AN: We're about two thirds through this story and only just starting the second round. That should let you all know how quickly things are going to be moving along now. Who's Team Chaotix's client? Will Knuckles essentially force Sonic to throw his fight? Who all is going to reach the third round? All those questions and more are going to be answered right here.

Ch 6: Round Two

The crowd within the WanderCo Battle Stadium is cheering, eager for the fights to start.

All of Sonic's group (minus Silver the Hedgehog and Espio the Chameleon since they're fighting first) are in their same seats from yesterday.

Cream the Rabbit fidgets due to feeling nervous about facing Shadow the Hedgehog later. Even receiving comfort from her mother, Cheese the Chao, and Chocola the Chao isn't helping.

Vector the Crocodile wants to join in and help Vanilla calm her daughter down, but he has to watch over Charmy Bee since the little kid's freaking out over Espio possibly losing and Team Chaotix as a whole missing out on getting more money from their mystery client.

Amy Rose the Hedgehog is currently pouting. Having heard about Wander's demand for either Sonic or Knuckles the Echidna to throw their fights, she's certainly angry at the dark blue-green goat. However, since no one can do anything about Wander, the pink hedgehog's directing her ire at Knuckles. Since the red echidna refuses to bow out of the tournament and her attempts to threaten him with her Piko Piko Hammer or shout him into submission aren't working, Amy's forced to content herself with glaring at Knuckles for getting in the way of "her" Sonic.

The red echidna rolls his eyes over Amy's attempts to intimidate him. While he does not doubt she can back up her threat to take a swing at him with that giant hammer of hers, Knuckles won't miss out on his chance to be the big hero. 'Sonic's always the one saving the day. Not this time. I'll be the big winner of this whole thing.'

Sonic himself is very unhappy about having no other choice but to purposely lose to Fang the Hunter. However, the blue hedgehog has another concern overpowering that as he glances to his immediate left.

Tails is reading through information he has downloaded onto his Miles Electric. He is so engrossed in that, the young two tailed fox doesn't even register anything that's going on around him. The kid is disheveled and his eyes show that he hasn't slept.

"Tails, I think it's time to stop."

"Not yet."

Amy stops pouting for a few moments to join in with the others on being concerned about Tails's condition. "Sonic's right. You've been going over the stuff you got from WanderCo ever since you first downloaded it last night. You need some time off."

"I can't stop now. If I find proof Wander's up to no good, then we can bust him and ruin his reputation so he won't have public opinion to fall back on anymore."

Blaze the Cat leans over so she can get a good look at Tails. "Haven't you already told us you've gone over every file twice?"

"The truth has to be in some sort of code somewhere. Maybe even spread throughout all the files." The fox looks up at the light purple cat. "You'll see, I…" Tails stops and takes a look around himself. "When did we get to the stadium?"

Knuckles growls. "That's it! For your own good, either put that thing away or I'll smash it!"

Staring at the red echidna, the two tailed fox shuts off his gadget.

The loudspeakers can be heard coming on. "Welcome back, everybody, to the WanderCo Battle Tournament!" comes the voice of Wander the Goat. "I'm your host, Wander the Goat, and today's first match of the second round is about to start. Coming in from the north entrance, he's a master ninja capable of taking down someone twice his size and with four times his upper body strength…Espio the Chameleon!"

Vector the Crocodile and Charmy Bee cheer loudly for their friend and fellow Chaotix as he makes his way to the arena.

Honey the Cat silently watches, half to admire the sight of Espio walking and half to find out if she can glean an answer on what he decided after last night based on his posture. 'Did you take my suggestion or are you going to stay hooked on your ultra honor thing?'

Espio thinks over his meeting with Honey last night. 'She made a very valid point, but is it still the right thing to do?'

"From the south entrance," continues Wander. "He's a psychic powerhouse visiting from the future…Silver the Hedgehog!"

Blaze the Cat stands and cups her hands around her mouth to be heard over all the others cheering. "Win this!"

