Chapter 8: Troubles and Discoveries

Silver and Blaze

Silver and Blaze were racing through the track with no difficulty until Silver noticed something off the track. It looked like a giant, thick, white vine with a mouth. And it was heading towards Blaze. "BLAZE, LOOK OUT!" he yelled. Blaze looked to her side, and saw the vine coming. Silver started speeding up to try and prevent it from grabbing her car. But it was too late. The vine was holding her car in its mouth, trying to chomp it down. Silver was worried, but soon, an orange light shone from the glass, and the vine dropped her car back onto the track. They both started driving again. "Silver, did you forget that I have fire powers?" Blaze reminded the white hedgehog. "Oh, yeah." Silver replied, a bit embarressed of his worry, "Er, come on. We gotta keep going!" they both drove off.

Stryke and Mirage

The tiger and wolf were driving on another path, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. But other than their motors, there was absolutely no noise whatsoever. "Mirage. Did you hear that?" Stryke asked. "Hear what?" Mirage asked. "Listen." Stryke said. Mirage listened, but didn't hear a thing. "I don't hear anything, Stryke." she said. "Exactly!" Stryke said, "It just all of a sudden got quiet." "You're right." Mirage agreed, "Too quiet." Stryke looked in his rear-view mirrors and noticed a giant mosquito heading for their cars. It passed Stryke and landed on Mirage's roof. "MIRAGE!" Stryke yelled. He pulled up beside Mirage, and tried to bump it off. He was successful...only to have it on HIS car now! It started stabbing its needle-like nose into the car, trying to get Stryke's head. He kept dodging it. Eventually, he got tired of it. "Okay, THAT'S IT!" he said in annoyance, "You might like how I taste, but you definitely won't like my sound!" He immediately turned on his radio and put it on full blast. The song was "Trance Dance" (the one Nolo played when he raced Tork). It started irritating the mosquito, eventually driving it away. "You okay, Mirage?" Stryke asked. "Yeah, I'm fine!" Mirage answered, "Thanks for saving me." "Anytime!" Stryke said.

Racing Drones

RD-L1 and the RD-S1's were driving through the Realm with almost no difficulty. Suddenly, a bunch of live vine-worms came up, and grabbed the RD-L1 in its mouth. The Drone was not panicking, however, because it just used the Warp Realm Accelecharger, and teleported back onto the track safely. It kept driving. Another Drone, however, wasn't so lucky. The vine-worm grabbed its car, and wouldn't let go. The extreme pressure caused the RD-06 to explode in its mouth, causing the worm to fall to the ground, dead.

Vector, Porkchop & Monkey

Vector and Porkchop were driving pretty close to the swamp water.
There was another fork up ahead. "It looks pretty good across the water, guys!" Monkey said, "It looks clear." But Poekchop just growled and took the right path. "What are you doing, Porkchop!" Monkey asked, "The other way was easy!" Porkchop just laughed. "HA! Who needs easy?" he said. But Vector decided to take the other path just in case. "I think I'll take it just in case, Monkey!" he said, "I'll see you guys at the end!" "Alright, good luck, Vector!" Monkey said. What they didn't know, however was that Vector would soon make an unusual discovery. About twenty seconds later, Vector looked off the track and saw something half-submerged in the water. He stopped his car and looked closer. He almost gasped at what it was. It was the car owned by another former World Racer, Banjee Castillo. Vector started wondering what it was doing racing through the Realms, but he decided to save it for later. He had to figure out if Banjee was still in his car, and how to get it out. He aimed his car towards the Ballistik, and shot out his grappling line. He got it right on the bumper. Direct shot! Then Vector shifted to reverse, and floored the gas to pull it out. After about three minutes, he finally got it out. He walked up to the damaged car and looked inside. The car was empty. Since Banjee wasn't there, Vector decided to take the car back to the Acceledrome for Dr. Tezla and Eggman to look at. He hooked the car to his Twin Mill III, and drove off.

