Sonic Budokai - Part 1/10: The Rise of King Doc the 2nd (Patreon)

“Welcome one and all, to the 1st annual Egg-splosive Budokai Tournament! I’m your lovely host and generous wealthy sponsor for this event, the one and only, and very real monarch from the far off land of mmgufrr presides before you today. I am the illustrious King Doc!”

This gruff, powerful, deep voice boomed across the stadium and through the gathered venue of excited anthros.

The stage before them was wickedly huge. The grassy perimeter was the ring out area. The entrance was made of stone and had a pattern that seemed to swirl a bit on both pillars connected to the walls that made up the rectangular stands. Hovering above the entrance in a special booth was the loud and boisterous “king” sporting a fancy crown, a fake looking beard, and a red outfit that looked like it belonged to the head of a marching band.

By his side were his cohorts, or rather, servants. The red orb shaped squire and his yellow cube shaped companion were waving giant feathers about in an attempt to fan him down while he sat and drank his iced-tea with a boiled egg yolk at the bottom of it.

“Now, I know you’re all excited,” King Doc began, pressing a hand to his chest as if to gesture to everyone how flattered he was for the applause. “However, before we move onto the main event, I must explain the rules.”

This was a rather unexpected event already. As such, no one had any clue as to what the special rules of this tournament would be. About a month ago, tons of people were given strange notices with a picture of King Doc on it. His picture seemed to work like a real-life gif as it explained what was written on the letter to the receiver. What strangely powerful technology. It must have been constructed by the hands of a genius.

All the note said was that there was to be a special tournament held within the grassy outskirts of the Seaside Hill. An entire arena had been set up just as the note had detailed. People were ushered to their seats and strange looking robots began trying to sell them weird items like “Egg Candy” and “Poppin’ Eggcorn” and “Egg Dogs”.

They all tasted terrible but there were no refunds so what were you gonna do?

“The rules are simple. The tournament will be done in teams of two. Each team will fight against each other TO THE DEA--erm… I mean, until both members of the opposing team are unconscious and stripped down to the underwear. Unconsciousness is deemed official with a 10-count. You can also lose if you get knocked out of the ring but only if you stay outside the ring for a 5-count. If you fail to get back in before the count is up it’ll be considered a forfeit by the person who stepped out. Your partner can still fight of course but it’s best not to have it be a 2 V. 1. The odds will not be in your favor.” King Doc explained.

“Sounds like fun.” The yellow squire inquired. “Wish I could join in.”

“You can’t fight.” The red one responded. “Also, you don’t wear underwear.”

“Oh yeah…” The yellow one sounded a bit sad before pondering what it’d be like were he upgraded with the ability to enjoy underwear.

“Anyway. This tournament will have a bracket of eight competing teams. You heard me. EIGHT!” King Doc shouted, eliciting a loud cheer from the audience once more. “Now then… allow me to introduce your fighters!”

A bell was rung and the fog machine by the entrance that led to the tournament stage went a bit crazy.

“Our first contestant, known the world over as the blue blur, that annoying teenager, and voted most likely to wind up dead at the hands of a handsome genius, it’s Sonic the Hedgehog!” King Doc shouted into the mike.

The song, “Live and Learn” played as the first pair’s entrance theme.

Sonic came out, waving his hands to everyone with the double peace signs. His top was an ordinary light blue shirt and his bottoms were a nice, fresh pair of navy blue jeans.

“Hello everybody! How are you all enjoying the weather today? Smells like the beach is pretty darn close by am I right?” Sonic asked, making banter as he waved and stood in the center of the ring.

“His partner is an equally as annoying baby fox and possible squeak toy, Miles “Tails” Prower!” King Doc shouted again.

Tails walked out next, waving with a light blush on his face as the crowd took to cheering and cooing at how cute he was. The bashful fox eventually had to rub the back of his head and giggle a bit to stave off the embarrassment while standing next to Sonic.

“This team has dubbed themselves Team Sonic and Tails. How original.” King Doc said. “Stats for Sonic and Tails include being on the lowest totem pole of the underwear hierarchy, extremely bad cases of premature ejaculation, and for the fox in particular, an unnaturally huge butt.”

