SONIC RIDERS

Disclaimer: I do not own the sonic characters, just the OC's

Chapter Two: Getting Started

Sonic was walking around Metal City, think about the humiliating defeat he suffered at the hands of Jet, last night. "Man, who ever that guy was, he is going to be tough to beat. But the question is, how am I going to find him." Sonic thought. Sonic had decided to take a trip to the center of the city to explore. Just then, Eggman appeared on one of the large video screens.

"Ladies and gentleman! Welcome everyone! I hope you're all ready for a show; we've got an exciting event, just for you. Since you all seem so bored, I put together a little something extra to spice things up! I call it the "EX World Grand Prix"; a tournament to see who's the best of the best with Extreme Gear. Not just a race, but a special race, to see who's the fastest. These races are no-holds-barred! All contestants pay a simple entry fee of one Chaos Emerald, and the winner takes it all! So, let's see who among you dares to meet this challenge!" Eggman advertised before shutting the screen off.

"Eggman! What is he up to this time?" Sonic asked. Eggman once again appeared on the screen. "And there's more! Before I forget, I'll present the current contestants. These players, they're hot; the best racers I could find!" Eggman said as he showed the picture of the contestants. It turned out that the contestants were Jet, Wave and Storm. "Hey! That's the guy!" Sonic said as he looked at Jet's picture. "The EX World Grand Prix, huh? Let's do this!" Sonic said.

"Told you he would be interested, Shadow." Mach's voice came from behind. Sonic turned around to find Shadow and Mach walking up to him. "What are you talking about?" Sonic asked. "To enter the EX World Grand Prix, you need to have a team of three people. That's not all. You also need to have Extreme Gear to participate." Shadow explained. "Extreme Gear?" Sonic asked. Then, Mach showed Sonic a red and grey board like the ones Jet and his gang rode. "Extreme Gear is a type of ride that uses air as its fuel. They can go up to 500 mile per hour. But I'm guessing you already knew that." Mach said, refering to what happened last night

"So all we have to do is race on these things and win? No problem." Sonic said. "If you think so, then here." Shadow says as he throws Sonic a blue and silver board. Sonic catches the board and Sonic stares at it with interest. "I call it, the Blue Star. I made it myself, along with Mach's gear" Shadow said. "I call mine, the Unknown" Mach said. "Where's your gear, Shadow." Sonic asked. "My air skates fall into the same category as Extreme Gear, so they are allowed." Shadow explained. "So when do we start?" Sonic asked. "The preliminary race starts in three hours. We should use that time to practice." Shadow said. "No problem." Sonic said.

Sonic placed the Blue Star on the ground and jumped on. But once he jumped on it, Sonic fell off as the Blue Star took off without him. "Hey! Get back here!" Sonic yelled to the gear as he chased after it. "This is going to take a while." Mach said. "This is bad." Shadow said. "Hey, with a little practice, Sonic will be able to race just fine." Mach said. "It won't matter if he doesn't beat the time limit." Shadow said. "Time limit?" Mach asked. "All teams must cross the finish line under three minutes to pass the preliminary round. If one member of a team doesn't make it in time, then the whole team is disqualified." Shadow explained.

This new rule had caught Mach by surprise and began to worry him. Shadow had no problem, since he could already use his skates, and Mach has practiced with Extreme Gear since he had arrived in Metal City. The only problem was the inexperienced Sonic. "Maybe he'll be a good rider when the race starts." Mach says. The Blue Star passes Mach and Shadow with Sonic was still chasing from behind it. "We're doomed." Shadow said.


Three hours have passed since Sonic had started chasing his gear around the city. Thanks to Shadow's chaos control he was able to catch it. It was now time for the big race and Mach and Shadow were speaking with Sonic. "All right, Sonic. You already learned how steer and stay on your gear. But you still haven't learned how to speed up or use tricks." Mach said. "Tricks?" Sonic asked. "If you perform a good enough trick, the judges will subtract some of your time depending on the trick." Shadow explained. "But since you don't know how to, don't do any. We can't afford to have you mess up during the race." Mach said. "Got it." Sonic said.

Sonic, Shadow and Mach took their positions at the starting line. Their opponents were three of Eggmans racing robots. The racers were supposed to race across the busy Metal City without getting hit. They would have to avoid early traffic, random pedestrians and a big jump. "Racers, take your positions at the starting line." The announcer said. They took their place behind an electric line that started at the top of a large slope for a big jump. "Ready! 3...2...1...GO!" the announcer yelled and the race began.