Tork and Pak

Tork and Pak were being chased by a Drone jet and an RD-06. They were able to take care of the track Drone, by simply shoving it off track. But the jet was hard to shake off. Tork looked ahead, and saw a mosquito heading towards them unknowingly. He then came up with a plan. Pak saw it, too, and he and Tork looked at each other. They both nodded, confirming their plan. They sped up, and headed towards the mosquito. Soon enough, they started swerving left and right to confuse the jet. Lucky for them, neither the mosquito OR the Drone noticed the upcoming collision. Soon enough, they both crashed into each other, leaving Tork and Pak safe. They drove off.

Manic and Sonya

Manic and Sonya were racing just above the vines. They kept focused on the race pretty well. But Manic had something on his mind. "Hey, sis?" he called. "Yeah?" Sonya asked. "I've been thinking." Manic said, "Since Mark seems to hate his brother, Kurt, a lot, do you think that might happen between me and our bro?" "No way!" Sonya answered, "You both always get along great! Besides, Kurt used to push Markie away, and Sonic usually tries to hang out with you." "Alright, just wanted an opinion." Manic said, "Thanks." "No prob-WOAH!" Sonya was cut off when a Drone jet started shooting at them. "That must be the Racing Drones that Kurt told us about!" Sonya said, "Come on, bro! Let's take him out!" Manic launched his grappling hook at the jet, getting a direct hit. It was in tow. The green hedgehog started moving left and right to slam the jet into something. He was successful as he slammed the jet into a tree. The two siblings pulled up next to each other, and smiled at what just happened. "This is going to be a piece of cake!" Sonya said. They both kept driving.

Tails and Shirako

Shirako and the two-tailed fox were driving through the Realm with a Drone chasing them. It kept trying to shoot them, but they kept dodging every blast. Pretty soon, a giant mosquito came in, grabbed Shirako's car, and flew off. "SHIRAKO!" Tails yelled. He slammed his accelerator and drove off after Shirako. Although Shirako was about to be eaten by a giant insect, he just stayed calm. "Dude, if you're going to buzz, buzz in TUNE!" he said in annoyance. He turned his bass at full blast, then his music volume. He was listening to the song, "Drive" by Jim Kaufman, so this would've had full affect. The extreme bass and volume was being played on his subwoofers that covered his entire trunk, so this irritated the mosquito's senses. It kept trying to hold on, flying higher and higher with struggle, but it couldn't take it, so it dropped the music junkie back onto the track and flew off. While Shirako was falling, he passed a giant grass ogre, it barely noticing him. Shirako landed perfectly clean and safe on the track. Tails drove up to him to make sure he was okay. "You okay, Shirako?" he asked. "Yo, little buddy! I'm cool." Shirako answered. Tails was surprised that Shirako wasn't scarred from what just happened. But he was glad that they didn't lose another friend. They both kept driving into the Realm.

Mina

Mina was sort of having problems of her own. There were two Drones chasing her, along with a mosquito. Suddenly, a swamp ogre stepped up to the track. Mina acted fast, and activated her jump jets to jump over the ogre before it could reach her. However, one of the Drones crashed into the ogre, angering it. After that, it saw the other Drone coming up, and swatted its hand at it, batting it into the mosquito that was chasing. Mina was safe...for now.