“HEY!” Sonic and Tails were both red faced and leering at King Doc now.

“What?! That’s what my spy cam--I mean, my research showed!” King Doc said, sitting back and shrugging as if it were out of his hands.

Sonic sighed and rubbed his temples before smirking and zipping on over to the large booth where King Doc sat, high above the stage grounds.

“Heya Eggman. Hi Orbot. Hi Cubot.” Sonic said nonchalantly.

“Hello Sonic.” Cubot waved.

Orbot sighed. “Hi.”

“What?” King Doc growled. “Oh ho ho! I see. The funny little hedgehog loves to make jokes. Well, I appreciate the enthusiasm but participants must stay in the ring until the preamble is over.”

“Why are you even bothering with this king shtick?” Sonic asked, hands on his hips as he leaned closer.

“Because I’m KING DOC you INGRATE!” King Doc snapped, sounding a bit less like Santa Claus and more like an annoyed mad man.

“Uh-huh… kay so… you DO know that you’ve done this disguise before right?” Sonic asked, narrowing his eyes while still smiling.

King Doc blinked. It was almost as if he had to reboot.

“... Wha--? No, I haven’t.”

“Yes. You have.” Sonic corrected. “You pulled this King Doc thing back at the Ex World Grand Prix. The one where Team Rose joined in.”

“... …” King Doc sat there, momentarily trying to recall the event before seemingly finding a sliver of the remaining memory there. “Oh… oh yes, of course. Well that’s because I’m… actually… his… long lost brother. King Doc the 2nd!”

“....Eggman, King Doc the 1st was YOU. There can’t BE a 2nd if the 1st doesn’t exi--!” Sonic tried to explain but that’s when King Doc, now having been revealed as a badly disguised Dr. Eggman, pushed Sonic over the edge of the railing.

“EEP!”

Sonic hadn’t expected that so Eggman got a delightful smacking sound when Sonic’s head hit the stone floor of the ring.

He leaned over and saw Sonic flat on his stomach, leg twitching, a bump on his head, and his shirt up a bit so that everyone could make out the red rim of his undies. Seems he wrote his name on his underwear…

Tails grew annoyed and decided to forgo a confrontation with the doctor by instead helping Sonic onto his butt. The hedgehog swooned and his eyes fluttered a bit but he had enough wherewithal within him to at least thank Tails.

“Taanksz buddahy…” Sonic said with his head lolling a bit. Tails had to chuckle at how drunk he sounded.

Eggman cleared his throat and adjusted his fake beard before continuing. “Ahem. The next two contestants are Team Knuckles and Chip!”

The second version of the song “Unknown from M.E” began playing as the next contestants came out.

Out of the smoke came Knuckles the Echidna next, sporting a blue jacket, a white t-shirt, and a light gold necklace on. His bottoms were a pair of nice black slacks.

Chip came out pumping and punching at the air, making tough guy noises and feeling his heart well up with excitement at each one he made.

“I come before you bearing awesomeness. Bask in it’s afterglow everybody!” Chip shouted, eliciting cheers. He was wearing a yellow shirt with a print of three scoops of Ice-Cream on it and a nice pair of blue jeans shorts. He was rather tiny so they almost looked like they barely fit.

Knuckles rubbed a thumb under his nose and then leaned to give a nice little teasing smirk to Sonic. “Looking pretty dumb there Sonic. Might wanna go and have a nap at the nursery for a bit huh?”

Sonic’s head was clear by now but he was still sitting down with his legs spread like he was on the comfy rug of some preschool classroom. Sonic tilted his head and then faked a chuckle.

“Ah-ha. Ah-ha. Wonderful joke Knux. Hey, what’s that over there? Someone’s made off with the Master Emerald.” Sonic said calmly.

“Huh?” Knuckles turned.

Sonic quickly reached over and pantsed him.

Knuckles immediately gasped when the air hit his exposed legs and he wiggled his butt about in surprise. He blushed and reached down to hurriedly cover up his green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles boxers. The crowd was already laughing at him though.

Sonic was laughing along with them.

“Next is Team Rose.” Eggman announced.

Sonic stopped laughing and his eyes went big.

