Sonic sat inside the locker room, stretching his cramped legs on the bench after the long shuttle flight. He wasn't sure what the future held concerning this crazy competition, but he knew if push came to shove, he would have his friends to rely on. "Yo, Tails," Sonic grunted as his leg muscles untightened. Tails glanced over, applying his chest binder.
"Yeah, Sonic?" Tails asked, finally buckling it and tucking it under his chest fur. He turned to Sonic. "What's up?"
"I've been wondering about this whole event… it seems awfully dangerous," Sonic sighed, kicking his legs slowly.
"Knowing you, that makes it more fun, right?" Tails chuckled.
"Yeah, fo sho, but what about everybody else?" Sonic asked, looking around at the other people in the locking room, all the innocent and powerless individuals who could be turned to dust by so many people in the competition. Tails shot Nack a glare from across the room. "I know Dodon Pa has good intent and all that, but he's not even separating us from the women during the actual games. Just… it's a recipe for disaster."
"I know LONGCLAW raised you, but still… that's an old-fashioned way of thinking, especially for you. These two sexes have statistically been at the same power level on average for the past few decades. Besides, doesn't your new girlfriend have 'slutty rocket arms' and 'clunky armor'?" Tails argued as he slung his arms over the back of the bench. Sonic shot him a puzzled look. "That's what Amy said, anyways." Sonic's mind flashed to Amy's expression back at the DodonPort with Penumbra, then how the pink hedgehog had eyed him during the walk to the stadium when Trip was following too close to him.
"No, no. You've got it twisted. Amy was thinking of Penumbra. AND Trip. It's nowhere near like that with either of 'em, all three of us are just on the same team," Sonic groaned, letting his back slide down the bench. "If Amy has a problem, she can tell me to my face instead of complaining to you. I was the one who tried reaching out to her even while I was busy finding a place to stay back on Erius."
"How many times did you text her?" Tails asked, letting his head tilt to the side.
"Like… once."
…
"The first game is a classic that has endured since Ancient Times, it's called Blue Sphere," Dodon Pa announced as the floor screen displayed a brown chessboard pattern. The frontrunners of the contestant crowd bumped into the people behind them as spheres of all colors took shape all across the board. Silver the Hedgehog looked on from the very back as the other players started shoving and fighting, with no regard for each other. "The rules are simple. Touch the Blue Spheres, and you get points for your team as well as create a new Red Sphere." Silver began to separate the glorified mosh pit with his telekinesis. "Make contact with a Red Sphere, and you as an individual lose. As such, you will be sent back to your planet. I hope you understand the rules, because we're starting in three… two… and ONE!" Nack held his gun into the air and shot, playing starting pistol. The entire crowd dispersed around the Sphere Stadium, picking up as many Blue Spheres as they could to tick up their team's tally on the scoreboards.
"Silver? What the heck are YOU doing here?!" Sonic asked, rushing through a row of Blue Spheres. Silver smiled.
"Sonic! You remember me?!" Silver asked with a giddy grin. He stomped onto the ground, creating a psychokinetic shockwave that turned all the Blue Spheres around him into Rings for bonus points.
"Sure I remember. A little. Soleanna, you beating me up," Sonic Light Speed Dashed through the Rings before Silver could pick them up.
"Heyyy! No fair!" Silver laughed. He held Sonic in stasis with his telekinesis before he could steal any more of the white hedgehog's spheres.
"Clever," Sonic groaned inside the turquoise aura, watching Trip run right into a Yellow Sphere and get trampolined high into the sky. She crash-landed, and dizzily got up after the greatest tumble of her career! Sonic sighed. "Guess I gotta trust my teammates to handle this one. Anyways, what brings you back to the present? Going for a 'silver' medal after my team wins?"
"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you. My team and I are determined to maintain peace and unity for this universe's future by aiding Dodon Pa's cause, and win while we're at it," Silver retorted, surrounding himself with Blue Spheres and then throwing the red ones at opponents once he was done with them. BZZT. BZZT. BZZT. Three contestants were knocked out as the game of Blue Sphere became dodgeball thanks to Silver's telekinesis.
