Nyerf. I own nothing and nobody.

Powerful engines growled, death-arrow looks were exchanged and taunts were murmured beneath the noise. Sonic and Shadow's bikes stood side by side- Sonic's cobalt blue, sleek and finned work of technological art next to Shadow's jet black machine with red fittings, looking sinister and deadly with its spiked tail. Sonic was mounted on the red seat of perhaps the only vehicle that could match his speed, while Shadow was barely touching the white leather on his ride. The two hedgehogs were engaged in a staring contest, trying to out-glare each other.

"Save your eyes for the road-" said Knuckles, before he caught Rouge giving him a playful smile. "Sonic…" He then shook off the thought and slammed on his helmet, hoping Rouge hadn't seen him blush. He sat down on the seat of the dirty red quad bike and revved the engine, trying to connect with the earth of the road and the growl of his bike…

"Be careful, sugar!" said the bat, causing Knuckles to fail miserably and go an even redder shade of red, if that were possible. Rouge giggled from the silk seat of her pearly white luxury cruising bike, modified to be more of a stunt bike performance-wise, but still quiet and agile- perfect for discreet getaways.

Tails chuckled nervously, and a foul look from Knuckles didn't help. Set in between Sonic and Knuckles, who occupied the left side of the starting lineup while Shadow, Rouge and Eggman were on the right. Tails looked over, and the Doctor gave a huff and a smirk. "Good luck, boy."

Doctor Eggman's considerable bulk was seated on a large metallic grey motortrike with a design roughly recalling an egg, and a couple of badniks sitting behind him. The machine looked slightly odd, but there was no doubt it was fast and had plenty of dirty tricks up its sleeve…

Tails went back to calibrating his golden grav-cycles energy balance and system for the fourteenth time, making sure beyond all doubt that the heavily experimental vehicle would run smoothly- it didn't help that the rocky desert had seriously dinged and dirtied up the high-performance machine, which was not designed for such rough surfaces.

All eyes (Sonic and Shadow simultaneously broke away from their staring contest) suddenly went to the starting lights. The top holographic line went red.

Then the second line went red.

Then the third line went yellow.

Then the fourth line went yellow.

Then the fifth line went green. "GO!"

The six cycles instantly tore away from the starting blocks and out onto the track. Sonic and Shadow were in the lead, Tails behind closely followed by Rouge, and Knuckles and Eggman neck-to-neck at the rear, steadily accelerating. The first corner was a moderate right- Sonic and Shadow leaned to take it, Shadow having the inside lane slowly moved ahead of his blue counterpart.

Tails was focusing on the turn when he noticed Rouge slip into the inside lane and ride up right by him. Rouge gave Tails a smile that made him nervous… but not too nervous to dodge the kick Rouge aimed at his bike. "So that's how we're gonna play, huh?" said the fox. An ingenious plan formed in the fox's powerful, sly mind and Tails pulled ahead of Rouge, sat up and span his tails quickly, disturbing the jetstream and creating a wind vortex that rocked Rouge around, causing her to lose speed and swerve. Regaining her bearings, Rouge shook her fist at Tails, who grinned.

At the rear, Knuckles and Eggman were engaged in a battle of sheer power as the two large bikes side-rammed each other, sending sparks and dirt flying and seriously exciting the spectators. Knuckles had more power, but Eggman had the advantage of weight- the mad doctor smiled as he now had a reason to be proud of his build. The smile was then wiped off by the quad bike smashing into his trike with unprecedented force. "THAT was for tricking me on Angel Island!" yelled the echidna over the roar and the wind. An angered Eggman took his own revenge by calling out a pair of flying Badniks, which flew out of the back seat of the trike and started circling Knuckles. The echidna looked from side to side as the chattering pair of small heli-badniks darted around him- he tried to hit them, but they flew out of the way, and soon Eggman was laughing as Knuckles dodged their swoops…

Up ahead, Shadow was still in the lead and Sonic hell-bent on catching up. The blue 'hog rode Shadow's jetstream for a second, then took the inside lane on the next turn and started to catch up, inching up the side of the black hedgehog… then Sonic quickly dodged a blast of purple energy, which dissipated around Shadow's fist. Sonic looked at Shadow, who was smiling wickedly. "Oh, so you want to play rough?" shouted Sonic. "Alright then!" Shadow struck again with a Chaos-enhanced punch, but Sonic deflected the blow with a lightning kick. Moving ahead, Sonic struck with another quick kick at Shadow's bike, intent on knocking him off balance- Shadow struck back by side-ramming his bike into Sonic, who returned with a punch- the struggle continued at a ludicrously dangerous speed as they both crossed the line again, beginning the third and final lap.