All of a sudden, “My Sweet Passion” began blaring over the speakers. Those loud horns and the unintelligible gibberish of the background singers made Sonic’s heart do a back-flip. He scrambled to his feet and began sweating as Amy Rose strutted out of the fog.

“Hello Sonic. How’s my handsome boo doing?” She said, winking at him with a snicker at the edge of her voice. There was no special outfit on her. She was just wearing her normal red dress today.

Beside her was a much shorter person covered in a dark, black robe. You couldn’t make out their face at all. It was pitch black in the center of the hood.

“This team consists of Amy Rose and her partner… uh…” Eggman tried to read the name written here. “Merca of Secrets. Odd name.”

Tails rubbed his chin, confused by this. “Hmm… I didn’t expect you to be teamed up with a stranger, Amy.” He said. It seemed like Team Rose was always a revolving door of people. At one point Big would be on it, then Vector, then Omochao… but so long as Amy was there it was always Team ROSE now wasn’t it?

“I didn’t expect her to be here at all.” Sonic said with a groan.

“Oh come on.” Amy rolled her eyes before smiling again. “Surely you know better than that by now.”

“I absolutely should…” Sonic whispered to himself.

“As for my new partner here, don’t worry about it. I needed someone strong to help me qualify and I saw this cloaked person taking on a hoard of Eggman robots all by themselves way on the perimeter of the Ocean Palace.”

“Wait, you passed through the Ocean Palace to get here?” Tails asked.

“Yeah. It was a shorter distance from where I already was.” Amy said. “Is that somehow more surprising than the part about the Eggman robots?”

Sonic pointed up at the booth where King Doc sat.

Amy took one look and gasped. “Dr. Eggman.”

“GOD… fucking dammit…” Eggman threw up his hands and slumped in his seat.

Yes, the disguise was that lame.

Amy groaned. “Well, anyway, I figured they were strong and willing to fight the good fight if they didn’t like Eggman’s robots so I asked them to team up with me.”

Chip flew up to Merca and stuck out his hand. “Hello. I’m Chip. Want some chocolate?” He asked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a Chaos Crunch Bar.

Merca stared at it for a second before grabbing it and nodding in thanks. They then stepped back and began munching on the bar to themselves.

Chip flew back over to Knuckles. “They seem nice.”

Knuckles rolled his eyes. “Remember, you came from the center of the Earth to help me beat these guys up. Not make new friends…”

“I can do both…” Chip smiled.

“Next!” Eggman continued. “Our 4th group is Team Chaotix. Oh dear.”

The theme of Team Chaotix, appropriately titled, “Team Chaotix” began playing as Vector, Charmy, and Espio all stepped out of the fog.

Charmy danced his way onto the scene, tongue out and doing double peace signs. Vector and Espio merely walked like normal people. Charmy was wearing light blue jeans and his usual orange pilot shirt. Espio had on a completely white ninja garb. Vector wore a snazzy black and gold jacket with his usual gold chain and headphones. He also had on a nice looking pair of silver colored pants.

When they reached the center of the ring, Vector yanked the showboating bee over to him by the collar, making him momentarily choke a bit before he was repositioned to face his boss.

“Hey! Only two per team! Thems the rules!” Eggman shouted before clearing his throat and putting the Santa voice back on. “Erm… please?”

“Yeah, yeah! Hang on just a minute King Updog.” Vector snapped before facing his team again.

“What’s updog?” Eggman pondered, eliciting a loud snicker from Sonic below him.

“Alright boys, do your best. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose this whole thing but at least try and make yourselves look good for the cameras.” Vector said, patting both their shoulders with his ginormous hands.

Espio and Charmy beat a single fist to their chests and nodded.

“Yes sir.” Charmy said.

“Roger.” was Espio’s reply.

Vector gave them both a solemn nod before he turned and shuffled on over to Tails, of all people. He then slyly placed a hand on the fox’s shoulder and the two of them shared a glance of understanding.

“Thank you, detective.” Tails whispered. “Your checks in the mail.”

With that, Vector hobbled off the stage and back through the fog.

Sonic leaned over and in a low voice asked, “Hired the Chaotix to investigate things while we fought didja?”