Silver remembers the encounter that he, Sonic, and Knuckles had with Wander last night. 'That guy's hiding power of some kind. Might even be enough to wipe out the world. The way to stop Wander from doing that is if I can win this tournament.' The white hedgehog looks at Espio as the countdown starts. "As I told you yesterday, I won't hold back."

Getting reminded of those words decides the purple chameleon's strategy for this fight as he gets into a fighting stance. "And as I told you…right back at you."

"Begin!" Wander shouts.

Espio instantly vanishes.

As most of the audience gasps and looks around for the purple chameleon, Honey the Cat smirks. 'Good choice, Handsome.'

"YEAH!" Charmy cheers. "Invisible Espio for the win!"

"Camouflaged Espio," Vector correct the young bee.

"Whatever. GO, ESPIO!"

Silver looks all around for his opponent. Out of nowhere, a kick to the back forces him a few yards forward. Before he can reorient himself, he gets hit again.

The crowd watches the white hedgehog continually get beaten and forced closer towards the edge of the arena by an unseen opponent.

Honey's smiling. 'Looks like my guy's getting win number two.'

From his private box, Wander the Goat frowns. 'Getting so easily defeated by the simple gimmick of a camouflaged opponent? How disappointing.'

Blaze the Cat stands. "SILVER! Don't give up!"

The white hedgehog does a fast burst with his psychic powers, flying over to a far corner of the arena and takes a knee. He places a hand down flat on the ground and expands his psychic aura outward. Shortly after, Silver senses Espio enter his aura field. He catches his camouflaged opponent a few feet away. "Sorry about this." The bright gray hedgehog throws the still unseen chameleon out of the arena.

Espio hits a wall and becomes visible again before falling to the ground.

"NO!" Charmy wails.

Vector face palms. "There goes our huge pay."

"Espio the Chameleon is out of bounds!" Wander the Goat announces to the crowd (who are already cheering). "Silver the Hedgehog wins!"

The ninja gets back up and bows to the white hedgehog.

Silver nods.

Meanwhile…

Knuckles the Echidna stands up. "Time for me to get the second win." He smirks over at Sonic. "Guess you'll just have to be the hero next time."

Amy Rose huffs. "How selfish of you, Knuckles."

The red echidna rolls his eyes as he heads for his designated entrance. "Right. Like your demand for me to throw my fight isn't for selfish reasons."

The pink hedgehog glares at Knuckles.

With everyone else so focused on this, no one notices Honey the Cat slip away to meet up with Espio. The yellow furred feline finds him passing the gorilla guard by the north entrance.

The purple chameleon is surprised by who's in front of him. "What are you doing here?"

"Wanted to make you feel better."

"Unlikely. I've failed my fellow members of Team Chaotix, losing out on the remaining offer of payment from the client who hired us to enter this tournament."

"Huh. Yeah, sorry. Can't help much there."

"Not only that, I've compromised my honor in an attempt to claim victory."

Honey groans. "Are you still on about that? Would you have beat yourself up like this if you'd won too?"

"All I know is that my ninja way has been…tainted."

The black haired feline shakes her head. "You and your rigid need for honor. Look, I say that what you did was pretty great. You wanna know why?"

Espio looks at Honey. "Alright. Why?"

The yellow furred cat gets in close. "Because I like for my guys to take action and really do something rather than give up and let things happen. You did the former and I like that a lot." She places a finger on the base of the purple chameleon's horn and stroke up to the tip.

Espio's left completely flustered. "My…friends are…probably wondering where I am. I should…go to them." He walks away quickly.

Honey eyes the purple chameleon's backside as he walks away. 'I'd love to play with his coiled tail someday.' She realizes she needs to use the little girls' room and heads off.

Meanwhile…

Bean the Dynamite jumps up from his seat. "I must now hop to it!" The small green bird proceeds to bring his feet together and hop all the way to his designated entrance.

Both Fang the Hunter and Bark the Polar Bear choose to lower their hats down over their faces, the pair embarrassed by the weirdo they work with.

Meanwhile…

Espio and Silver rejoin their friends.

