Oh, goody. Long chapter. Enjoy!

Sonic and co. owned by Sega

Strike, Aqua, Axel and Sally owned by me

Other OCs owned by respective authors

Sonic the Hedgehog:

Tournament of the Stars

Chapter 9: Female Rivalry

Last time, Knuckles and Blaze defeated Chaos and Charmy to get to the next round. Charmy was still being treated for the burn Blaze gave him.

"Our next fighter is a two tailed genius; it's Miles 'Tails' Prower!"

Tails walked on as the crowd cheered for him. Sonic gave him a thumbs up which Tails returned.

"And his opponent, a robot intent on destroying his master, it's E-123 Omega!"

Omega slowly entered the arena and gave Tails a cold hard stare. The fox knew that Omega wasn't going to be a push over.

"Uh, good luck?" Tails said, showing signs of nervousness.

Omega continued to stare before saying, "Entering battle mode!"

He suddenly pulled out his guns and opened fire on Tails. Panicking, he flew off and circled above Omega. Since his body could spin 360°, Omega had no trouble keeping his eyes on Tails. The kitsune however was faster than the robot and since he kept making confusing turns in the air, Omega couldn't hit him. Eventually, the guns ran out of ammo. Tails soared down and landed on Omega's head, kicking off of it.

The robot stumbled but managed to keep his footing. Deciding to go all out on Tails, Omega retracted his guns and began to fire miniature missiles, not the big ones since Omega didn't want to actually kill him. Tails once again took to the skies and began to avoid them. Unfortunately, the missiles exploded over time and since they had a wide range, Tails was knocked out of the air and crashed into the ground. Omega stood over the fox and prepared to deal one last blow to secure victory when Tails threw one of his dummy rings at him. Omega was paralyzed and couldn't move. Tails immediately ran round Omega, pulled out a spanner, and prepared to short circuit Omega so he could shut him down. Sadly, once he opened Omega's control panel up, he saw all sorts of circuitry and wires clogging it up. Eggman knew what he was doing when he built him. In order to sort through all this, the young genius would need 10 minutes or so, but he didn't have that much time.

The paralysis wore off and Omega spun his body round to face Tails. He grabbed him in his claws and began to spin round and round, making the fox want to throw up. Omega eventually let go and Tails was thrown into the wall. The robot stood over him and said "Opponent defeated" before walking off.

"Omega has won, people! How about that?"

The crowd cheered for Omega and he received congratulations from Shadow and Rouge. Tails, surprisingly, wasn't that badly hurt and easily healed himself. He sat back down, saddened at his loss. Cosmo tried making him feel better.

"It's OK, Tails. It doesn't matter that you lost" she said.

Tails sighed. "I just wish I did better. I really wanted to prove myself. That I could fight too."

Cosmo smiled. "Remember on the Blue Typhoon when Shadow tried to kill me? Sonic and Knuckles were taken out quickly yet you weren't. No matter how hard Shadow hit you, you wouldn't give up. So, you've already proven yourself to me."

Tails smiled and the two embraced each other. Kyira, who was watching the whole thing, had two things going through her mind. The first thing was to make sure Omega paid for hurting her son. The second thing was about Tails' heritage.

"Guess he doesn't know" she thought. She wondered how long it would take until Tails knew he was half demon, what with her being the daughter of Kyuubi no Kitsune, one of the most, if not the most, vicious demon in the world. Her thoughts were interrupted when the commentator spoke.

"Our next fighter is the last of the cheetah clan, it's Emily Leot the Cheetah!"

Emily walked on, taking in the cheers she got. Both Armand and Alan were cheering her on.

"And her opponent, a spunky pink hedgehog with a very big hammer, it's Amy Rose!"

Amy walked on and, like Emily, accepted the cheers. She waved to everyone and blew a kiss at Sonic. He noticed that Gemini had seen that and immediately resumed writing his will.

Amy and Emily walked to the centre and shook hands.

"Good luck" Amy said.

"Likewise" Emily replied.

The two then sprung back and charged. Amy pulled out her hammer while Emily readied her claws. When the two came in contact, there was an explosion (for some bizarre reason). Out of the smoke that was made, Emily was knocked out and slammed into the wall. Amy followed her, jumped and prepared to bring her hammer down. The cheetah used her quick reflexes to avoid it. When Amy's hammer came in contact with the ground, it left a mark that made Emily fear for her life. Amy turned and began swinging her hammer at Emily. Despite her best efforts, Emily was sent straight into the air. The pink hedgehog used this opportunity to throw her hammer after her, which it Emily in the air.

She slammed into the ground, leaving a crater. Amy was smug about her victory but realised that Emily wasn't crawling out. Becoming worried, she peered into it. Emily jumped out and kicked Amy in the stomach, knocking her back. She then charged up her energy claw and slashed Amy across the face. She was sent sprawling across the floor. As she tried to get up, Emily jumped and landed on top of the hedgehog, pressing her claw to the back of Amy's head.

"Give up?" she asked.

"You clearly don't know who you're dealing with" Amy replied.

Somehow, the hammer that Amy threw fell back down from the sky and bonked Emily on the head. The cheetah backed off, holding her head in pain, allowing Amy to get back up. She got some distance between them before spinning whilst holding her hammer out. A tornado made out of hearts was formed and Amy sent it in Emily's direction. It picked her up and spun her around, making her even dizzier. The tornado eventually subsided and dropped Emily. As she fell, Amy readied her hammer, but the cheetah had other plans. The gem in her navel began to glow and her claw became surrounded by blue energy. Amy was in total shock as Emily fell towards her, claw outstretched, and she slammed it into her. There was another explosion and when it subsided, Amy was on the floor, covered in bruises while Emily stood over her, panting.

"Amy can no longer fight, Emily wins!"

Emily helped Amy up and accompanied the medics as they took her away.

"You were really good. You nearly had me" Emily complimented.

Amy sighed. "That's good to know. I just wish I had won, and then maybe Sonic would like me."

"Oh, I'm sure he does, really!" said Emily.

Amy stared at her and began to think. Was it possible that Sonic liked her in that way but was too shy to admit it? All the same, her hopes that Sonic would love her hadn't changed.

Before the next fight began, Sally glanced at the leaflet and realised that after this one, she was next.

Turning to Mario, she said "I'm up next. Wish me luck."

Mario smiled and said "Be careful. Whoever you're up against will be tough, no doubt about that. But I'm sure you'll do OK."

Sally thanked Mario and even gave him a quick hug before leaving. During that time, Mario felt the same weird sensation in his chest that he felt when he first made friends with her. Putting his hand to his chest, he realised that his heart was beating fast.

He wasn't… Was he? Either way, he sat back down and waited for the next fight to begin. He wondered how Sally would fare against whoever it was she was fighting. Little did he know that the person she would fight wasn't tough, but merciless.