Chapter X: The all time greatest race.
"Okay then, is everybody ready?" Tails said to the three contenders standing by the starting line.
Metal, Sonic and Shadow tensed as the fox began counting down "three, two, one and GO!" no sooner had the signal left Tail's mouth and the three took off down the beach.
"woah" Tails exclaimed at the speed they took of, then turned around and ran over to the Tornado, hopped in and took off hoping to catch up to the racers quickly.
Contrary to the exciting high speed race. The day had actually started a rather simple.
"Sonic?" Metal asked as he came home from a trip to the city.
"yeah?" Sonic acknowledged as he got up from his hammock.
"What is a hug?" Metal innocently asked.
Sonic got a little flustered "well a hug is...well it is...err..here let me show you" he got up and pulled the robot into a hug.
"oh, I see." Metal returned the gesture "this feels nice" he commented happily.
"Yeah, depending on the situation you can, but are not limited to, give someone a hug because you are happy to see them or help them cheer up if they are upset" Sonic explained, he had gotten better at telling how things worked to Metal, it had been and still was quite a shared learning experience.
While Metal could recognize most social interactions, he had no context or understanding of what it meant. He was the opposite of most organics, theories and scientific knowledge was second nature to him, but social cues, body language and gestures which people naturally learned without even thinking about it was utterly perplexing to him.
"So what brought this up?" Sonic asked
Metal told his organic counterpart of a scene he had witnessed between a pair engaging in an argument before breaking off, he asked the woman if she was alright and she said she was fine and that her fiance was a little stressed at the upcoming wedding and just needed a hug.
"You wondered what good a hug would do right?" Sonic concluded.
"Correct" Metal confirmed "but I think I understand now"
The two walked into the kitchen.
"Man, the weather outside is perfect for a run" Sonic commented as he looked out the window. The sun hung high and there wasn't even a small breeze.
The robot observed the weather and agreed with the hedgehog.
"Saaay, that race you still owe me, how about it? Is today the day I make you eat my dust?" Sonic challenged.
Metal looked at Sonic "*hnf*, I will make sure to be waiting for you at the finish line" he shot back doing his best Shadow impression, though ruined a little as he smiled, proud that he was getting better at comebacks.
"Alright, I will zip over to Tail and quickly get a course set up. You better get ready" and with that Sonic was gone in a blue flash.
The was knocking at the door and Metal walked over and opened the door, finding Shadow standing on the doormat "oh, it's you, is Sonic home? I got the latest report for him"
Metal shook his head "he just took of to Tails place, they are gonna set up a course for the race"
"race?" Shadow asked with suppressed interest.
"I once promised Sonic a race and he decided to cash that promise in today" Metal explained.
"hmm, you got room for one more?" Shadow smirked
"alright, I've set up the checkpoints and finish line, now we just need your opponent and we can start" Tails said excited, it had been a while since there had been a race.
"Cool, thanks buddy!" Sonic scouted around the breach that was the starting area "now where could our lovable tinhead be?"
Barely had the words left his mouth before a visible kicked up dust cloud could be seen in the distance.
"oh there he is" Sonic smirked. But as it came closer it became apparent Metal was not alone.
Shadow and Metal stopped at the place where Tails had set up the starting line.
"hey why is Shadow with you Mets?" the hedgehog asked confused.
The black hedgehog humpf'ed and turned away.
"I told him we were having a race to see who was fastest and he insisted that he participate as he calms neither of us can hold a candle to himself" Metal explained.
"oh is that so Shadow? That is a bold claim, you better be ready to back it up!" Sonic goodheartedly taunted him.
"heh" The dark hedgehog turned toward them and gave them an arrogant smirk "I am the ultimate, it is only logical that I will win"
"We will see about that" Sonic shot back. The trio walked over to Tails at the starting line.
"Alright, you will be racing down the length of Emerald coast then through Windy valley followed by Frontier canyon and finally down Splash highway till you reach the bridge where I set up the finish line" Tails narrated them through the planned course. "everyone got that?"
They all gave the fox a nod in confirmation
"Okay then, is everybody ready?" Tails said to the three contenders standing by the starting line.
Metal tensed up as Tails counted down, his engine slowly starting up. On the word "Go!" he zipped off alongside Sonic and Shadow.
They dashed between rocks, palm trees and other obstacles. They seemed to be neck and neck, constantly overtaking each other.
Sonic darted forward overtaking Metal and Shadow, jumping up and zipped away on a long string of floating rings.
"Catch you guys at the finish line" the blue hedgehog laughed as he took a substantial lead and landed on an upper path inaccessible to them.
