(I do not own Sonic X…etc.)

Flip card 2:

Name: Sonic

Age: 17

Species: Hedgehog

Talents: Super speed, Chaos Control

Description: A hyper speedy hedgehog with a love for adventure.

The spire was even more impressive close up than it was from a distance. Void had lead the six of them through the forest of towering crystal structures that littered Radiant Emerald right up to the base of the spire that stood as the tallest structure in this bizarre location.

It's base was a flat square with several other smaller structures feeding into it at jagged angles, it's towering point so far up none of them actually see it. Its entire length was completely vertically smooth, tapering off at the end. Its tip was marked, only by the radiant glow that alternated between colours like it couldn't make up its mind.

"Up there?" Tail asked weekly, pointing upwards. Void nodded solemnly, crossing his arms as he floated above the ground. The small being had told them the only exit to this dimension was a focal point at the very top. Only there could the dimension fabric be broken, opening a hole back to the mortal world. The spire however was dangerous. The focal point created deadly free floating anomalies, anyone caught in one of those literally ceased to exist. Speed was off the essence in climbing it.

"Have you ever reached the top?" Sonic asked, peering upwards into the star light sky above him, trying to see if he could make out the summit. Void blinked and looked up himself.

"Once." He replied. "But I did not possess the speed necessary to punch the hole." He shrugged and floated down to the ground, sitting with his legs crossed. "But that was a long time ago now, I haven't much reason to try it again since." Shadow had been watching Void very carefully since they set off. Perhaps it was is untrusting nature, but the black and red hedgehog could that something about the small creature's words did not ring true. Perhaps he was just being paranoid, but neither the less he could not let Void out of his sight until they were safely out of this weird place. He shuddered, feeling that same creeping dread he had felt time and time again come over him. And none too soon.

The fact that Chaos Control didn't work here was the least of his problems. He hadn't wanted to tell Sonic, but the longer Shadow stayed here, the weaker he felt. It was as if the entire location was a parasite on his chaotic nature, draining him of the chaos energy that kept him alive. Like it was feeding on him. Shadow began to think that if he didn't get out of here soon then…he didn't want to think about it. "From this point I'm afraid, I can help you little." Void confessed, lowering his face. "I have told you all that I can, you six must enter the spire alone." He pointed towards the entrance of the spire which was a round opening in the base with a single set of stairs sliding up within the tower itself. "My presence will be a burden rather than an aid." Eggman eyed the opening suspiciously.

"Metal Knuckles." He began; gesturing to his robot. "Proceed." The robotic Echidna nodded before he strode forward.

"Remember." Void added. "Speed is required if you intend to escape the dangers." The robot paused for a brief moment before continuing. Metal Knuckles was by no means as intelligent as Metal Sonic and lacked the sentience to realize that Eggman was sending him in to test the danger. As he reached the doorway, a large slab of emerald came crashing down, concealing the entrance and nearly crushing the robotic Echidna into the ground. "There are many traps, besides the temporal warps that pose danger." Metal Knuckles backed off quickly and as soon as he was a respectable distance from the entrance, the slab swung aside again.

"Just what do these warps look like?" Chuck asked.

"They have no physical substance that I can describe to you. You will recognise them by a sphere of red light." Void rose and pointed up towards the top of the spire again. They strained to see what he was looking at and finally they saw one, a red orb floating near the top, hovering in the air like an insect. It was too far away to see clearly, but it was odiously what Void was trying to show them. "Avoid them at all costs." Sonic shuddered, imagining what would happen to any of them should they encounter those things, getting trapped within them and ceasing to exist.

"Tails buddy. You'd better hang onto me." He told his old friend and the fox nodded, letting Sonic pick him up in a piggy bank. Shadow agreed to take Chuck, the extra weight doing little to slow him down. As ordered, Metal Knuckles would carry his master up the spire. "Something tells me this is going to be a bumpy ride." The blue hedgehog added as they all turned to the entrance.

"Remember." Void began quickly. "You must break the speed on sound directly on the tip. Any sooner or later and you miss your chance. It's a long fall down from up there, believe me. You'll probably be dead before you hit the ground. " Sonic gave a thumbs up over his shoulder. Without another word, they raced forward, all of them clearing the entrance before the slab slammed down, sealing them inside. Void watched them go, waiting for s moment before a sadistic smile spread over his face.

Those idiots were even more stupid than he'd imagined. They would open the way for him, allowing the exaction of his revenge and they didn't even know it.

Since the race contestants and most of their team members had completely disappeared, the race itself had been put on hold for the time being. No one could explain exactly what had happened or how. The President had still been trying to figure out what had happened. His tournament had been going beautifully right up until the last moment when something went completely and utterly pear-shaped and spoilt it.