Rouge and Knuckles

Knuckles was well focused on the race until he noticed Rouge catching up to him. "Hey, Knucklehead!" Rouge said, "You wanna talk for a little bit?" "No!" Knuckles answered, "I'm well focused on the race, and I don't need any distractions!" "Well that's what I wanted to talk about." Rouge said, "Whenever you're out racing, who's guarding the Master Emerald?" Knuckles' eyes widened at his realization. He completely forgot about the Master Emerald. Tikal saw this through the dashcam, and tried to calm him down. "Knuckles, don't listen to her!" she said, "You have to focus on the race!" "How did I forget about the Master Emerald!" Knuckles yelled in stupidity, "I'm such an idiot!" "Knuckles, don't worry!" Carlos said, trying to help Tikal, "During this time, I asked Chaos to guard it while you're gone. He's probably sitting around it, watching for anything suspicious." That seemed to calm Knuckles down. But just a few seconds later, Rouge made it worse. "Riiight." she said, "A big blob of water is going to protect a ton weighing Emerald from any thieves. How's that if the Master Emerald is in my room?" Knuckles' muzzle suddenly got red with anger. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" he yelled. He slammed his brakes, and tried to crash Rouge's car. "Knuckles, stop!" Lani said, "Why is he doing this?" Tikal explained to Lani about the Master Emerald, and how Rouge usually tries to steal it. She also explained how Knuckles and Rouge are constantly arguing about almost everything. Carlos kept trying to calm Knuckles down so he could focus. "Knuckles, she's lying!" he said, "She's just trying to distract you so she can win! Besides, I have a live camera on the Master Emerald right now, and it's still where it belongs!" Knuckles finally calmed down, and Rouge lost her fun. "Killjoy!" she said. "Rouge!" Lani said, "We have the fate of the world at risk! We can't have any distractions, or the Drones will win!" Rouge finally understood, and left the echidna alone. Knuckles had regained his focus on the race, and kept going.

Markie

Markie was speeding through the Realm, with two Drones and a jet chasing him. He just ignored them and focused. But he almost lost his concentration once a giant swamp ogre stepped onto the track. It roared with its fist up. Markie quickly dodge the ogre, but not without driving off the track. The Drones however, weren't as lucky. The first Drone car crashed into the ogre's right foot, causing it to fall onto it's knees. It was furious. It grabbed the speeding jet, and slammed it onto the last Racing Drone. Meanwhile, Markie was still falling. He landed safely, but not on a track. Instead, he was on a giant white vine-like worm. The worm looked at his car, and screeched loudly. Markie knew what it was going to do, so he floored his gas, and drove along the worm's back, getting away.

Nolo

Nolo was racing through the Realm with a Drone Jet chasing him. Nolo tried to keep away, but soon, a giant mosquito flew in and landed on his car. It slammed its needle-like nose into Nolo's gas tank. Nolo looked at his dashboard. It was draining his gasoline, and FAST! He knew he had to get rid of it, so he turned his music on at full blast. It was the song that Shirako played in the Acceledrome. The loud bass started irritating the mosquito's senses, and it flew off. Unbeknown to it, it was flying straight towards the Drone Jet, and crashed into it from underneath, causing an electrical explosion.

Kurt

Kurt was currently racing along a path, listening to the same song as Nolo at the moment. There were two Racing Drones driving RD-06's, chasing him. Kurt's path was probably miles above any land, seeing that there was plenty of could at his current level. There were also plenty of vines around him. The Drones that were chasing Kurt started speeding up to catch up to him. Kurt saw this, so he decided to give them each one last ride. When the first one came up in front of him, he rammed his car into the rear bumper, and slightly turned. This caused the Drone to lose control, and crashed off into one of the vines. The other one drove up to his right, but Kurt just simply shoved it off the track into another vine. "See you soon!" he said, waving at the destroyed car. "WOAH!" Kurt looked back ahead to see a giant wall of swamp vines, and they were covering the track. He slammed his brakes just in time to barely slam into it on his side without any damage. "GAH! DEAD END!" he yelled in anger. But there was something weird. Kurt felt like there was something just behind his field of vision. He turned his head around to see a giant vehicle with four segments and eight giant all-terrain tires. The cockpit looked like it was big enough to fit a car in. "Hey, guys!" he called to the Acceledrome via radio contact, "Could the Accelerons have left some kind of machines inside the Realms? You know, to help a driver out." Tezla lit up at his question. "He's found a Hyper-pod!" he exclaimed, "An Acceleron Vehicle Transporter!" "Y-Yes, Kurt!" Lani said, "We think you should use it!" Carlos started smiling. "Well, looks like we might have some luck in this Realm!" he said to Chuck. Chuck smiled and nodded in response. "Kurt!" Tikal said, "We'll try to inform the others to be on the lookout!" "Alright! I'm off then!" Kurt said. Back to him, he got into the Hyper-pod, and prepared to drive again. Then he looked ahead and had a determined smile. He knew he had this one in the bag. The Hyper-pod started driving, and climbed over all the vines with ease.

