A/N: Okay, the reference from the last chapter was to DragonBall Z. When Tails says the sensor malfunctioned because it couldn't go over nine thousand, it refers to that famous line, "It's OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAND!" I've never even seen a DragonBall Z episode, but YouTube is drowning in that meme. It's been in Sonic Shorts, "Kids React" videos, comments joking about Archie Comics...yeah, pretty much everywhere.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and Co.


After the uproar had died down, Vector and Espio began to drift about purposefully, exchanging murmurs with Sonic and Blaze. At last the Team Chaotix members stepped up onto the podium with a large sack. Vector stepped nervously up to the mike.

"All right everybody—" he began, then stopped in consternation when he saw hands flying to ears throughout the crowd.

"Perhaps you shouldn't use the microphone," suggested Espio.

Grumbling, Vector stepped aside and stood next to the podium, relying on his own loud voice to reach everyone.

"All right, everyone! It's time for the awards ceremony! Could the winners of the ground race please step up to the podium?"

Jet, Blaze, and Sonic stepped up, smiling, and took their places. Sonic was on the right, on the lowest platform, Blaze was on the left, second-highest, and Jet was in the middle, on the very top, looking fit to explode with pride.

"Boy, am I gonna have somethin' to tell the others!" he crowed quietly. Sonic chuckled.

"Gonna make those two sorry they didn't come, huh?"

"You bet," Jet replied, grinning.

"First place, Jet the Hawk!" called Vector, as Espio pulled a gold medal from the sack and slipped it over the hawk's head. Jet fingered the little shimmery circle fondly, evidently calculating the price he could get for it.

"I get to keep it, right?" he asked a trifle avariciously, and glared as Sonic burst out laughing.

"Sure, keep it as long as you want. All yours," grinned Sonic.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing, it's fine if you want to keep it!" Sonic replied, trying not to chuckle.


While Espio was taking a few pictures of the ground race winners, the winners of the flight race–in other words, all the participants!–were lining up.

"Oh, so now you're not calling it a fifth place finish anymore?" Silver asked.

"Are you kidding? Fifth place gets no medal—I'll take a bit of silver over nothing!" said Rouge, folding her arms.

"I thought you'd say that," chuckled Silver.

"Wise guy," Rouge grinned.

When their turn came, they all stepped onto the podium. The Kid Brigadiers all squeezed themselves onto the top platform, but kept falling off. Charmy and Tails hopped up into the air and hovered just above Marine and Cream, and received their medals that way. For the pictures, they all hopped down onto the ground in front of the podium. Silver and Rouge graciously stayed in the background so the kids could enjoy their special moment.

Sonic chuckled as he watched the youngsters hamming it up for the camera. Poor Espio was a little befuddled; he was trying to take nice, normal pictures, and the kids' exuberance flustered him a bit.

"Why don't you bite your medals?" suggested Sonic brightly. "Like in the Olympics."

"Uh, what?" asked Charmy.

"Oh, right! The tradition!" said Tails eagerly, fumbling with his medal. "It's an old Olympic custom for gold-winning athletes to bite their medals when they get their picture taken. I think it started from the way people would bite gold coins to see if they were real. Because you see, gold is a very soft metal, and—"

"Stow the science, mate!" said Marine, bulldozing through Tails's speech before it even properly started. "Let's just get that picture taken!"

The youngsters grabbed their medals and bit into them lightly—but their grins quickly vanished and were replaced by confused expressions, as they removed their prizes from their mouths and studied them bewilderedly.

"That is definitely not gold," said Tails, looking at the oddly bent medal in his hand.

"No, better! It's chocolate!" squealed Cream. "In a foil wrapper!"

There was a startled "AWK!" from nearby, as Jet realized the value of his medal had just dropped significantly. Sonic keeled over laughing again, while Rouge, also a trifle dismayed, gave her silver medal an annoyed look.

