(I do not own Sonic etc. Koji Naoko Okida and the fic itself is copyright to me.)
S.O.N.I.C GO!
S.O.N.I.C GO!
GO, GO, GO, GO, LET'S GO!
Sonic R Saga
Episode 15: Road Rage Rampage
The president had a crisis on his hands. Election week was only a month away as latest results indicated that his popularity had decreased steadily since the emergence of the Eggman Empire. If something wasn't done to lit public moral, then he might as well kiss his chances of re-election good bye. And if that wasn't enough, he had to set up an official investigation after the Foundation Building collapsed into rubble, the circumstances of which were a complete mystery but as it turned out, the Foundation was just a cover for a secret cultist sect. Their entire organisation was being brought in for questioning.
Giant wing, the massive floating fortress currently serving at the G.U.N headquarters, did little to inspire the normal civilian population. What they really needed was something fun and distracting. He had enough to think about already. Eggman Empire activity had ceased for the moment, but it never really stayed that way. Not only that, but he also had the possibility of a Eggman Empire spy leaking vital secrets to the enemy. Then it came to him. An Idea so brilliant and simple he was surprised he didn't think of it before.
"Another Emerald tournament?" Captain Okida of Freelance division repeated, his ears standing to attention after Michael told them his idea. Bean and Bark shot each other a glance, as if unsure of what to make of the President's rather unexpected proclamation. "Well, it has...potential." Their captain added, looking unsure of himself, sinking into his chair a little. "But are you sure it'll work?" The president nodded, a large smile on his face.
"Of course. It's the perfect solution. It'll kill two birds with one stone." He sat back down at the table near his desk. "Serving to boast public moral and flush out the spy." Rouge the bat, their most skill espionage agents had been silent throughout the meeting. Sitting next to Topaz, watching everyone with half closed eyes.
"Well, I'm certain a Chaos Emerald as a prize will attract Dr. Eggman's attention. But if you remember, the last tournament ended disastrously when that Gizoid ran amok at the stadium. I doubt people will want a repeat of that." The large grin of Michaels face refused to leave.
"I know, which is why this time, I thought of a nice alteration to keep the crowds happy." All of Freelance division suddenly looked nervous. The President reached into his desk and withdrew a rolled up piece of paper. Unrolling it, he held it up towards them. It was a poster, showing a race track around the city, the desert ruins and various other locations. Printed in big red letters at the top were the words 'Emerald Grand Prix.' "What do you think?" What was passing through all their minds at the moment was confusion and it took a moment for one of them to think of a decent reply.
"Great..." Okida replied hesitantly, an unsure smile on his face. "Wonderful sir." His division cast him a glance, before looking back, nodding in nervous agreement. All except for Rouge, who remained completely detached and unsympathetic to her boss' opinion of his own plans.
"Sure a race will work?" The President leaned back into his chair.
"Just look at that free for all race between Sam Speed and Sonic. I can't even begin to imagine the ratings that had." Rouge slapped her forehead.
"I meant will it draw Dr. Eggman out into the open?"
"If he wants a Chaos Emerald, it'll work."
"And when exactly do you want to have his tournament?"
"Immediately!" With or without Rouge's support, the announcement of an Emerald Racing Tournament was broadcast on the news and around the clocks commercials bombarded television screen up and down the country. The internet was flooded with ads and promotional flyers nearly filled the streets. All were calling on teams of three to enter for a chance at earning a Chaos Emerald. Sam Speed had been working on his racer when the announcement came over the radio. His engine was leaking oil and he'd gotten pulled over. HIM pulled over?! It went beyond embracement. Hearing the words race and tournament in the same sentence, the human shot right up, hitting his head on the underside of his cars engines and falling to the ground unconscious.
Most of the worlds news broadcasts were being monitored by the one person they were all trying to catch. Dr. Eggman found this latest announcement very interesting. As he watched the report play out on the large main screen, Decoe and Becoe scurried around helping to get the badly damaged Egg Carrier 3 operational again, which was not an easy task. Considering how much damage it had taken when Emerl self destructed inside it's cannon. With little else to do, his great battleship nearly beyond all hope of repair, the doctor took to personally monitoring the news broadcasts.
"A racing tournament?" The doctor repeated, tapping his fingers together, an eyebrow raised. "Sounds fun. I think I'll enter my own team."
"But Doctor." Becoe began looking up from his work. "Why don't you simply steal the emerald?" The doctor looked down on the hence-robot from his metallic throne.
"And ruin all the fun?" He asked sceptically. "Certainly not. I've always wanted to show that hedgehog up at his own game." Sonic himself had been training with Shadow, trying to perfect Chaos Control when Amy brought a flyer to him. So far Sonic could teleport a fix distance of a few feet safely. After that, lessons were postponed, despite Shadow's best protests. Tails saw the news report and decided now was a good time to test out his latest piece of engineering. He looked back with a large grin towards the large machine at the back of his workshop, concealed underneath a canvas sheet.