The racers jumped on their boards and started down the steep slope. The slope soon ended as the racers came close to a large jump. Shadow and Mach were able to put their gear to an angle that allowed them to jump to a section high above the traffic, along with one robot. Unfortunately for Sonic, he didn't know how to put the gear to an angle and fell into the traffic with the two other robots. Sonic tried his best to avoid the cars as the came towards him fast. Sonic was able escape the traffic and make a turn to get back into the race. But the robots were not as lucky.

Shadow and Mach jumped off the higher section to land back on the original track. Mach looked back and noticed that Sonic wasn't with them. "Hey! Sonic's gone!" Mach yelled. "We can stop now! We just have to hope he makes it on time!" Shadow yelled back as he sped up to enter the tunnel. Mach looked back for a second before speeding up to catch up with Shadow.

Back with Sonic, Sonic had arrived at the same place where Shadow and Mach had landed and started his way towards the tunnel that they entered. "I'm finally starting to get the hang of this." Sonic said. His self-victory was soon interrupted when the remaining Eggman robot rides up behind him and lands a strong blow to the back of his head. The robot races into the tunnel and Sonic fell off his gear. "Hey, that's cheating!" Sonic yelled. The, a robotic chao, named Omochao (Annoying pest) flew up to sonic and said "Anything goes in this an Extreme Gear race, Sonic"

Sonic got back to his feet and jumped onto the Blue Star to chase down the robot that attacked him. Sonic entered the tunnel and was soon faced with on-coming traffic. Sonic swerved between the cars and exited the tunnel without a scratch. Sonic had found the robot, but was unable to reach him when a long train got in his way. Sonic thought it was time to give up until he noticed a thin rail that led over the train and on to the other side of it. Sonic knew that it was risky, but it was the only chance he had. Sonic jumped off a nearby ramp and landed on the rail, trying to keep his balance. After being able to maintain his balance, Sonic jumped off the rail and landed safely on the ground.

Back with Shadow and Mach, the two jumped off a small ramp from the top of the city tower and landed safely on the ground below to reach the finish line. After passing the finish line, Shadow and Mach stopped and looked back to see if Sonic was coming. "Where is he?" Mach asked. Shadow looked at the timer on the large television screen to see that Sonic only had 40 seconds until the timer was up. "Come on, Sonic. You can do it." Shadow said in his mind.

Sonic had turned the final corner and saw the robot racing toward the large tower. "Anything goes, huh? All right, you piece of scrape! Let's see how you like it!" Sonic yelled. Sonic grabbed the Blue Star from under him and begins to perform his spin dash. Sonic's spin dash allowed him to reach the robot and tear through its body, destroying it. Sonic landed on the Blue Star again and saw a large ramp ahead. Unlike last time, Sonic knew what to do at the ramp.

Sonic angled his gear at the top of the ramp and pushed upwards. Sonic landed in the upper area of the tower and had one more ramp left to jump. Sonic jumped off the ramp and landed on the ground safely to pass the finish line. Sonic jumped off his board and was greeted by Mach and Shadow. "I did it, guys. Not bad, huh?" Sonic said cheerily. "Uh...Sonic. Look." Mach said as he pointed to the timer. Sonic looked at the timer and his happy attitude became sad. The timer said "3.59.59", meaning he had missed the time limit by 59 seconds.

"I'm sorry, guys." Sonic said sadly. "Hold on, folk. The judges have discovered that Sonic has performed a grind trick during the race." Omochao says. The screen then shows a video of Sonic grinding the rail over the train. "The judges will now recalculate Sonic's score." Omochao said. Everyone was on the edge of their seats as they awaited Sonic's final score. The score board was lit up and showed Sonic's official time was 2.59.59. Sonic had beaten the time limit by one millisecond.

"YAHOO!!!" Sonic yelled in happiness. Mach was jumping around with excitement and Shadow gave out a loud sigh of relief. "Thank God." Shadow said. Sonic then pulls on Shadow arm and starts dancing around with him, much to Shadow's displeasure. Meanwhile, the Babylon Rogues were watching the entire race from atop one of the city biuldings. "That blue guy sure is lucky." Storm said "Looks like the competition will be tough. You better watch yourself, Jet." Wave said. "It won't matter. In the end, I will win those chaos emeralds and have the treasure of Babylon" Jet said as he gave out an arrogant laugh.


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