The kids, however, were very pleased with the situation. An explosion of tin foil rustling, and the medals promptly vanished.

"No, wait! We have to take more...pictures," sighed Espio, as the last of the prizes was mercilessly chewed into a sweet paste and swallowed.

"Aw, let 'em have their fun," grinned Sonic, then ducked just in time to avoid a punch from Jet.

"Very funny, ya overgrown hairbrush!" scowled the hawk, glaring. "Why didn't ya tell me the medals were made of chocolate?"

"Did you honestly think we could afford real gold ones?" asked Sonic, rolling his eyes.

Jet stood glaring, his feathers ruffled with annoyance, his beak opening and closing as he tried to find something to say. Sonic stifled a snicker, but stopped when he got another murderous glare from Jet.

"Fine!" growled the hawk, turning away. "You have your fun! I'm gonna go look for some real treasure, and then we'll see who's laughing!"

"Hey, don't go yet! There's gonna be a party after we give out the awards!" called Vector, noticing that Jet was powering up his hoverboard.

"There's gonna be CAKE!" whooped Charmy in agreement, still licking chocolate off his fingers.

"Well, save me a piece—not!" snapped Jet, and whizzed off.

"Grouch," muttered Sonic, shaking his head.


The awards ceremony continued. Maria, simply glowing with delight, clambered onto the top platform, while Knuckles hopped up into third place. Omega presented more of a problem, however. He eyed the comparatively small second-place platform dubiously, then stepped cautiously onto it with one leg. At the dangerous creaking sound that ensued, he quickly removed that leg and shook his head anxiously. Several times he tried it again, but never felt it was quite safe to actually put his weight on the small platform.

"I do not believe I should stand upon this platform," he remarked at last. "Permission to stand next to the platform in question?"

"Granted," said Espio, nodding seriously.

"Aww, then I'll stand next to mine too!" smiled Maria, jumping down from the first-place platform. "To make it more fair."

"Heck, all the same to me," agreed Knuckles, stepping down as well.

"Many thanks," said Omega politely.

Espio slipped the gold medal over Maria's neck, then turned to Omega with some unease. He was pretty sure the medal wouldn't fit over Omega's head, even ignoring the fact that the robot had no neck. Omega was remarkably resourceful, however. He calmly put forward one hand, signifying Espio should slip the medal over his wrist. Nodding, Espio obliged. Knuckles stood still to receive his bronze, then shook his head to redistribute his dreadlocks over the lanyard and smiled patiently for Espio's camera.

"Thanks a bunch," he said in his usual straightforward manner. "Do we have cake now?"

"CAKE!" whooped Charmy, turning a sumersault in midair.

"If he gets that hyper after a chocolate coin, I hate to think what that cake'll do to him," muttered Vector.

The party began. It was a pretty small affair, just some punch and a large cake made by Vanilla and Amy, but it was still the best celebration anyone could have asked for. Everyone was weary, but full of adrenaline and in a hoppingly good mood. There was no need for anything fancy.

"A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou," remarked Silver, handing Blaze a piece of cake and a cup of punch. "We shall dine like kings."

"Don't try to get fancy with me, mister," scolded Blaze good-naturedly. "Your teeth are turning blue from the frosting, and I find it impossible to take you seriously. Also, you got the poem all wrong."

"It's a poem?"

"The Rubaiyat."

"Where do you even learn these things?"

"I enjoy reading. Also, it's expected of princesses."

Silver smiled, but ruefully. Blaze caught it.

"Did I say something?"

"I guess cake and punch isn't really what you're used to, huh?" asked Silver, shrugging. "This place must seem like a backwoods nest of hillbillies to you. Like a frothing jungle. Like a..."

"A wilderness? Maybe. But I like it better than palace life, believe me," assured Blaze. "It's so much more interesting, and with fewer restrictions. And..." she paused and looked into the distance for a minute.

"You should look up that poem," she said at last. "It's very true."

From her smile, Silver guessed that was a good thing.

