AN: With this chapter, the third round of the tournament shall occur. We've got Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Silver the Hedgehog...and Bean. Who'll be facing off and who'll get in to the final round? You all likely know who's going to be there, but let's have fun seeing how it'll happen. That and more awaits!
Ch 7: Round Three and Everything Around It
Sonic the Hedgehog speeds from the arena to his friends. "Egghead down to one."
Amy Rose the Hedgehog leaps to hug the blue hedgehog. "You did it!"
Silver the Hedgehog stares down at the arena. "It's now the two of us taking on potential enemies, Sonic."
The blue hedgehog finally frees himself from Amy. "Relax. Bean's not a threat."
"Don't write him off so quickly," says Blaze the Cat. "He beat two of our strong fighters by distracting them with his antics before surprising them with a bomb to the face."
Knuckles the Echidna stands. "I let him win!"
"Salvage your wounded pride later." Blaze focuses back on Sonic and Silver. "Don't go easy on him."
The white hedgehog clenches his fist. "You know that I won't. The fate of the world's at stake."
The blue hedgehog smirks. "I've taken Bean down bunches of times before. This won't be any different."
"Don't forget about Mr Shadow," says Cream the Rabbit.
"I'm already looking forward to taking him on."
Silver closes his eyes. "When I face him, I'll have no choice but to go all out."
Sonic glances at Tails. "How are you holding up? If you need to go catch some Z's, then go right ahead."
The two tailed fox shakes his head. "No. I want to see the remaining matches through to the end. Besides, I need to come up with a different way to look into Wander after that trick that he pulled on me."
Vector the Crocodile stands up. "No need to tire yourself out more, Tails. Team Chaotix will get the job done."
"Really?"
"Yeah. In fact, we'll head out now."
"Understood," Espio the Chameleon says while standing up.
Honey the Cat pouts. "Must you?"
"Yes. We have our duty to see through."
Charmy Bee pouts. "Aww, but I wanna see the rest of the fights."
Vector picks up the little bee. "Sorry, but we've got lots of work to do and lots of ground to cover in little time."
"Good luck to all of you," Cream the Rabbit says with a wave.
"Be safe out there," Vanilla the Rabbit adds in.
Vector looks back while puffing out his chest and smiling. "Don't worry about our safety one bit, Ms Vanilla. We at Team Chaotix can handle dangerous situations."
"That's a relief."
Charmy finally wiggles free and flies away. "Ugh! Let's go already!"
Honey the Cat watches Team Chaotix leave with a frown. 'There goes Espio, the hottest guy here.' Looking around, the yellow furred feline decides to shift her focus. She moves to the now empty seat beside Cream the Rabbit. "Hey, you change your mind about being a model for my children's line of clothes?"
While her mother glares at the black haired cat, the young rabbit just shakes her head. "I do not believe Mother would be happy if I accepted. So, I'm sorry to say that I haven't."
"I just had a thought," Amy Rose interrupts. "What if Wander wants someone to throw a fight again?"
Silver the Hedgehog frowns. "He could pull that a second time to get Bean into the final round. We don't actually know for certain that he's not trying to give Eggman the win."
"That's true," Tails agrees. "Still, Wander does seem to favor Shadow. After all, he does give him easy opponents."
Blaze the Cat thinks on this. "That could just be a tactic to throw us off."
Cream raises her hand. "Excuse me, but who would Mr Wander force to lose?"
Vanilla joins in. "A good question. It wouldn't be that horrible Dr Eggman's hired hand. Mr Shadow is also an unlikely candidate."
Blaze comes to a realization. "After the first round was concluded, Wander did claim that he was looking forward to Silver facing off with Shadow in the final round."
Amy gasps. "Oh no."
Sonic looks up at the private box where Wander the Goat will announce the lineup for the third round. "Let's wait and see if that jerk wants to force me out like that."
Meanwhile…
Wander the Goat is pacing in his private office. 'I don't like this. The machine isn't ready to stop Eggman, which means I'll be forced to let his crony into the finals. That little green bird's not a fitting final opponent for Shadow. Silver would have been far superior.' The CEO stops to let out a sigh. 'It can't be helped. Eggman would call in an army of his machines if he lost every one of his men. As little of an actual threat as they'd be, dealing with them so they wouldn't take the Chaos Emeralds would risk my truth being discovered. I've already tempted fate by allowing too much of my anger to slip through last night with Sonic and his friends. My grand reveal must be saved for the end of the tournament. So…the lineup has no choice but to be Shadow vs Silver and Bean vs Sonic. I'll just have to force the blue hedgehog to throw his fight. At the very least, that so called hero will be out.'
