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By the time he's completed two laps, the track around him is completely empty, allowing Shadow to comfortably coast for the rest of the race.
As if they ever stood a chance. Shadow allowed a faint smirk to twitch at the corner of his mouth. The arrogant green bird who'd loudly challenged him earlier while holding an admittedly adequate set of Extreme Gear was nowhere near him, nor was the Doctor, who'd gloated about his new enhancements before the start of the match. The entire race had been laughably easy so far, but he doesn't let that fact ease him into complacency.
Approaching the curve, he angles his body to sharply steer the wheel into a smooth drift. The smell of burning rubber causes his nose to twitch, and the wind from the sheer speed at which he was going thoroughly ruffled his quills. He'd need to groom them meticulously after he claimed first place.
However, he stills when his eyes, laser-focused on the road ahead of him, suddenly catch a blur of blue—a certain deep shade that was the signature color of one particularly irritating racer.
"Sonic," Shadow growls, his quills bristling in anger. The blue hedgehog spares him a taunting flash of his signature smirk before catching up to him with irritating ease.
"Shadow, long time no see," Sonic laughs, his annoying voice grating against Shadow's nerves, "Figured you must've gotten all lonely by yourself here, so I thought I'd keep you company in first place." His tone is light at the start with faux-concern, but the way he lowers his voice at the end indicates anything but that.
As if to mimic a friendly nudge, Sonic veers his car toward him, bumping the garishly-colored vehicle into his. Shadow manages to contain any outward reaction and only narrows his eyes at the other.
"As if you could keep up," Shadow replies. He sets his eyes back on the road and makes a point to avoid looking at the other. Sonic doesn't respond but stares back at him, his smug gaze burning into his fur and igniting his annoyance.
"Get out of my way before I run you over, hedgehog." Shadow debates on doing it either way, but Sonic slows down a few paces behind him and gets out of range before he can. His gloved hands grip the steering wheel as he observes Sonic's strangely docile behavior. His glare is responded to with a tilt of a head and a shooing motion as if to urge him on.
"Sorry, sorry. How rude of me to block the way," Sonic says. Despite the easy smirk on his lips, there's something sinister in his eyes that doesn't go past Shadow's notice. Shadow scowls as he's forced to divide his attention between the road ahead and the menace behind him.
His suspicions are confirmed when he jerks forward, his car sputtering and slowing down before recovering only to get hit again. It's a vicious cycle that lasts for five seconds too long as Shadow plots Sonic's murder in his mind.
Just as Sonic is rearing forward to slam into him again, he swerves to the side, causing his car to collide with Sonic's ugly car. A few sparks fly, and Shadow observes the flakes of paint that scrape off from the collision with a smirk.
When they reach a corner, forcing them to separate, he sees Sonic's smile wipe off his face as he notices the state of his car. Frankly, Shadow thinks that he's done him a favor. The gaudy red flames on the side are almost entirely scratched off—providing a much-needed reprieve for his eyes—and the crater on the front of his car is extremely noticeable and unsightly much to his satisfaction.
"Hmph. Fitting for a faker like you," Shadow muses simply, eyeing the dented, scratched car before meeting Sonic's strained smirk. While his own car isn't free from scratches, it's in much better shape in a way that doesn't leave Sonic any room to argue back.
The other hedgehog opens his mouth to shoot something back, but Shadow uses the boost he's been saving and zips past him. His ears twitch at the faintest call of his name and a promise for revenge, but he doesn't pay any heed to it. As he catches sight of the finish line, a fleeting, sharp grin tugs on his face, and he slams down on the accelerator.
A few days after the race, Shadow catches a glimpse of Sonic repainting his car the same ugly shade of blue. The flames on the side are gone now, replaced with a collage of bright yellow stars that are just as bad, if not worse.
He folds his arms at the sight before turning up his nose to huff. Just as he turns to leave, he's intercepted by a blur of blue and an unwelcome arm slung around his shoulder.
"Not even a hello?" Sonic teases. His quills poke and press at Shadow when he gets too close, prompting him to raise his hand and push his head away.
"I don't have time to talk."
Sonic's grin seems to stretch even wider at that, and Shadow eyes it with a frown as he braces himself for whatever annoying quip leaves his mouth.
"But enough to brood around, right?" Sonic snickers, covering his mouth before exaggeratedly crossing his arms. His lips become downturned and almost pouty, and his eyebrows are furrowed in a way that makes him look more laughable than usual. Coughing into his shoulder, he lowers his voice in a poor imitation. "I'm the Ultimate Lifeform, Shadow the Edgehog."
Eyeing Shadow's increasingly annoyed expression, Sonic looks as though he wants to continue, but he stops to clear his throat. He straightens up and pats himself on the back for his shoddy imitation. "Still slower than me, though."
Shadow narrows his eyes at the mockery. His hands ball into tight fists but relax as he remembers Sonic's face falling from the last race. When he doesn't immediately respond to the jab, Sonic raises an eyebrow before dropping his arms to his hips, restlessly tapping his foot against the ground.
Allowing a relatively friendly smile to slide onto his face, Shadow crosses his arms and relishes the sight of Sonic's uncharacteristic silence. He tilts his head to catch a glimpse of the car behind Sonic, eyeing it for a few seconds before bringing his attention back to the other hedgehog.
