"So...What do you think we're supposed to do with these crates here ?" Amy asked to Whisper as she looked at the tall crate, the wolf just shrugged at her, the boxes easily towering over them.
Whisper's gaze was shifted down to the mud pit and over to the robot sunken amidst the waters and to her friend as she effortlessly hopped over from platforms in an almost taunting manner over the bumbling albatross that barely but somehow was keeping up and getting through the obstacles without too much problem...or grace.
"You okay in there ?" Tangle asked the albatross as he pulled himself up from an almost fall, angrily mumbling to himself before shouting to her from his end.
"Stop going so fast will ya, let me catch up !" She smirked at the albatross that kept on the chase, as he hopped the last few platforms, closing the distance between them.
She turned to face the second challenge, the tightrope. With a deep breath, she leaped into it, earning some gasps from her teammates and some from the other team.
Just as she was about to fall, the tail grasped the rope, she hung from the rope upside down, everyone watched as she used her tail to cross the gap. Storm on the other hand managed to catch up, he swallowed hard when he saw the rope hanging over the pit, he looked back at his friends for help.
Wave sighed, placing both hands close to her beak she shouted "Just try to walk past it slowly, you shouldn't have much trouble that way" The albatross took a deep breath and placed one foot on the rope, the thread began to give away on his weight.
Tangle stopped midway through close to the end and she decided to look at how he was going to make his way across, reluctantly Storm placed his second foot startled at how the rope descended on his weight, he stood completely still. Until he heard one of his teammates shouting.
"You're doing so far great big guy! Keep going" He kept breathing in and out for almost five seconds before slowly starting to make his way across, surprisingly he was making his way across, but halfway through Eggman groaned.
The lemur arrived at the last challenge, the platform floating in front of her, patiently waiting for her to step on it. Carelessly she hopped on it, Storm sped up his pace on the rope that shook up and down in response to it, but alas, managed to reach the end. A bit late to his surprise, or lack thereof, his opponent was already onboard the platform, Storm quickly hopped on top of the platform in front of him.
He barely fitted inside it, barely had any space to move around, all he could do was stand and wait for him to arrive second.
"This is getting a bit stale don't you think friend ?" Eggman asked the audience, the Tanuki that stood by his side, nodded in agreement.
"I wonder what could we do to spice things up? any ideas chubby man ?" Dodon Pa asked him while scratching his chin. Eggman lifted his head and laughed, he tossed a remote up and down.
"Oh I think I do have something, electrifying in mind"
During their sluggish ride on the platforms, both Tangle and Storm heard a buzzing sound, their gazes were shot backward to meet a small swarm of robotic wasps, blue and black paint job, an antenna that some would call cute... If not for sparks flying vigorously out of their metallic mandibles.
Eggman and Dodon Pa laughed as they watched the two competitors shuffle and wiggle out of the wasps' way. Tangle going up and down the platform using her tail and her nimbleness to the best of her abilities, in an almost contortionist fashion.
While Storm, on the other hand, was having close calls after the other, lifting his leg, crouching down, but for the wasps, it was way easier to hit a stumbling 4ft tall albatross, than a Lemur.
He felt something hit his back, in a blink of an eye fifty thousand volts were lovingly delivered to his body, top to bottom, beaks to claws, the only thing that prevented him from a muddy dive was his body fat, he could barely hear Tangle shouting at him.
"Hey! Are you okay ?" His eyes slowly opened, electricity still slightly jolting through his body, and nodded. But they weren't out of the woods yet, but it was close. Once he managed to shake the jolts off of his person, he saw the flag flapping against the wind.
Both smiled at the sight, but Storm couldn't catch a break, he saw another wasp in a crash course directed toward his face. Before the contact could be made he held it by its metallic chassis, the vespoid kept stretching its head while angrily buzzing.
In a move the wasp was tossed aside, it's target suddenly changed to a lemur already busy on her end of things, only noticing it when it was already too late.
Electricity ran, from the top of her head to the sole of her shoe, she stiffened like a board, when the electricity subsided, her tails fell, still numb from the shock she followed after, she unceremoniously felt down to the mud.
