Chapter 6: Extreme Gear; Extreme Madness part 2

(Apologies for the late upload)

"Shadow! How are you still alive." Tails said allowed astonished by the fact that Shadow's sacrifice was actually not a sacrifice at all.

"Well I guess I just suck at dying, maybe I need more practice" Shadow said in a joking non serious manner, deactivating his skates so that he stood on the ground

"Well you remember Cosmo right?" Tails said, stepping to the side reveling the frightened little girl shaking in fear. Lucas had erased the last part of her memory so that she may never bring up the situation again,

" Cosmo I know what you are thinking, "is he the one who killed me?" and the answer is no, I have erased the last part of your memory, trust me it is not a happy ending" Lucas said to Cosmo.

"but who is he" Cosmo said mentally to the subconscious Lucas

"he did try to kill you, but in the end he helped you defeat the Metarex." Lucas explained

"okay" Cosmo said mentally. She snapped out of her subconscious conversation and Tails spoke

"Cosmo you look like you've seen a ghost"

"In some cases yes. And no" Cosmo said staring at Shadow

"Well if that's how you say hello to someone who helped you save the universe than hi to you too… anyway Tails I hope I wasn't interrupting anything." Shadow said calmly

"Well actually we just need to recharge her board" Tails said pointing to the station behind shadow

"Why not show her the quick way of recharging" Shadow said with a slightly wicked smile on his face

"Ohh no, I don't think that she is ready for that" Tails said to Shadow trying to signal to him to cease talking.

"What is the faster way" Cosmo said curiously to Tails

"hehehe well with that I will leave you two to your business" Shadow said activating his skates and sped off leaving Tails and Cosmo alone.

"Well it's quiet complicated really, those holes on the side of your board" Tails continued, while Cosmo examined the holes on the side of her board, "they open up allowing air to seep inside and thus recharging it, however when you are on the track, you have to jump, turn off your board , and at the last possible moment reactivate your board, this can recharge you board faster being that air is quickly forced into your board, it charges faster. For some reason though it charges even more when you perform stunts. And when the board is reactivated, you have a brief moment of extra speed, but only if you land correctly"

"Well lets try it" Cosmo said excitedly running over to the recharge station placing her board into the board outlining, the inside pointing on the outside

"Wrong side" Tails said correcting her mistake, Cosmo flipped the board around so that the bottom was inside. In half a second her board was detached and pushed out, Cosmo caught it before it could hit the ground. She turned on her board and stepped on it, and then began floating two feet in the air. The two departed at a slower pace of sixty miles per hour until they were close to the first jump, when they arrived beside the metallic ramp the two leapt off of their boards and Tails spoke, " all right when you jump, just go ahead at full speed, but when you are in the air turn off your board, then whenever you feel is safe, turn it back on and land at a 45 degree angle." Tails tried to give a diagram using his board as the example.

"I'm afraid to say Tails but I don't get it" Cosmo said confused

"here let me demonstrate" Tails showed Cosmo his watch and read 56%, then he jumped on his board and sped off into the distance. Cosmo sat and waited for his return, suddenly she could her the faint hum of a board. It was Tails, he was charging at full speed towards the ramp. Cosmo watched closely as Tails jumped the ramp at about thirty feet high and turn off his board and quickly sank down to the ground. He turned on his board so the nose was facing up and landed perfectly, Cosmo observed as he sped an extra fifty miles per hour when he landed and noted this,

"look at this" Tails showed Cosmo his watch again and read 86%, "Alright, now your turn" Tails said encouraging Cosmo. Cosmo jumped on her board and zoomed in the direction that Tails had gone when he had prepared for the jump. She was at the point of where the turn was and turned around facing the location of the ramp,