Tails merely smiled and rubbed a finger under his nose, suddenly very cocky. “Me? Perish the thought. The foresight to do such a thing a month in advance when those suspicious invitations to a weird tournament nobody has ever heard of went out to the general public would be practically nonexistent.”

Sonic rolled his eyes. His buddy was often cute when he got a swelled head but not all the time.

“The next team is Team Silver.” Eggman grumbled. “More hedgehogs?”

The song “Dreams of an Absolution” blasted over the speakers as Silver came out, waving his hands to everyone. He had on a nice purple shirt with glowing blue highlights on them that made it look super futuristic. He wore a pair of tan colored shortie-short shorts though. Those kind of made him look dorky.

His partner, Blaze the Cat stepped out dressed in what looked like the outfit she wore to the Ex Grand Prix race-track. It was a purple top and a purple pair of matching sweatpants with a gold stripe on them. It looked nice.

Silver turned to everyone and waved. “Hello all. I’ve come from 200 years in the future to participate in yet another competition of the past. I really hope you’ll enjoy having me again.” He said, eyes gleaming and fists clenched with excitement.

“Oh brother.” Sonic sighed. “No need to be so formal. Especially when you’re about to eat dirt.”

“... I am?” Silver gasped. “Wait… eating dirt wasn’t a part of the competition was it? This isn’t like some weird fusion of fighting and Fear Factor is it?” Silver asked, panic at the edge of his voice.

Sonic slumped over and walked off. “Still doesn’t get sarcasm and metaphors I see…”

Blaze chuckled before turning to Amy. “Hello Amy. I trust you found your way here in one piece. Are you… okay with fighting in that dress?”

“Yeah. I fight in it all the time. Why?” Amy asked.

Blaze scratched her head. “N-No reason…”

Charmy whispered to Espio. “Is it cause the wind can blow it up and show off her undies?”

Espio sighed. “Yes. Yes, I’m sure that’s what she’s concerned about…”

“The next team is the super duper awesome mega ally ooper girl power soft serve with a side of badassery… what the hell? Who wrote this?” Eggman snarled and began looming his eyes down the card to get to the team name. “Team Tangle and Whisper!”

Out of the smoke, over the blasting theme of “Fist Bump” came Tangle the Lemur and Whisper the Wolf.

“Say hi! Wave as enthusiastically as you can! We’re live!” Tangle shouted, springing herself up by her tail and blowing kisses everywhere.

“Oh! How wonderful!” Amy rushed over and grabbed Whisper’s arms, delighting in her presence wholeheartedly. “If I’d known you were coming I’d have made the trek here alongside you.”

Tangle landed back onto her feet and put her arm around Whisper with a mighty grin. “It’s alright Amy. We’re here now and we plan to go far. It’s a shame that not all the girls can be here though. You know what I mean?”

Amy nodded. “Well, we all agreed it was for the best. Right Whisper.”

Whisper nodded without hesitation. “Yes.” She said, voice rather silent as per usual. She also had a light blush on her face. This crowd was kind of intoxicating in a weird way.

Silver’s eyes were sparkling with excitement. “Oh my gosh! It’s the LEGENDARY GUARDIAN ANGEL! She’s HERE!” Silver was about ready to pee himself with excitement. Blaze could tell he probably already dribbled a little bit in his underwear thanks to the odd smell tickling her nose.

Silver freaked out some more when he realized something. “O-Oh no! We’ve gotta fight her?! That’s… that’s SO rude! I don’t know if I can.”

“Silver, she came here knowing full well this was a fighting tournament.” Blaze said quickly to quell his nerves. “Calm yourself. She’ll understand.”

Silver sighed and nodded… but then he began fidgeting and sucking on his lip again, unable to keep himself from getting overexcited as well as super nervous.

“Haha. What a weenie.” Charmy said.

Tails heard that and grinned. “Hey Charmy. Which MLP undies do you have on today?”

Charmy flushed a bright red and put his finger to his lips. “SHHHHH!”

“Next is the illustrious team of sailors from across the seven seas… urhm… this… this is another overly written card. Why’d I give them permission to write their own entrances?” Eggman sighed.

“WE definitely didn’t get to write our own.” Sonic called up to Eggman, obviously very annoyed with him.

