SONIC RIDERS: ZERO GRAVITY
Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters
Chapter Four: Race to the Finish
Meteor Tech Industries, the source of the world's most advanced technologies. And it was also the home of the rogue robots. Everywhere, Machines were building more robots for their army. Meteor Tech robots scouted the entire factory for intruders, unaware of the four were already in. After sneaking past the city robots, Sonic and the others were able to sneak into the factory undetected.
"Ok, we're inside. What do we do now, Shadow?" Amy asked.
"Why are you asking me?" Shadow replied. "Why do I have to come up with all the ideas?"
"Because you're the smart one." Silver stated, making Shadow groan.
"Whatever we do, we better watch our step." Sonic warned.
But just then, one of the factories security cameras caught sight of the group of unwanted intruders. The alarms went off, meaning that they had been spotted.
"Too late for that." Silver said.
The patrol robots changed to their wheel forms and raced towards Sonic and the others. Sonic and the others prepared to counter the robots attack. But to their surprise, the robots completely passed them. The group turned around to find the robots true targets.
"Is that...?" Sonic questioned.
It was Jet, Wave, and Storm of the Babylon Rogues. It's been four months since Sonic, Shadow, or Amy had seen any of them. Silver saw them in Soleanna during the Solaris incident, but that wasn't something worth mentioning. As the robot charged at them, Jet used his Ark to make his team weightless and went on the attack. Storm crushed them with his fists, Wave clobbered them with her wrench, and Jet cut them up with his fans. With the real threat out of the way, Jet and the others landed in front of Sonic's group.
"Long time no see, Sonic the Hedgehog." Jet smirked.
"Jet!" Sonic exclaimed.
"It's been a while, rat." Wave said rudely.
"Too early for my taste, pigeon." Shadow retorted.
"Hey look, they have more rats with them." Storm said.
"We're not rats!" Amy yelled.
"We're hedgehogs." Silver stated.
"Enough babble!" Jet cut in. Jet held his hand to Amy. "All right, pinky, hand over the Ark of the Cosmos!"
"What are you talking about?" Amy questioned.
"Don't play dumb with me!" Jet exclaimed. "Not after you swiped the Ark right out of our hands!"
"Hold on a minute, Jet. Girls hate guys who rush things." Sonic chuckled.
"Rush?" Jet smiled deviously. "Don't you know, I'm the fastest creature in the universe. And today, I'm gonna prove it."
"Then let's settle this the old fashioned way." Silver cut in.
"What do you have in mind?" Jet asked.
"A race, you and me." Silver challenged. "Winner gets the Ark."
"You're on." Jet accepted.
"Sure you can handle this, Silver?" Amy asked.
"Don't worry. There's no way I'll lose." Silver said confidently. "First one to the control room wins."
"Then let's go." Jet said. Jet and Silver placed the Wind Rider and the Psychic Wave in front of them as Jet began the countdown. "3...2...1...GO!"
Silver and Jet swiftly jumped onto their Gear and took off at lightning speed. The others followed them, except for Amy and Storm. Amy was ready to follow when Storm jumped in the way.
"Sorry, can't let you go until you hand over that stone, little lady." Storm said.
"Get out of my way." Amy told him. "You really don't want to lose twice, do you."
"Me? Lose to you?" Storm started to laugh. Just then, Amy pulled her Mach helmet out of nowhere and placed it on her head. Storm suddenly realized who she was. "AAH! It's you!"
"Maybe this will jog you memory." Amy said as she threw off the helmet and reeled back her hammer. Amy whacked her hammer at Storm and ran off. "Later!"
"H-hey. Wait...up." Storm said dizzily as he chased after Amy.
With Jet and Silver, Silver seemed to be holding his own as he held a slight lead over Jet. But as they came to the first turn, Jet moved inwards and took the lead. They soon came to the first ramp and shot clear off. Jet, having more experience, made it to the upper level of the factory while Silver landed at the bottom.
"Later, loser!" Jet called down. "Oh, and watch out for that hammer."
"Hammer? What hammer?" Silver questioned.
