A/N: Ok folks, after the second round with the Irfit Golem, I will be continuing MMBN.
Chapter 12: Shooting Star Grand Prix: Race for the World Ring!
The next afternoon in the hotel, Sonic was taking a nap on the sofa, suddenly; Rouge silently opened the door and peeked through. 'Now's my chance!' Rouge thought greedily to herself. She silently walked to Sonic and saw his finger with his ring. 'Easy now…' Rouge slowly got her hand on Sonic's ring, 'Almost there!' But then, Sonic opened his eyes and said "Nice try, Rouge."
Rouge sweat dropped. "How did you know I was here?" Rouge asked as she put her hands behind her.
"Cause I could smell your perfume." Sonic commented.
Then Shion walked in with a newspaper. "Sonic, I have located the next World Ring. Here, take a look at this." Shion gave Sonic the newspaper and he read it.
New Extreme Race Coming Tomorrow!
Five laps in the Crimson Crater
Come one come all for the thrills! The excitement! Expect the unexpected!
First prize is a mysterious green ring!
Come on down and have a blast!
WARNING: RING MAY HAVE SIDE EFFECTS
Sonic put his hand on his chin. "It's the Ring of Earth from what I see here. I think we'd better head to the workshop." Sonic suggested, Shion and Rouge nodded and they rounded up everyone else and headed for Tails' Workshop.
So for the rest of the day the gang stayed at Tails' Workshop to prepare of the race. Tails inspected all of their gears while Shion made some new ones; the Wild Cat for Zoey and the Xenogear for KOS-MOS. "So how did MeteorTech get their hands on a World Ring anyway?" Amy asked."I really don't know," Knuckles said, "But it looks like to get it we'll have to compete for it. Knowing the Babylon Rouges, they'll be gunning for the Ring too."
"Who?" Zoey asked.
"Oh that's right, you never heard of them," Shion said, "The Babylon Rouges are legendary thieves who double as racers. Jet is the leader of the gang. He looks like Aladdin. He's always trying to out-speed Sonic and steal his title as the fastest creator in the galaxy. Next there's Storm, Jet's right hand man. He looks like Abu. He and Knuckles are always getting into fights. And last but not least is Wave, the brains of the team who looks like Princess Jasmine. She always teases Tails because she's older and taller."
"How does the race work?" Amara asked eagerly.
"There's a reason why it's called extreme racing. Basically, you have to try and come in first place at any cost. The EX Gears are powered by air so it never runs out," Tails pulled out a round stone that looked like a bracelet, "This is one of the Ark of Cosmos. Legend has it that the ancestors of the Babylon Rouges, the ancient Babylonians, created them from shooting stars. They can give the user the power to control gravity at will."
"Control gravity?!" Chao gawked, "Cool!"
"That's sounds awesome!" Mina squealed.
"Gravity manipulation?" Sharia asked as she held her hand froward, "You mean like this?" In a bright flash of light, Sharia made everyone and everything float above the floor.
"Hey! Who turned off the gravity!?" Kokoa screamed.
"Okey, Sharia! You made you point!" Elise yelled.
"Put us down!" Etna shouted.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Sharia apologized as she deactivated her Gravity Control. Everyone fell on the floor.
"You can control gravity without one of those Arks of Cosmos?" Silver asked.
"Yes," she nodded, "All genies can do it, no matter what rank they are."
"All genies...?" Sonic's eye's widen, "That means Erazor..."
"You think he might go after the World Ring too?" Bridget asked.
"I hope not," Jin said, "That'll just cause more trouble."
"Well, we all might as well rest up for the night," Elliot said, "We have a big day ahead of us."
The next day, everyone headed to the Crimson Crater. King Shahryar, his daughter, Aladdin and Abu were also their in the sidelines when they heard about the race. They went into the stadium with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Zoey and KOS-MOS lobby to sign up.
"Oh boy! I can't wait for the race to start!" Kikki said ecstatically.
"Easy they're, Kikki," Tails chuckled, "The excitement hasn't started yet."
"So where are these Babylonians anyway?" KOS-MOS asked. She was wearing a light blue hoody, a white tank top, white shorts with blue flames and black and blue sneakers.
"Yeah, are they gonna show up, or are we gonna be shown up?" Zoey who was in her Mew Mew form with goggles and a pink scarf continued.
"Oh they'll come," Sonic reassured, "Those guys never put a challenge down."
"Yeah," Amy added with a snort, "Maybe in a cold day in H-"
"Well if it ain't Sonic the Hedgehog," a rusty voice came from behind. They all turned around to see none other than the legendary Babylon Rouges. The leader, Jet, flashed his self assured smirk, "Long time no see, Hedgehog. Where's the rest of your posse? They chicken out at the last minute?"