At that moment, a pair of rats in lab coats barge in. The two are struggling to carry a big case.
Wander is furious at two of his scientists barging in. "What is the meaning of this?!"
"The machine, Mr Wander," one of the rats says with a smirk.
The dark blue-green goat stares. "It's ready?"
The other rat nods. "All the kinks have been worked out."
Wander grins. "That changes everything."
Soon…
Eggman's impatient for Wander to return and announce the third round's lineup.
Right then, the goat shows up in the private box. "Sorry for the wait."
The scientist grunts, then he notices the two rats dragging along a case. "Who are they?"
"Two scientists in my employ. You know, before I announce the third round's match ups, would you mind inspecting a machine they've presented to me?"
Eggman scoffs. "And why in the world should I do that for you?"
"A scientist of your caliber could catch any flaws and suggest ways to fix them. Or…am I wrong?"
The mustachioed scientist leaps to his feet. "I am the greatest mind to ever exist! I could take whatever you have to offer and make a superior model in minutes! Show me!"
Wander smirks. "Perfect."
The two rats open the case.
Mechanical parts float out of the opened case and form into a tube shape. That same tube then rushes at Eggman and traps him within.
"HEY!" the mustachioed man yells out. He starts pounding on the tube in an attempt to get out. "What's the meaning of this?!"
Wander laughs. "Finally! You're out of the way!"
"How dare you! We had a deal! You were supposed to let me win!"
"That's not true. I only agreed to allow whoever you hired into the tournament. Your ego let you believe I was giving you an easy win. I simply didn't correct you in order to prevent you from trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds from me."
Eggman suddenly grins and presses a button on a hidden remote.
"Nice try, but no dice."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You attempted to summon your robots, likely so they would swarm the stadium. During the confusion, your mercenaries would've snuck out and made a run for the Chaos Emeralds."
Eggman scowls, furious that this goat knows his plan.
"Unfortunately for you, your call to arms didn't go through. See for yourself."
The mustachioed man tries to hold out in an attempt to keep hiding that he did indeed try what Wander said he would. Eventually, Eggman can't hold back his curiosity and brings out the remote. He gawks at what he sees. "NO SIGNAL?!"
Wander grins. "That's right. Now, you won't be able to contact your robots or your hired help out there. You'll be enjoying the rest of this tournament from the comfort of your delightful containment unit." The goat ignores Eggman's declaration of vengeance as he heads for his mic and turns it on. "Sorry for the wait, everyone. It's time to discover who will be facing off in the third round. Those in the first match are expected to head for the arena after the announcement."
Screens around the stadium show the images of the remaining fighters.
"First, Bean the Dynamite vs Shadow the Hedgehog. This shall be followed by Silver the Hedgehog vs Sonic the Hedgehog."
Meanwhile…
Fang the Hunter is glaring at the screen. 'Bean's been paired with Shadow? That means that Wander has gone back on the deal.' Looking back to the seats behind him, the purple jerboa sees that Bark the Polar Bear realizes the same thing.
Bean the Dynamite, on the other hand, doesn't. "Ooh. I'm taking on Edgy the Hedgy."
Bark, noticing the bird getting up to leave for his fight, reaches to stop him.
Fang reaches back and stops the polar bear while smirking. "Yeah. You go and get Edgy the Hedgy." Once the wacky bird leaves (dancing to his own imaginary beat the whole time), the purple jerboa focuses on Bark. "While Bean's in the arena, we can sneak over to that WanderCo building and swipe all of the Chaos Emeralds that we can." He rolls his eyes at the yellow polar bear's concern. "You're worried about Bean? That little psycho's an unstoppable force of nature in a small frame. Even if Shadow takes him out permanently, that'd be a good thing. We'd only have to split payment between two instead of three. If we ever need a third again, then we'd just advertise for an open position. Maybe we'd get someone who's not crazy next time. So, you can either help me or you can stay here and lose out on your cut." Fang gets up and leaves.
Bark sighs before following.
Meanwhile…
Rouge the Bat giggles at the images on the screens. "Looks like Wander really does want you to win, Shadow."
The black hedgehog stands. "By forcing me to face pathetic excuses for opponents." He leaves.
E-123 Omega bring its Shadow flag back out and waves it.
Meanwhile…
Sonic and his friends are staring up at the screens.
Tails thinks this over. "Guess this means that whatever Wander has for stopping Eggman is all ready."
"Don't forget real," Blaze the Cat adds in.