Porkchop and Monkey

Porkchop was currently driving through the path that had looked more difficult at the fork. He looked behind him, and saw a Drone jet chasing them. "Hey, Monkey." he said, "Hand me that anchor chain!" Monkey looked behind the seat for a chain, though confused. "What do you have an anchor chain for?" he asked, puzzled. "My anchor!" Porkchop answered with an obvious tone. Monkey handed the chain to Porkchop, and the over-aggressive driver held his anchor out his window. He threw it at the jet, and hooked it on. He started swerving his car left and right to make the jet lose control. Pretty soon, it crashed into a tree. The sudden push of freedom caused them to fall off-track. Luckily, they landed in a strange giant vehicle that had two giant orange drills on the front bumper. "What is this thing?" Monkey asked, looking at it. "I don't know, but I like it!" Porkchop said excitedly. The drills started spinning, and they drilled their way through a giant wall of vines.

Taro

Taro was being chased by a few Drones, but he was far ahead of them. Suddenly, a giant mosquito landed on his roof. It stabbed its needle-like nose into the car, almost getting Taro, who barely dodged. It stabbed three more times, with Taro grabbing its nose on the third. The mosquito started panicking, and tried to get its nose back, but Taro's grip was too strong. Taro looked ahead and smiled. He was about to pass under a tree's root. The mosquito started screeching even more. Once Taro passed, the mosquito was slammed into the giant, thick root. Taro looked in his hand. He still had the mosquito's nose! Since his problem was over, he tossed the nose out through one of the holes that the mosquito made, onto the track behind him.

Sonic and Amy

The two hedgehogs were driving away from an RD-06 that was shooting around like crazy. They were able to dodge every blast gracefully, though. Eventually, Sonic got tired of it. "That's it!" he yelled, "Time for a little game!" He swerved his car around, and started driving towards the Drone. But neither of them would move. Once they were twenty feet away from each other, Sonic activated his jump-jets, and jumped over the Drone's car. The Drone didn't see the sudden turn in front of it, and crashed off the track. Sonic turned his car around, and caught up with Amy. They kept driving through the Realm.

Blizzard and Honey
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Blizzard and Honey were pretty well focused on the race. No Drones had found them, and they felt they were more than halfway through. Suddenly, a giant mosquito grabbed Honey's car, and started flying off with it. "HONEY!" Blizzard yelled. He put one of his hands out the window, and created an icicle. Once it formed, he threw it towards the mosquito. Direct hit! The mosquito was stabbed, and dropped Honey's car. Blizzard acted fast, though, and used his ice powers to form a track below Honey. It started with a slope, and kept swerving until he ended it at the real track, leaving Honey safe. "*phew* Thanks, Blizzard!" she said, relieved. "Hey, I wouldn't want anything to happen to you!" Blizzard said. They both kept driving.

Lupus

The path that Lupus took was pretty calm. It made the hedgewolf pretty suspicious. "I don't like this." he said to himself. Suddenly, a giant vineworm came up to the track and tried to grab his car. "WOAH!" Lupus yelled. He floored his gas, and avoided the worm. It wasn't for long, though, because the track turned around, and went to the other side of the worm. "AW COME ON!" Lupus yelled. The worm got close to the other track, and got ready to grab him, but it missed again. The Realm wouldn't give him a break, though, because, once again, it turned around. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!" he yelled. This time, the worm had him on target. Lupus knew he couldn't get past it, so he went off track. He landed in some kind of large vehicle. It had small wheels in the back, and two GIANT wheels in the front. The front wheels were made up of four long legs that spread out. Lupus looked in front of him, and saw many tree roots ahead. "Guess I'll just have to go forward then!" he said. He gassed, and started climbing over the giant tree roots.

