Chapter 6
Sonic, to his embarrassment, had managed to fall considerably behind as the second lap had continued. He chuckled to himself as he looked at all the new racers around him. He admired how dedicated they were to the sport, and how surprisingly skilled they were at it. In spite of what Jet had said earlier, these kids had earned their place in this tournament.
BUT...He couldn't let them off TOO easily now, could he? After all, nothing's fun if it's too easy!
Breaking into a spindash, Sonic bobbed and weaved his way around the other racers, going from 30th place to 14th in a matter of seconds before taking a rail to re-fill his board's air. Lap 3 was coming up fast, and he needed to get his hustle going!
Lucy finished her drift and boosted along her path in the final lap. 58th place wasn't her greatest yet, but among 100, this was doing pretty well. She'd been maintaining a small rivalry with a bear named Sheila, who rode on what looked like a wooden board. They weren't being too hostile to each other, of course, just maintaining a little banter from before the race had begun, since the two had never gotten that far from each other. "Wearing out yet, skater girl?" Sheila teased. "Not on your life!" Lucy quipped back, as the two began another turn. However, while Lucy managed to make the turn just fine, Sheila took a small half-loop before her board ran into a metal railing hard, breaking it, and sending her tumbling down to the ground. Lucy gasped as she saw the danger, quickly veering to catch Sheila before she hit the ground. Lucy's energy shields activated as the two tumbled across the raceway, just barely being missed by passing racers. Lucy got back up on her feet as the Glamor Chao gathered. "Are you hurt?" She asked, helping Sheila up. "Eh, little bumped, but not even bruised thanks to those shield thingies. Good idea, wearing those." Lucy shrugged. "My dad won't let me race without them. Just glad I got a use out of them..."
"OH! The race! Sorry, Sheila, but-" Lucy started, before Sheila interrupted. "Yeah, you gotta get back to it! See you at the finish line!" Lucy waved good-bye as she quickly rejoined the race. 78th place, now...Not the best look, but as long as she didn't drift too far back...
Jet the Hawk nailed the landing on his final ramp jump before the end of the race. He'd been sitting pretty in first place since the half-way point of lap 2, and he wasn't giving it up for anything! These idiots were gonna get their first, painful lesson in Extreme Gear superiority!
"Hey Jet!" Sonic said, casually laying on his Extreme Gear like a freaking couch as he caught up to Jet. "Ready to lose?" Jet got noticeably angry again at how casual Sonic was being about all of this. "Can't you take this seriously for two seconds!?" He yelled. Sonic just yawned and rolled over to his belly, placing a hand on his chin. "Man, what crawled up your tail feathers and died?"
Jet got a little more steamed about that remark...Before his anger turned into a sly smile. "Hmph, thanks for the idea, hedgehog!" He said, taking out his twin bashÅsen and boosting across towards the finish line. Sonic casually countered with his spindash, bringing him and Jet neck and neck as they prepared to cross. Here it was, the moment of truth...
