Chapter 10: High In The Clouds

First place! Yes! Sonic grinned and pumped his fist. Just two more rounds and we'll have the Emerald...

A bit reluctantly the hero tore his gaze from the board, ignoring his curiosity about at what place would the Babylon Rogues manage to seize—names were quickly filling the ranking ladder but so far he had not seen any of theirs—in the favor of searching for his teammate in the midst of spectators, staff members and other competitors that had already finished the round.

It took him a moment but, in the end, he managed to spot the black and red form of his teammate at the right edge of the crowd. The agent was turning and looking around as if here were searching for something or someone—possibly him?—and so Sonic raised his arms and started to wave at the agent to get his attention, a soft smile on his face. "Hey, Sha—!"

Suddenly, there was a flash of white and it were only Sonic's quick reflexes that made him stop before he could have collided with the person that had so suddenly blocked his way.

His gaze flickered over the person's form, quickly taking in the stranger's overall appearance; a female white rabbit around his age, dressed in teal and red outfit, lying on and riding an orange hover-board that awfully reminded him of carrots. That was all his mind supplied before stating a different fact—that it did not recognize the female and thus had absolutely no idea who the girl was supposed to be or what her possible business with him might be.

"Hey, say, do you wanna play~?" the unfamiliar female sing-songed in a soft, child-like voice as she rolled from her side onto her back. Her head was lolling over the edge of the Extreme Gear in this new position and her long white ears adorned by ribbons were almost touching the ground now. But she hardly seemed bothered by the change. She stared at him with big, unfocused eyes, looking a bit dazed and, he dared to say, high.

She looks like Tails that one time we accidentally picked the wrong mushrooms for dinner, Sonic commented internally as he observed the unfamiliar female, pondering whether he should wait until her teammate came to pick her up or go search for them instead—or get some staff member to at least contact them. He supposed they'd like to know she was flying in the clouds in more ways than one...

"Hey, hey, do you wanna play, or not? " she asked again, giving him a look that he guessed was supposed to be flirty, but was just a tad too drunk-like to look appealing. Plus she heavily reminded him of Cream, so...no. "It's gonna be fun~"

The female outstretched her arm to reach for him but Sonic did a quick step back to avoid it; he had his fair share of experience with overly touchy-feely fans and he knew that once they took hold, it was quite hard to make them let go.

Therefore, he chose to put even more space in between himself and the stranger, making another small step back to gain even more distance as he answered, "I don't feel like playing around."

"Oh? Hee hee—Truly?" a new slightly gruff voice asked in an amused tone, the unexpected entrance making Sonic turn his head around in alarm. This time he was met with a sight of a blue-furred wolf—a stranger just like the rabbit. Maybe they are a team...? The guy tilted his head, on his face a wide wicked grin that matched the constant stream of giggles that seemed to rack his form. "And yet, hoo hoo, you've got a hickey. Ha ha."

Sonic furrowed his brows in confusion. How does he—? The cobalt hero quickly reached to feel his neck, horror washing over him when he couldn't feel the rough fabric of his neckerchief there. How long had he been running around without it? Had anyone else noticed?!

Sonic cursed internally. Today really wasn't his day.

"—maybe you'd, hee hee, want another?"

Sonic blinked, his momentary panic attack coming to halt. Alright, that's not an offer I've ever received before... "...Excuse me?" he voiced as he turned fully to the wolf, his gloved hand remaining on his neck to hide the dark love-bite.

"See, Falkie? He doesn't want a hickey!" the rabbit girl piped up from behind him. "I told ya! They're icky!" she declared before promptly breaking into a loud laughing fit.

"You can't, ha ha, know that, Carrie," the wolf immediately shot back, a small frown finding its way to his face. Though it almost immediately turned back into a crazy grin when he turned to him again. "So, do you, hoo hoo, want one?"

The cobalt hero glanced between 'Falkie' and 'Carrie' uncertainly. If he should judge by the giggling and downright inappropriateness, he'd say not only 'Carrie' was a bit intoxicated here...

