(I do not Sonic X, Sonic R etc… I do own Koji Naoko Okida and the fic itself.)

Flip Card 1:

Name: Metal Knuckles

Age: Several days

Species: Robotic Echidna

Job description: The fastest and most powerful of Dr. Eggman's robots, created to race in the Emerald Grand Prix.

The second lap around Radical City proved to far more hazardous than the first one. Dr. Eggman's kamikaze robots were everywhere, making running at any intense speed very dangerous. But since the race officials decided to let this go and get on the with the race anyway, Team Chaotix and Team Dead shot had had to make do with their own resourcefulness to finish the race and stay alive in the process.

"Right, that does it!" Okida snarled, narrowly avoiding a fourth Miner that hurled itself at him. From his side he tore his revolver and fired several shots into the air, hitting the exploding robots in his path, clearing the way for him.

Vector came charging in, rolling to avoid an exploding machine before lashing out at another with his tail, batting it into the air where it collided with another and two of them detonated. The commotion had cleared the streets of the spectators, who had fled back to the stadium to get away from Eggman's robots. Once the race had been completed, G.U.N forces were on stand by to move in and assault the mobile bombs flying through the streets.

"According to the techs, we've got more people tuning in the last few minutes than we had in the last few hours. It seems Dr. Eggmna's done us a favour by spicing up the race."

"Speak for yourself!" Espio yelled at the loud speakers carrying Garcia's voice as the chameleon dodged several robots, trying to keep his first place position with exploding mobile robots in the air and Okida closing in from behind.

"Now that's what I call entertainment!" Egg declared, clapping as another of his robots exploded in Okida's face, sending the bat flying backwards a few feet in the air.

Undeterred by any interference Vector kept charging forward, passing Okida and stealing second place. The bat quickly realized that if he let these flying robots slow him down, he was going to loose the race, so after picking himself up he took to the air, firing a shot at any robot that got to close.

Instead of gliding, he beat his wings to force himself through the air with desperate ferocity as they tore down Main Street. Vector looked back to see the bat closing on him, grunted and then turned his attention back to the road. They were coming up on the first spilt in the path again.

Espio who was straining to maintain his first place position took the right road instead of the left this time, hoping it would provide him a short cut that he had been denied in the first lap. Vector, seeing his comrade's choice went down the left. Okida took the right again, knowing the high roof top track would greatly benefit him. Bean, bark and Charmee taking separate routes down the tracks and sensing their movement, the miners about faced and began following them like a swarm of detonating insects.

This time it was Espio who took the sewer route while Vector took the on the upper terrain. The chameleon found that it was not as dark inside these tunnels as he would have believed. The orange markers told him were to go as they directed him through the underground parking lot towards the subway entrance.

All the trains had been shut down for the duration of the tournament so Espio was free to tear through the twisting tunnels, hoping he emerged in first place. Charmee had caught up with Vector and the two of them were neck and neck in second place with Okida just in front.

Bean and Bark who had been the only two to take the other route had slackened, hardly able to keep the exertion up. They were not racers, only good fighters and agents. It was up to their captain to win the race now.

"It looks like the rest of Team Dead shot have called it quits." Stuart commented. "But their team captain is still going strong. This race is still up the air." Espio finally caught sight of the light leading up from a subway station and tore up the stairs towards the surface.

Okida's logical evaluation of the track had served him well as he took first place again, souring across the track unchallenged. By the time Vector and Espio caught up with him he was already re-entering the stadium to begin his final lap of the course. The two reptiles didn't have time to catch up, already the warm of robots Eggman had infested the course with where flying down the street behind them, intending to ram into their backs and then detonate themselves.

"Ok, now that's totally unfair." Sonic muttered, before leaping down from the top of the large screen and tearing down the course towards the city, a ring in his hand, it's glow sending pure yellow light radiating from the gaps between his fingers. The blue hedgehog shot past Vector and Espio who was desperately trying to reach the finish line without being killed and as he did so, tore into a super spin. His entire body lanced through the swarm, starting a chain reaction of explosions that detonated them all at once. The blue hedgehog slid to a stop as flaming wreckage of robots started raining around him.

Eggman, who had been watching everything on several large screens, several showing sports channels and others from his own concealed surveillance robots. His eyebrows narrowed as Sonic spotted one of the floating orbs cowering behind a trash can, did a cliché cool pose in front of it before shooting off.

"Blasted rodent has to spoil all my fun." He said with a loud grunt, drumming his fingers. "Well then, if he insists on ruining my day, then I'll just have to ruin his!" Sonic was racing back to the stadium when a dark shadow bolted out the sun above him. Looking back over his shoulder, Sonic caught sight of the Egg Carrier 3 closing in on his position, staying a good distance away though. Several of Eggman's remote fighter planes soured from the deck of the giant flying battleship, their targeting crosshairs already had the blue hedgehog locked in.