“Shut up hedgehog! Everything on that card I read for you and Tails was true and you KNOW it!” Eggman snapped. He continued when all Sonic and Tails did was grumble under their breaths in response. “Anyway, Team Marine.”

The speaker began to blare a cover of “A New Venture” by a famous pop star of this world.

Out of the fog came Marine the Raccoon in a nice green top and a pair of black bike shorts. It was her usual get up, of course. The person she was teamed up with was a bit of a surprise though.

“Team Marine consists of Marine the Raccoon and manager of the Forget Me Knots, Ash Mongoose.”

Ash stepped out with his hands in his pockets and smirking brightly. The cheers got noticeably louder when he made the scene which meant he had to oblige everyone by waving his hands about to them all.

“You look awesome Ash!” Shouted his girlfriend, Mina Mongoose, in the crowd.

“Thanks… love ya babe.” Ash said, a light blush on his face. The yellow mongoose was wearing his normal red jacket, black shirt with an emoticon on it, blue pants, and black boots. His tiny red shades were there as well.

Ash turned to look at Sonic. “Hello there, hedgehog.”

“Hey Ash.” Sonic said, arms crossed. “Still big in the music scene I see?”

“Yeah.” Ash said, grabbing the rim of his glasses. “We might even be bigger than you.”

“Haw. You’re funny.” Sonic said, looking to the side. Ash may have been a bit of a tease but at least he and Mina were doing okay. That said, he was fully prepared to embarrass him in front of his girlfriend like nobody’s business.

“You’re the manager to the Forget Me Knots?!” Charmy gasped. “I have all your albums!” He shouted with his voice overlaid on top of both Tangle and Silver who shouted at the same time Charmy did.

Silver blushed and scooted back a bit though. Charmy sucked in his lip when he realized what he confessed to and began to shyly put his hands behind his back.

Ash laughed. “I’m sure she’s delighted to hear that. Maybe you can get some autographs when we’re done.”

Charmy, Silver, and Tangle all nodded with starry eyes. Blaze looked over at Silver and shook her head, wondering how someone 200 years in the future could be so smitten with things from the past like this. His future must really suck.

Marine, meanwhile, had been speeching about how awesome she was the whole time and eventually sweatdropped in confusion when no one was giving her any attention.

“H-Hello? Does no one else want to hear about how I ended up teaming up with manager boy over there? Crikey, it’s like pullin’ teeth just ta be heard round here…!” Marine pouted.

It wasn’t really that grand a story. She was going to embellish to make it sound grand but it was mostly Mina who wanted to enter and Ash tried to talk her out of it for fear she’d get hurt. He said he’d do it in her stead but when she pointed out that he’d need a partner, Marine came flopping at their feet, begging and pleading for her to be his partner because absolutely NO ONE wanted to be hers.

Ash agreed only because it’d be good publicity.

“Our next team is the thieving, treasure loving duo of craftiness. Team Green! Jet the Hawk and Manic the Hedgehog!” Eggman announced.

If Sonic could spit out his drink he would have.

“Jet?! MANIC?!” Sonic shouted.

The speakers began to play the Zero Gravity version of “Catch Me If You Can” as Jet the Hawk strutted out with his yellow shades on, wearing a white shirt with bright yellow lightning bolt patterns down the sides and a logo on the front that had a big “J.T.H” embroidered in gold. He also had on a small gold chain. Could you tell he liked gold?

His pants were a fiery red and had several pockets and zippers on them to match his boots. When he stepped out, he raised his glasses and peered at Sonic in the eye with a grin.

“It’s been a while. Sonic the Hedgehog.” Jet said, feeling super excited by this wondrous opportunity.

“Jet…” Sonic said. “As much as it pains me to ask this question but you wouldn’t happen to be team GREEN because this Manic character is also…”

“Yes, it’s me bro. Don’t sound so scared. It’s embarrassing.”

On cue, the green hedgehog with the wild hair, red vest, dark violet shirt, and a pair of saggy black jeans with holes in them, stepped out.

“Yolo.” Manic said, a cute little grin on his face.

“Manic… what are you doing here?” Sonic asked, face palming.

“I love prize money and I wanted to see if I could team up with someone to fight my way to some nice cha-ching.” Manic said, twirling his trademark drum sticks in each hand. “Met this hawk guy and it turns out we’re not only both green--!”