Huh, what were the odds he would run into a duo of a giggling stoner buddies today of all days?

"You see, guys, I'm not really interested in doing anything with either of you," he said, knowing from his experience with shroom-ed Tails that beating around the bush was pointless—he needed to get his point across and dancing around would only make things more difficult in this case. He turned his body to leave to give his words even more emphasis. "So, I'm gonna excuse myself now."

"Aw, Falkie, because of you, he doesn't want to play with me either now!" the rabbit complained, whining like a small kid as she watched him leave; Sonic wouldn't be surprised if he turned around and saw her hit her companion with her fists like a child when throwing a temper tantrum. "Stupid wolf."

However, the wolf didn't seem to accept the rejection as easily as her. "Hey, hoo hoo! Don't go so fast!" As before the cobalt hero could have made even three steps away, there was a blue and yellow gloved hand curling around his bicep to turn him back around. "I mean—! We haven't even, hee hee, agreed if your place or mine?"

Sonic scowled. Was the other thick-headed or just refusing to accept the fact he'd been turned down?

The hero turned his head around, his tone gaining a bit of a vexed edge as he spoke. "Dude, I'm serious. I'm not interested. I'd appreciate if you left me alone," he said as he glanced at the transgressing hand still curled around his arm before giving the wolf a pointed look, voicelessly commanding the other to let him go.

However, instead of releasing his arm, the stranger tugged him closer, the motion forcing Sonic to turn around fully and face the other, who immediately leaned in, making their faces come uncomfortably—and, in view of societal norms, also inappropriately—close, so close that Sonic in fact could feel the other's breath washing over his own face, his lips pulling into a scowl and face scrunching up in displeasure at the sudden uncalled-for closeness.

"I think we should go to my place, hee hee," the guy continued, shamelessly ignoring what Sonic had said, while at the same time moving his other hand onto Sonic's side, the cobalt hero tensing at the unexpected and mostly uncalled-for contact. Sonic's scowl deepened. The guy was really pushing it now.

"We'll be back before the next round, ha ha, rolls around."

"I'm not interested," Sonic hissed through gritted teeth and tore his arm from the other's hold. Then, because his other hand was still full of his EG, used the freed arm to smack away the hand on his side—not with enough force to leave a mark but enough to make the wolf feel it. He wanted to be nice, but the guy was really testing his (quickly thinning) patience. "Try elsewhere."

He stared the wolf down for a moment, wanting the other to realize he was serious. When the wolf didn't respond anyhow or didn't try any other moves, Sonic judged his message had finally gotten across and so he slowly turned around to leave. When even then nothing happened, he turned around fully and stepped forward, ready to leave the scene.

Somehow he did not expect that at that very moment a very resounding slap would land on his ass—followed by a burst of laugh from the rabbit girl, the intoxicated female clearly finding the action hilarious.

However, Sonic did not. Quills flaring in ire, the cobalt hero whipped around and got in the guy's face faster than an eye could blink. "What the heck's your problem, dude?!"

"You're feisty, hee hee." The wolf leaned in, once again ignoring his remark, giving him a wicked grin and a suggestive eye-brow wiggle, something maniac flashing in his eyes. "I like that."

Then, not too much of Sonic's surprise this time, the wolf tried to grope him once again, this time aiming for the life side of his bottom. But because he was expecting it this time, Sonic quickly sidestepped and smacked the hand away before it could make contact. He didn't appreciate the guys advances. At all.

"But I don't like your attitude—clearly we have a problem."

Seriously, why the heck were there so many people trying to fondle him these days? Did the Universe declare Everyone-let's-grope-Sonic week or something?

"I'm sure I can fix that, ha ha." The wolf's tone was smug and it grated at Sonic's nerves, making his quills bristle even more; it was apparent the guy truly believed that being an insolent, persistent douche-bag would somehow lure him in. As if.

"—I'm a quite likable guy once you, hee hee, get to know me."

"I doubt that."

"How so?" The wolf giggled, raising an amused brow. Sonic frowned. The guy was really full of himself.