Metal took at sharp turn unto a bridge pathway as the beach ahead was blocked by a cliff. He saw Shadow leap from foothold to foothold up the rocky obstacle when he looked over his shoulder.
Shadow quickly jumped from ledge to ledge, no stupid rock would stand in his way. With one last mighty leap he reached the top of the cliff and raced across it. The black hedgehogs smiled waned when he jumped down and sped off as he saw his robotic opponent was ahead from taking that detour instead of clearing the rocky obstacle.
"oh no you don't" he snarled and boosted his speed. Slowly gaining on Metal.
As they raced across the beach they saw Sonic at the Emerald Coast checkpoint, located at a building atop a cliff, before he sped off. They eyed each other before launching off a large boostpad and landing near the checkpoint.
Metal cursed as he overshot and had to quickly backtrack to touch the point while Shadow had clipped it during his flight and was already off to catch up with Sonic.
"Oh hi shads, fancy meeting you here" Sonic joked as the black hedgehog caught up to him "hey look, there is my stop" he referred to another long string of power rings.
Sonic jumped, but before he could reach the first ring he was kicked out of the way by Shadow who sped away along the rings in his place "humpf, you are getting sloppy" Shadow said.
"Why you!" Sonic dashed between the many mountain pillars, but the constant turns slowed him down.
Hearing the roar of an engine Sonic looked up and saw the Tornado soar above. "Man, it has been long since I had this much fun" Sonic chuckled and hit a jumppad which sent him skyward "WOOOO!"
Noticing a blue blur shot into the sky made Metal look upwards, he could almost imagine Sonic's laughter from having such a good time. Perhaps he was taking this too seriously...
Metal halted and let all the tension in his body go to his feet and then kicked off the ground hard, he let himself relax as he gained height, when he reached his peak jump he ignited his engine and shot forward.
'This is kinda fun' he noted as he easily flew between the tops of the spear like mountains.
Above Sonic looked down and saw a metallic blur zigzag tween the rocky spires "hey! that is not fair" he laughed and curled together and shot through the air like a meteor.
"hnf, it will be a while before they get here" Shadow smirked as he touched the checkpoint. He looked back one last time before he intended to run off, but he stalled for a moment with his eyes widening as Sonic and Metal came flying toward his location at high speeds.
Metal made sure to touch the point this time before touching the ground, but he noted that Sonic had not.
"Sonic?" the robot said as he ran alongside him.
"yeah whats up" Sonic cheerfully replied.
"you need to touch the point for it to count" he informed
Sonic bolted back "shoot!" he yelled panicked
Metal chuckled at Sonic's mistake, his friend as so into racing that he forgot about the objectives.
The trio soon reached Frontier canyon, Shadow in front, Metal second not far behind and Sonic in last because of his mistake, but he was gaining on them.
The barren frontier landscape was dotted with loops, abandoned tracks to slide on and a hearty constantly changing wind.
Shadow chose to cut through the mines, sliding on the mine cart tracks and gaining more and more speed. Sonic sped right through the abandoned frontier town and into a long straight canyon. Metal ran alongside some train tracks leading up along the top of the canyon Sonic was running through. Separated the three had no idea about their standing in the race and blazed through each of their paths.
The Tornado circled around the Frontier checkpoint that stood on a dirt path just before a loop. Each runner exited their path and came towards it at blazing speeds from different angles, the mine collapsed in a dramatic explosion behind Shadow.
Sonic reached out his hand to touch the checkpoint, but just before he did a robotic hand reached it first.
"You better speed up of you want to catch me" Metal jeered as he zoomed off laughing.
Sonic laughed as he pursued, he was enjoying himself so much that honestly he had almost forgotten that they were in a race.
"heh" Shadow smirked "bloody robot."
Just before they reached Splash highway Shadow broke off and ran up a hill. Sonic and Metal looked oddly at each other then raced down the highway.
Soon the hedgehog's reason was revealed as Shadow came skating down a rail that ran alongside the road at phenomenal speed.
"Err, how is Shadow gonna cross the finish line?" Sonic wondered out loud.
"By my calculations the rail is well within the range of it." Metal answered.
"Well, seems like Tails thought of everything" Sonic said.
Said fox was watching from his plane as each runner gave it their all on the last stretch. It was a joy to spectate the amazing race, they were all running neck to neck and he could not tell who was gonna win.
Tails was glad he had installed his latest camera technology at the finish line to catch the winner if it was too close to call otherwise.