Blaze the Cat smiles at the white hedgehog. "Great comeback."

Silver smiles back at the light purple cat. "Thanks."

The purple chameleon takes his seat while avoiding eye contact with his teammates. "I'll hope to one day earn your forgiveness."

"Don't sweat it," Vector the Crocodile assures him. "Now, we can sit back and enjoy the rest of this tournament from the stands."

"Yay!" shouts Charmy Bee.

"Excuse me," comes a female voice.

Everyone looks to see a familiar gerbil woman.

Amy Rose jumps up. "You're Wander's assistant!"

The gerbil woman nods. "That is correct."

Blaze glares distrustfully at the newcomer. "Why are you here without your master?"

"Business with Team Chaotix on behalf of Mr Wander."

"What would that guy want with us?" asks Charmy.

"He is paying you for seeing your job through to the best of your abilities."

"What job?" asks Espio.

Vector's jaw drops. "Wander the Goat was the client who hired us?!"

The assistant nods again. "Also correct."

Silver scratches his head feeling extremely confused. "Why would he hire Team Chaotix to enter his own tournament?"

The gerbil woman pulls out a slip of paper. "Mr Wander has heard that Team Chaotix is a rather unorthodox group that gets results. He wished to see if that could lead the three of them to being contenders in the tournament." She hands the slip of paper to Vector. "This is your check with the payment you've earned. It's the value that was placed on all three of you entering, plus Espio the Chameleon reaching the second round." The assistant turns to Tails. "I'll be informing Mr Wander that he was correct about you."

The young fox, though tired to the point of feeling on the verge of going to sleep, flinches at what this could possibly mean. "What are you talking about?"

"We are aware that you hacked into our system and downloaded copies of all our files."

"If you're so sure I committed this act, why didn't you guys do anything about it?"

"Because Mr Wander wished to see if you'd go mad over searching for something that is not there. He'll be amused to learn that his prediction was accurate. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must return to other business." The gerbil woman leaves.

"That's so mean!" Cream the Rabbit suddenly shouts.

"Chao!" Cheese and Chocola the Chao both agree.

Vanilla places a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Settle down, Dear."

Tails just stares straight ahead. "I wasted my time on a pointless endeavor. Worst part is that they're all laughing about it."

Sonic glares up at the private box where he knows Wander the Goat is. "I hate that guy."

Meanwhile…

Wander is watching Sonic's group through a pair of binoculars. The dark blue-green goat chuckles at the sight of the blue hedgehog's glare.

"What's so funny?" Eggman asks from his seat beside the CEO.

"It seems I got one over on the hedgehog and his friends."

The scientist grins. "Oh? What did you do? I'd love to hear about their misfortune."

Wander puts down his binoculars. "Maybe later. I need to return to my duties as the host of the WanderCo Battle Tournament." He turns on his microphone. "Time for the second match! Coming in from the north entrance, he's Dr Eggman's explosives expert who it would be quite an understatement to call eccentric…Bean the Dynamite!"

Just like the first round, the crowd starts booing…until they actually see him.

The little green bird is walking on his hands towards the arena.

Fang the Hunter and Bark the Polar Bear shake their heads.

Eggman growls. "I'm getting tired of his nonsense."

Wander laughs, both because of Bean and Eggman's annoyance at him. "From the south entrance, he's the one and only guardian of the legendary Master Emerald with punches powerful enough to break through walls…Knuckles the Echidna!"

While most of the audience cheers for the red echidna, Sonic and the others choose to just clap (this includes Honey the Cat since she has returned). None of them want their friend to lose, but they don't feel like cheering since Knuckles winning means Sonic will be forced to throw his match against Fang.

On his way to his spot, the echidna can see Rouge the Bat up in the stands blowing kisses and winking at him. Knuckles looks away and growls.

Shadow the Hedgehog grabs his teammate and places her back down in her seat. "Didn't you learn your lesson after losing yesterday?"

Rouge pouts. "This is different. It won't affect me to mess with him this time."

