Hello again, my faithful readers! YOU thought I wasn't going to update, but you were WRONG!!! GAH-HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! Oh….sorry….got a little….carried away…. Anyway, I'm soooooooooo sorry for the lack of updating. I know this is a lame excuse, but I haven't felt like it. Terrible excuse, really. But I'm honest with you….most of the time….. Anyway, thanks a billion to those who reviewed, and even to those like me (if they exist) who read it without reviewing. You give me a reason not to eliminate the story!! Goody!!!! Ok. Now….
To SonicFan#1: Thanks!!! I'm glad you think that I'm good at endings. Again, they're not great, but I like them….
To aliceamyrose: Not only did you review once, but twice! I'm astounded! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!!
Just a couple of extra notes to the general public:
Firstly, I originally wrote this for a very limited amount of people to read, namely, my cousin, and any other friends I made who happened to like Sonic (none yet!). So there are a few inside jokes in here. If there's useless ramble, assume it's either writer's block or an inside joke.
Secondly, expect much OOC-ness. Work with me here, I'm only human, and this is my first fic. So, without further ado…..ON WITH PART 3!!!!!!!!!!!!
* * *
The Dark Side arrived. First, Rouge in her license-plated car (A/N I'm serious! It has a license plate! If you don't believe me, look at her kart in SA2!!!). Then, Shadow, in a kart he had borrowed from Sega. Last (and least welcomed), Eggman in his own robot kart. They all said hello, and Sonic and Eggman even shook hands and called a temporary truce (Knuckles really wanted to take a picture).
"So Sonic," said Shadow. Shadow had become much nicer recently. "Where's Tails?"
"Ahhhhhhh, he, ahh, was, umm, busy. Yeah, that's it, he was busy."
"Not too convincing, Mr. Blueberry." said Rouge the Bat.
All of the sudden, something drove into Sonic's shoe. Sonic looked down. Everyone stared.
The thing that had driven into Sonic was a racing kart. But not just any racing kart. This kart was tiny.
And sitting inside was......you guessed it, Zoom. The Chao climbed out and handed Sonic a note. Sonic read out loud.
"Dear Sonic,
If you don't mind, Zoom will drive in my place. Don't worry- he is very very skilled at racing and will be extra careful. I'll explain more once I get my videophone working.
Your Friend,
Tails"
"Hwahahahaha!" Eggman laughed. "This is fox boy's best joke yet!'
"I don't think Tails was kidding, Dr. Eggman," said Knuckles, being unusually polite to his enemy.
"B-b-b-but that's impossible!!! He can't send this-this thing to race just because he was poisoned-"
"Wait a minute, how'd you know Tails was poisoned?!?!?" Sonic asked, instantly on red alert (or in his case, blue alert).
"Ummmmmm....internet?"
"Yeah right! And you were just strolling along in that military base when the last adventure started!"
"Well, ummmmm..."
"Save it, you two," said Rouge.
Knuckles added, "Yeah, we're s'posed to have a peace treaty in effect here and that doesn't allow you to hold arguing conte- wait a minute, did I just agree with bat girl?"
"Some peace treaty, knucklehead" muttered Rouge.
"What did you say?" asked Knuckles.
"Nothing," said Rouge.
"What?"
"NOTHING!!!"
"Well, you don't have to shout about it," said Amy.
Rouge said, "Sorry, it's just-"
"I was saying," said Eggman, "that there's no way this Chao can race. There must be some kind of rule against it.
`"Speaking of which, Sonic interrupted, "there are a few rules we have to set straight. These are all official rules and if you break any of them SEGA will do something about it. And if they don't then I will. Now that we have that said:
"Firstly, you must use the same kart you began the tournament with the whole way through. Under no circumstances may you alter your car in any way. You got that, Egghead? No brilliant ideas here." All of this except for the first word and the last two sentences were a direct quote from the rulebook Sonic was reading from.
"Secondly, there'll be five rounds. All five are on a different track. The first track is here. The track goes in a circle so we're gonna go three times around. The next is through Capital City, a few miles down the road. The one after that is a floating highway that connects the Capital Coast to the Unnamed Dessert- hold on, I think whoever wrote this meant Desert." Knuckles snorted. Sonic went purple (rather than red).
"As I was saying," Sonic continued in a tone that told Knuckles to shut up, "The fourth track is through the Unnamed Dessert- I mean desert, of course, to a place in the middle where there's a teleportation device. We'll use it to go up," Sonic glanced at Shadow, then continued, "to the space colony ARK."