Suddenly, Wander's gerbil assistant shows up. "Dr Eggman is incapacitated."
"You again?!" asks Knuckles the Echidna.
"That is correct. I was waiting nearby for one of two possible scenarios. Either to inform Sonic that Mr Wander wished for him to allow Bean the Dynamite to win for the sake of keeping that obnoxious scientist placated for just a little bit longer or (the present situation) to give his all against Silver the Hedgehog."
This comment confuses Blaze. "I was under the impression your employer wanted Silver to win that match."
"He does. Mr Wander simply wishes for Silver's victory to be more spectacular and also that Sonic's reputation as 'the greatest' be proven mere arrogance on his part."
Amy Rose the Hedgehog gets in the gerbil's face. "SONIC IS NOT ARROGANT!"
Tails stands up. "If anyone's arrogant, it's your boss for not accepting he's wrong."
The gerbil woman smirks. "We'll see." She turns and leaves.
Honey the Cat face palms. "I should've recorded that! I could've exposed what Wander has been doing to the world!" The yellow furred feline has been annoyed that she has missed so many of the goat's moments of terrible behavior. She had been so surprised by the appearance of the assistant that she forgot her promise to herself to record evidence.
Cream the Rabbit gives Honey a sympathetic smile. "It's okay, Miss Honey. I think you will have another chance to do that soon."
Meanwhile…
Fang and Bark are heading for the purple jerboa's flying bike, the Marvelous Queen, that had been parked near the stadium. The two reach it and get on.
The bike's owner grins. "Aww yeah. Time to get our pay." When he tries starting up the Marvelous Queen though, there's no response. "What?!" Fang tries again a few more times with the same result. "I just fueled this baby up!" The purple jerboa gets off and checks the fuel, only to confirm he's right. "Why won't you start?!" He looks over the bike and eventually discovers a strange gadget attached to the underside. "What the…?" Fang tries to grab the device, but gets zapped for his effort. "Yow!" He stands to talk to Bark, only to find the yellow polar bear's got both hands held up while staring straight ahead. The jerboa turns to find the source of this weird behavior.
Three guards who work for Wander have their blasters pointed at the two mercenaries.
Fang tries turning to run only to find more guards with more blasters aimed at him. With a growl, the purple jerboa puts his hands up in surrender. "This bites."
Soon…
"Our fighters for the third round's first match are standing at the ready!" Wander the Goat announces. "Coming in from the north entrance, he's the little wild card who's Dr Eggman's last chance to claim the Chaos Emeralds…Bean the Dynamite!"
For once, the crowd doesn't boo since they're more interested in witnessing whatever odd entrance the green bird will make. They're certainly not disappointed in that regard.
Bean is on his belly, moving forward like an inchworm.
In the stands, Sonic laughs.
Viewing from his containment unit, Eggman groans. "This is what I have left to rely on."
Wander chuckles before moving on. "From the south entrance, he's GUN's most serious agent and an ageless warrior…Shadow the Hedgehog!"
The crowd goes wild as the black hedgehog walks in.
Rouge the Bat gives a lot of the people around her the stink eye. "You're all certainly fair weather fans."
As the countdown starts, Bean suddenly notices the two inhibitor rings around Shadow's wrists (which keep the black hedgehog's power in check). "Shiny?"
"Begin!" Wander announces.
The little green bird sprints towards the black hedgehog, his eyes and hands all aiming at the inhibitor rings. "SHINY!"
Shadow sidesteps Bean and does a karate chop to the back of his head, knocking out that shiny obsessed bird. The black hedgehog places a foot on his unconscious opponent's back.
"Another fast one," Sonic says to his friends as Wander the Goat can be heard counting to ten.
"That's a knockout!" the CEO announces. "The winner is Shadow the Hedgehog…once again in a very short time!"
The black hedgehog walks away as a pair of medics rush in to take Bean out of the arena.
Wander the Goat turns to Eggman while shutting off his microphone. "A shame that bird has to leave. He was rather entertaining. Still, he'll be joining his teammates in a cell that I have prepared for them."
The gerbil woman shows up. "Mr Wander, all three members of Team Hooligan are now captured and restrained."
"Excellent." Wander smirks at Eggman. "Now, Doctor, you'll be joining your hired help in that cell until the tournament ends tomorrow. Feel free to continue watching the events unfold on the television." The dark blue green goat chuckles as a pair of his gorilla guards take the tube containing the ranting scientist away.
Meanwhile…
Sonic gets up. "See you in the arena, Silver." He dashes to his designated entrance.