"I'd hardly want to spend time on getting know a person who gropes me two minutes after meeting me."

The wolf smirked wickedly. "Give it a time and you'll find my straight-forward ways appealing. Hee hee."

Sonic had to bite down on his tongue to stop himself from responding with 'Pal, I already had a drugged guy trying to get me to sleep with him by being straight-forward but even he had the common decency to not go for my ass right away,' and instead reply just with, "I find the idea of my shoe meeting your face very appealing at the moment."

"Are you sure you wanna risk something like that? Ha ha. People are watching." The wolf guy gave a sideway glance to the audience they had already gained since their short spat started before refocusing back at him. "Surely the hero—" The wolf stepped forward, his tone enunciating the 'hero' part with too much of emphasis for it to not bet meant as a mocking. "—doesn't want any, hee hee, bad publicity."

Sonic frowned. It was true that attacking the guy—no matter how justified by offense committed on his person—would end up bad for him. His battle prowess was well-known among people and the journalists—which considering this event surely were lurking around, hiding among the people—would take up the opportunity to twist the story around—scandals sold.

Plus the tournament was still in progress—and he was sure there were rules that forbid contestants from attacking one another with disqualification as a penalty.

He hated it but the wolf was right about this one.

From the corner of his eye, Sonic could see a figure slowly approach them and a smile found its way to the hero's face. "Well, if people know it was because you molested me, then I'm sure they won't particularly care how defenseless you might seem. They'll probably even praise me for it."

The canine Mobian smirked amusedly, once again stepping forward to invade his bubble of personal space, leering at him with his big blue, crazy-looking eyes.

"Why aren't you, hee hee, throwing a punch already then?" the wolf asked, the wolf's smug smirk wordlessly telling him the guy believed he was just bluffing, and this fact was even more reinforced when the guy's hand grabbed his behind and squeezed. But this time, Sonic instead of immediately batting the hand away—and possible clocking the wolf in the muzzle atop of it—choose to swallow his revolt for the time being and do nothing, letting the wolf under the impression that he'd truly been only bluffing—because Sonic didn't have to swing at this guy and thus put his reputation into a peril for the wolf to get his lesson, and that was the fun part about this.

Apart from him, Shadow had never particularly cared what kind of reputation he had with people.

With a grin on his face, the cobalt hero boldly leaned in, the action clearly surprising the wolf. "I would—if I wasn't so damn curious to find out what will my partner do once he gets here." Sonic very enjoyed the ambiguity of the phrase in the context with the tournament—and the way the wolf's manic grin seemed to fade almost immediately upon hearing this.

"What? Your partner—?" the wolf's question remained unfinished, even the constant stream of giggles seemed to get lodged in his throat when Shadow suddenly materialized next to him—or that's at least how it appeared to everyone whose eyes weren't used to watching things move at supersonic speeds—and then hauled him off the ground, holding him in the air by his blue chest-fur alone.

Howling out in pain, the wolf immediately grabbed onto the red-cuffed hand, unsuccessfully trying to pry the fist open before actually looking at the assailant, freezing in terror when saw with how heated glare he was being regarded with; Shadow had a royally pissed expression on his face and there was chaos energy crackling around his body ominously—he looked absolutely murderous and Sonic wouldn't be surprised if murder was what was at his mind at this very moment. If he squinted enough, the wolf's chest fur actually seemed to be a bit singed already because of the agent's rampant chaos energy.

Crimson eyes narrowed as they burned holes into their terrified blue counterparts. "You..." Shadow hissed through gritted teeth, the mono-syllable word holding so much hostility that it made chill run up Sonic's spine.

You are a dead man, it said.

And the wolf felt it too, panicked words falling from his mouth barely a moment later. "I-I'm so-sorry I, hoo—I didn't meant to—"

At the sound of the wolf's shaky voice, the rabbit female finally seemed to snap from her dreamy stupor, her face twisting in worry about her friend's life.