"Oh we're around," Knuckles stood leaning near the front door of the lobby, grinning. "I've been looking forward to settling the score with you thieves."
"You won't have us beat that easily, chump!" Storm declared, punching his fist into his palm. "We'll take down the whole bunch of ya!"
"Hey!" Yukari pointed, "You're that same hawk from before!"
"Heh! Hiya, squirt. Just so ya know, I didn't just to save you, I'm just not to keen on losing rivals, especially when I haven't beaten them yet!" he wouldn't admit it.
"And don't expect to beat us, with lame gears like those, you guys won't even cross the starting line," Wave wisecracked.
"Well, well. Isn't this a warm reunion?" said a disturbingly familiar voice.
Sonic turned his head and his eyes immediately widened. "This is a joke, right!?"
Erazor just snickered, "This is no laughing matter, I can assure you that." His attention turned to Sharah, "Why Sharah, it's so good to see you. It's been a long time."
The Genie of the Ring crossed her arms, "Not long enough."
"Ooo, that hurts," the Dark Genie said in sarcasm, "Not matter, I am over you anyway."
"What are you doing here?" Raye asked sternly.
"The same reason why all of you are here: to compete."
"You've gotta be kidding!" Laharl said. "How could they possibly let you in?"
"There are no rules saying I can't, hairless monkey. Don't worry; I don't care about you or any of your pitiful friends. My grievance is with Sonic."
"Still think you can take me?"
"I'm not going to dispose of you now, rat. There's plenty of time for that. No, my score will be settled on the raceway. Besides, I have a bigger prize in mind."
"So then you're after the World Ring," Adell frowned.
"That's right, boy. You'd better watch your back, rodent, because I WILL be gunning for you." With that, Erazor walked away.
Sonic slowly loosened his tense fists and straightened up. "So much for a fun race."
"So that was him?" Jet asked, "That's the guy who has a grudge against you?"
"Yeah, to be honest, I kinda hoped he'd think this race was stupid."
"Attention all racers!" the announcer called, "The race is about to start in ten minutes, take your positions immediately!"
"You all better get ready," Trista said.
"Good luck you guys!" Corina smiled. Zoey winked back as she the others went into the gate.
Minute later, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Erazor and the Babylonians stood at the starting line as the others took their seats. Madoka, Sakurako, and Misa were in their cheerleading outfits near the track, cheering them on.
"Go, go, lets go! Go, go, lets go! Go, go, Team Sonic!"
"This is gonna be so cool!" Konoka squealed.
"I never saw an official race before!" MOMO beamed.
"It's about to start!" Rozlain pointed.
3… the racers backed up to gain speed.
2… they kicked off and started running for the starting gate.
1… all most there…
As the counter reached zero, the race hopped on their boards and and raced into the track as the crowd cheered. Wave managed to take the lead, but it didn't last as Sonic swerved next to her.
"Sorry, Wave," he shrugged, "but I've got a race to win!" Wave was about to yell something at him, but she was too late. Sonic had blown past her. Shortly after Jet raced by her, followed by KOS-MOS, Zoey and Storm.
Just as the went up a the wall another racer brushed next to her. This time it was Erazor on a Magic Carpet. "You're in my way," he glared.
"Aren't you the relentless one," she remarked. She brought up her wrench and use to trip his legs. He yelped as he fell down. "Sayonara, sucker!" she laughed as she used Gravity Drive to cross through a sharp turn."You'll regret that!" Erazor snarled as his hands glowed with blue light and aimed them at her, "Gravity Control!"
"Erazor can use gravity powers with out an Ark of Cosmos too!" Zazie gasped from the sidelines.
As she went up another wall, Wave heard something rushing up to her but it wasn't a gear. She turned and her eyes wide as she saw a blot of high pressured gravity aimed at her Type-W. "AHH!" The bolt struck her board and destroyed it completely. If the bolt were at full power, she would have been destroyed too. She fell and quickly grabbed on to a ledge with her Gravity Control. Erazor hovered by. "Hey pal! Don't you know how expensive the materials to make these gears are?!" she scowled.
"Eat my duststorm, you feathered beast!" he mocked. With that, Erazor dashed upwards.
"What a jerk!" Wave growled as walked to the stadium. She was obviously out of the race now.
Sonic was in the second lap and was going up the wall. Jet whipped up next to him in a green blur, "You got luckily so far hedgehog, but your lucks about to run out."
Just then, Sonic saw Erazor reaching behind them, "Jet! Watch it!!"
Jet saw just in time to see Erazor about to strike them both. Jet jumped out of the way and lost control for a while but managed to keep behind them. Erazor towered over Sonic with his gravity powers at max, "You won't run away this time! Gravity Control!" He used his gravity powers to throw lots of heavy trash at him. Sonic repealed them with his Ark of Cosmos.
