Hello again, my faithful readers! You have no idea how cool it was for me to sign on tonight (I was busy all day) and find a whole bunch of reviews!!!! I even got one while I was online, talking to my friends!!! Yay!!! I'm updating quickly,
To make up for lack of updating last time, and 'Cause you people asked me to!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAH!And now, presenting, MORE NOTES FOR THE REVIEWING PEOPLE!!!!
To aliceamyrose- Cool. Waaaaaay cool. You've reviewed every chapter so far. Awesome.
To Lori Kimaya- Thank you. Don't worry, I don't kill people. At least, not in any of the stories I'm writing as of now. 'Specially not Tails!!!! He's too cool! Shadow'll be ok, too, he's just sad at the moment. Face it, he's had a depressing life. As for the cannon….well, you're going to have to keep reading to find out, huh? I've given enough away already!
To NocturnalWolf- Thanks also. I like how it bothers you that I haven't updated. I'm not mean, I'm just glad someone cares. And I'm not a man, either, don't know if I mentioned that. Oh, I know, it's just an expression…..
To Icedemon the echidna- You'll have to read to find out. Oh, no, that was too cliffhanger-ish, wasn't it?!?!? I agree, Chao are so adorable!!!!
To Galux Kitty- Thanks. I wasn't sure if anyone else would enjoy that, but I know I did.
To all that expressed an annoyance with cliffhangers- I'm sorry, but they're so fun to write, and I enjoy reading them myself. Even if I have the rest written, I love a well-written cliffhanger. So sorry…
Ah, yes, I believe I forgot to add this before…Disclaimer: See Part 1. I partially own the Director, who I forgot to mention there. He, too, comes up later. My cousin and I made him up once, and now he pops up in my stories. But don't count on seeing him for a while…
ON WITH PART 4!!!!!!!
* * *
"On your mark, get set.....GO!!!"
They were off. Rouge started up pretty quickly, but soon Eggman and Knuckles were ahead of her. Sonic took about thirty seconds to reach top speed and then zoomed along the track almost as fast as he ran. Zoom managed to squeeze around the tightest turns, but since turns weren't too hard on this course, he mostly relied on his light weight to give him a good speed. Knuckles' kart was well rounded, a little bit of everything. But in the end the standings were as follows:
1st Place Sonic the Hedgehog
2nd Place Zoom the Chao
3rd Place Shadow the Hedgehog
4th Place Knuckles the Echidna
5th Place Rouge the Bat
6th Place Amy Rose
7th Place Dr. Eggman
The group was to stay in the trackside house that night. The next day they would move to the site of the next race, which was at the Capital Coast. Sonic, who was sleeping very lightly that night, was in the bedroom on the bottom floor and heard a sharp mechanical beep around ten that woke him up.
The videophone was back on. It was Tails again.
"Sonic! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get to you!" The screen wasn't working very well. There was a lot of static and Tails' shape was barely visible.
"What's up, little bro?" Sonic said, but not with his usual energy.
"How am I going to contact you? You're on the road tomorrow!"
"It's called a cell phone, Tails. I have got one, you know."
"What if I need to bring up a map or a chart?"
"Please tell me that you haven't been working on the video cell phone yet. And that you're feeling better too. And that you'll stop calling me in the middle of the night. And that you'll get to the point. And-" The phone had turned off while Sonic was talking, but he was too tired to even notice.
"G'night, Tails," he said, even when he knew Tails couldn't hear him, and went back to the lower room to sleep.
* * *
Sonic woke up early again the next morning. He was not surprised to see Knuckles awake this time. "Hey Knuckles," he asked, "you don't by chance have your emerald with you?"
"I have to keep it with me," said Knuckles. "It's part of my job. I thought you knew that, why do you ask?"
"Just wondering."
"Sonic?" asked Knuckles carefully.
"What?" said Sonic.
"I've never seen you wake up this early. Is something bothering you?" Sonic didn't expect a question like that out of Knuckles. It was an understanding between the two of them that they didn't talk about their personal feelings. Knuckles thought he wasn't allowed to have them because of his job. Sonic just preferred to be tough.
"It's no big deal," said Sonic, trying to keep things simple.
