13. Entering the Race
Sonic lounged in the front seat, idly watching his friend drive. Tails had finally run out of explanation about the modifications he'd made to the hoverboards and fallen silent. Sonic had pretended interest, but he really didn't care that much. As far as he was concerned, hoverboards were for people who couldn't run; or maybe for technology fans like Shadow. It would have been a lot faster for him to simply run to Future City, but he'd been overruled by Tails and Knuckles, who had feared either a trap or that he might run into more Nightmarens on the way. Which they had, in fact - Sonic had vaulted out of the car twice: once to deal with a collection of what looked like zombie teddy bears that had been attacking a young human couple; and again ten minutes later, to face down (if you could call it that) a strange, midnight green, shadowy something that had neither face nor form. That particular thing had intercepted the car, attacked it, and then pursued them until Sonic got out to confront it. Afterward, he'd noticed Knuckles staring uneasily out the back window, and wondered if there was a connection. The echidna had continued peering around for most of the trip, before finally falling asleep in the back seat, but Sonic had seen nothing else but a gorgeous afternoon. He'd wished mightily to be out running in it. Hadn't he already proved the Nightmarens were no threat to him?
But now the splendid sunset was fading, and they were flitting along the over-ground routes of Future City. Many of the cars here were hover vehicles, so routes were marked at several levels above the ground streets, and many buildings had upper level parking and entrances. While such was not the case in Central City, Tails had long ago ensured that his car had hover capabilities of its own. The cub was piloting the car though early evening traffic while keeping one eye on the portable Chaos energy scanner on the dashboard. Suddenly he swung the car to the right. "Wake up, Knuckles! I think we're here!"
"Huh? I wasn't asleep," protested the echidna, although the massive yawn that followed gave lie to his words. Tails brought the car to a neat landing on a rooftop lot and reached for his scanner.
"That's odd." He tapped the face of it, then pressed a few buttons one-handed while exiting the car. Sonic and Knuckles joined him as he turned slowly in a circle, waving the device.
"What's up, Tails?" asked Sonic. Now that they were here, he wanted to get the Emerald fast and clear out. Eggman had tried to take over the city's energy plant once, and probably still had a base in a nightclub downtown, from which an ambush could easily be sprung. He wondered if Eggman was holding the Emerald for some reason.
"I think the signal's coming from around here," the fox cub said uncertainly. He lowered his scanner and tapped the face again. Then he turned it toward his friends. "Hmm, that's really weird. It looks like something's jamming the radar signal."
Sonic blinked at the scanner, which said clearly that it was registering a 'Jamming Wave', but before he could say anything, something crashed through a window nearby. He spun around to look, spotting the spray of shards from a window several stories above and across the street. Right behind the glass came a trio of figures, moving fast, out into the open air above the street and the over-ground lanes.
"There! What's that?" Too slow, Knux, thought Sonic, who was already moving towards the edge of the roof. The blobby, shifting shapes resolved into three humanoid forms, each on a hoverboard, dropping in a quick but controlled fall towards street level. Probably dokan, by the silhouettes. And is that–?
His nascent sense of recognition was confirmed by Tails. "Sonic! The Emerald's over there!"
Sonic was already on the move. "All right! Now we're talking!" Action was ever preferable to standing around. He vaulted over the low wall guarding the roof edge, curling into a ball and aiming the leap so that he ricocheted between two buildings on the way down. He hit the ground before the strangers got there, and whirled to face them - and the half-dozen police cars roaring up the street. Flinging out a hand, he hollered "Stop!"
In a blur of green the lead boarder dodged around him. "Hey!" Sonic started to turn but then Knuckles slammed down behind him. A single magnificent punch sent one of the other dokan - who looked on a par with Big the Cat, size-wise - flying in a different direction than his board, which tumbled riderless along the street. Before he hit the ground, rider number three maneuvered her board to intercept and catch him, and flew on past Sonic and Knuckles with hardly a glance, diving into a street tunnel with the police in hot pursuit.
"Shoot!" muttered Knuckles. Tails had collected the abandoned hoverboard and was looking it over.
"Sorry, Tails," said Sonic, as he snatched the board away. If Shadow can ride one of these things, so can I! He flung the board forward and leaped onto it. Remembering Tails' instructions he kicked the board into motion and raced into the tunnel after the Chaos Emerald, its alleged thieves, and the police cars. Weaving through the traffic proved to be not so different on the board compared to on foot. Huh, this is easy! Dunno why everyone makes it - oops! - out to be so hard! Dodging an unexpected car, he managed to increase speed, rocketing past the police and the third rider, whose board seemed to be suffering from carrying double. As he reached the side of the green dokan in front - he had some sort of crest or headdress, but details were difficult to make out in the flashing glare of sodium lamps and headlights - the other swung a pale-gloved fist at him, and missed. The next minute was filled with missed blows on both sides while dodging oncoming vehicles. Finally, Sonic kicked his board forward and sideways, cutting in front of the green rider, and braked sharply.
