Hi all! It's me again, and no, I'm not dead, and no, I haven't given up on this story. I've been **sob** NEGLECTING it for ONE REASON:

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got a single review, and it had to be at least three weeks after I uploaded this. So I figured, I was way to quick with the updating, or the last chapter lost all my readers for OOC-ness. You want a note? Well, too bad, you didn't leave any big, open, "INSERT NOTE HERE" spaces. Sorry! Anyway, I remembered what I was going to say, but I might not say it, anyway…

Anyway, the review award goes to Icedemon the Echidna!!!! Yeeeeeee!!!! Thanks! I was going to update at one point or another, but now that I have a reviewer within recent history, I have an actual REASON to!!!!!

If you want a disclaimer, you'll have to look at the previous chappies, cause I'm not repeating anything. Oh, yes, I don't own nor do I want to own Toonami or DBZ, which make brief appearences.

Ok, now you have an EXCEEDINGLY long chapter to read. Prepare for probably more OOC-ness. See you at the end, and enjoy!

* * *

"All right, everyone ready?" asked Sonic. He got back a cute nod from Zoom, an, "Of course, my darling!!!" from Amy (Sonic stepped back) a kind of grunt from Eggman which he took as a yeas, and a determined nod from both Knuckles and Rouge, both of which immediately looked away from each other when they realized this. Sonic sighed. "Let's go then," he said. They all began to drive toward Capital City.

"On your mark, get set, go!" shouted the announcer-voice dude. Rouge started again to accelerate very well, turning through the hills of Capital City with ease until she noticed that they were playing very annoying music in the background.

Rolling around at the speed of sound,

Got places to go, gotta follow my rainbow (?)

Can't stick around, have to keep moving on.

Guess what lies ahead, only one way to find out

Must keep on moving ahead

No time for guessing, follow my plan instead

Trusting in what you can't see

Take my lead I'll set you free

Follow me

Set me free

Trust me and we will escape from the city......

Rouge screamed in agony and crashed into a building.

Sonic groaned. "They're still playing that music here?" He continued to drive.

The moment the race started Eggman cried, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! STUPID HEDGEHOG MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he crashed next to Rouge, who immediately ran away. "I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!!!!!!!" shouted Eggman.

"Idiot Sonic music," said Shadow. "Luckily, being the ultimate life form that I am, I'm always prepared." Shadow pulled out a CD player and earphones. He flipped the CD to his (least?) favorite song:

Live and learn,

hangin' on the edge of tomorrow!

Live and learn

from the works of yesterday!

Live and learn

If you beg or if you borrow

Live and learn

You may never find your way....

Knuckles also had his own music. It gave him the creeps:

You know we the fighting freak Knuckles,

And we're at Pumpkin Hill You ready?

I ain't gonna let it get to me,

I'm just gonna creep.

Down in Pumpkin Hill I gots to find my lost piece.

I know that it's here, I can sense it in my feet.

The great Emerald's power allows me to feel.

I can't see a thing but it's around somewhere,

I'm gonna hold my head 'cause I have no fear.

This probably seems crazy, crazy, graveyard eerie.

A ghost-

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! GHOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!" shouted Knuckles, driving as fast as he could.

Zoom's kart was brilliant for one reason and one reason only- It was soundproof.

So even with all the

Rolling around at the speed of sound

Hangin on the edge of tomorrow!

"GHOST!!!!!!"

in the background, nothing ever distracted Zoom.

As for Amy, when City Escape came on, she said, "I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!!!!!!!" and started singing along. Everyone stopped and stared at Amy, creating a long, awkward silence except for all of the

Follow my rainbow!

You may never find your way

"GHOST!!!!!!!!!!!!"

going on in the background.

"What?" said Amy.

1st Place Zoom the Chao

2nd Place Shadow the Hedgehog

3rd Place Amy Rose

4th Place Knuckles the Echidna

5th Place Sonic the Hedgehog

6th Place Rouge the Bat

7th Place Dr. Eggman

"Yessssssss!" shouted Knuckles once the race had finished. "I beat Sonic! I beat Sonic!" he teased the blue hedgehog. Sonic punched him in the face. "Don't even try that," said Knuckles. "You can't beat me at my own game!"

Sonic raised his eyes nervously. "That...didn't hurt him at all did it?" he asked Shadow, who was standing behind him.

"I'm afraid not," said Shadow, regaining his old evil smirk.

"Uh.....oh......." said Sonic.

"It was nice knowing you," said Shadow, sounding serious.

Sonic looked at Knuckles.

"Honestly, I was kidding!" said Shadow. "Just because I'm the ultimate life form doesn't mean I can't have a sense of humor!"

"I thought you got over the whole 'ultimate life form' thing," said Rouge.

"Me to- wait a minute, NOT AGAIN!" said Knuckles.

"Can you just tell her that you like her and get it over with, Knuckles?" asked Sonic. Knuckles glared at him very angrily.

"It was nice knowing you," said Shadow.

"Ha ha, very funny," said Sonic, getting annoyed.

"I was serious."

* * *

"How go the races, Sonic?" It was Tails, calling Sonic on his electric blue cell phone. Sonic and the crew were staying in a hotel by the Capital Coast.

"Not too good," said Sonic.

"Oh? Why not?"

"Evil music."

"Oh, yeah, you're at City Escape today, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Well how is Zoom doing?"

"He won the last race."

"I made his car soundproof."