As Silver looked forward, he soon realized he landed on the Meteor Tech robot assembly line. And just over his head was a row of iron hammers waiting to pound him to dust. Silver quickly swerved to the right to avoid one hammer and swerved to the left to avoid another. Left and right, Silver was not only racing for the Ark, but for dear life. As Silver looked up, he saw that Jet was making his escape. Using his psychokinetic powers, Silver snapped all the hammers in two and made a clear path.
"There is no way I am going to lose!" Silver exclaimed.
Silver used his psychokinetic powers on his own body and forcefully pushed himself to gain speed. Farther on the track, Jet jumped off the higher ramp and performed a few tricks to show off. When he landed, he couldn't help but look back at his competition. He was surprised when a green blur swept past the hammers and was headed for his direction.
"He doesn't give up, does he?" Jet smirked. "But that's nothing I can't handle."
The next part of the track was to race through a row of giant gears. With the big hole in the center, it wasn't hard to get by. That's when Jet got an idea. As Silver came close, Jet reeled out his fans and swiped them past the giant gears. Finally, Silver had caught up.
"I will win this race!" Silver exclaimed.
"Oh, and how do you plan to win under a pile of metal?" Jet turned back with a smirk.
"Huh?" Silver questioned.
When Jet passed the row of gears, he plucked a feather from one of his fans and threw it back. The feather landed on the giant gears and caused it to collapse. Silver looked up in surprise when the gears started to topple over one another to fall on him. As the pieces of machinery fell on the grey hedgehog, Sonic and the others were watching from the side.
"Is Jet crazy or something?" Sonic said. "He's trying to kill Silver."
"What's going on with him?" Shadow asked.
"I don't know?" Wave said honestly. "He's been acting this way for a while now." Wave looked sadly at her love. She knew Jet would do anything to win, but never kill. "Jet...what's happening to you?"
"Hey, look!" Sonic suddenly shouted.
The others and Jet looked back at the junk pile as it started to glow a mysteriously green color. Suddenly, Silver zipped out of the rubble, protected by psychic force field.
"That was a dirty trick!" Silver yelled.
"All's fair in love and races." Jet replied.
"If that's true, then how about this." Silver said.
Silver dropped the force field and held his hand towards Jet. Silver created a pulse of energy that sent Jet flying off his Gear. With Jet out of the way, Silver quickly took the lead. Silver jumped of the next ramp and made his way to the last leg of the race.
"Looks like I win." Silver smiled.
"Don't be so sure." Jet's voice came from nowhere.
Silver looked down the track, but didn't see Jet anywhere. Silver saw something out of the corner of his eye and looked up towards it. What he saw defied the laws of science and logic. Jet was actually riding along the walls. Jet smirked at Silver's shocked expression and gazed down at the glowing Ark on his wrist. The others also looked surprised, save for Wave.
"How is he doing that?" Sonic questioned.
"Jet's mastery of the Ark has improved much better then I thought." Wave thought.
Jet jumped down off the wall and landed right next to the surprised Silver. The two anthro's pushed and shoved each other away as they came closer to a large steel door. The two pushed each other away as the steel door opened automatically to let the two inside. Unfortunately, they found that beyond the door was a mass of Meteor Tech robots just waiting for them to arrive. But that wasn't the end of it. Even now, a hundred robots were being completed simultaneously and stopped at the room.
"Now what do we do?" Silver asked.
"Have you forgot, I'm the fastest creature in the universe!" Jet stated. The Ark around Jet's wrist began to glow as he was lifted up off the ground. A black hole formed before him, which meant only one thing. "GRAVITY DIVE!!!"
Jet passed through the black hole and zoomed passed every single robot in the blink of an eye. As he passed them, began to malfunction, machines began to exploded, and all the electricity failed. The robots also felt the impact of Jet's assault and were reduced to dust. Silver could only watch on in disbelief. In one attack, Jet brought the entire factory to its knees.
"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." Silver muttered.