"It always worked for me! Gravity Drive!" Sonic created a small black hole to boost away from Erazor, but the Dark Genie followed with his own Gravity Drive.KOS-MOS and Zoey whipped next to Jet as they saw the action. "Aw man! Erazor's at it again!" Zoey snarled as she gritted her fangs.
"We need to do something or Sonic may get killed!" KOS-MOS said.
"Well, we can't let that happen now can we?" Jet agreed, "I've got a plan, follow me!" The two girls follow suite as they used Gravity Drive to catch up to the leading racers. The trio managed to reach them into the twisting track."Heads up, Erazor!" Jet used his twin fans to propel Erazor away from Sonic.
Erazor growled, "You feathered swine, you're just as annoying as the rat!"
Jet frown, "Who you calling a feathered swine? I'm a hawk!"
"Don't forget about us!" Zoey launched a flying kick on Erazor's abdomen and landed gracefully back on her Wild Cat.
KOS-MOS launched a whirlwind kick and missed. She also landed gracefully on her Xenogear.
Erazor began to boil, "You bothersome pests! I'll destroy you all!"
For the next three laps, the four racers manage to distract Erazor while keeping the lead at the same time. At the final lap they were around.
"We'll keep Erazor at bay!" Zoey said, "You two just finish the race!" With that, she and KOS-MOS used Gravity Control to keep Erazor back. Erazor tried to push them back with his own gravity powers. It was a power struggle. Sonic and Jet now both raced for the finish line, both were neck in neck.
"Give it up already! I'm the fastest thing alive!" Sonic shouted.
"You may be fast on your feet, but I rule the skies!" Jet grinned.
The two rivals made a mad dash to the finish line. Jet used his fans to propel himself faster, but Sonic made a spin dash. Untimely, Sonic came out in first. The crowd went wild.
"Alright! Sonic did it!" Chao cheered.
"Yeah! And the race was fun to watch too!" Mawata smiled.
"And I got really good shots!" Casumi grinned.
Jet angrily pounded his fist on the ground, "Chillax," Sonic said, "There's always next time, right?"
Jet sighed, "Yeah, Yeah. Just go ahead take that Ring, not like I could use it anyway."
At that moment, Erazor warped on the podium and grabbed the Ring of Earth. "This Ring belongs to me!"
"Hey! That's against the rules!" a referee shouted as he ran up the stairs.
"Be gone, hairless ape!" Erazor launch another gravity blot at the referee making fly out of the stadium.
"Hey! That's fowl play!" Astro shouted.
"He's got the Ring!" Bridget gasped.
"Sorry to say that I must bid you farewell for now. However, I will leave you with this…" He threw a ball on the middle of the track and warped off. The other racers arrived as the ball sprouted and the track started to rumble. It opened up and out came a familiar creator.
"What is that!?" Shion asked in shock.
Sharah gasped, "It's the Ifrit Golem! The Sprite of fire!"
"That's the Ifrit?!" Silver gawked, "He looks like the robotic version of Iblis!"
"You guys stop that thing!" Elliot said, "The rest of us will get everyone evacuated!" he and the other supporters ran off to help everyone out.
"So he's the Sprite of Fire right? So how about we cool it? Neptune Deep Submerge!" Neptune fired her water orb attack at the fire genie but it evaporated on contact, "Huh!?"
"Let me try! Tidal Rush!" Bridget blasted a stream of water, but it to evaporated.
"Mercury Shine Aqua Illusion!" Mercury used her own attack but just like the others, it evaporited, "What's going on!? Why aren't our attack working?"
The Babylon Rouges ran up to them, "I think I know," Wave said, "This tower is sitting on magma, right? So this Ifrit must be getting power from the magma. That makes him invisible!"
"Oh boy!" Sakura winced.
"He's coming for us!" Misroa screamed as the Ifrit raised his hand.
"Time Break!" Sonic used the ring's power to stop time again, "Come on! We'll have to deal with him later!"
The Resistance got outside safely and told Sinbad what happened, "That's a shame," he frowned, "And if that Fire Arrow wasn't the least of our problems, this had to happen."
"So what can we do?" Cream asked.
"The only way to beat the Ifrit now is with the Ring of Water. Just make the Ring summon water and-"
"Do you know how many times we tried that?!' Asuna yelled.
"He means that the Ring has god like magic. The Ring can summon a storm powerful enough to weaken the Ifrit," Shraia explained.
"Ok then," Zoey nodded, "Come on, guys. We have another World Ring to get."
TBC
Next Time: Another Kokoa and Rematch with the Ifrit