"Sonic," he began, "I really hate to bother you, but I know there's something weird going on. First, you wake up really early two mornings straight, when everyone knows you like to sleep in. Then, you didn't brag about winning the first race all of yesterday."
Sonic cracked a grin. "So, that's where I messed up, eh?"
Knuckles smiled. "Yup. Shadow even noticed, and you hardly know the guy. If I didn't know better, I'd say even Eggman noticed." Knuckles and Sonic both stuck out their tongues.
"Wow, I was that bad?" said Sonic.
"What are you trying to hide, anyway?"
"There's nothing you can do...."
"What if there's something I can do?"
"Fine, fine, but not a word of this to Shadow, Bat Girl, or even Amy, and ESPECIALLY not Eggman."
"Sure thing, you have my promise."
"All right. It all started the night before the Dark Side arrived. I got a video call from Tails."
"From Tails?"
"From Tails. Well, y'know, he didn't look to good, but on top of that, he had some alarming information on why he didn't. Someone poisoned him that night you arrived. Tails caught it on his security cam."
"Poisoned? Is he all right?" Knuckles matched Sonic's tone of concern for the fox kid.
"I'm not too sure. I don't think it's deadly or anything, but from the looks of it, it could turn that way if Tails doesn't lay off the mechanics till he's better. The weird thing is that Eggman knew about it."
"Now that I think about it," said Knuckles, "I do remember you and Eggman arguing about something like that. Eggman said that Zoom couldn't race just because Tails was poisoned, and then you asked how he knew that....yeah...I was hardly even paying attention..."
"Too busy trying to flirt with Bat Girl?" Sonic asked.
"SHUT UP!!!" shouted Knuckles, punching Sonic in the face.
"Owwwwwwwwwwwww- hey, has it just been a long time since you last did that or are those knuckles getting sharper?"
"Both," said Knuckles, rolling his eyes.
"Anyway, that's not all. Tails said something about the end of the last racetrack."
"The one in space?"
"Yeah. Then the screen blacked out, and the next day he sent Zoom. On the back of that note he wrote me was a message written in Chaos Code."
"Must've taken Tails some effort to write,"
"Yeah, Chaos Code can really drain your energy. The message said that he would call on the videophone that night at midnight. He did, and we found out that the track ends right at the Eclipse Cannon."
"Shadow will kill you," said Knuckles.
"You're wrong, from what I've had of Shadow, he'll kill all of us. Can you imagine it?" Sonic began to impersonate his counterpart, "All of you ungrateful humans- I mean hedgehogs-err...ungrateful....oh never mind, I give up!"
Knuckles laughed quietly and said, "I hope he didn't hear you, or else he won't wait until he figures out where this race is taking us, he'll kill us all now!"
"My point is, then Tails tried to tell me something about that cannon. I couldn't quite catch it 'cause that videophone still isn't working right. It's driving me nuts. It's gotta be important. Nothing about that cannon, or those Chaos Emeralds, for that matter, is ever unimportant. Ever." he finished.
Knuckles thought for a moment and then said, "I wouldn't worry about that cannon, Sonic. After all, all its power is from the Chaos Emeralds, which means, no matter what happens, I can stop it."
Sonic didn't bother to say, That's what we thought last time.
* * *
So sorry to leave you hanging like that!!!! I had to do it!!! ::starts anime-crying:: I'M SO SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ::stops::
Ok. That's over with….REVIEW!!! While we're on the subject, I get to rant a little: What's with people who say "r/r no flames"? I mean, they ask for your opinion, but if they aren't going to like it, they reject it? WHAT KIND OF SOCIETY IS THIS!?!?!? No offense, and I'm not accusing any of my readers…but, well…. Anyway…. I just realized how short this is. My deepest apologies. I just love this ending…. You know, I probably had one more thing to say, and as soon as I upload this, I'll remember it. Did I write that in an earlier chapter? I don't know.
I really hate to repeat this…but REVIEW!!!!!!!! For more info, see the end of Part 2. I'll update again, provided I get the following:
Spare time during which the computer is working, and Some reviews. No set number. Even one or two. Your review could make the difference, folks. Just a single, solitary- ::gets hit on head with rock thrown by audience member:: X . X I'm okay….Peace, all, and see you soon!