"If YOU were ME, I wouldn't even be sure if my shoe was on the right foot, Bhang-Brain!" Sonic released a Chaos Surge that cut through Silver's weakened telekinesis while Silver checked his own boots. Sonic then ran in a spiral around the entire arena, leaving a trail of Red Spheres behind him.
"Free circles! FREE circles for whoever wants 'em!" Scratch the Robot Chicken cried out. He and Grounder were blocking off a patch of Blue Spheres. Sonic screeched to a halt in front of them amidst the hellfire of Red Spheres being thrown all over the place. "You, hedgehog! We've got free circles. And YOUuUuU want 'em! They're yours, you just gotta run into them. It all works out. BAHA-HAHAAA!" Scratch stretched his hose-like neck until he was face-to-face with Sonic.
"Yeah! Yeah! He's really stickin' his neck out for ya. Better get it quick before someone else takes the offer," Grounder followed up.
"Well how do I know this isn't some kind of trap?" Sonic asked, shrugging as he watched Coconuts painting the Red Spheres blue with one eye open. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you Badnik-nitwits are CHEATING!" Sonic snapped.
"We're not cheating! We're just running an honest shebang, you rodent!" Scratch shouted. "The deal's off. A pipsqueak like you should know better than to tick off a bigger man." Sonic snorted, then laughed so hard he spat on Scratch and Grounder.
"Bigger? Try lankier! You don't have drumsticks, you have drumtwigs!" Sonic sighed as he wiped a tear from his closed eye. He didn't even realize Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts were now swarming with… RED-CODE?! "I mean sure. Whatever makes you feel better about shooting Finajet twice a day." Team Search & Smash were absorbed into the RED-CODE. Sonic opened his eyes, his smile fell as he looked up. He froze in place as the three bots looked all the way down at him. They looked like…
"The TITANS?!" Sonic yelled, backing up with a twitching lower eyelid. They were way smaller than the real deals, but Sonic was still a fly compared to them. The Red Sphere storm died down, as all the contestants turned in awe and terror at…
The Over-Hard MIGHTANS!
"Oh yeah! OH YEAH! I didn't know 'bout joining Eggman's team again, but these new forms he gave us totally kick you-know-what!" Grounder, now a Boss Badnik that resembled Knight, shouted. He tried to cut Sonic, who jumped to try and get out of the way. As soon as he landed, the shaved ends of his quills began to fall off one by one. "I feel… MEAN! I'll kill you dead, Sonic!"
"The power… the POWERRR!" Coconuts, now GARGANTUO, roared as he stomped towards Sonic, shaking the ground and bouncing Red Spheres all over the place. Sonic turned to run, but after taking one step, Sonic was sent tumbling back towards where he came from by a Bumper. He rolled and crashed into Gargantuo's foot, who kicked him high into the air. The world around him seemed to turn red as the wind and the Mightans' laughter blew in his ears. Sonic's eyes barely opened in time for Gargantuo to headbutt him back down. He felt something coil around him.
"Say goodbye, pest!" Scratch exclaimed as he held Sonic still. His new Wyvern-like form, BOASTRANGLER, began to grow pins and needles that slowly poked into Sonic's skin. "You shoulda just let yourself get disqualified!" An explosion then sent Sonic's spines flying back. Boastrangler let go of him, as Penumbra shot leg after leg at the slithery Mightan. Sonic sped over to her, Spin-Jumping over a line of Red Spheres. Gargantuo slammed onto the ground behind Penumbra. Before the two knew it, they were surrounded by all three.
"What are THESE things?!" Penumbra cried, spinning into a tornado and launching rockets at all three Mightans.
"I dunno… discount Egg-brand Titans?" Sonic chuckled, wiping his nose as a red streak appeared on his glove. He smirked, bashing into Gargantuo's teeth and knocking a few loose. "I beat the actual Titans when I was on the Starfalls, but that was with the Memory Tokens. These guys seem smaller, though… so…?" Trip was thrown by Gargantuo into Sonic and Penumbra. They all fell to the ground in a pile.