“But we LOVE the green that comes on money too!” Jet snickered. “Wave and Storm weren’t as interested, which is fine by me. Not every score can be obtained through the usual means so they’re sitting this one out.”

Sonic sighed.

Tails smiled and waved. “Hello middle brother Manic.”

“Hello, youngest brother Tails.” Manic said with a wink.

The three brothers were reunited again. How touching.

Charmy looked them over and tilted his head. “Come to think of it… Vector’s green and he also loves money.”

“So do you and you’re not green.” Espio said.

“Maybe I should paint myself green then cause… I REALLY like money.” Charmy said.

“I don’t… think it HAS to work like that Charmy. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.” Espio tried to reassure him.

“Now then… onto the team that’s going to slay the competition, perhaps literally, it says, which excites me, Team Dark…!” Eggman said.

The song “This Machine” began playing over the speakers now as the new Team Dark stepped forward.

Shadow the Hedgehog had finally made his grand entrance, sporting a black leather jacket, a dark blue shirt, and a pair of white pants. His face was serious, as always.

However, his partner wasn’t the usual expected one either.

“Oh wow. I’m just… getting real lucky today, aren’t I?” Sonic said.

Instead of Rouge or Omega, beside Shadow stood another green hedgehog. It wasn’t Sonic’s long lost fourth brother though. It was him from another dimension who rebuilt himself up as a new person entirely.

“Your competition is a real Scourge today, blue hedgehog.” Scourge the Hedgehog said, grinning with his sharp teeth and shades angled up to his forehead. He wore a black leather jacket as well, only his had fire patterns on it. He didn’t wear a shirt so his baggy jeans with rips and tears in them were lower a bit, showing off the light blue waistband of whatever underwear he had on.

Sagging was probably considered cool somewhere in the world but to Sonic it just looked desperate.

As such, he couldn’t help teasing him.

“Hey Scourge, there’s this wonderful new invention. It’s called a belt.” Sonic said.

“Oh really?” Scourge raised a brow. “You saying that because you want me to use it to whip your butt or something?”

Sonic was taken aback by that and flushed a bit red. He stumbled over his words which made Scourge start laughing at him. Sonic promptly stomped his foot like a child… and then tugged down his shirt a bit to hide the little stiffy he got from the image of Scourge spanking him in his mind.

“Where’s your usual team Shadow?” Knuckles asked with his brow raised.

Shadow closed his eyes. “We could only bring two correct? Omega can’t be stripped since he doesn’t wear clothes. Rouge wasn’t interested. That is all.”

Knuckles raised a brow.

“You make it sound like you’re settling for me.” Scourge snickered.

“I am.” Shadow said without missing a beat.

“Aww, come on.” Scourge put his arm around Shadow. “Don’t be like that. I know we’ve had our differences in the past but this is a chance to show off how good we are at this rivalry thing with Sonic and Rad Red over there.”

“W-What about me?” Silver raised his hand like a child in the back of the classroom.

Scourge shot him a glare and Silver, embarrassed, slowly lowered his hand.

Shadow sighed before smirking. “Well… I can’t exactly argue with that. I might as well have fun if I’m stuck here.”

Tails rubbed his chin. “Interesting…”

“Odds are Team Dark is undercover too…” Amy spoke up, voicing what was on Tails’ mind. “At least I feel like that has to be the case. No way Rouge and Omega just wouldn’t come to something this suspicious.”

Either way, there was no time to dwell on it here.

“Finally, our last team!” Eggman said. “The dynamic duo of Donovan the Raccoon and Veronica the Hedgehog. Please come forth, Team Beta.”

The audience laughed at that.

“Yeesh.” Tails said to himself. “What idiot chose that name?”

Out of the fog came the two contestants, Donovan and Veronica, and over the speakers blared the song “Escape”, otherwise known as “The Piña Colada Song”.

The crowd kept laughing and the contestants already in the ring were super confused.

Donovan blushed as he walked out into the scene, wearing a cerulean blue shirt and smoky topaz colored shorts. Veronica had on a white tank top with black cuffs on the neck and sleeves and a pair of dark gray sweatpants.