Shadow (You'll find out who else.)

The black hedgehog was driving through the Realm, keeping caution of any Drones, or Realm hazards. He looked in his rear-view mirror, and saw a pair of green lights catching up fast. Shadow just grinned. "You don't really know what you're up against, do you?" he asked. He grabbed his Chaos Emerald, and put his other hand out the window (YES, he was still steering with the hand that he held his Emerald in). He closed his eyes. "Chaos...SPEAR!" he yelled. He threw his Chaos Spear towards the car. But it quickly dodged. Shadow tried again, but it still dodged. This time, Shadow took a different approach. "CHAOS CONTROL!" he yelled. Time suddenly slowed down. This was his chance. Shadow got his Emerald ready. He put his arm back out. "CHAOS SPEAR!" he yelled. But somehow, the Drone still dodged. "WHAT!" Shadow yelled, confused, "But that's impossible!" Time had reset to its original speed. The Drone's car suddenly went 2-dimensional, and it went around Shadow. Once it was ahead, it went back to normal. A voice came onto Shadow's radio. "Greetings, Shadow!" it said, "We meet again!" Shadow was confused. "That voice." he said, "I KNOW that voice! It can't be!" Then a holographic screen came up onto Shadow's windshield. Shadow suddenly knew who it was. "MECHA SONIC!" he yelled, "How is it you're in the Racing Realms! And why are you black and green, driving a Drone's car!" Drone Sonic just chuckled. "First off, you can call me Drone Sonic now." he said, "I am officially a Racing Drone now. Along with a few of my allies. Well, it was nice talking with you, Shadow the Hedgehog, but I have a Realm to win. Farewell, 'Ultimate Life Form!'" Drone Sonic sped up, and disappeared into the distance. "Drone Sonic?" Shadow said to himself. "I gotta warn everyone!"

Back at the Acceledrome

"Alright, Shadow, I'll inform everyone!" Carlos said. He turned to Eggman and Dr. Tezla. "Shadow just got news about the Drones." he explained, "He says that Mecha Sonic is back." Dr. Tezla raised an eyebrow, and Lani was confused. But Tikal, Chuck, and Eggman were all concerned now. "He's back!" Eggman asked. "Yes." Carlos answered, "And he's joined the Racing Drones! He calls himself 'Drone Sonic' now. After hearing this, I'm a little concerned now." "I apologize for interrupting, but who is Mecha Sonic?" Dr. Tezla asked. Dr. Eggman told Dr. Tezla and Lani about Mecha Sonic. "Oh no." Lani said, "Now that this thing joined the Drones, there's no telling WHAT they could do!" "Which is why we gotta warn everyone!" Chuck said. Everyone started contacting each driver to warn them of Drone Sonic.

Taro and Vert

The two former team leaders were driving through the track while drafting. Pretty soon, an RD-L1 came up behind them, and tried to pass. But the track was too narrow to pass them. The Drone simply used the Warp Realm Accelecharger, and teleported in front of both of them. "They can't stop the Accelechargers!" he said to Gelorum. He was suddenly rammed forward by Taro. "NOT THIS TIME!" Taro said. He flicked a switch on his car, and a spear hook popped out the front of his car. He floored his gas, and sunk the hook into the Drone's car. After that, he pulled his E-brake, and turned his car. This caused both cars to turn, just before flipping out of control. Vert saw this, and almost joined them. But before he hit them, he activated his jump-jets, and flew over them, unscathed. Taro and the Drone had finally stopped on their wheels. Taro was rubbing his head, and the RD-L1 was mad! He switched to aggression mode, popping a glass face-mask out. He floored his gas, and chased after Vert.