Silver the Hedgehog stands.
"Good luck," Blaze the Cat says to the white hedgehog. "And don't hold back."
"With the world at stake right now, I can't afford to do that, even with my opponent being Sonic." Silver walks away.
Meanwhile…
Shadow the Hedgehog is just returning to where he entered the arena from.
"What's up, Shadow?" asks a nearby Sonic.
"I expect you to win your match, blue hedgehog. Do not disappoint me after the series of unsatisfying opponents I've been forced to endure thus far." The black hedgehog leaves.
"Always a ray of sunshine, aren't you?"
Soon…
"We've come to our last match of the day!" Wander the Goat announces. "Whoever wins here shall join Shadow in the finals! Coming in from the north entrance, he's a hero of the future with great psychic abilities at his disposal…Silver the Hedgehog!"
The crowd cheers as the white hedgehog walks in.
"Claim victory!" Blaze the Cat shouts to her friend.
Cream the Rabbit looks to her mother. "I don't know who to root for, Mother."
Vanilla smiles. "In this match, both competitors are friends. Feel free to cheer both on."
"From the south entrance!" Wander continues. "He's known as the fastest thing alive and is Dr Eggman's greatest nuisance…Sonic the Hedgehog!"
The crowd goes wild as the blue hedgehog shows up, waving to everyone as he heads for his designated spot.
"SONIC!" Amy Rose the Hedgehog screams with glee.
"Win this!" Tails shouts.
"Good luck to the both of you!" Cream calls out to both of her hedgehog friends, wanting both to win while knowing it doesn't work that way.
Silver gets into a fighting stance as the countdown starts. "Sorry, Sonic, but I'm going all out with you so I can save the world."
The blue hedgehog smirks. "Cool. It's more fun that way."
When the countdown reaches zero, Wander shouts, "Begin!"
Sonic backs away far enough to be out of range of Silver's psychic power.
The white hedgehog expected this though and decides now's the time to show off his true strategy. He uses his psychic abilities on the arena itself, pulling large chunks out, which causes the ground to shake from the force. Silver proceeds to throw the chunks at Sonic.
Wander laughs at this. "Yes! Spectacular!"
Tails is gawking. "Silver's really not holding back."
"Of course he's not," says Blaze. "With Sonic as his opponent, Silver must give his all in order to win."
The blue hedgehog is dodging all the pieces of the arena his opponent is throwing at him. Sonic is aware that Silver may do something desperate to win since the world's very existence is in danger. 'I've gotta do something to keep him from doing something that he'll regret.' An idea suddenly coming to mind, Sonic backs up to the edge of the arena.
Silver grins. "Big mistake!" He throws two more chunks of the arena side by side at the blue hedgehog.
Sonic runs at one of the incoming chunks, leaps at it, and kicks out with both feet to send it right back at his opponent.
Silver is so surprised by this tactic that he doesn't react quick enough to keep from being hit by the piece of the arena.
Using this moment of distraction, Sonic rushes the white hedgehog and kicks him.
Silver gets sent flying out of the arena.
Wander stares down at the arena, unable to believe what he just saw. The dark blue-green goat collects himself enough to perform his duty. "Silver the Hedgehog is out of bounds. Sonic the Hedgehog…wins." His eye twitches as the crowd goes wild from the announcement. 'Must they all shower such adoration on that…pest?' The CEO waits for all of the noise to settle down to a more reasonable level before signing off. "And that concludes today's matches, everybody! Come back tomorrow for the conclusion to the WanderCo Battle Tournament! You'll get quite a doozy of a finale…Shadow vs Sonic!" Wander shuts off his microphone, scowls as the audience continues to cheer, and stomps out of the private box with purpose.
AN: Yeah, Wander's not happy that Sonic made it to the final round over Silver. A few other things to talk about. First, Honey the Cat's talk of exposing Wander's nastiness. That really is her intention at this point after having heard about it so much, but I'd intentionally written her to not be present during those scenes so as not to get that evidence. As you all read, the one time she was, it slipped her mind and she was mad at herself. Nobody else is really trying to do that since the vast majority of them are so used to confronting problems head on that they don't even think to do something like that themselves. Second, Team Chaotix is off to do some investigating of their own on Wander the Goat. The results will show themselves in the next chapter. Finally, Eggman and Team Hooligan have been removed as players in this little game. Their places as antagonists have effectively been completely taken over by Wander the Goat at this point. Just what is that CEO trying to accomplish and what is he hiding? Come back on Saturday to find out. Only two chapters left, y'all!