Donovan chuckled and waved nervously at everyone as he walked by. Veronica blushed as well but she was mostly pouting with her fists clenched at her sides. Eventually, when the song blasted “DO YOU LIKE PIÑA COLADAS!” again, Veronica jabbed her elbow into Donovan’s side.

“Ow!” Donovan whined.

“Why’d you pick that song?” She asked, feeling like they’d already lost.

“I panicked! It was the first thing that came to mind!” Donovan stammered, feeling a bit low. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head as he saw all the contestants. “Oh… y-you guys again?”

“Yes, US again. What are you doing here Donovan?” Knuckles demanded.

“I’m a contestant this time!” Donovan held his hands up. “No higher ups forced me to host a new competition or anything. I just wanted to have a fun time fighting in a tourney. That’s all.”

“Who’s your new lady friend?” Scourge asked, pulling his glasses down to check Veronica out. She rolled her eyes and scooted away from him.

“This is Veronica. She’s my friend.” Donovan explained.

“What a healthy explanation that was.” Veronica said, smiling finally and patting his back. “You’re so cute when you’re nervous. Don’t worry. I’m here to lead the charge. We’re not going to let the Piña Colada Song get us down.”

Sonic looked Veronica over and then tilted his head. “Hey uh… do I… know you?”

Veronica gasped, mouth in a humorous, nervous smile. Her face was suddenly very sweaty. “What? Uh… nope. Nuh-uh. Never met you before Sonic. It’s a pleasure though…”

Blaze eventually leaned in and rubbed her chin. “Now that you mention it… she seems familiar…”

“NO! Never met! Nuh-uh. Definitely didn’t get my butt kicked by motobugs! Anyway, let’s have some fun together! Wow! Look at that sun! It sure is bright today!” She said walking off, leaving Sonic and Blaze perplexed.

They’d definitely seen her before when they came to check out a new hero in a certain area. The duo they found was of her and another person. Thunder perhaps? They were found defeated and stripped to their panties because they got beat up by some motobugs. It was the heaviest and most pathetic disappointment they’d faced in quite some time.

She must not have made too huge an impression because she was stuck at merely being familiar to them.

“Alrighty then!” Eggman stood up. “That’s everyone! Like I said, there will be eight brackets so go in the back and prepare in your lockerooms for--! Eh?” Eggman stopped when Orbot started to try and grab his attention.

Eggman leaned down to hear what he had to say.

“What do you mean there’s more than eight teams…?” Eggman said, his voice carrying over on the speaker.

Sonic was facepalming super hard right now.

“Erm… h-hey! Who’s ready for the preliminaries?” Eggman laughed nervously as he stood up. “Yes, that’s right. We’ve gotta shave some of you away so we’re going to have a free-for-all as the first bout before the bracket tournament starts. Yes. Absolutely. I thought of that in advance. Yes I did. Now, off to the lockers with you.”

“Sheesh. What a phony.” Charmy muttered under his breath. Espio merely patted the bee on his back.

Eggman sat back in his seat and twirled his mic before speaking into it again. “Oh. One last thing I forgot to say.”

Everyone stopped.

“The losers of each match not only get kicked out of the tournament but have to be put into a big old cute fluffy diaper and dressed as a baby. Then they’ve gotta dance and cheer on the sidelines for those still competing.” Eggman laughed.

The faces everyone made as they slowly turned to glare at Eggman looked like that of a collection of terrified horror movie victims.

“Not to worry though. I foresaw your disappointment in the penalty and I’ve decided that each of you is allowed a nice single bottle of free water. You're welcome.” Eggman said before laughing and twirling in his chair again.

The contestants all began tromping back towards the lockers after this, with Sonic in particular making a moody face.

“Oh well. Won’t be a problem when I win I guess.”

---

Special thanks to BadSonicNSFW for allowing me to use their fan-character Veronica the Hedgehog for this story. 

Been a long while since I did one of these but this time I’m not going too crazy with it. This is definitely something I’m going to do that’s way more manageable than those last couple of insane competition stories. I already have the whole thing plotted out. It’s only going to be 10 chapters. It’s going to be a lot of fun to write too since I’ve got my share of surprises to bring to this. Stay tuned.

Best team and entrance theme? Vote below.