"Just what in god's name happened?" He demanded of nearly race official, who couldn't tell him anymore more than he already knew. This seemed to infuriate the President. The government had made a killer profit out of the tournament, but if it all ended like this then it had failed it's purpose miserably.

"I can't find Sonic anywhere." Amy admitted when the four of them meet up again. The pink Hedgehog, Metal Sonic, Chris and Helen had been scouring the entire stadium looking for their friends that had simply disappeared when the sky above them had been completely bathed in a white light.

"I can't find grandpa either." Chris began, looking worried. "One second he was sitting besides me and the next he was gone." Helen scratched the back of her head looking puzzled.

"It's as if they were just pulled up into the sky." She stated.

"Hey!" Vector shouted and he and the rest of Chaotix crossed over to them. "Any luck?" Metal Sonic shook his head with a shrug. "Us neither." The crocodile admitted. "And we searched every inch of this place." Seeing the strange disappearance of the racers for themselves, Chaotix decided to help them search.

"What do you think happened to them?" Espio asked. Vector grinned and put his hands on his hips.

"Elementary my dear Espio, there's only one explanation for this."

"And what would be?"

"Our friends were simply abducted by aliens, taken to some far away planet for experimentation."

There was a sudden blurring sound and Scarlet Garcia's voice suddenly came over the loud speakers around the stadium. She sounded confused and rather stunned, not that half the stadium full of people weren't.

"Er folks. We've just received the judge's decision and it seemed they're letting the race continue."

"What?" Amy asked the air around her in astonishment.

"It seems that each team still has at least one member left." Stuart pointed out. They all suddenly realized that it was true. Team Mecha still had Egg Robo on their team, who was sitting on the outskirts of the stadium silently. Amy and Metal Sonic were registered members of Team Sonic and qualified as official racers. "So the team must select a racer to finish for those who disappeared and finish the race." Egg Robo, being the only member of Team Mecha left, rose and crossed over to the start of the course.

"They can't seriously get on with the race with Sonic and the others missing can they?" Helen asked.

"Looks like they can." Chris replied. "So which one of you is going to race?" Metal and Amy cast each other a glance.

"I am." The pink hedgehog replied. Metal Sonic nodded in agreement.

"I'll keep searching for the others. I can cover more ground than you." Without another word, his jet activated and he flew away from begin his search again from the air. Amy sighed and pulled her skates out, quickly putting them on her feet.

"That Egg robo may not be as fast as those other robots." Helen began. "But it can certainly think strategically enough." Egg Robo's defining skill throughout the entire tournament had not been speed, but rather how he used his own abilities, intelligence and the environment around him to outthink its competition. Amy knew that she would have to watch her back with this one.

"And just where have you been?" Bean asked as their captain joined them in Freelance Division's private sky box at the top of the stadium, watching over all the activity down in the centre. Bean and Bark had been watching the race and the chaos that ensued after the racers disappeared from up here.

"Working." Okida replied simply. "Which is what you should be doing." He added, giving Bean and Bark a warning glare. "So what's been happening while I've been away?"

"How long have you got?" It took several minutes for them to explain to their captain exactly what had happened. Okida hadn't been listening for the most part. He simply pulled the char and sat down to watch the final race begin. Amy realized that it was all up to her now and with that realization came a dreadful uncertainty. If she lost, then Eggman won the Chaos Emerald. Sonic certainly would appreciate that.

Suddenly a thought ran through her head as the countdown to the start of the finals began. If she won this, she imagined that it would go a long way to impressing Sonic. She could really impress Sonic. At the moment their relationship verged on the borders of official girlfriend and boyfriend. This might tip it over that edge. A goofy smile crossed her face as the countdown reached zero and she was Egg Robo flew across the start.

The inside of the spire was a twisting maze of stairs that lead them up and up within the glowing emerald like structure. So far, they'd encountered none of those dangerous warps that Void had warned them about but Shadow estimated they'd see those closer to the top. Metal Knuckles found that the weight of his creator was beginning to slow him down a little and fell behind as Sonic and Shadow with Tails and Chuck on their backs raced forward, keeping their eyes open for anything that might try to lunge at them.