"Oh, not bad," the stranger's voice sounded impressed as Sonic emerged from the tunnel and turned to face his adversary - who wasn't there.
"What the –?" Sonic looked around, and then up as a shadow fell across him - and was knocked rolling as the green figure drove down from above, hard and fast, somehow blasting a shockwave of air that sent Sonic's purloined board tumbling.
The green figure braked sharply, hovered a second, and Sonic got a brief, good look at it: a green-feathered dokan hawk, probably about his own age. The hawk snorted, "So you're supposed to be the fastest thing alive?" and then he was gone, dashing away as his companions roared out of the tunnel, the large grey bird riding pillion snatching his board up as they raced past it, still trailed by police cars.
Slightly dizzy, Sonic stood up, looking after the trio with a surge of satisfaction.
"Sonic! Are you all right?" Tails and Knuckles ran out of the tunnel to join him.
The blue hedgehog gave himself a shake and grinned. Maybe hoverboards weren't just for people who couldn't run. "All right! New competition!" Tails and Knuckles looked at each other and the cub sighed.
Sonic flipped through televison channels at the hotel, while Tails tried to run another trace on the Chaos Emerald, or any Chaos Emerald. His mind still spinning around the mysterious hawk and the hoverboards, he was rather pleased to find a documentary on them - or on the boards, at least. The narrator was describing the history of 'the modern Extreme Gear racing boards', which didn't look all that much different to Sonic from what he had. History was not something he was much interested in, but the boards had been invented by a son of Professor Gerald Robotnik - who Sonic definitely WAS interested in.
"Hey," Knuckles leaned over the back of the couch to look at the picture of Gerald Robotnik on the screen, "isn't that Eggman's grandfather? The guy who made Shadow and tried to smash the ARK into the world?"
"Yep, that's him. And his son invented the hoverboard based on some of old Gerald's work," agreed Sonic, as the picture obligingly changed.
"So does that mean he's Eggman's dad?" Knuckles frowned at the picture that had replaced Gerald's on the TV screen. Unlike Eggman and Gerald, Ivan was not bald; thick blond hair matched his moustache perfectly.
Sonic didn't answer at first, rather shocked by the concept of Eggman having anything so commonplace as a 'dad'. But that's silly, I know Gerald's his grandfather, so I must have known he had a father too. Everyone does. He gave himself a shake. "I dunno, Knuckles. He could be what's-her-name - Mary's - dad, I guess."
"Maria," called Tails from the next room.
"What?"
"Doctor Eggman's cousin's name was Maria. Ivan is his dad: Ivan, Ivo. Doctor Ivan Robotnik invented some of the robotics technology that Eggman uses, and also improved on some of Professor Gerald's ideas. Of course, Eggman's made a number of innovations and improvements of his own," explained the fox cub.
"How on earth do you know all that, Tails?" asked the hedgehog.
"I do research," answered Tails loftily. "'Know thy enemy', and all that."
"Good idea," Knuckles nodded in approval.
Sonic snorted. "How much do I need to know other than 'he's causing problems so let's stop him'?
"Oh hey, look." The documentary ended, but apparently it was only a short insert piece in coverage of a local event. "That's why the roads were so crowded earlier, Tails, there's an Airboard Festival going on right here."
The fox cub came out of his room to join them, frowning. Knuckles obligingly slid over so Tails could sit on the couch between them. "Do you suppose those three were here for the festival and decided to do a little stealing along the way? Or did they use the festival as cover to plan and make the theft? There are probably plenty of people walking around with boards; look at all the events."
Sonic was looking; the screen was showing a summary of the day's events, then switched to a list of the next day's. "Trick demonstrations, hoverboard races, hoverboard trick competitions, new gear trials, hover skates - huh, Shadow should be there for that one - air bikes. Wow, there's a lot there. Robotnik Inc. new extreme gear unveiling. Do you suppose old Eggy's here for that? I wouldn't put it past him to crash this party."
Tails gave him an odd look. "He wouldn't have to crash it, Sonic. Doctor Ivo Robotnik is the head of Robotnik Inc. and Future City is practically a company town. Why do you think all these cars fly through the air, and the buildings are so mechanized? Eggman owns half the town, and built the rest of it!"