Meanwhile, inside the central control room, a familiar egg-shaped villain was sitting at the master computer of the factory. The villain was none other then Dr. Eggman. The evil scientist shook his head in frustration and banged his fist against the computer board.
"Why?! Why won't my machines respond?!" Eggman yelled. Suddenly, a loud booming sound could be heard just outside his door. "What's this racket, and now of all times?!"
Eggman jumped from his seat and stomped over to the door. But the moment he opened the door, Jet's Gear made contact with Eggman's face and threw him back to his chair. A moment later, Silver and the others arrived.
"Looks like I win." Jet gloated.
"Hey! Do I look like a ball to you?!" Eggman complained.
"Eggman? What are you doing here?" Sonic asked.
"What do you mean? I own this company." Eggman laughed.
"What?!" Everyone exclaimed.
"So that means you're the one sending those robots to hunt us down!" Jet growled.
"And he's the one sending all the robots on a rampage around the world." Shadow said.
"As much as I would like to take credit, I can't" Eggman said. "You see, this robot situation has been quite a headache for me as well."
"You know, I could arrest you right now if you don't start talking." Shadow threatened.
"Hah! Not even you can arrest me without a warrant, Shadow." Eggman smirked.
"Damn, he got me!" Shadow mental growled.
"But, since we're all friends, I'll let you in on a little secret." Eggman said. "Not even I know why they are running amok. But they appear to be following a leader."
"A leader?" Sonic questioned. "I guess for now, we'll have to believe what Eggman says."
"Then maybe the robot attack has nothing to do with that stone." Silver said as he pointed to the Ark on Sonic's wrist.
Little did Silver know, his sentence drew the eyes of unwanted watchers. Jet looked angered at the sight of the blue Ark and Eggman appeared shocked.
"He has an Ark too?" Jet thought.
"Where did you get that?" Eggman questioned.
"So you do know something, Eggman." Shadow said sternly. "Spill it."
"All right, I'll tell you." Eggman said as he turned to his computer. "All robot activity in my facility is normally controlled by the mother computer. As the core of Meteor Tech it was supposed to be the perfect computer. But one night, I've been unable to control it. The core inside the computer is a stone similar to the one you're holding. According to my analysis, that stone is able to alter its surroundings and produce a special magnetic field.
"Huh?" Silver asked.
"It can control gravity." Shadow put it simply.
"Exactly. And that's not all." Eggman continued. "It also appears that the robot leader also holds a stone with a similar power."
"What?!" Everyone exclaimed.
"If my deductions are correct, the robot leader is using the other robots from around the globe to collect these stones and destroy everything in their path." Eggman explained.
"But why do they need the stones?" Sonic asked.
"That, even I don't know." Eggman said.
"They're drawn to one another." Jet explained. All eyes were now on Jet. "These aren't just any stones. They are spoken in Babylon legend as..." Jet trailed off when he realized something. "That's right! Girl, give me the Ark of the Cosmos."
But when the group turned to the entrance, they just now noticed that neither the pink hedgehog nor the large Albatross was with them.
"Amy's gone." Sonic said.
"Storm is missing too." Wave said.
Just then, Eggman's computer started beeping. Everyone turned to the computer as it projected an image of another city close by. On the screen, Amy could be seen running away from a tired Storm, but they were also being followed.
"That's them." Sonic said. "We have to hurry and get to them."
But just as Sonic was ready to turn and leave, Jet came out of nowhere and punched Sonic in the Stomach. Everyone jumped back at Jet's surprise attack and Sonic fell to the ground. Sonic was face down on the floor, holding his stomach, while Jet stood over him, laughing.
"The dirt suits you." Jet chuckled. "Stay out of the way and leave this to the real racers." Jet turned to leave. "Let's move, Wave."
"But..."
"I said...MOVE!" Jet hissed.
Wave, frightened by Jet's new personality, obediently followed Jet. Jet and Wave raced off back their ship to await the albatross' return. Shadow and Silver helped their friend back to his feet. Shadow and Silver glared at the emerald hawk, but Sonic looked sad.
"Jet...why?" Sonic asked before blacking out.
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