Even Metal Sonic got excited at the prospect. To compete alongside Sonic in front of a huge crowd of people, at the one thing they all enjoyed the most, seemed irresistible. Vector, along with his numerous financial problems, saw a ray of sunshine coming from the web site ad he'd been staring at for the last ten minutes. That Chaos emerald had to be worth a fortune. Although Espio persistently tried to remind him that they were detectives, not racers, it did little to hinder the crocodile from entering them.
Working on the racing tracks through Station Square, Capital City, the desert ruins and one through an old abandoned oil refinery began at once. The entire process would have taken years, but with help of the military nudged into aiding the working by the President, everything was completed inside a few months. The entire country grew ecstatic about it, just as Michael had predicted. This, combined with the Christmas season had everyone in high spirits. So far, his plan was working like a charm. There already several corporations asking if they could sponsor the tournament. Many teams from foreign countries were asking if they could participate. This new Emerald Grand Prix was quickly becoming a popular as the Olympic events. Finally, a date was set for the race to begin. The teams that had signed up for the available positions had until December the 10th to prepare themselves.
As the days slowly ticked by, Sonic became more and more agitated that time didn't move as fast as he could. The blue hedgehog couldn't wait to get out and race against the best the entire world had to offer. Shadow, so confident of his own abilities, simply spent his time watching Sonic run up and down a stretch of beach a couple of miles long each day. A thick cloud of sand kicking up behind him.
Sam Speed had his car put through a complete systems upgrade, benefiting from the advance propulsion systems they had taken from the graveyard of the Egg Fleet. He cared little for the Chaos Emerald. This was his big chance to reclaim his title as the fastest thing on Earth.
By now, Espio had given up trying to argue with Vector and simply began training to improve his speed to be able compete with some of the fastest racers out there. Charmee had been informed that flying was not specifically against the rules so even he was getting excited. Vector spent the days trying to convince his many lenders not to foreclose on him just yet as he promised them their cash within a month or two. It took a lot of guile, but he managed to pull it off. Now everything hinged on winning the tournament and obtaining that valuable Chaos Emerald.
The Emerald Grand Prix, sponsored by Coca Cola and many shoe manufactures was only a week away from beginning now. Dr. Eggman had been inside his laboratory for a several weeks. Since he had no team to compete with, he had had to create them.
"I still don't see why you don't let me compete Doctor." Theta argued persistently, angry that Eggman had decided to exclude the last of his E1000 robots from racing in the tournament.
"Theta." Eggman began, turning to give the flame throwing robot a glare over his shoulder. "You were created for battle. You simply wouldn't be able to keep up with Sonic in speed." The doctor looked up at the three robots he had just created, all still in their constructions bays, several mechanical arms working on them. One on the far left was E1007, built to match the anatomy of Knuckles the Echidna. A pair of glowing green eyes was watching them from out of the darkness, their glow highlighting the metallic dreadlocks around its head. Next to that was E1008, an experimental robot that Dr. Eggman had decided to give a test run to. If it proved successful then Eggman would create an entire army of them. From the top of this strange new robots head was a red jewel, glowing a blood red. Finally, E1009 a robot built to match Eggman himself. A round metal bulk for the body and thing arms and legs. A pair of red eyes staring at them from it's near featureless face. "These three will race in my name." Theta turned away, sulking. "Ok then, Activate Metal Knuckles, Tails Doll and Egg Robo." The lights flew on and the robotic arms retracted into the ceiling, finishing their work. Metal Knuckles was a Metal series robot, just like Metal Sonic but built to match Knuckles. Its arms were two large bracers with two large steal claws on the end. Its dreadlocks were wide and wide, a wipe stripe on their ends.
Tails doll was just what it was. A sewn together doll of Tails that Eggman had picked up from a toy shop. What made it move was experimental nanotechnology that was powered by the small gem on the top of its head. It wasn't as powerful as a Chaos Emerald, but it sufficed.
Egg Robo was the first to venture out of its construction bay, its thin legs miraculous keeping up the large egg shaped body. Its colours, mostly red with a black underbelly, two yellow triangles over its shoulders were passed off a uniform Eggman used to wear some years ago, in it's right hand was a short laser rifle. "It's race time." The Doctor added with a wide smile. Standing over the first track that was to host the preliminary races, the President's wide smile would not budge. The track was a winding costal route across the beach, up into some nearby hills, through a long tunnel and then back again. It had been dubbed the Resort Island track. Anticipating Sonic's participation, Michael had made sure all the tracks were long enough to even posse a challenge to even him. Everything had been proceeding perfect. If the popularity of his Grand Prix increased any more, he'd have to make it an annual event, which actually didn't seem like a bad idea.
"Me?!" Captain Okida exclaimed when the President told him that he would be participating in the tournament. "I'm a pilot, not a racer. With respect sir..."
