Wave had gotten ahead towards the beginning of the race, taking first place almost instantly. However, now she had fallen into 4th place. Typical of any race she'd been in, but she couldn't let it stand. Noticing a nearby shortcut(a legal move, per the standard ruleset), she jumped off her board and ran into a tunnel, grabbing the handle attached to an overhead track that took her further across the track. Wave noticed Rouge following her as she did so, flashing a sly grin at her. May the best girl win, she supposed. The two were soon deposited near a ramp where they could rejoin the main race. Rouge and Wave shared a look as they boosted towards the ramp, jumped to start doing tricks to refill the air in their boards...Only to both collide with Tails as he took a flying shortcut, knocking all 3 of them to the ground. Glamor Chaos gathered around the three to protect them from other racers as the girls got up, relatively fine despite the fall. "Watch where you're going, pixel brain!" Wave shouted, angerly, as she got back on her board and rejoined the race. Now she was even MORE behind. "Um...What she said!" Rouge said, getting back on her board as well. Tails just sat for a moment in slight confusion.

Knuckles busted his way through the handful of rookie racers trying to corner him. He'd had to do that TWICE now, and he was already getting tired of it. Maybe Jet was right about all this stuff. A lot of these new kids were playing dirty, even for Extreme Gear...

But he supposed it made sense. Knuckles hadn't participated in too many of these races, but he'd noticed how hard they were to get into, always having these weird requirements. Chaos Emeralds, Teams, it was an odd day when an entire sponsorship was the easiest option to get into the sport. Some of them had to get weird sponsorships from local businesses, who would probably not renew it if they lost in the first race. Add onto that all of the veterans like Sonic and the Babylon Rogues...Yeah, he guessed he shouldn't be too harsh on them.

Knuckles sighed as he began punching various obstacles out of his way. His annoyance was probably over having to leave the Master Emerald behind again, especially with some randos from the Restoration. Still, he HAD left Amy to pick up all of the pieces left from the Resistance, so he felt that he owed Amy his participation in all of this when she had asked.

Shadow carefully drifted on his air shoes during the second lap, maintaining a steady level of speed. He was willingly going a little bit more slowly, 15th place overall, to scan the crowd for any signs of who might've kidnapped Omega. He would never admit it out loud, but he truly cared for Omega in a way he wasn't sure even Rouge understood. He didn't know what he'd do if Omega got permanently taken offline...He'd never taken loss too well.

Shadow got distracted for a moment as he noticed a large figure in the crowd, its entire body covered by some sort of large cloak, with only its glowing, red eyes shining beneath the hood. The definite sign of an Eggman robot, if Shadow had ever seen one. But what reason did the Doctor have to be involved in an event like this? And what did Omega have to do with it?

ARGH! Shadow had gotten so caught up with his observations that he had run straight into a wall, the screens above giving an instant replay of the moment. "OOH! Guess the Ultimate Lifeform should ultimately PAY ATTENTION TO THE RACE!" One of the Glamor Chao narrated, to the laughter of the crowd. Shadow looked over to where the cloaked figure had been, seeing that it was now gone. With a groan, Shadow resumed the race. Sonic and Rouge wouldn't let him live this down, he just knew it.