Behind them, Rouge and Tails continued to swerve around each other, both seeking the lead but neither willing to get too close, neither bike being made for taking too much of a hit. Not so far behind them were Knuckles and Eggman showing no such aversion, still trading paint and insults. Knuckles finally hit one of the buzzing robots with a rocket punch that sent it flying right into Eggman's face. "AAAHHH!" screamed the doctor as the mini-bot hit him, then exploded in his face leaving him covered in black soot. Knuckles roared ahead, grinning and chuckling, and flicked away the remaining badnik. "And that's for tricking me in Sky Canyon!"

Sonic and Shadow continued to fight on bikes at insane speed, engaged in a physical struggle while trying to keep control. "You don't have the power to win this tournament!" said Shadow, once again knocking Sonic away.

"Oh, you think so?!" replied Sonic, coming back and striking with another kick. He hit Shadow in the head, knocking off his helmet. The black hedgehog growled and struck back fiercely with a Chaos Blast that blew Sonic's helmet off, and the blue hedgehog retaliated with an even fiercer strike that locked the two in a grapple at top speed, a few seconds from the finish line… Then they lost focus on the road for a second, and in the next second they realised such and mentally swore.

The two came off their bikes as the bikes flipped over and skidded across the track, Sonic and Shadow tumbling after them like rag dolls. Before they even stopped, the other four races zoomed past, Eggman's bike knocking Sonic's out of the way, and went over the finish line.

Their teammates quickly came back to see if the two hedgehogs were alright. Tails stopped by Sonic and ran to help him, Knuckles behind. "Sonic! Sonic!" shouted the fox. "Speak to me! Are you hurt?"

Sonic groaned and pushed himself up. "I'm fine Tails… I've taken worse. Did we win?"

"We qualified." Said Knuckles. "So yeah, we won. But so did they."

Rouge walked up to Shadow's unmoving form on the asphalt "Shadow, are you all right?" Eggman rode up next to him and observed. Suddenly, the ebony hedgehog's eyes shot open, surprising Rouge. Shadow groaned and rubbed his head. "Oh my gosh! Shadow, can you feel anything? Are you hurt?"

Shadow pulled himself up, and smirked. "I've survived a fall from orbit, Rouge. Did you really think this could hurt me?"

Rouge smiled slightly, still concerned. Eggman rode up, tossed Shadow his helmet, and looked over the black bike. "This can be repaired before the day is through." Said the doctor. "If you're not injured, then we're ready for the big league. Meet me in the garage in an hour." Then he rode off.

Assured that Sonic had only minor injuries, Tails was looking over Sonic's seriously dented bike. Sonic walked up beside him. "So, can you fix it?" he asked.

"Easily, but…" said Tails. "I don't know if we should keep going with this race, Sonic. It's really dangerous."

Sonic thought for a second, and looked back at Knuckles, who was walking back from retrieving Sonic's helmet. "He has a point, Sonic." Said the echidna. "If this was only the qualifying round, imagine what the main tournament will be like. It'll be a lot more dangerous. Are you sure you want to go through with this? I don't mind either way."

"Well…" said Sonic, looking around. Normally he'd easily take any challenge, no matter what the odds, but this was a team event- he had his friends to worry about. He looked at Tails. Then at Knuckles. Then at his dented bike. "Tails. Could you fix my bike? Could you keep racing?"

Tails seemed to consider that for a second. "…yeah. Yeah Sonic! You're not going out on the track without me!"

Knuckles offered Sonic back his helmet. Sonic thought for a moment, then took the helmet. "All right then guys, if you want to race, we will race! We are gonna WIN this tournament!"

"Yeah!" shouted Tails and Knuckles, and all three pumped their fists in the air.

"WILL YOU IDIOTS GET OFF THE TRACK!!" yelled an amplified voice from nearby, "BEFORE THE NEXT ROUND OF RACERS RUN YOU OVER!!"

Quickly wheeling their bikes off the road, the three then ran up to the starting line to see who was racing next. They heard the next bike before they saw it- the loud, roaring engine of what could only be a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, monstrously huge and equally powerful, which then rolled out on the track. With a deafening crack it pulled out onto the starting line- it was shiny metal with pink trimmings. The rider, a pink creature wearing red leather pants and jacket, hopped off the bike and removed her helmet.

"Hi boys!" Said the smirking Amy Rose, one hand on her hip and the other holding her pink, rose-patterned helmet.

Sonic just stared.

Tensions and rivalry, long-awaited revenge, far from the last crash and Amy Rose on a Harley-Davidson. 'Nuff said!