Running neck to neck the trio was hastily approaching the bridge where the finish line sat. Sonic turned his head and looked at Metal and smiled, this could not have gone better, he had not had so much fun in a long while and he felt even closer to his metal friend than ever.
Metal tilted his head sideways slightly and met his gaze. Even thought very few words had been exchanged doing the race Metal felt like he had learned a lot from it, about Sonic, about Shadow, about the world, even about himself.
Shadow smirked as he looked at both of them. With the wind rushing past him the black hedgehog closed his eyes and just embraced the feeling. A small feeling stirred inside him, he was confused for a moment, it had been so long since he had truly felt like this. Shadow's smirk lost it's tension and became a genuine smile. He was happy...for the first time since his world had been ripped from him, he was happy.
'Maria' He thought 'I will always remember, but now I think I am finally ready to start moving on from the past' for a split second Shadow could swear he saw her and the professor appear and smile reassuringly at him. A tear welled up in his eyes, he blinked it away as he nodded then steeled his eyes on the goal. He had a race to win.
The closer the racers reached the finish line the faster they went. By the time the reached the line they were blurs to the naked eye. Shadow jumped off the rail and the three skid to a stop.
"err, who won?" Sonic scratched his head, it had been so close even he could not tell.
Tails came over after landing his plane. "That was amazing guys. It made me want to have a race of my own"
Sonic smiled "hey, that is not a bad idea. Maybe we could ask everyone and get a really big awesome race"
"There is still the matter of our current race" Shadow reminded them.
"oh, right. I will check the cameras" Tails ran over to the Tornado and pulled out a laptop and then ran over to the finish line and began loading data from his cameras.
"Man that was a wicked race" Sonic chatted up the others while Tails did his thing.
Metal placed a hand on his chest "I too found it quite enjoyable"
Shadow huffed "I enjoyed when I kicked you in the face" he taunted Sonic who just sweatdropped at the comment. Though in truth he was perhaps the one who had gained most from the race.
"alright, I am ready to announce the winner" Tails declared and the others gathered around.
"In first place is...." Tails turned his computer and showed them the screen "Metal!" on the computer screen an image of the finish line showed the robot barely crossing the line ahead of the others.
"Awww man I came in second?" Sonic hung his head "I was sure I would win"
"Errr...." Tails stalled "actually Sonic" he turned the laptop again after finding the next line crosser "Shadow came in second" Sonic looked intensely at the image and true enough, Shadow had just barely crossed before he did.
The blue hedgehog hung his head even lower "aww bummer...a complete wipeout" a tiny black cloud formed cartoonishly over his head and poured rain down.
"heh, cheer up Sonic, it was almost too close to call even with my super cameras" Tails tried to encourage Sonic, but it did not do much.
Sonic was ripped out of his faux depression as Metal pulled him into his embrace. The suddenness surprised him so much that it took the hedgehog's mind a few moment to process what had just happened.
"Errr..." Sonic blushed "what are you doing?" he asked surprised.
Metal smiled "You seemed really upset so I am giving you a hug to cheer you up" he explained happily. The response made Sonic blush even harder "t-thanks" he looked embarrassed at Tails and Shadow, he could have told Metal to let him go, but Mets just did what he had told him to do in this situation, so he only had himself to blame. That and he did not want his friend to be sad again. Mets took it really hard if he misunderstood things he had told him, so he just bore it.
The fox tried to hold back laughter as not to embarrass his friend even more, but he was mostly unsuccessful. Shadow looked like he had just seen the most strange thing in the world then he held his forehead, closed his eyes and laughed.
"They look so adorable" Shadow chuckled "I just wish I had a camera"
The comments made even more blood rush to Sonic's chins, his eyes swirled comically from all the blood rushing to his head. It had also made Tail dash for his plane and come back with a camera "I wanted to take a commemorative picture, but I got to have one of this as well" the fox snapped a photo. "Prime blackmail and embarrassment material" Shadow chuckled.
Knowing there was only one way to salvage the situation, if only slightly. Sonic took a deep breath and hugged Metal back "hey thanks Mets, I feel a lot better now" Tail took a picture of them embracing, it was just too good not to.
After the pair separated Tails took a few other pictures and the camera even managed to catch Shadow smiling, though he vehemently denied it, while they all posed at the finish line.
It was a day they would all remember for a long time, all for different reasons, but also shared ones.
Sonic sat down the photo of them at the finish line on the bedstand and turned off the lights.
Metal was already dosing off "night....Sonic..." The hedgehog chuckled as he got into bed beside him "Good night Mets" Sonic looked one last time outside. Today had been the perfect time for the all time greatest race, and he had certainly gotten that, but also so much more.