To say that Whisper was glaring daggers would be an understatement, she may as well be signing a silent warrant on him, even a meathead like Storm could notice what it meant. But he didn't have time to pay attention, the wasps hadn't left him alone. But alas he got to the end, the wasps ended their onslaught and retrieved back to their holes, he chose a crate from the pile, lifting it effortlessly and bringing it back to his team.
"Eggman, I guess you could say this is a Shocking turn of events ?" The fat man threw his head back and fakely laughed at the pun, while the rest cringed at it.
"Oh, Dodon Pa you rascal, now for the last competitors. Orbot! Spin it you worthless tin can!" He jumped up interrupted from the suspension mode and gave it the strongest spin his aluminum frame body could muster.
Around and around it spun, where it lands nobody knows, that is until it stopped after nearly a minute.
Wave vs Knuckles
"Let's get this over with !" The echidna pounded his fist against each other and stepped forth, and so did Wave.
They barely even said something to each other, let alone stare, both focused on the track ahead. A gunshot announced the start.
Knuckles ran head start, his fist crushing the swinging hammers easily, as he hopped from platform to platform.
"Wait up, is he allowed to do that ?" Rouge asked Eggman, he shrugged and answered.
"Well. He is not in the water now is he?" Eggman looked at her with his ever so famous trademark evil grin.
Knuckles reached the tightrope with Wave following after, stopping to catch her breath before setting foot on the rope.
To Wave, balancing on the rope held as much difference as balancing on an extreme gear, except for the fact that she had to walk. Knuckles, on the other hand, didn't have much on the balance department, he wobbled left and right as he tried to walk on the rope, stumbling not falling...almost.
Steadily Wave took the lead, Knuckles sped up his pace.
Wave was still ahead of him.
Faster, he told himself.
He was getting closer, Wave approachedthe end of the rope. With a deep breath Knuckles sped up his pace, his foot slipped from the rope, and down he fell, it would be the end of him if not for his hand grasping the rope, his feet dangled in the air. He couldn't hope to catch up to Wave now, she already hopped on the platform of the last challenge. But he had an idea.
Grasping the hope with both hands, he began to shake the rope up and down, up and down, over and over until. When the momentum was at its absolute peak he let it go, launching himself up high in the air, high enough for him to easily glide to the end.
Wave grinded her teeth and shouted at him "You cheater!" Knuckles snickered and laughed.
"I'm not touching the water now am I?" As much as Wave hated to admit it, he was right, and she was just outsmarted by a gullible, loner Knucklehead. But as soon as he got over the last area, the metal hatches slid open again.
Soon enough, Knuckles found himself swarmed by the wasps, a single punch turned them into scrap metal but it came at a price, with each punch he lost a bit of altitude, but no problem as long as he didn't touch the water he was still in the game.
Wave hopped on the platform, it began its sluggish travel, but for her luck, most of the wasps were focused on the echidna up high, and he was approaching the end, while she wasn't even halfway through.
She could only watch as Knuckles latched on the wall, punching the wasps as he climbed to the flag, claiming victory for his team. The wasps ended their onslaught, allowing easy passage.
But Wave would rather be swarmed by taser wielding wasps then be outsmarted by a red gullible echidna and she couldn't even cheat properly. She gritted her teeth and mumbled profanities as she returned to her team swearing that this wouldn't go unpunished.
With a whistle, Dodon Pa took the attention of all the participants "Congratulations to both teams for passing the first stage of this challenge. Now for the first part of the second phase, each team is tasked to bring the crates they earned from the challenge back to the front of your respective cabins"
Knuckles, Storm, and Shadow with a bit of work lifted the crates, chatting whilst among each other. Silver walked closer to Dodon Pa and asked.
"Hey uh, can you guys take this thing off? I gotta get Omega out of the mud pit down there" Eggman looked down and Omega smirked and looked back at Silver.
"The challenge isn't over yet, your collars will only get taken off once the challenge ends. Now hurry on back to your team like a good challenger" With that both announcers left them.