The black hedgehog rolls his eyes. "Here's hoping GUN finds something on Wander this time. It'll be something going right for us."

"GUN's always thorough when they look into something. If they didn't find anything in his records before, then they won't this time."

"It makes no sense for Wander the Goat to have a commonplace upbringing with his level of entitlement and possible powers if you actually saw his eyes glow."

"Like I told you and Omega last night, I wasn't the only witness. Sonic, Tails, Silver, and even Knuckles saw it."

"Interjection," the robot says from the seat on Rouge's right. "I am requesting permission to carry out desire to annihilate WanderCo after embarrassment of second forced shutdown."

"No," the bat and hedgehog say to Omega.

"Begin!" Wander the Goat announces after the countdown ends.

Knuckles rushes at Bean and tries to punch him.

The little green bird leaps out of the way. "Trying to hit me with those tumors you've got on your fists?"

"They're not tumors! They're spikes!"

Bean hops away from another punch. "So…spiky tumors."

"Stop calling them tumors!"

The bird leans way back to avoid the next punch. Then, he uses a finger to tap the tips of the spikes on that fist. "Poke, poke."

The very angry Knuckles tries another punch that once again fails to connect. "That's it! You're going down you psycho little…duck…woodpecker. WHAT ARE YOU?!"

Bean shrugs. "I don't know. That's not up to me." He looks up at the sky. "It's all based on the whims of SEGA."

The red echidna ignores the bird's ramblings in favor of a surprise attack…which fails.

Soon, the two are near the edge of the arena.

Knuckles raises his fists, smiling as he does so. "You can't run away forever! I will win this!"

Bean gasps. "But I can't lose!" At the echidna's next punch, the little bird leaps over and turns back with a look of distress. "If I do, this fan fiction will lack dramatic tension!"

Knuckles pauses. "What?"

That's all Bean needs to throw a bomb in his opponent's face, sending the red echidna out of the arena.

"Knuckles the Echidna is out of bounds!" Wander the Goat announces (he didn't expect a legitimate loss from Knuckles). "Bean the Dynamite wins!"

Eggman is celebrating during that announcement.

Knuckles gets up to see Bean smirking at him from the arena.

The bird forms an L with a hand and brings it to his forehead. "A loser is you." He lets a cackle fill the air before walking away.

Knuckles growls before noticing that Sonic is now beside him. The echidna tries to make himself aloof. "I…decided to be the bigger man and let you move on. After all, it's only fair for Tails's loss to Fang to be avenged by you."

The blue hedgehog rolls his eyes. "Sure. By the way, I've got something to tell you."

Meanwhile…

Shadow the Hedgehog gets up and starts heading out.

Rouge the Bat smirks at her teammate. "Have fun."

"Not with another child as my opponent."

E-123 Omega brings back out the flag with Shadow's face on it and starts waving it.

Meanwhile…

Cream the Rabbit slowly gets up, dreading her fight with Shadow.

Vanilla is trembling as she also stands, but she's attempting to put on a brave face for her daughter's sake. "Well, Dear, I guess it's…time."

"Mother. I believe I should…head over by myself."

Everyone looks over.

"Chao?" ask Cheese and Chocola the Chao.

Vanilla stares at her daughter. "Really?"

Cream nods. "Yes. I need to be brave and going forward on my own is one way of doing that."

The mother rabbit hugs her child. "You already sound so grown up."

Vector smiles at Cream. "You've really got guts."

The little rabbit nods at the crocodile, then starts her trek to her designated entrance.

Amy Rose the Hedgehog smiles at her young friend. "You go show them all what you're made of. We're all rooting for you."

"Chao!" Cheese and Chocola the Chao both chip in with nods.

Everyone else present agrees.

After Cream walks away, Vanilla rushes over to Vector the Crocodile and throws her arms around him. "My little girl! She's so young!"

"Chao?" Chocola the Chao asks, starting to approach the older rabbit.

Cheese the Chao holds their sibling back, knowing that this should be a moment reserved just for Vector and Vanilla.