"What? Oh, come on, Tails. If he's such a high mucky-muck around here, why was he trying to take over the power plant a few months ago?"
I'm . . . not sure he was," said the cub slowly. "Hexaco, the energy company, is one of the utilities that Eggman does own under his real name. I think the robots were trying to guard the energy from Metal Sonic, not from us. Eggman might have known that Metal Sonic had learned how to transform, but he wouldn't have necessarily known what Metal would look like - remember, he looked enough like you in that one picture to fool Amy."
Sonic snorted, and Knuckled laughed. "A boulder could look enough like Sonic to fool Amy," said the echidna.
Tails frowned severely, or tried to. It was hard to glare at two people sitting on opposite sides of you. "You keep making fun of her, and she's not that bad," he complained.
Sonic put on his best big-brotherly expression. "She's not bad," he said, patting Tails on the shoulder, "but you have to admit she can be a bit of a pest sometimes, always tagging along."
Tails looked even more offended. "I tag along too, Sonic. Am I a pest?" He jumped up from the couch and stalked back to his room, closing the door sharply behind him, leaving Sonic rather nonplused.
Next morning the three went looking for a spot to eat breakfast. The streets were packed with festival-goers both human and dokan, many with a board under an arm, while policemen and security robos tried to keep people from riding the boards in the streets. To Sonic it looked like a losing battle, but he refrained from joining in to show off his own moves; heroes were supposed to uphold the laws, after all. Above a crowded plaza lined with vendors, a huge video screen was flashing advertisements and festival updates. Sonic gave it a cursory glance and continued looking for a suitable breakfast source. Someone had just walked by with a couple of doughnuts that looked pretty good. A sudden peal of unpleasantly familiar laughter snapped Sonic's attention back to the screen, just in time to see the Airboard Festival logo vanish.
It was replaced by an all too familiar figure. "Eggman!" exclaimed Sonic, in unintended chorus with Knuckles and Tails. He narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, focusing on his long-time opponent's televised visage.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" crowed the Doctor. "Welcome everyone! I hope you're all ready for a show, we've got an exciting event, just for you. Hohohohohoho! Since you all seem so bored, I put together a little something extra to spice things up! I call it the 'EX World Grand Prix'; a tournament to see who's the best with Extreme Gear. Not just a race, but a special race, to see who's the fastest." Sonic snorted. Isn't that the point of every race, Eggman? "And," the human continued, "these races are no-holds-barred! All contestants pay a simple entry fee of one Chaos Emerald, and the winner takes it all! So, let's see who among you dares to meet this challenge!"
The image vanished, replaced by the rather more pleasant sight of a glossy new airboard. Sonic ignored the ad, his mind spinning. "Eggman again! Just what is he up to this time!" He dug in his memory for the schedules he'd seen last night and posted around town. I think this race was already on the schedule, so why is he hijacking the monitor to proclaim it now? Abruptly, the mad Doctor was back again.
"And there's more!" he continued, as if the broadcast hadn't been interrupted. Sonic wondered if he was aware of the glitch. "Before I forget, I'll present the current contestants. These players, they're hot; the best racers I could find!" Sonic heard Knuckles' grunt of recognition as a massive grey bird replaced Eggman's image, a yellow board with lots of numbers and small text around it beside him. That image faded to a violet, female swallow, whose long crest feathers were tied back under a white scarf. Then Sonic gasped himself as she was succeeded by the green hawk. "Hey, that's . . . !" He concluded under his breath,"Jet the Hawk," reading the name on the screen. I'll be sure to remember that name. Even the picture exuded a degree overconfidence and cockiness that the hedgehog found personally offensive. "The EX World Grand Prix, huh? Let's do this!"
"What? But Sonic, what about the Nightmarens?" Tails got the question in first, although the echidna's expression suggested he had the same objection.
"Eh, this won't take long. Besides, if Eggman's collecting Emeralds, we'd better find out what's going on. Even if we take one for the Dreamcaster that'll still put him in possession of six, and remember what he did with the Eclipse cannon with fewer than that. What if he's got some new machine to channel all that power? We could get rid of the Nightmarens to find our own nightmare here."
The fox cub frowned, and looked at Knuckles who grimaced. Both knew that Sonic had a point, of course. "So, you'll join me?" he said confidently.
"Of course, Sonic. You might need that board tweaked a bit. But we will get back to the Dreamcaster as soon as we're done with the Grand Prix, won't we?"
"Sure we will." He grinned at the little fox. "We still have to clear all those Nightopians off Angel Island to give Knuckles some peace, don't we?"