"Oh well, at least I can try to help you guys out, where do we begin?" Silver said as he glanced down into the pit where the robot was. Sonic groaned and said out loud.
"Oh great, I just realized that we'll have to drag him along with that crate, this is gonna be a long day" Tails placed a finger and hummed to himself.
"Maybe I and Rogue can fly him out of there, what do you think ?" She looked down at the robot and shrugged.
"I think it could work, can you pull your weight fox boy ?" She said as she flew down.
"Well I lifted Knuckles and Sonic at once," He said as he flew down, following her.
"Oh for crying out loud, can't we just leave him there ?" Jet asked Rouge shouted from the pit.
"You can go and drag that box all by yourself for all I care bird brain, I am not leaving my friend in the dirt"
Jet grunted and with an angry tone replied.
"Fine, have fun lifting that hunk-a-junk outta there" Jet then strutted to the crate, walking around it, and with all his might to push the thing, it barely moved from the spot it was.
Back at the pit, Rouge silently ranted to herself about her teammate, only to be snapped out of it by Tails.
"So uh...You ready Rouge ?" Tails asked as he grasped the robot's large shoulder with both hands, she nodded, grasping the other end herself.
"Yeah, on three" On the count to three, both grunted as they slowly but surely, flew the robot out of there, after probably the longest minute of Tails and Rouge's lives, the bot was out of there and in the grass.
Tails sprawled out on the floor barely moving and Rouge trying to catch her breath.
"Now I remember why I haven't done that in a while, ouch," Amy rushed towards them and asked both of them.
"Are you two ok ?" Rouge nodded
"I'm fine, how about you fox boy ?"
"Think so, ouch" Tails yelped in pain as he tried to stand up using his arm as a support, causing him to fall on the ground. "Nevermind, my arm hurts" Sonic walked up to his friend, helped him up, and took a look at his arm, slightly pinkish, somewhat swollen.
"Well, it doesn't look so bad. Can you move your arms" Even a wave sent jolts of pain, Tails shook his head. "Can you walk ?"
"Think so, it hurts a bit but I think I can walk back to the camp" Sonic smiled, he went to tap his shoulder but quickly moved his hands away.
"Good to hear, if you need any help just say it" He then turned to his team, yelling "Ok guys, let's get moving"
Back with the other team
Knuckles placed the heavy crate down on the ground with a shaking sound from the inside, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked back to his team, as the other two crates were placed on the floor, Dodon Pa stepped closer, capping his hands congratulating them.
"Congratulations, KnockOut Flickies! Now for the second stage of your challenge, inside those crates, you will find parts to build yourself, a sizable full metal, four wheels, and the best engine money can buy. That's right ladies and gentlemen you'll be making a..."
What could it be? A brand new state of the arc sports car, a flying fortress? Their mouths gaped, minds raced through the many possible ideas of such a reward, before they were inevitably and mercilessly shattered
"A fridge"
Some mouths gaped, some simply stared in disbelief, others honestly had no idea what a fridge even was.
Vector tried to laugh it off and asked "...You're...Joking are you ?" The tanuki shook his head. He looked back at his team and asked.
"Ok team, who here knows how to build a fridge ?" Silence all over the team. "Oh boy, this is gonna be a long evening"
The crates were cracked open, its contents placed on the ground, Knuckles sat on the ground scratching his head and he placed each piece against each other. Whisper managed to make some progress, she applied some of her experience of maintenance on her wispon, it wasn't much but hey, it was better than nothing.
Seven minutes deep into their work, with little to no progress Knuckles asked.
"Hey, does anyone know where Tails is at ?" Knuckles asked Tikal her answer, a shrug. Cream overheard it and answered his question for her.
" I think Tails was helping out of the mud pit" Knuckles snickered a bit.
"Heh yeah, is that guy even operational ?" In the distance, they heard the sound of something being dragged, on the end of an uphill battle a large crate and the robot was in sight, Behind them, a team, tired out of their minds.
"Now that both teams are here, allow me to explain fully how this challenge will work. In the crates you earned in the obstacle you will find pieces to build a fridge or as I like to call it, The Winter Box. The team that builds the best fridge gets three weeks worth of Chaos Soda™" He then pulled out a small piece of paper and spoke it's words out loud.