"Falkie!" she shouted, rolling from her hover-board to get up and save her teammate. However, she froze mid-motion when she Shadow shot her a glare, wordlessly telling her she better not intervene in any way if she wished to walk unscathed out of this. Though that did not apply only to her, Sonic was sure that anyone who'd try to step in right now was more likely to get a chaos spear to their face than successfully break up the impending fight.

Sonic frowned. Even though the idea of the wolf getting punched seemed very appealing to him, he knew he would have to be the fool that steps in as he simply couldn't let Shadow throw chaos spears around or beat the wolf for his insolence; they needed to get the Emerald and that required them to stay in the competition.

And so Sonic made a step forward, reaching out to lay a calming hand on the agent's shoulder and tell the other he'd done enough. "Sha—"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Surprised by the sudden interruption, Sonic turned to stare in the direction of the new voice, watching as the speaker—a big brown Mobian grizzly bear that had the same intimidating aura of power and anger like Knuckles on one of his worse days—approached them and came to stand before Shadow. Fury flashed in the blood-red eyes of the bear as he regarded the agent with a heated glare, Shadow returning the gaze with the same amount of force.

For a moment, the two only stared each other down, but then the bear clearly lost his patience; he cracked his knuckles menacingly, growling in a deep rough voice, "So? Are you gonna let him go? Or do I need to smash your face in first, punk?"

Uh-oh, this doesn't seem good. Apprehension shot through Sonic as he observed the angry duo. The tension between them was almost tangible; he needed to break this up before either of them snapped.

But just as Sonic was about to step in and do a peacemaker, the last person he would have expected it from at this moment, suddenly dove in between the two parties, the rabbit raising her hands in a placating gesture, her dreamy grin for once replaced by an uneasy grimace.

"Don't be mad, Barry! Falkie was being bad and started it, Barry!" she explained as she lay a hand on the bear's chest in a clear attempt to placate him. However, the touch did nothing to soothe the bear. "But he's gonna apologize! Right, Falkie?"

The wolf immediately piped up at her words. "I'm sorry!" he uttered, shoulders shaking as he tried to choke back the giggles that were threating to escape—even he realized, laughing right now would only get him into a deeper trouble.

'Barry' looked at 'Carrie', his balled fists tensing and relaxing repeatedly as he mulled over her words in his head. Then, after along moment, he finally gave a curt nod and turned back to them, crossing his arms over his chest, the hostility not leaving his expression just yet but giving them an opportunity to cooperate.

The rabbit looked at Shadow, looking nervous and unsure what to do to make him calm down, and so instead of attempting anything she just glanced at Sonic, quietly asking the hero for help.

Seeing this was a chance to stop the fight before any bloodshed or disqualifications might happen, Sonic of course chose to help. "Shadow?" he questioned quietly, laying a hand on the agitated agent's shoulder to calm him down and urge Shadow to look at him.

And the ebony hedgehog truly turned his head to look at him, lips pressed into a thin line and brows furrowed over crimson eyes that flashed with desire to hurt and punish. The expression alone was enough for Sonic to know that all Shadow wanted at the moment was to beat the life out of the wolf.

But Sonic held his ground, knowing that at this very moment he needed to be the voice of reason here when Shadow's own was temporarily out of commission. They held an eye-contact and, after a long while, Shadow finally gave in, the agent giving a mixture of sigh and an unhappy grumble before very much throwing the wolf at the bear.

Luckily for the wolf, 'Barry' managed to caught the flying canine without much trouble.

Once back on his feet, the wolf awkwardly cleared his throat, glancing at them before pointing his gaze at his ruffled chest fur, obviously trying avoiding looking in their direction. The wolf was hunched, shoulders were drawn up as if he were trying to hide behind them, his tail now quite literally tucked between the wolf's legs.

Sonic blinked in surprised at the sudden one-eighty. Shadow has really done a number on you, hasn't he?

"Well, I've, clearly over-stepped, ha—" The wolf barely stopped the giggle from escaping. "—some boundaries. I'm sorry. We won't bother you anymore."