Shadow narrowed his eyes, suddenly very angry. "Why on earth-err-in space-err, ummmm...WHY THE HECK DID YOU INVITE ME! I THOUGHT I WAS DONE WITH THAT PLACE! I AM NOT GOING BACK THERE!!!!!!"
"Cool it, Shadow!!!" said Rouge. "It's a race and we aren't going to stop long enough for you to get lost in your memory! Say...." she continued curiously, yet cautiously, "Why do you hate that place so much? I thought you used to live there!"
"Forget it," said Shadow.
"Awwwww, c'mon Shadow, we want to know!" said Amy.
"Leave the hedgehog be," said Sonic. "Let him be tough if he wants to."
Knuckles rolled his eyes and told Rouge, "I always thought it was a Sonic thing, but maybe it's a hedgehog thi- wait a minute, am I having a conversation with Bat Girl?"
"And thirdly," said Sonic, moving on, "You have to stay on course. You got that, Egghead? No brilliant ideas here."
"You said that already, you stupid hedgehog." said Eggman. Sonic assumed that was a reply.
"Hmmmmmm, that's funny," said Sonic, "It doesn't say in here anywhere that Chao can't compete. So I guess the little guy can race."
"Y'know, doc, I think Mr. Blueberry is right there...." Rouge said carefully.
"Fine! He can race. There's no way he can beat me anyway-"
Sonic and Knuckles both snorted.
"Stupid hedgehog," muttered Eggman as he walked away.
"So, now that we've got that out of the way," said Sonic, "why don't we get some food?" Knuckles immediately rushed inside (he was hungry), Rouge nodded and followed, and Shadow kicked his hoverboots on and let them carry him after the two, with anger, anxiety, and (was Sonic imagining it?) a little bit of sadness still in his eyes.
Now the only two outside were Sonic and Zoom. Sonic was watching the sunset and letting the breeze blow through his quills (these two things reminded him of some old friends of his), and Zoom was just standing there, waiting for Sonic to look at him. After a few minutes he got tired of waiting and poked Sonic on his ankle.
Sonic looked down. "What is it, little guy?"
Zoom was still holding Tails' note. He turned it to the back and handed it to Sonic. There was a message on it. Sonic recognized at as the Chaos Code, which you needed something Chaos-related to read or write:
Tpmjd,
Wjefpqipmf. Njemjhiu upmjhiu. Dpnf bmpmf. Dibpujd efubjmt.
Zpvst,
Ubjmt
"C'mere, Zoom." Sonic said immediately. He crouched down low to the ground. As Zoom neared the words became clear:
Sonic,
Videophone. Midnight tonight. Come alone. Chaotic details.
Yours,
Tails
"Smart of Tails, to write it in Chaos Code," said Sonic. "Midnight, eh? I hope he's feeling better... oh, yeah..." Sonic remembered his promise to stop treating Tails as a baby. He picked up Zoom and walked inside.
* * *
The phone came on. The screen was still loading. "What's the deal, Tails?" Sonic began sternly, eyes narrowed.
"Sonic, I don't have time for lectures on being up at midnight now. I had to wait until it was safe." The screen came on. Tails' eyelids drooped and his fur was shaggy. He looked very tired.
"Tails, you look terrible, what happened to you?"
"It's not important, Sonic-"
"Tails!"
"Look, I don't have long because I've only been able to adjust this a little since yesterday. The last track is in space, right?" Sonic nodded. "Ok, where does it end?"
Sonic looked at a map of the course and compared it to the map of the colony Tails had. His jaw dropped.
"Sonic! Where does it end?!?!?"
"I-I-I don't believe this.....Shadow will kill me...."
"I know!" said Tails hurriedly. "It ends........at the Eclipse Cannon!!!"
"Still, what's so important, Tails?"
The screen was getting blurry again. Sonic's eyes widened. "Hurry up Tails!!!!"
"There's-.....still-" the sound was starting to scratch out, ".................................................. .....that-........cannon!!!!!"
"I didn't get that Tails! What about the cannon? Tails!?!?!"
The screen went blank again.
* * *
Note to self: post more than one way to end a chapter. Note to readers: review. Please!!! See last chapter for more information.
Thanks alotalotalot for readingreadingreadingreading. Laterlaterlater!