Despite feeling hot all over from the embrace, the crocodile pushes that aside to focus on comforting the distressed rabbit. "Things aren't that bad, Vanilla. Shadow's really tough, but he isn't evil."

Sonic and Knuckles arrive just as Vanilla detaches herself from Vector.

Amy jumps up. "Yay!" She hugs the blue hedgehog. "You can go all out in your match with Fang now!"

As Sonic works himself free, Knuckles sits down beside Tails. "Hey. I heard about what happened with Wander's assistant. Sorry you got messed with like that."

The two tailed fox sighs. "It's fine. We'll just have to find another way to learn what it is that Wander's up to."

Hearing this, Vector becomes thoughtful.

The loudspeakers turn on and Wander's voice comes through them. "The second round's third match is upon us! Coming in from the north entrance, she's a polite little lady who is more cunning than she lets on if her previous match is anything to go by…Cream the Rabbit!"

The majority of the crowd cheers as the young girl heads into the arena, keeping her eyes to the ground in front of her in order to keep calm.

"From the south entrance, he's the stoic GUN agent who's currently a favorite to win this tournament according to a recent poll…Shadow the Hedgehog!"

Most of the crowd…boos.

Wander is certainly surprised. 'Are they all that fond of the little girl?'

Rouge the Bat looks around. "They're expecting the worst out of Shadow, aren't they?"

E-123 Omega keeps its eyes on the arena. "Even I do not wish harm on the tiny flesh and blood female."

Shadow doesn't care enough to be offended. He is confused though. 'Do they believe I'd take out my frustration at being in such an unworthy match out on this child?'

As the countdown starts, Cream brings up two shaking fists.

In the stands, Vanilla the Rabbit covers her eyes. "I can't watch."

Both Cheese and Chocola the Chao do the same.

When the countdown reaches zero, Wander shouts, "Begin!"

In the span of one second, Shadow dashes behind Cream, picks her up by the back of her dress, goes to the edge of the arena, and drops the young rabbit off of it.

Cream stumbles as she reaches the ground, in shock over having already lost.

"That was fast," says Sonic.

Vanilla and the two Chao uncover their eyes and quickly piece together what happened.

Shadow starts walking away.

"Cream the Rabbit is…out of bounds," Wander the Goat announces, totally unprepared to be saying that already. "Shadow the Hedgehog wins…in record time!"

Vector gets up and goes over to Vanilla. "Cream's gonna need us."

The rabbit nods. "Right."

Amy Rose stands up to follow after the two plus the Chao siblings. She pauses and looks back at Sonic. "Have fun beating Fang to avenge Tails. I expect you to beat Shadow too later on for Cream's sake."

The blue hedgehog gives the pink hedgehog girl a thumbs up. "You got it." He stands up and heads out for his designated entrance as Amy goes to help comfort Cream.

Tails raises a fist into the air. "You can do it, Sonic!"

Meanwhile…

Fang the Hunter gets up with a smirk on his face. "Time I show 'High and Mighty' Sonic what I came up with last night."

As the purple jerboa leaves, Bean the Dynamite stands on one foot on the top of his chair. "And there he goes! Off to show the results of his training! Step right up, folks! Place your bets here! We deal in shinies and—!"

Bark the Polar Bear covers the little green bird's mouth and forces him back into his seat.

Soon…

"The final match of the second round is here!" Wander the Goat announces. "Coming in from the north entrance, he's a gun for hire who's quite likely to grace us with more spring tailed action…Fang the Hunter!"

Most of the crowd boos as the purple jerboa comes out.

"Boo!" Bean calls out.

Bark stares at the little green bird.

"Oops. Mob mentality."

"From the south entrance," continues Wander. "He's nicknamed the Blue Blur and is the crowd favorite to win the tournament even above Shadow…Sonic the Hedgehog!"

The crowd goes nuts.

Sonic smiles and does lazy waves to the crowd.

"Get him, Sonic!" Tails encourages his best friend. He really wants Fang to get taken out after the purple jerboa beat him in a way that embarrassed the two tailed fox.