"Lucas please don't help me I believe I can do this" Cosmo mentally said

"I believe you can too" Lucas said encouragingly. Cosmo took a deep breath, looked at her wrist watch it displayed 92%, and leaned back speeding off at 260 miles per hour. She approached the ramp and saw tails standing and holding his board so he was resting on it, his head lifted when he saw Cosmo coming. Cosmo launched off the ramp, being that she was lighter she flew slightly higher than Tails had. She turned off her board and didn't let goof the side, she used her hands to coordinate and balance herself out, ten feet before the ground she turned on her board and landed with the nose up. However being that she was very light she fell off due to the extra speed that it generated

"COSMO!" Tails shouted, he dove for Cosmo and succeeded in catching her, "are you alright?" Tails asked worried

"Yes im fine, maybe I should have held onto the top of it"

"Yeah, maybe we should-" Tails was cut off

"I want to try again." Cosmo said. This was not very normal for Cosmo, due to her frail body. All she wanted to do was impress Tails and race the others so that she may stay with him, and pass the 'tests'

"Um okay just be careful, and watch out for the rail" Tails said. Cosmo looked up to a rail attached to the wall

"I will" Cosmo said before zooming off for a second run

"Well that's not what you displayed" Tails said to no one, but was obviously directed to Cosmo. As soon as she came to the edge of the turn, she quickly made a U-turn, much quicker and more precise then before. She looked at her watch, it displayed 87% and 278 miles per hour, she was technically 18 miles per hour over the board's top speed. She was approaching the ramp over the top speed and saw that Tails was not looking at her, she assumed the Tails would see her as She rode off of the ramp. Cosmo hit the ramp and just as she jumped she turned the board off still holding the side of the switch's location. She had jumped higher and when she looked down she saw Sonic look at her in astonishment as he flipped his sunglasses up with his jaw hanging wiped open. However when Cosmo looked up she noticed that she was about to land on top of the rail. She kept calm and released the side of her board and switch, she then shifted her board so that it was side ways. When she hit the rail she bent her knees and rode with balance and poise. As soon as she reached the end of the rail, she lifted the side of the board, and leapt into the air, she then turned on her board and gripped the top of the board tightly with her right hand. She landed and blasted off at 320miles per hour and quickly slowed to 270 miles per hour. She turned around after coming up on the turn and returned to Cosmo.

"I did it, I finally did it. Tails did you see!" Cosmo said ecstatically. Tails however was too petrified for words.

"Hey Tails you sure that she hasn't done this before?… Hello Mobius to Tails. Ahh well, at least do the next track." Sonic said sarcastically. Cosmo looked at her wrist watch it read 100%

"Okay, com'on Tails" Cosmo said grabbing Tails' hand. Tails thought to himself after the incident, " There is no way, I can barley even grind.". Sonic had zoomed through the gate and left Cosmo and Tails in the dust. The two had later exited the gate and arrived to a surprisingly quiet audience

"Well it's about time" Knuckles said lying down on his board which was inactivated

"Well we're here now, so lets get going" Tails said encouraging

"Well it's either a 12 mile walk there or a short ride" Rouge said.

"Well we got gear so I say short ride" Charmy said

"Well waiting for lets go" Sonic said activating his board. Shadow approached sonic while activating his skates

"I'll race you there" Shadow said knowing Sonic could not turn down

"Okay, you're on" and with that they vanished as if using chaos control.

Mean while everyone else took a slower but a still quick ride to the stage, Cream had remained quiet observing Tails and Cosmo, she was waiting for the perfect moment to strike Cosmo and claim tails for her own. The gang approached to Shadow and Sonic arguing

"Ahh baloney, my air wasn't full"

"What a pitiful excuse, what's the matter? Not quite the fastest thing alive anymore?"

"I'll make you eat those words". while this the Chaotix tried to calm them down trying to prove that they were not very Chaotic at all, Tails was giving a diagram of the layout to Cosmo, " it's a simple map but with more turns it's about a 40 mile map in total but when you start it will turn right and continue on then it makes a left with two ramps side by side, then it makes a sharp left leading into a tunnel, once at the end it makes a sharp left again and continues strait down for a while with a rail but no ramp, then makes another left and one more left."