"That's an order." The President added quickly before the vampire bat could get another word in. "I need you to keep an eye on things from the inside in case Eggman stirs up any trouble." Koji Naoko Okida looked stunned, his mouth hung open and eyebrows raised in complete surprise and exclamation. "Bean and Bark will be your team mates." Okida said nothing; he simply saluted knowing that he was going to race whether he liked it or not. "Now don't worry. I'm sure you can fly pretty fast. Maybe I'll even be presenting the Chaos Emerald to you so we won't have to worry about handing it over to the wrong person." Okida staggered away, looking stunned.
The Tornado had been two badly damaged to be repaired completely, even Chuck couldn't work miracles. So instead of trying to turn it back into a plane, Tails converted it into a high speed car. It still had flight capability, but not enough for more than a glide. Tails quickly discovered that it could move a lot faster than he'd originally thought when one its first test run, it accelerated to speeds of over a hundred miles an hour in under six seconds.
"You'll have to do better than that Tails." Sam Speed shouted over his shoulder as his own car shot past Tails', rounding the corner in the desert at speeds even Sonic would be hard pressed to compete with, leaving the fox in the dust. Amy was a fighter, not a racer, but she was still going to try. She had been practicing her sprinting for months now. Mobians could naturally run a lot faster than humans; Sonic and Shadow simply took it to the extremes. She was by no means as fast as them, but she was making good progress.
Sonic, Shadow and Metal Sonic had been racing against each other to see which one of them was fastest out of the three. They had had a photo finish time and time and each time Chuck and Chris had been completely unable to determine which one of them had finished first. They all seemed equal.
"Ok the, let's try that again..." Chris began, hitting the top of his stop watch seeing that their time had improved by four seconds. "But this time with these on." He produced a wooden crate full of large leg and arm weights. Sonic stared at the weights with his mouth open.
"Oh come on...." He began.
"No buts." Helene told them sharply. "You want to compete; you train like Metal and Shadow."
"You're all so cruel."
"We love you to Sonic." Amy replied with a wink.
Espio's speed had improved dramatically, but Vector still wanted to see him shave seven seconds of his lap time. Charmee, surprisingly, proved to be their fastest member using his wings to zip past Espio to the finish line.
"Oh come on Vector, how about a break huh?" Espio asked, pausing to catch his breath while the Crocodile checked their overall time. "We've been at this all day and all night. I need sleep." Vector simply gave him a glance over his shoulder.
"You can sleep when I've got that jewel firmly in hand." It was times like these that the chameleon began to wonder if the courts would understand if he killed his boss. "Besides Espio, wouldn't you rather sleep on top of a pile of money?" There image popped into his head, a wide grin crossed his face, before he took to the track again travelling faster than he had before. "Works every time." Vector added shaking his head.
"Let's keep it challenging huh?" Sonic asked Shadow as the two of them raced along; the weights on their arms dragging them both down a bit. "During the race, forget Chaos Control. That's just not fair on anyone." Shadow nodded in agreement.
"Fine." He replied, before disappearing in a green haze and reappearing further down the beach.
"HEY!" Sonic shouted up to him. "What did I just say?!"
"The Tournament hasn't started yet."
Koji Naoko Okida was quick to discover that he was fast, even without a G.U.N walker to pilot. His large leathery wings could take him further and faster than he'd first imagined. Even Bean and Bark were able to move pretty fast when the motivation hit them. Bark looked a little on the chubby side, but apparently only five percent of his overall body mass was actually fat. What lay underneath the thick golden fur was actually trained muscle.
"I still say there are better agents suited for this mission." Bean remarked as Okida slid to stop after landing.
"So do I." The bat remarked wearily. "But let's get on and do our jobs, maybe we'll get some medals for this."
"Don't hold your breath."
The Doctor sized up his three new robots, each one could not have been more different from the other. Metal Knuckles so streamlined and deadly, Tails Doll so strangely shaped, floating off the ground lifelessly and Egg Robo with it's round body and thin legs like a robotic version of the Doctor himself. "This is your mission." Eggman began and all three of them stood to attention. "You are to win your races at any cost. If are up against the Hedgehog, do not let him cross the finish line before any of you. I want him humiliated on live TV. Is that understood?"
"Yes Doctor."
"Yes Doctor."
"Yes Doctor."
"Good." Eggman replied, rubbing his hands together. Sonic had cost him the greatest victories he could have achieved for the Eggman Empire. Humbling him in front of ten million people seemed like sufficient payback.
Finally the waiting period ended and the tournament was set to begin. The Emerald Grand Prix was about to start.
Flip Card 1:
Name: E1007, E1008, E1009 aka (Metal Knuckles, Tails Doll and Egg Robo.)
Age: Only a few days
Job description: Egggman's three latest robots. Speed models, to be used in the Emerald Grand Prix.
(R&R)