"This is your FRIEND, right?!" Gargantuo shouted in a blind violent craze. "HAHA! Take her down with you, rat!"
"We'll break you! Burn you! Grind you down to the bone!" Cavalier yelled. The Mightans tackled Team Sonic and began beating them down in a cloud of dust.
The Mightans watched as the dust settled on a devastated Team Sonic… Trip was holding both of them tightly underneath her. It looked like she had suffered the brunt of it with her armor protecting Sonic and Penumbra. "I… I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I'm willing to try all kinds of things, but…" Trip mumbled deliriously. In spite of the beating, Team Sonic staggered to their feet. Gargantuo whacked Trip, but she was left unscathed because of her armor. Every punch sent Gargantuo recoiling backwards. Trip kept using herself as a Bumper against the Mightans, sparks flying as they tried to break her bronze shell. Gargantuo then tripped onto his back with a crash. Surrounded by Red Spheres. Trip scurried up to his mouth on all-fours and bashed one of his teeth in with her forehead spike.
"OW!" Gargantuo cried. "Okay, okay, I give!"
"Prove it. We got your superiors to transform back. Now it's your turn, numbnuts," Penumbra grunted, popping her leg back into its slot as she approached with Sonic in tow. They had taken a beating, but Scratch and Grounder were worse off. Gargantuo's seething growl descended into a hoarse squeal as he transformed back into Coconuts. "Good boy." Penumbra pet Coconuts' head.
"Hands to yourself, ya crawly creep!" Coconuts shouted, biting down on Penumbra's rocket leg. It blew up and left ash all over his face. "Gah… right, it's all comin' back to me…! The spider-lady has big bombs…"
Sonic approached Trip. "Hey, you good?" He asked. A flowery, pink shine began to filter out from under her helmet.
"Ah! Uh-huh! Uh…!" Trip stuttered. Sonic Spin-Jumped up and down, unable to hold in his energy. "AH!"
"You were AWESOME!" Sonic exclaimed. He punched the air and punted Coconuts a good few feet. "We wouldn'ta made it without you!"
"It's… nothing really, Sonic," Trip mumbled, doing a little dance with her fingers. "I always put myself on the line for my friends."
"I thought… you didn't have any?" Sonic asked.
"Well I do now!" Trip bellowed. Sonic and Penumbra chuckled as Trip giggled and laughed in pure elation.
"This isn't over yet, SONIC!" Scratch bawked. "The game's still going, we distracted you!" Sonic glanced to the scoreboard as the timer ticked down to 0.
"The winner is…!" An announcer roared, as everybody turned to the monitor. The drumroll ended, the fireworks shot off as a team of four showed up on screen. "TEAM CHAOTIX!" As their kickin' theme song blared from the speakers (from a big-name cover band), five members popped up on the monitor. The usual suspect-busting suspects. Vector, Espio, Charmy, Zik and…?!?!?!?
Sonic shot a bewildered yet impressed look at the telekinetic time traveler. "Silver… you…?!" Sonic chuckled.
"It should be against the rules to do that!" Silver laughed, landing by Sonic. The crowd cheered his name. An entire stadium of people were singing the praises of the MVP of Team Chaotix. "While you were busy with those Mightans, I just channeled all the Blue Spheres over to myself. I guess that was the strat."
"That's… cool! Up top, dude!" Sonic exclaimed, going for a high-five but instead slapping Silver in the nose. The audience's cheering stopped. Sonic began to sweat. "Uh… sorry! You were gonna gimme five, it would've been… cool." Silver, with a bruised face, looked to Sonic with a grin.
"I'll keep it in mind if you try that again. To the next game, Sonic!" Silver said, shaking Sonic's hand. It went on for a little longer than Sonic expected as Silver's smile faltered. "No, seriously. Didn't you read the rules on the back of the invite? We gotta RUN to the next game! The last few people there get eliminated!" Silver took off into the sweaty, panting stampede of desperate contestants as they booked it to the other side of the stadium. Sonic smirked, before rushing into the race.
"Now that… THAT I can do!"