flipped over the two cards in his possession and allowed everybody on the table to see what he had. They were a four of spades and an eight of clovers. When combined with the six, five, and seven on the table, he had a straight to call his very own on this game.

"Hey, I got that beat!" Dingo responded happily as he quickly flipped over his cards to reveal his cards. They were a two and a jack, both of them diamonds. In conjunction with the other three diamonds on the table, the humongous dog had a flush, a set that just beat Knuckles' straight.

"What?" the red echidna exclaimed as he saw the bad news spelled out before him as clear as day. "How the hell could you beat me there? That was the best hand I got the entire game. Damn it!"

"Well, it sounds like your attempts at trying to repair the damage your partner created has fallen down the proverbial cliff," the wolf said with a chuckle that sounded borderline evil rumbling from the back of his throat. "Unfortunately, you would have lost to me if you had managed to beat Dingo's hand. Allow me to show you why."

And with a cocky flick of his wrist, he flipped one card over with the other and exposed their contents to the world. He had a pair of aces in his hand, news that caused great dread in Knuckles when he saw it. With the two other aces out on the field, it graced him with a terribly strong hand, a four of a kind.

"F-f-four aces...?" the echidna stuttered as his eyes laid witness to one of the biggest hands he has ever seen during a live poker game. He then repeated in a clearer tone, "four aces? You...have got to be kidding me!"

"Oh, I assure you; there's nothing to kid about here. I told you I got the Devil's luck when your partner drew that card from the deck. I suppose I have him to thank for winning this game since he was the one who shuffled the entire deck."

"Four aces, huh?" Sonic repeated, apparently completely shocked at seeing such strength in the form of cards in front of him. "I never thought I'd see such a high set here."

"Yeah, well it's a strong hand that's practically drove us into the poor house! Just what the hell were you thinking when you decided to accept Sleet's bet and go all-in Sonic? This is all your fault, you know that?"

"I do hate to rub salt into such a freshly open wound," the wolf stated snidely as he reveled at the sight of his two opponents completely broken beyond repair, "but I don't believe that your friend has shown us what he has in his hands. Not that it matters to me, but I am curious as to what he was playing with that made him act so cockily to begin with. Do you mind showing us, or are you just going to leave us in the dark forever?"

"Are you sure you want to see it, big guy?" the blue hedgehog asked, his voice unchanging as the shock was clearly still in his system.

"Come on; I'm also curious to see what you have there," Dingo said with a hint of anxiety in his words, clearly not noticing that his partner had practically just bagged the entire game for them.

"Alright, if you really want to see it," he said with a small shrug as he showed his hand to everybody at the table.

When the cards were revealed, everybody had differing reactions to it. Knuckles was still in shock; however, it was for a reason entirely different from earlier. Dingo, the player who was usually oblivious to the things around him, instantly froze when he saw what was laid out before him. Sleet stood stone still, his breath caught at the back of his throat and his eyes boring down at the two cards staring right back at him. His mouth was slightly agape and looked as if there were the beginnings of some foam forming at the corners. Sonic's attitude was still in shocked, but they now knew for what reason he was acting like that.

The two cards that he had in his possession were the same as his partner had, a four and an eight and giving him a straight. However, this was not just any kind of straight. Both of the numbers were diamonds, fusing together with the other three on the field and also giving him a flush. And since he had a straight and a flush at the same time, he had what was known as a straight flush, a combo that just beat a four of a kind.

"Oh my freaking god...!" all three at the table amazingly exclaimed at the same time as they saw the hand in front of him. Sonic had finally changed his facial expression and had an extremely triumphant smile on his face. Then Knuckles said out loud with an equally triumphant smile on him, "Do you know what you just did buddy? You just won one of the biggest pots I've ever played in my entire life! My god, I can't believe you actually did it!"

"I told you that you needed to put a little faith in me on this hand," the blue hedgehog simply said as he allowed himself to take pride at the grief he caused both Sleet and Dingo. He then started to collect some of the money in the pot and pocket it before picking up the tickets on the top of the pot and looked at it. "And it seems like I made a good gamble here. I managed to snag us a couple of third class tickets aboard the Titanic!"

"Whoo-hoo!" the echidna whooped as he quickly took all of the money on the table and shoved it into his travel bag along with the pocket watch he put on the betting table. Besides a spare shirt, pants, and some clean underwear in it, there was nothing inside before the big windfall of money came around. "I can't believe that we're now able to get onto the Titanic now! From now on, I'll put a lot more faith on you in these games. God, this is the happiest day of my life! To think that we're actually able to get onto one of the most talked about ships and sail all the way to Mobius...!" he added with a dreamy sigh.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to do that boys," a man called out from somewhere across the pub. When they turned to see who was addressing them, they saw that it was the bartender in his standard white uniform standing behind the counter who had heard their excited outburst and apparently caught every word of it. "It's right now eleven fifty-five. The ship leaves at the harbor at the top of the hour."

"Aw crap, we gotta make a run for it if we want to get on!" Sonic exclaimed as he quickly left a twenty on the table to pay for their drinks before picking up his bag, its contents similar to that of Knuckles, and ran as fast as he could out the door. His red echidna buddy soon followed suit and was right at his heels. Still at the table was a couple of shell-shocked men known as Sleet and Dingo.

"...I...I...," the wolf stuttered, trying to get the words out his mouth. "I'm...going to...to kill you Dingo."

"Uh, I'm sorry?" Dingo tried to apologize in a tone that made him sound like a child about to be spanked by his mother.

Instead of answering the big dog's rather meek answer, the wolf threw a fist right at his face and connected it to his nose with a sickening crunch. He was sent flying off the chair with small droplets of blood flying away and towards the ground, the other soon following him down and pulling the both into a fist fight filled with both intense anger and shock at losing such an extreme amount of money. Everybody in the pub quickly cleared out of the building, none of them wanting to even attempt to break them apart since they knew where the anger was being extracted from and not wanting it to be taken out on them.


Hope you all like this new chapter. I tried to make it funny at the end after subjugating you all to all the boring poker talk and stuff. Hopefully it was enough for you all to hear of the shocked expressions everybody had on them when they saw Sonic's hand, which is probably the ultimate hand in Texas Hold'Em for those of you who never played or watched the game being played before.

For those of you who have read my other story, "Jak and Daxter: The Unrestriction", I have not given up on that at all. I am just taking a very small break from it so I can at least get the base of this story out of my head. That way, it will be out of my head and not always buzzing around and serving as a distraction while I'm working on my other stories.

Anyway, please leave a review before you start catching up on your next story. Until the next update everybody!