"Can't take a joke can you?" Sonic muttered, racing forward across the bridge, but doubled back half way across, charging straight at them. The planes came in low and that made it easy for the blue hedgehog to slice his way through them one at a time, using the falling wreckage as platforms he leapt up to the top of the bridge. The Egg Carrier 3 was floating above, still keeping out of G.U.N fire range, which was some distance away but the battleship's immense size still blocking out the sun. "Ok Eggman, Let's keep it civil huh?" In reply, a holographic representation of the Doctor's face appeared in the sky just above him.

"State your proposal hedgehog." He replied sharply. Sonic smirked.

"Well, you seem pretty confident that your Team Mecha will win the tournament." A large smile crossed Eggman's face.

"In designed them to be unstoppable in speed. Not even you or Shadow would be able to seriously compete with them." The blue hedgehog crossed his arms.

"If you're that confident, let's see if you're up to a bet." Eggman suddenly looked very suspicious. "You stop interfering in the races and I'll get to racing your prized team. Let us compete fair and square." Eggman sneered.

"Fine. I'll not interfere in any or your or my own teams races. Until then however, I'll continue to make the other competitions a little more interesting." His face disappeared, shimmering like ripples on a pond and the giant battleship from which the image had been projected began to fly away heading towards the sun set. Sonic put his hands on his hips and shook his head.

"Thought so." He added, rolling his eyes.

With the robots off their tail and Dr. Eggman's attention diverted away from the race, Vector and Espio were able to concentrate on their speed, closing the distance between them and Okida, who by now was nearly across the second bridge at the start of his final lap.

The crowds cheered as the two of them shot through the stadium, desperately trying to catch up with the bat.

"It's the final lap, and all those competing look desperate to finish the race first." Scarlet put in as they flew out of the Stadium. "It's coming down to the wire people and we have to have a photo finish if it remains this close." Okida looked back to see how his competition were doing. They were closer than he would like but it really didn't matter. Now that the track was free of those annoying exploding robots, he was fully exert himself. His wings stretched out wing as he soured forward, taking the high route again as the two reptiles took the lower.

By now, they had most of the tracks many routes memorized and nearly instinctively the two of them choose the path they thought was the fastest, really pushing themselves. They could not afford to loose his race. The final lap of the course seemed to slow down, taking it seemed longer for any of them to complete it than before.

By the time any of them neared the finishing line, Okida was still in the lead with the two Chaotix members just behind him. Nearing the line that marked his victory, Okida was certain that this race was in the bag.

What he didn't count on however was a small black and yellow insect with a desperate need to relieve himself shooting past him at blinding speed. The bat looked to his side just in time to see Charmee soured past him at a speed he couldn't hope to travel at.

Okida just looked stunned the bee flew across the finish line before he did, ending the race. Chaotix had advantaged to the next round and Team Dead shot had been eliminated from the tournament. A slow motion recording of the event was being played on the large screen at the stadium for those who did not believe what had just happened.

The vampire bat simply dropped to the ground, face agape in disbelief. He'd been only moments away from winning when a seven year old bee had shot past him. It took a moment for the crowd to absorb the situation before they started cheering, their cries echoing for miles around.

"Astonishing! Young Charmee Bee has crossed the finishing line first, meaning Chaotix is through and Dead Shot is eliminated. What an incredible last minute turn around!" Stuart declared as the other Chaotix members reached the finishing line, trying to figure out what they'd just missed. When they saw the instant replay of their friend crossing the finishing line and heard the cheers of the crowd they put two and two together and got four.

"He didn't…" Vector began, looking Espio square in the face, who looking as stunned as his crocodilian team captain. Finally the reality set in and Vector actually realized that they'd won. "Alright he did, Charmee I could kiss you!" Vector declared, punching the air as he jumped into the air. "Charmee?" he began, finally noticing the one who won them the race had completely disappeared after the race ended. "Espio where did he go?" The chameleon shrugged. There was a loud flushing sound all of a sudden and then they spotted their comrade coming out of the men's room with a wide smile on his face.

"Smooth Captain." Bean remarked sarcastically as the bat approached them, an annoyed look on his face. "We lost to a kid, in front of five thousand people." Bark put a large gloved hand over his eyes.

"That goes way beyond embarrassment. We'll never be able to show our faces in public again for the next two years." Okida gave them both a long hard stare before taking up his drape from the table were he'd left it, wrapping it back around his shoulders.

"Forget about it. We weren't trying to win anyway." He gave a final glance back towards Chaotix, who by now were tossing Charmee up into the air and dancing at an ecstatic pace. "They were the serious ones, they deserved to win. We're just here for securities sake." He winced, a muscle tensed where he'd caught an explosion from one of Dr. Eggman's robots. "Speaking of which, the President'll kill us if we don't make this tournament secure against that madman."