The wolf awkwardly cleared his throat again and after muttering something to his comrades, the trio quickly departed on their respective EGs, the bear throwing them a scorching look before the trio disappeared among the food stalls—and from the corner of his eye, Sonic could see Shadow signing something after the trio in return and this time he was one-hundred percent sure it was an insult.

Seeing it was only the two of them again, Sonic gave a light-hearted chuckle to elevate the tense atmosphere that was left. "Well, I would have handled it on my own, but still...thanks." He gave Shadow a pat on the shoulder and even a small smile when the agent turned around. It was true that Shadow's involvement wasn't really necessary, if things got out of hand (or well some hands got where they weren't supposed to), he would have just left the scene.

Though it definitely felt nice having someone stand up for him in situations like these.

"Hey, wait up!"

The duo turned at the familiar voice and they were met with the sight of grinning Jet and Wave riding towards them at their Extreme Gear, Storm and smug-looking Sticks right at their tails. From the looks of it, this round was a success for everybody.

The Babylon Rogues hopped down from their EG and jogged the rest of the way to them, hover-boards held under an arm. Once close enough, Jet outstretched his arm, a brown cloth resting on his palm. "I think you've lost something, Sonic."

The neckerchief—! Abruptly, Sonic covered the dark mark on his neck with his hand before any of the Rogues could notice it, his cheeks getting a tinge of pink and his free hand quickly shooting up to take back the scarf. "Oh, yeah, thanks." He hastily tied the cloth around his neck, pretending to be oblivious to the odd looks he was regard with for it.

"Um, I don't want to stir up anything but..." Jet cleared his throat. "What exactly happened back there? It seemed rather wild from far."

Sonic shrugged his shoulders as he adjusted his neckerchief, test-tugging at it to ensure it wouldn't fall off again. "Some guy just didn't want to understand I wasn't interested in sleeping with him."

"I...see," It was apparent from Jet's expression that hawk had not expected this to be the answer to his question.

"Do you know anything about them?" Sonic inquired, curious if the Babylon Rogues had any history with the weird trio.

"They call themselves 'Witchcarters'—they're newcomers. They rank high but they lack the experience to win." Wave gestured to the score-board. "That's also probably why they tried to sabotage you."

Sonic blinked owlishly at the remark. "Sabotage me?" As far as he knew, the Witchcarters hadn't tried to mess with his EG...

"Having a cold head while racing is important, I'm sure they only bothered you to work you up so you'd be more prone to making mistakes in the following rounds," Wave explained as she set her hover-board onto the ground, checking for any damages as she spoke. "Probably why they picked a guy to flirt with you too."

Sonic grinned. "Trust me, the fact he's guy will hardly bother me. I've already had my fair share of guys trying to hit on me." And not just Shadow. Considering he'd never had an actual relationship, public had no idea what his sexuality was, so there was quite a number of both male and female admirers, who had already tried to their luck with him. "Do you know anything more about these 'Witchcarters'?"

"Not really."

"Hmm," Sonic hummed, mulling over the new information before playfully nudging Jet. "Well, watch out, Jet, then. If they're targeting favorites, they're probably gonna go after you next."

Jet smirked. "I think I'll manage."

"Are you sure?" Sonic teased. "You know, I think you'd get pretty along with the rabbit girl. Her ego is always in the clouds as well."

Jet frowned at the remark. "You're one to talk."

Sonic grinned. "Quite an amazing feat for someone who can't fly, isn't it?"

O-o-O-o-O

"The deal was clear, you didn't keep to your end of bargain."

"We didn't keep to our end of bargain?! We distracted him for long enough for you to do whatever it was you wanted with the other guy, you punks are the ones who messed up here!"

"Us? The deal was that you distract Sonic, not attract attention of everybody around!"

"We still gave you enough time to deal with the other guy, it's only your fault you wasted the opportunity and let him get away. Now give us the information—or else."

"No."

"You—"

"Remember that without us you'll never find it. Try again and the information is yours—regardless of the outcome this time."

"Hmpf...Fine then."

"Marvelous."

[Last edited: 2018-07-09]