You honestly didn't think THAT was the ending, did you? You think I'm THAT terrible of a story-ender? Sheesh!!!!! Well, sorry for the delay, if anyone is still reading. THIS is the ending. Hope ya like it, folks. More notes afterward, I assure you.

* * *

BZZZZZZT!!!!

Eggman suddenly found himself being electrified. Stunned, he could only watch.

The shock had come from a tiny yellow hedgetoddler (hedgehog + toddler = hedgetoddler). Behind him was a purple echidna. The very tips of her spines were white. She wore them in two long pigtails. She also wore a Mario cap. Her shirt bore a logo along these lines, although I am not very good with ASCII art:

( N i n t e n d o )

Of course it does not matter what it looked like. What mattered was, the echidna was a worker for Nintendo, and she and the little yellow hedgehog had just as good as saved the planet.

Many people arrived at once. Rouge and Knuckles rode in neck and neck, only to find they had been beaten to it. Amy drove her pink convertible in only a second after, with Wind and Twilight in the back. Just behind them were Tails, Sonic, and Shadow, riding in the Tornado. Everyone was silent for a moment. Finally Knuckles spoke.

"Starlight?"

The other echidna nodded. Everyone looked at Knuckles, until Wind poked Twilight on the shoulder and pointed at the little hedgehog of yellow.

"That's Zap!" said Twilight.

"How'd he get here?" wondered Wind. "I thought we told Flara to watch him!"

Twilight shrugged. "You know Flara, if you looked up 'unreliable' in the dictionary her picture would be there."

"Oh, you don't know these people, do you?," said Knuckles, who once again was an inter-universal traveler. "This is Wind, that's Twilight. The little hedgedude in yellow is Zap, Wind's little brother. Flara is Wind's little sister. The purple echidna is Starlight. I never knew you worked for Nintendo…"

The comment did not reach Starlight, who was trying Eggman up with a rope.

"What exactly is going on here?" asked Sonic.

Starlight sighed. "Looks like I'm gonna have to explain stuff from the beginning…..ok. I'm Starlight the Echidna. I am the official mediator between the Nintendo and SEGA dimensions. SEGA had a plot. If you remember, Sonic, they made you invite the Dark Side to this tournament. Then, Tails found himself poisoned, but it wasn't deadly. It seemed suspicious, didn't it?"

Everyone could only nod and continue to listen to Starlight's tale.

"That's because Eggman wasn't behind it."

"WHAT?" shouted Sonic.

"Eggman wasn't behind it, Sonic. It was SEGA. They had to keep Tails out of the race because HE would have figured this out before. HE would have stopped Eggman! He knew, remember?"

"So, you're saying SEGA wanted the planet destroyed?"

"No, not at all! What SEGA was trying to do was force you to stop him on your own, using your quick thinking or whatever! So they couldn't let you know what was going on beforehand, or you could have made a plan!"

"And so they used the Director…." realized Sonic slowly.

"Exactly. Remember out in the desert when you thought Eggman had disconnected your call?"

"Yeah…."

"Well, he was actually tampering with his car, which might I add disqualifies him. He put an invisibility booster in his kart. That's how he got ahead and started early without anyone noticing. Which brings us here."

"So you're the heroine of the day, Starlight…" said Knuckles.

"No, I'm not," Starlight objected. "I was almost here too late. Zoom is the hero of the day."

Everyone looked at Zoom.

"It's true," said Starlight. "Zoom got here first. I have cameras on this place. Zoom held Eggman back. He showed true courage."

"Bravery," said Shadow, "is not proportional. A lot of it can come in very small packages. I think Zoom is our proof of that."

"I don't know what proportional means," added Sonic, "but I agree with Shadow. Three cheers for Zoom, the newest hero!"

* * *

Rouge and Knuckles were the first to leave the house by the track. Both of them had important business to attend to and were glad to get away from each other. Eggman, of course, had been jailed, and all was peaceful in the Chaos Dimension.

Wind sat with Twilight watching the sun set. It was Twilight's favorite part of the day, for obvious reasons. Twilight's ankle was bandaged, but she was fine. The two bid farewell to Sonic, Tails, Amy, Starlight, Zoom, and Shadow. They had their own universe to go home to, and all of them (save for Zoom) would be there waiting for them, duplicates.

Starlight left along with them, as she had to get back to Nintendo Headquarters in the Mushroom Dimension. She, like Knuckles and Rouge, had very pressing business to take care of.

Amy also left, for once, as she wanted to go shopping in Station Square and the nearest train there would leave soon.

"So, where ya' headed?" Sonic asked Shadow.

Shadow shrugged. "I'll find my way around. I've got soul searching to do."

"What do you mean?"

"I fulfilled my promise, didn't I? All I've done since then is take care of official business, like finding a decent place to live and things like that. But I want to find my purpose. I didn't survive for no reason, Sonic. There's got to be something…some….reason why I'm still here.

"Probably so you can be in more video games," said Sonic grimly. "It's our fate, or somethin' like that."

"Hey," said Tails, "At least YOU'RE not fated as the sidekick. Besides, any other way to live life would just be boring!"

Sonic wholeheartedly agreed.

"That's it!" said Shadow. "I've found it!"

"Found what?" said Sonic.

"I've found why I'm here! It's to….it's to have friends like you guys. To…I dunno, to be a pal. To hang out. To enjoy myself!"

"Wow, Shadow, ya finally get it!" said Sonic.

"Hey, maybe you guys could hang out at my place and we could let the next adventure happen to us there!"

"Great idea, Tails! Let's ditch this place before the owner of the racetrack comes back!" said Sonic.

"And therefore you won't have to pay him…" said Shadow with a sideways glance at Sonic.

The first stars appeared in the sky as two hedgehogs and two racekarts headed off, zooming away.

* * *

Well, did ya like it? Huh huh huh? TELL ME!!!!! If you are reading, review please!!!

…I might not write in the Sonic section anymore….but I do have another story or two to post…..you'll have to tell me if ya wanna see it up here or not. Sorry, peoples, that's just the way it works.

Oh, and a huge, huge, giant thanks to aliceamyrose, who definently reviewed the most. Or at least the most where it counted. Actually, thanks to everyone who's reading this! SOOOOO much! You have no idea how much it means to me **sob** Well, bye!!! Maybe I'll see ya soon!!! Maybe if you read the Kirby section I'll see ya around!!! I'm still writing! Peace out, all!