This spire seemed to so on forever, a never ending twisting stair case made from emerald. Eventually however they reached a separate level of the tower, sliding out to a separate level floor. This new floor was almost completely white with six multi coloured pillars at irregular angles lancing up out of the ground towards the tapering ceiling so high above. A set of stairs, much thinner than the last set, made nearly completely out of light it seemed, wrapped around each one. They gave each other a glance before each taking a separate stair and racing up it. As they reached them, jagged spikes lanced out of the floor, trying to impale each of them. Sonic slid around them and reached the stars and as he ran up them, Tails hanging on around his neck for dear life, each stair he traversed disappeared behind him. The same was said for the other, who found they had to race hard to avoid falling down to the jagged spikes. Now they understood what Void meant when he said speed was their friend here.

Eggman screamed like a little girl as the deadly blade of an axe swung down, nearly hitting him in the head. Metal Knuckles noticed the danger and tried to pour on more speed with such an anchor dragging him down. Each stair seemed to have a different trap awaiting them.

Sonic was nearly thrown down to the floor now far below by the wall when it flew outwards, nearly knocking him and Tails off the edge. Shadow and Chuck had to dodge several sharp projectiles hurled at them from dark holes on the walls. These darts narrowly missed them; sinking into the wall they had just passed. As each of them carried on, these traps seemed to alternate from one to the other as if the spire itself was trying to catch them off guard.

Like the stairs below, these new twisting trap filled spirals nearly carried on forever and by now even Sonic was beginning to get a little tried. As if it could sense this, the ascension became filled with even more traps and dangers, desperately trying to deter them from proceeding. Shaking off his fatigue, Sonic poured on more speed, using pure agility to defy them all.

Finally they reached the top and rocketed out onto the third level of the spire. To their astonishment and utter horror, there seemed to be no way to continue upwards. Only a single empty space with an impossibly high ceiling, the walls completely smooth; leaving absolutely no chance for an attempt at climbing. As it rose, the walls were lined with grey rings of stone, but those would do little for anyone who wanted to head upwards. Sonic tried Chaos control again, but it seemed to work even less inside the spire than it did in the rest of Radiant Emerald.

"Oh great, what now?" Shadow demanded angrily. Noen of them could see any means of travelling on. This was a dead end. His question was answered when without warning the very ground beneath their feet began to rocket upwards. Like a giant elevation platform they went higher and higher, rocketing towards the ceiling, gaining speed as they travelled. As they rose, they managed to make out that the ceiling above them was littered with crystallised stalactites, glinting in the multicoloured light around them. If they didn't get off this thing then they'd be both squashed and impaled on those things.

Metal Knuckles looked around and with sheer luck, managed to spot a large entrance into the wall just below the deadly trap. If someone could move fast enough then they might be able to slip inside. From outside, Void watched the spire with unblinking eyes. If his estimations were correct, then those fools had reached the halfway point by now. Which means they should be coming up upon that deadly lift Illumina had installed, as part of the security features designed to keep him here.

Just before it slammed into the ceiling, the six of them shot right of the platform and into the opening, narrowly avoiding certain death by mere seconds. The chamber beyond which was little better. They were all hurled into a vent of hot steam that threw them all upwards through a narrow pipe. They must have rocketed up hundreds of feet into the air before they finally reached the end of it, emerging into more dazzling light than they could handle. Sonic held his hand in front of his face, hardly able to see through the blazing flare.

Shadow felt like something had just stabbed itself right through is chest, every ounce of strength he had left hi. What stranglehold Radiant Emerald had over his energy seemed to manifest in one big go, ensnaring him in paralysis. Hardly able to stand, he collapsed to the floor. As he made contact with it, more and more energy left his body.

He'd been right, this place was feeding upon him and if it feed any more, he would inevitably die.

"Shadow, what happened?" Chuck asked, feeling the black and red Hedgehog collapse. He opened his eyes to see what was going on, but the light around him blinded them, forcing them shut again.

"Chuck, what's going on?" Tails asked, trying to look around, holding his arm in front of his face. Metal Knuckles' eyes were not organic and could not be blinded. He simply readjusted his light intact lens and his vision adapted itself accordingly. Now able to see clearly, he found that they were all standing in a large chamber with a high roof like the ones before them, only this ones defensive ability seemed to be blinding them with light to keep them in one place. A singlar large pillar lancing out from the ground to the towering ceiling above.

But why? The reason eluded the robot. Light kept most of them from proceeding, but it was hardly one of the lethal traps they had encountered before. A low buzzing noise began to fill their and Metal Knuckles looked up to see several red orbs descend toward them, these seemed to be made out of pure light themselves, each one at least five meters in length and width. The warps Void had warned them about, these matched their description perfectly.

(In Chris voice,)

The dangers of the spire continue to block their path. Will Sonic and the others escape Radiant Emerald and how will the manipulative Void use their plight to his advantage? Find out next time on Sonic X, Escape from the Radiant Emerald. Don't miss it!

(R&R)