When Sonic reaches his designated spot in the arena, Fang grins at him very maliciously. "You're going down, Sonic! My new moves'll wipe the floor with you!"

The blue hedgehog smirks as the countdown starts. "New moves? Sweet. Bring it on."

Fang coils his tail into a spring and places his hand on the blaster in its holster.

"Begin!" Wander the Goat announces once the countdown reaches zero.

The purple jerboa pulls out his blaster, drops down onto his coiled tail, and…launches off to the side.

There's a split second of confusion from everyone else before it's cleared up.

Mid trajectory, Fang aims his blaster at Sonic and fires.

The blue hedgehog dodges, legitimately surprised by this tactic.

Fang twists his body so that his recoiled tail will catch the ground and spring him off in a new direction, the jerboa firing at Sonic again.

As this back and forth goes on, Knuckles the Echidna gawks. "Since when did Fang have a talent like that?!"

Tails is studying the movements of Sonic's opponent. "He must have developed this one recently. Maybe even last night."

Amy Rose the Hedgehog scoffs. "It's hard to imagine a guy like that putting in any effort to make this technique."

"I don't agree," says Vector the Crocodile.

Espio the Chameleon nods. "As unfortunate as it is, hatred can be a powerful motivator."

"Yeah," Charmy Bee adds on. "The only guy we know who hates Sonic more than Fang is Eggman."

Meanwhile…

Bean the Dynamite is cackling like an absolute madman as Fang keeps shooting at Sonic. "YAY! MORE! BLAST AWAY! BLAST AWAY ALL!"

Bark the Polar Bear is leaning away from the wacky green bird and his outburst.

Meanwhile…

Rouge the Bat giggles. "Fang may have a flashy new trick, but Sonic's obviously having a fun time with it."

Shadow grunts. "It would be disgraceful if Sonic let himself lose to a ridiculous gimmick like that."

Meanwhile…

At this point, Sonic has started doing poses with each blast as he dodges them, a smirk set on his face.

Fang growls as he springs again. "Can't dodge me forever!" He fires once more.

The blue hedgehog does one more pose as he dodges that one. "Yeah. I've had enough." Sonic dashes at the purple jerboa and knocks him from his intended direction, the blaster getting flung away.

"NO!" Eggman screams as he witnesses his hired gun get forced down to the ground by Sonic. The scientist reaches for Wander's microphone to demand Fang to get up.

The dark blue-green goat uses his foot to hold Eggman back while keeping the mic out of reach. "Not this time!"

Sonic holds Fang down, using one arm to grab the purple jerboa's tail so it won't be used against him.

Meanwhile…

"Yeah!" Tails cheers. "Just like Fang did with me!" He grins as he hears Wander start to count up to ten.

"That's a knockout!" the goat soon announces to the happy crowd. "The winner is Sonic the Hedgehog!" Wander rolls his eyes and shuts off his mic as Eggman throws a tantrum. "You still have one man in the game. Settle down."

Meanwhile…

Sonic backs away from Fang. "Neat trick. Get better with it and I'll have more fun next time we throw down."

"Save it!" the purple jerboa growls at the blue hedgehog. "Next time, you'll be history!" He stomps away.

"Learn to take a compliment, why don't you?"

"Don't go away yet, folks!" Wander the Goat announces to the stadium. "The third round starts in fifteen minutes! More exciting battles coming your way!"

AN: The reason I didn't include a scene of Cream being comforted by her mother, Vector, the two Chao, and Amy after losing to Shadow is because I didn't really have anything interesting or important to say. Sorry for those hoping for something wholesome and/or cute. Also, Wander the Goat is quite the jerk for messing with Tails in such a fashion. Who expected Wander to be the Chaotix's client? Another thing, notice how Honey the Cat hasn't been around whenever Wander's nastiness has been shown off? There's a reason for that. Lastly, Eggman only has Bean left in the tournament against three powerful hedgehog's. On that note, the little wacko casually breaking the fourth wall is just so him. Next time, we'll find out who'll be facing each other in the third round. See you Wednesday!