"So it has one right turn then a lot more left turns" Cosmo asked to confirm her understanding

"you got it" Tails said giving her the thumbs up, everyone entered the stage and their names were entered onto the score board, on the far side of the starting line there was a recharge station where every one recharged their gear before the race began. Then everyone lined up to the gate, they heard the announcer,

"3...2...1... GO!" everyone sped off into the distance knocking Cosmo over with the quick expelling air before she could get on her board. Shadow stared at Cosmo who quickly got up and sped of. Shadow chuckled to himself and boosted off at a slower pace, meanwhile Cosmo passed up Vector, who was being tormented by Charmy, followed by Amy and Rouge, then passed Espio and Knuckles until she was side by side with Sonic along with Tails and Cream.

"Holy chilly dogs, that was fast", Sonic looked ahead and noticed that he had missed the jump "Ahh shoot", however there was one the didn't miss it, and that was Cosmo. She jumped and attempted a back flip, being that she was so high up she completed the succession, giving her a boost and the lead. Cream growled loudly and sped ahead of everyone else. As soon as she reached Cosmo she sped in front of her and stopped, hard. The brake was hard enough to kick her off the board. Everyone passed her thinking that she had just fell, but little did she know she was being attacked. Tails would've helped her up but he didn't notice her fall, due to the fact that he was focusing on his grinding balance. Cosmo got up and noticed the anger and fury in Cream's eyes, Cosmo ran as if her life depended on it. Cream manically smiled and lunged at her with her skates and tackled her to the ground

"Tails was mine" Cream said raising her fist. However it was stopped by Shadow

"Well this is very un sportsman like." Shadow said as he lifted her in the air by the collar, "well are you ready to confess your mistake to Tails", however Cream only struggled to break free of his iron grasp, then she froze in time and illuminated blue, "Huh, what's this?" Shadow looked over to Cosmo who also illuminated blue and was frozen in time, running toward Shadow with her hand out as if to warn him. Shadow felt a tug and Cream was ripped form his hand, and Cosmo went up with her

"Ohohohoho" a familiar voice laughed

"T-That voice, is that"

"Ah yes Shadow. It has been a long time since your disappearance"

"Dr. Eggman?"

"well you do have a very vivid memory"

"Let them go now"

"What? You care about these fools, how odd if I remember you tried to kill her" Eggman said pointing to Cosmo which was hovering underneath his small half circular machine, right next to Cosmo

Lucas came back into Cosmo's conscious, "this is your next test", Cosmo mentally moaned. Shadow reached for his chaos emerald

"Chaos- huh, my emerald" Shadow said examining himself for the emerald

"Looking for this" the doctor said holding up a green Emerald, "You were so easy to distract, couldn't help myself."

"Oh my god. COSMO!" Tails along with Sonic and Espio had arrived and saw Eggman with Cosmo frozen in time,

"Let her go Eggman". Sonic said

"I wish I could but I have to leave, tah tah" Eggman said departing. Espio pulled out an exploding ninja star.

"No don't" Sonic said putting his hand on the way of his target. Tails was on the ground sulking at his lose again. Every one else approached and saw Tails on the floor

"What's wrong fox boy" Rouge said

"he took her"

"Who took who" knuckles said curious

"EGGMAN TOOK COSMO!" Tails screamed in fury, "AND I AM NOT LOOSING HER AGAIN" Tails jumped on his board an sped off into the setting horizon. He returned home and once he did he equipped himself with some gear. He got a vest and put two mags into it, he then holstered his Stun gun (Being that Eggman's base was always stalked by robots), he picked up three blue 2 inch diameter blue orbs and clipped them to a puch and sealed the Velcro tightly, then he got tape and a much larger blue orb and taped it to the nose of his board. Tails looked at his watch that he keep on him from the track, it read 68%, "perfect." Tails then rushed outside and jumped on his board rushing to Eggman's base, "I'm coming Cosmo don't worry… I'm coming to save you"