Meanwhile, Sonic was busy chattering and laughing with everyone he ran into, and half-heartedly avoiding Amy. Eventually he came upon Shadow, perched on his everlasting crate a good distance from the general crowd. He was quietly downing a piece of cake.

"Wow, didn't know you were such a party animal, Shads," teased Sonic. "What if pictures of this wound up on the internet, huh?"

Shadow looked at Sonic with one eye, then resumed his consumption of the cake.

"Geez, are you still mad about losing that stupid race?"

"Not particularly," said Shadow, still methodically demolishing the cake. "However, I take it Rouge is not very happy about the medals."

"Oh, is she? I didn't notice," admitted Sonic, scratching behind one ear. "I was kinda distracted by the look on Jet's face!"

Shadow left the cake alone long enough to regard Sonic silently for a while.

"What? What'd I say?"

"Nothing unusual—for you," muttered Shadow. "You need to grow up, Faker."

"Yup, probably do," said Sonic, not the least bit concerned. "Cumonnnnn, don't be such a grump. You know it was funny! Anyone who races just so they can sell the medal deserves a bit of a letdown now and then."

"Care to say that to Rouge's face?" smirked Shadow. Sonic shuddered melodramatically. Silence for a minute.

"So then, why do you race?" Shadow asked suddenly, setting the cake aside. Sonic looked up from his thoughts, startled.

"What's that?"

"Why all this brouhaha? Why do you all hold this event?" asked Shadow. "You just said it's not for money. It can't be for bragging rights or for the thrill of racing. You could get those with a lot less effort, just by rounding up a couple of other people and having an informal race. Why do you go to all this extra trouble?"

Sonic studied Shadow's face critically for a second. He wasn't being sarcastic, he really wanted to know the reason.

"First of all, it's more fun when it's a bigger event," Sonic began.

"Oh, sweet Mobius," muttered Shadow, raising his eyes heavenward and reaching for his cake again. "I might have known you'd come up with that kind of excuse."

"Hang on, there's a bigger reason," said Sonic. He waved back at the merrily mingling crowd nearby. "Look at those guys. Having the time of their lives. Think about everything that happened today, all the events, everyone having fun. Sure, there are some people who take it too seriously. Heck, there are some people who take everything seriously."

He grinned cheekily, but Shadow didn't take the bait, so he continued.

"But all in all, today wasn't even about competing with others. Today was about rooting for others, helping others out, showing off your best side. You should know. Remember how Maria got help from the very people she was competing against? Remember how even Knuckles cheered when Omega was trying to beat him? Or how Silver went to talk to Rouge when she was mad about losing? Or how everyone tried to cheer you up when you were mad about losing?" Sonic paused, then added with a grin, "By the way, your bad luck in the race started when Blaze drew ahead of you and crossed the lake, didn't it? She and I helped each other. So yeah, I think you might have noticed that."

Shadow ignored the teasing; he was thinking. Even aside from the things Sonic had listed, the ones affecting Shadow or his closest friends, there'd been other incidents of kindness or good fellowship all day too. Sonic letting Jet enjoy his victory, Marine and the other flight contestants allowing Cream to tag along, Maria and Knuckles stepping down to be level with Omega, Silver helping make the Kid Brigade's day...even Rouge eventually letting go and allowing the kids to celebrate their win.

And what about Shadow? He wasn't in the habit of caring what people thought of his actions. But...all day, he'd been the opposite of what Sonic was talking about. He hadn't helped anyone win, certainly not any of his rivals. He'd refused to cheer for Rouge, annoyed her instead of comforting her, barely been forced to root for Omega even a little, heck, he'd even impatiently brushed off the others' attempts to be nice. Thinking about it, he...almost felt a little guilty. And guilt was not an emotion he was particularly familiar with.

Sonic seemed to understand, though.