"Chaos Soda: The only way to control the Chaos in you!" He placed on his pocket the piece of paper and cleared his throat. "The other team will be sending someone home, you have until sundown and it's currently four pm. Good Luck"
A hand was placed on the fox's shoulders"Tails! Good thing you're here bud-" Vector's cheerful tone was cut by a yelp of pain, he quickly got his hands off of him and asked. "You allright?" The fox shook his head and explained his current predicament, but offered to walk them through the process, better than just smacking stuff together and hope that it works.
And so both teams began to work, Wave did most of the work while her team helped her out, things went without much trouble, only some slight misunderstanding here and there.
With the knockout flickies on the other hand.
The team had been separated into few groups, diving the tasks between each one of them, with Tails checking in with each one of them,
"It is supposed to go here" Knuckles shouted as he pointed to a specific part in the fridge, Storm shook his head, a large mechanical piece in his hands, and shouted louder.
"Yes it does, look it's gonna fit in there like a glove" Knuckles crossed his arms and leaned back a bit, not wanting to blow a fuse over him he simply said.
"Really? Then put it in"
"Erm, yeah uh, sur-sure" He then turned to the empty space in the machine, the piece in his hands, after some hesitation he proceeded to slam the piece inside, its entrance announced with the sound of something metallic breaking.
"Hah, I told you it would fit" Storm looked at Jet hoping that he had seen him do it, to his surprise he was busy with the fridge.
"Of course it's gonna fit when you ram the thing in. If the whole thing falls apart it'll be on you, got it ?" Storm began to reconsider if that was a good idea but if he had a chance to impress Jet it was worth it, he even kidnapped someone to impress him, and so messing up a fridge was a no biggie.
When the sun finally set down in the sea, Eggman blew a whistle and lifted a hand up. "Alright challengers, hands off the fridges, time's up"
Both teams followed his instructions and stood back, Eggman and Dodon Pa approached them with an Eggpawn carrying a generator behind him, he glanced at both fridges, The fridge of the Flickies looked spotless and well built.
The other fridge was an amalgamation of fridge parts and wood from the crate.
To save them the embarrassment he went first for the flickies team, congratulating them on the work, he stuck a thermometer inside the fridge and connected the cord to the generator.
The engines revved up, its insides getting chilled, victory seemed close to their grasp until it began to make a clunking noise as it began to shake wildly, launching parts everywhere, and in no time reducing it to a pile of mismatched pieces. Tails's mouth gaped as he asked his team.
"Ho-how did that happen, did I do something wrong ?" Talk quickly emerged among the team gripping his ears in frustration, no one was blaming each other until Knuckles spoke out.
"Storm did it, saw him slam a piece in there and break the whole thing" All eyes were set on him, the albatross tried to awkwardly laugh it off. Mutters and talks about kicking him out ram amok the team.
And so the choice was a pile of fridge pieces or the love child of a crate and metallic parts.
Eggman turned around to face the other team "The Shooting Chao won this challenge...by elimination, enjoy your monthly supply of Chaos Soda™! As for the Flickies, place your votes on which participant you want out in the cabin and meet me on the south edge of this island after dinner. Until then challengers"
When Eggman walked off the teammates began to scatter around the island, some headed for the small beach, others went for the cabins to rest, Tails went to get some medical treatment from Dodon Pa's DocBots. Whisper rightfully went to check on her friend.
With an ever low tone, she asked."Are you ok? Did that fall hurt you ?" Tangles shook her head as she tried to get the mud off her fur and calmed her down.
"Don't worry I'm fine, it wasn't the worst thing that has happened to me, the worst part is the mud" She ended it with a small laugh to try to calm her friend down.
"What about that shock ?" Tangle blinked a few times and remembered her fall after having a wasp hurled towards her.
"Oh yeah, that happened...how's the big guy anyway ?" The Wolf's face soured when he mentioned him, he didn't strike a good first impression on her, ransacking her friend's museum, kidnapping Jewel, and zapping her best friend, safe to say that she wasn't on the best terms with him.