"Well that's them by on their dumb luck again." Sam remarked, before turning his back on them.

Neither Sonic nor Amy had observed the stunning outcome of the race as both of the hedgehogs were sitting on the beach of the currently empty Resort Island course. At first, Sonic had tried to stay as far away from the water as much as he could, but eventually Amy managed to coax him inch by inch towards it. Now he was sitting up on the sand with the gentle waves lapping around his feet. This was about as close to the ocean he was willing to get.

Sonic was nearly seventeen and he hadn't had a single swimming lesson. He even avoided baths if he could manage it, that is until Amy forced him in when he began to reek. Despite this one important factor in his life, Amy had never taken the time to ask why. There had to be a reason he didn't like the water.

She asked him then and there and after a hesitating brief moment of silence, he replied that he just didn't like it, hoping to leave it at that. Unfortunately for him, Amy was not the 'leave it' sort of girl. She knew that some people just had illogical fears that they couldn't explain, but she could read Sonic like a book. There was much more to it than that.

She began prodding again, hoping the blue hedgehog's bubble of stubbornness would pop. Sonic tried to drive conversation else ware, but he failed and eventually he gave up.

"I've never liked the water." He replied, staring out across the bay. Most people would have seen the winter sun's light reflecting off the surface in some dramatic display of nature. Sonic didn't see that. All he saw was a deadly abyss were people could drown. "I don't remember what happened exactly, I was only a kid, all I can recall is a few instances of thunder and lightning and rolling waves." He added, narrowing his eyes against the light. "I must have been on a boat that sank or something. But ever since then the mere thought of stepping water terrifies me." The blue hedgehog turned to give the pink one a side glance. "Happy now?" She only smiled and laid herself down next to him.

"Remember anything more?"

"Nah." He replied, yawning. "I remember waking up in some bush on the edge of a beach, but much after that is a complete blank until I got a little older." Amy hesitated briefly.

"And you never actually tried to find out what happened?" Sonic sighed, putting his arms behind his head.

"Well, I did at first, but it was about then that Eggman turned up and I got a little distracted." Amy paused.,

"I remember that." She said hesitantly. "I was only ten at the time. Everyone thought Eggman was the most silly looking creature they'd ever seen. No one on Mobius had ever seen a human before." There was a stinging irony in that statement that was lost on neither of them. "I remember reading about the first battle between you and Eggman in the news." Sonic thought back to the first time he and his arch nemesis had met. Sonic himself had only been little older than ten when the first robots of the Eggman Empire charged through a large glade, laser fire filling the air. Eggman himself was leading them, directing his forces as they burnt through the foliage, driving mobians out of their homes.

Sonic had never acted heroically before, but seeing that sort of flipped some override switch inside him and he acted without thinking, using his super speed to cut through the early robots with ease. "And if memory serves, I met you not long after." Shortly after that historic encounter and after he had joined up with Tails, Sonic remember that he and his old friend had been test piloting one of his early planes when they spotted one of Dr. Eggman's robots down on the beach of an island they were flying over. It was attacking a pink girl hedgehog, who was dwarfed by the robots sheer size. Sonic had prepared to jump in to help her, but it soon became obvious that the girl didn't need their assistance when the pink hedgehog revealed her nearly legendary hammer and smashed the robot into small pieces.

Sonic would have left things at that, but just then another two mechanical soldiers appeared from the island's interior and that was when he charged in. Seeing him in action, Amy had been determined to win his affection ever since. She couldn't help noticing that lately, she was making good headway. She had been in Sonic's company over ten minutes and he hadn't run away.

Metal Knuckles had been watching the two hedgehogs from the road running alongside the top of the beach. Pathetic organics, to wrapped up in their own ridiculous emotions to fight properly, which is what gave Dr. Eggman and his robotic creations the edge. They didn't get distracted by needless emotions, they were focused and dedication. There was a loud footstep from behind him and the metal Echidna turned to see who was standing his presence. It was Metal Sonic. The robot who had first tire to overthrow Eggman from the seat of his empire, trying to take power for himself and then threw it all away to be one of that pathetic hedgehog's friends. This defective unit had to be terminated as soon as possible.

Neither of them said anything to each other as the robot Echidna closed the gap between them, fixed Metal with his own stelly glance, before walking on past him. Metal Sonic could see now what Metal Knuckles really was. His prime directive was not to win this tournament. It was to destroy all the robots that had ever disobeyed Dr. Eggman's orders.

(In Chris Voice)

The semi finals are approaching and there's just one last race to go before they begin. The carnage begins as Team Mecha finally takes to the race track and their opponents don't have a chance, or does a last minute appearance of an Echidna we all know as love save them from defeat? Find out next time on Sonic X, The Regal Ruin. Don't miss it!

(R&R)