"Hey, enough with the long face," he said lightly. "You were a good sport, you kept your temper, you didn't hurt anyone. That's better than ole Jet, and it's about as much as we expect from you, bein' such a grouch and all!" He winked. "You don't have to feel bad."

"Who said I felt guilty?" growled Shadow, resenting Sonic's ability to see through him. "I'm just trying not to be sick here. If I never in all my eternal life hear such a sappy story again, it'll be much too soon!"

Sonic laughed heartily, ignoring the look Shadow gave him.

"All right, be that way," he said, still chuckling. "But be that way later. Like I said, this whole event is just so everyone can come together. Come on, join the party!"

"And stand there like an idiot?" snorted Shadow. "No thanks. I like watching. You get out of here, and I'll be perfectly happy."

"Forget it. If you keep on partying like you are now, you'll freakin' hurt yourself," grinned Sonic. "Why don't you just settle down a little and take a breather? Let somebody else be the life of the party for a change!"

Shadow gave the grinning Sonic a disgruntled look.

"Faker," he said, as patiently as he could manage. "Why don't you go get some cake?"

"Eh, I'd rather stay here and be annoying."

"Oh, well then. You want my piece?" asked Shadow significantly.

Sonic was wise enough to disappear. Smirking, Shadow leaned back on the crate and watched the general spectacle passively. Knuckles and Vector were arguing good-naturedly about something, or perhaps nothing. Silver and Blaze were sitting side by side, solemnly clinking together paper cups of punch as if toasting with champagne. Rouge, Maria, and Amy were deep in conversation with Vanilla, laughing together in perfect understanding. The Kid Brigade, meanwhile, was more or less turning backflips from a combination of adrenaline and sugar. They were telling each other jokes that weren't even particularly funny, and laughing uproariously to the point of choking on their punch. Espio and Omega were watching their antics in blank puzzlement.

And Sonic? Ah, he'd finally gone to get himself a piece of cake.

"My compliments to the bakers!" he called to Vanilla and Amy, fetching himself a plastic spoon. He was just about to dig in when a green streak shot in front of his vision. He blinked surprisedly and looked around, then shrugged it off and returned to his cake.

Only he no longer had any cake. Heck, he didn't even have the plate anymore. Again he looked all around bewilderedly, then got the idea to look up.

"Jet!" he hollered. "Give me back my cake!"

"I told you not to save me a piece—I'd much rather have yours!" crowed Jet, essaying to scarf down his prize on the fly.

Sonic glared for a second, then relaxed, sighed, and shook his head good-naturedly.

"All right, very funny," he conceded, spreading his hands in defeat. "I'll let you off today; you can have that piece and welcome. I'll just go get another."

Jet gave him a surprised look.

"Well...thanks," he said at last.

"Yeah, well. Don't get used to it, birdbrain," grinned Sonic, rolling his eyes. He got another piece of cake, only to have it disappear again before he could even taste it.

"JET!"

"Mine!" squawked Jet, powering up his extreme gear for a quick getaway.

"Oh, that does it. I'll get you for that!" growled Sonic, throwing himself after the hawk.

After chasing each other in circles for a while, the hedgehog and hawk got into a tugging match over the paper plate.

"You've had your cake, now let go and lemme have mine!" ordered Sonic.

"Don't you ever learn?" retorted Jet. "We Babylon Rogues always have our cake and eat it too!"

"What does that have to do with having MY cake and eating it too?"

"All the cake in the world is ours! It says so in the ancient—AWK!" squawked Jet, for the second time that day.

Sonic followed Jet's gaze, only to find that he was tugging on an empty plate.

"All right, who's the wise guy?" protested Sonic, turning to the others with a very annoyed expression. Nobody owned up. Jet chuckled suddenly.

"Aww, forget it," he said. "Enough arguing. I'll get my own cake, you get yours."

"That's more like it," grinned Sonic.

Back on his crate, Shadow chewed contentedly. Hey, stopping an argument could be his good deed for the day, and he even got extra cake for his troubles.