"Don't know..." After that Silence crept its way into the conversation, both stayed quiet not knowing what to say, Tangle scratched the back of her head and said.
"Well I'm kinda thirsty, I'll go grab some chaos cola, want some ?" Whisper cracked a smile and said.
"That stuff's horrible." Tangle shrugged.
"Well I got shocked for it, so I may as well have some."
Not too far from there, Shadow managed to snag a toolbox from a shed, he sat down with Omega, he removed his chest plate, mud was everywhere on his insides, engines, circuitry, chips, and such.
After the many times, Omega was plucked apart, destroyed, or damaged for most of the time, since Shadow was most of the time by his side in missions, inevitably he learned how to patch him up, but his knowledge didn't go that far, fixing a bullet stuck on his joint was no problem, but the more serious cases.
With a rag he began to wipe the mud off of him, giving him a clear view of his insides and naturally the source, chunks of dirt stuck on the various holes and gaps of the rods and moving parts.
He took a deep breath and with a pair of pliers, began to work, carefully pulling each chunk out, being careful to not break them apart, it took some time but he was done, once all the pieces were out, but the robot hadn't moved.
"Oh there you are Shadow" Tails walked into view "Our team is waiting for you at the south edge"
"What about Omega ?" Tails looked over at the bot.
"I'll fix him up when it's over, it shouldn't take long, come on" With a grunt Shadow stood up.
"This won't take long" Shadow walked over to Tails, Omega sounded his complaint.
"It better not."
As they passed by the dorms, Shadow saw the other team, celebrating their victory, chatting amongst themselves, very few were drinking the actual beverage though, a few people were missing on the reunion, he paid it no mind, they weren't his teammates after all.
When they reached the south edge, Shadow saw his teammates, all sitting down on chairs, lights placed in dramatic angles, in the stage stood both of the hosts, cubot carrying a box, not far from the chairs he saw Tangle, Jet, and Blaze. Eggman turned around with a grim he invited Shadow.
"Ah, there you are, come closer, black hedgehog we have a seat waiting for you," Dodon Pa said as he motioned him to an armchair, he crossed his arms "Don't worry it is not a trap my friend you have my word" Reluctantly he sat down, the chair was somewhat comfortable.
"As I've told you before, your team has lost the challenge, not only will that person leave the Island they will also leave the handsome reward behind, being deemed as losers. Even though you gave it you're all on the first challenge someone will be leaving the Knockout Flickies tonight. Do you see these brass medals ?" He showed it to them, the polished metal gleamed with the light.
"They represent safety if you receive a medal you will not be eliminated, try to stand up and Metal Sonic will gladly force you down… As you can see I have only nine medals. One of you will go home. When I call your name, walk up to me, take your medal, and go back to your seat." He cleared his throat and said out loud the following names.
Tails, Knuckles, Tikal, Vector, Cream, Charmy, Whisper, and Shadow
Each one took their medal sitting down, tension was in the air.
"Silver and Storm, what can I say, some weren't too happy with what you did and now one of you will pay the price" Silver and Storm stared at the medal, afraid of which one he would call out.
Viewers glued to the screen as they relished in the drama, and Eggman is more than glad to hold their attention, loving every second of that tension that hung in the air. But he couldn't keep it going forever sadly.
"...Silver" The white hedgehog felt a huge weight off his shoulders, gladly walking to him and taking his medal. Storm swallowed the lump in his throat.
"Wa-wait I can explain" Eggman grinned as he held a remote.
"Too bad Storm, wave the prize goodbye and Bon voyage" With a press of a button, the chair morphed itself into a flying egg pawn, without wasting a second flew him away.
Jet cursed to himself in frustration, stomping towards Eggman "Hey, where'd that thing take my friend to ?" Ignoring the bird Eggman's gaze attention shifted towards an eggpawn with a camera.
"And that's all for today folks" Dodon Pa jumped in, the lens focused on him.
"Tune in, tomorrow for another episode of" Eggman jumped into the frame, both saying in unison, with Jet being held back by Metal Sonic.
"Isle of Defiance"