"That would explain it. You sound a lot better, Tails."

"You sound a lot worse," said Tails.

"Knuckles got mad at me..."

"Oh," said Tails. They knew from experience that Knuckles' punches hurt, badly. Hence the name Knuckles.

"What'd ya' do to get him mad?" asked Tails.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," said Sonic. "I sorta....made fun of him and Rouge."

"Oh, I see." said Tails. "That happens a lot, doesn't it?"

"Yeah."

"You shouldn't make fun of him so much."

"He doesn't mind!"

"Then why'd he punch you?"

"Good point... What'd you say about that cannon, Tails?"

"I said that that cannon still has-"

"Your call has been disconnected," the Director's voice said. "Plus, you're not supposed to find out until it's too late for you to do anything!"

"Go back to your own dimension," Sonic said frustratedly.

"Oh, fine. Aw, man!" the Director left.

Shadow turned on the TV. He, Sonic, Knuckles, and Zoom were sharing a room. Amy and Rouge, being girls, shared a different room, and Eggman (who nobody wanted to spend the night with) had a whole closet to himself.

"Change the channel, this is the kind of stuff Tails watches." said Sonic. Shadow was watching an "intense"(ly boring, as Sonic would have said) debate about giant fighting robots in space. Shadow was only interested in the space part, but Sonic was right-Tails was watching the same thing back at his house.

"Really, Shadow," said Knuckles. "You watch these senseless arguments about robots in space, but at the first mention of that colony, you go all weird and you have to run twice around the world before you can say two words to anyone!" Knuckles was right. The scientists on the television had mentioned the space colony ARK and the cartoon channel was on, quick as a wink. On the cartoon channel, though, they were showing Toonami, which almost always showed DragonBallZ, a show about people going into super forms, and when that wasn't on, there were shows about space. Shadow flipped through all the channels but the only thing that wasn't talking about space colonies was the Director Channel (don't ask). Shadow turned off the television in frustration.

"Running," he said, leaving.

"I told you." said Knuckles. "One word and he's out the door."

"So what, Knuckles?" asked Sonic.

"So I'm just saying that it's a little weird. He did live there most of his life."

"You do know that Bat Girl said that."

"You're in no condition to be on my bad side, Sonic," Knuckles warned. Sonic immediately hid under the covers of the bed he was sitting on. Knuckles rolled his eyes and left for a vending machine, smirking as to say, Pathetic.

But he's right, thought Sonic, Shadow does act weird at the mention of that colony. Why?

* * *

"Where's Shadow?" asked Rouge.

"He went running." Sonic said. "What are you doing in our room?"

"Just wondering why you're hiding under the covers like that."

"I'm hiding from Amy," lied Sonic.

"She's not after you right now,"

"That's what she wants me to think. Why do you even care?"

"You just...shouldn't be hiding like that, that's all."

"Oh, go away,"

"Fine!" said Rouge. On the way out she bumped into Knuckles, who was returning from the vending machine.

Rouge grinned at him and said, "Y'know, this hotel is haunted........." Knuckles turned from red to grey and hid under the covers next to Sonic. Rouge burst out laughing and walked away.

"Knuckles, you don't look so good," said Sonic, rolling his eyes.

"GHOST!!!!!!!!"

Sonic left for the vending machine, smirking as to say, Pathetic.

* * *

A very muddy Shadow returned from a long run. There was a pizza box on the table and Sonic and Knuckles were both sleeping in front of the TV. Shadow took off his skates to reveal his socks. He didn't even bother to take them off as he went into the shower to rinse off. When he dried himself out, he took a piece of pizza and flipped on the TV. They were still showing the same programs.

"I can't take this," said Shadow to himself. He wrote out a note to Sonic-

Sonic-

I'm afraid I must withdraw from the race. My deepest apologies for bailing on you.

-Shadow.

* * *

Sonic yawned and stretched out. Knuckles was still asleep (Sonic had hardly ever seen Knuckles sleep this late, but he decided not to make anything of it) but Shadow wasn't there. A lot of mud told Sonic that Shadow had indeed returned from last night's run, but where was he now? Sonic was beginning to give up when he noticed the note taped to the TV set.

"Knuckles," Sonic said sharply. Knuckles woke up. "C'mere, look at this," Sonic showed him the note.

"What does he think he's playing at?" asked Knuckles. "You didn't do anything to him, did you?"

"Not that I know of," said Sonic, "But you could be sending the guy into flashback mode without even realizing it..."

"I know," said Knuckles. "Why would he want to drop out?"

"To avoid going up to that colony?" wondered Sonic "Or maybe something....else?"

* * *

HA HA HA!!!!!! CLIFFHANGERISHNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! O.O….sorry! Don't know what got into me there….Anyway, all lyrics are courtesy of animelyrics.com . I was going to say, if you can guess how old I am, I might even tell you if you're right! Yes, I know I already wrote that in my lookup. Anyway, I'm going to have to give you a message vital to me posting any more of this:

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO REPEAT THAT??????? Ok, ok, I'm being a little scary…but honestly! I have to know that someone's reading!!!!!! RAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please, readers, do it for me! For all the people on that planet! Give them a cha- oh…wait….never mind that last one….sometimes I'm waaaaaay too obsessed with SA2, but hey! That's probably why this story exists! So, review!!!! All I ask is a review or two!!!! GAAAAAH!!!

Peace out, and hopefully see ya soon!!! ::nudge, nudge.::