"The repaint covers the scrapes well," Shadow says. It's not a false statement, but it's far from the truth. With the new coating, he has to strain himself to barely make out the shallow grooves littered around. Shadow allows Sonic that small victory. However, the new flourishes on his car are sad attempts at best to hide the noticeable dent on the side, and there's no way he's letting that go unsaid.
Sonic's expression looks unimpressed now, with barely concealed annoyance that makes Shadow smirk in response. For once, the tables have turned, and Shadow understands why that blue hedgehog enjoys bothering him so much.
"Hah," Sonic huffs out an amused laugh. He recovers awfully quickly and raises a thoughtful hand to rub at his chin. "I didn't know you paid that much attention to me. I'm blushing." In an attempt to look embarrassed, he delicately fans his face with a lazy grin.
Shadow rolls his eyes and dismisses him with a wave. As he suspected, talking to Sonic is a waste of time. There's no winning against complacent buffoons like him. He's annoyed by how easily Sonic's able to get on his nerves and bounce back from every rebuke.
Just before he leaves the room, he hears Sonic's smug voice call out to him.
"See ya at the race, Shads!"
He's adjusting his inhibitor rings and observing the other racers when Rouge's familiar voice croons at him from behind.
"Since when were you buddy-buddy with Big Blue?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Shadow doesn't bother to turn toward her but offers her a sidelong gaze as she steps beside him.
"Oh, don't play dumb." Rouge leans toward him, her arm resting on his shoulder as she stares at something to the side. She's relaxed, and her signature smirk is curled into something more smug as she catches onto Shadow's silent question.
Dropping her voice to a hush, Rouge raises a gloved hand to cover her mouth in a secretive manner and whispers to him. "To your left."
The sight that meets his eyes is more than surprising and less than pleasant. He almost wonders if Sonic had somehow read his thoughts about his gaudy car. The flames and stars are gone, replaced by a sleek, metallic look. The cobalt blue is replaced with a pitch-black, and the lines of his car are now bordered with red instead of white.
Objectively, in his opinion, it's not a bad look. It's a design that he enjoys, one he brands his own possessions with, actually. In fact, it's the exact same color scheme and material as his car.
Leaning against his poor imitation, the blue idiot seems overly pleased, even despite the strange looks he's receiving from everyone else. Beside him, the fox has a nervous expression as he scratches his cheek, and the echidna is gazing at Sonic with something disapproving but undoubtedly amused.
"Don't you two make a cute couple?" Rouge laughs. Shadow hates how much she's enjoying the situation at his expense. He's tempted to snap something harsh, but holds his tongue as he meets Sonic's eyes from afar.
They're too far apart to talk to each other. Shadow's inclined to stride over and yank him by the neck, but he stays put with his arms crossed. He doesn't say anything but conveys his anger and annoyance through his fierce gaze.
Sonic relishes in his annoyance and winks at him. He returns Rouge's friendly wave with a salute before returning to talking with his friends. Shadow continues glaring at the blue hedgehog and wonders where he ever got the audacity.
He hears Rouge sigh from beside him, and Omega's large footsteps clank closer to his side as he enters the track. The robot's distinct tinny voice is directed toward him.
"Shall we eliminate the competition from early on?"
Shadow doesn't offer a proper response aside from a grunt, which is enough to prompt Omega to rotate his hands in preparation.
The race is smooth sailing. The initial start is troublesome, with everybody constantly slamming into each other and throwing around different items. Sometime halfway, he loses track of Rouge, though he can still hear Omega trading insults with someone from far behind.
His grip on the steering wheel is steady, and his eyes are resolutely trained on the road in front of him. Aside from the noise of rushing wind and the accelerator, he can't hear anything else. Just as last time, he's able to coast through the tracks and easily secure first place. It's almost laughably easy, until it suddenly isn't.
"Didya miss me?"
At the sound of Sonic's aggravating voice, Shadow feels tempted to crush his steering wheel into scrap. The feeling inside him is part annoyance—purely from the sight of Sonic's new car—and part excitement from the anticipation of a challenge.
"You're slow, hedgehog," Shadow responds. They're nearing the end of the second lap. For someone called the "fastest thing alive", Sonic took his time catching up.
Sonic smirks and turns toward him, even having the audacity to rest his arms against the top of his steering wheel. The path is mostly straight now, but the other doesn't bother to fully watch the road in favor of just staring at him.
"Would you've prefered if I rushed straight toward you, then?"
Shadow glances at him from the corner of his eye before frowning. "I expected more of a challenge."
He expects that to get a rise from the other and braces himself for Sonic to return the jab. The latter delivers on his expectations, even going beyond the level of annoyance Shadow anticipates.
"You asked for it, Shadow," Sonic says, his tone promising the worst. Shadow doesn't bother to respond but warily keeps Sonic in the corner of his eye.
He notices Sonic holding something in his hand, black, spherical, and sparking. He gets about two seconds to process what's about to happen—plenty of time—and he's able to swerve the car away just in time, only for the blast to be small and marginally irritating at best.
Shadow scowls. Given how small the explosion is, his car is largely undamaged, not even scratched. The swerve cost him a bit of speed, however, and he's slower now that he's lost the acceleration he's built up. With his distraction, Sonic's able to speed past him, but the other hedgehog stubbornly decides to stay and taunt him more.
"Your tricks disappoint me, Sonic," Shadow growls. It's cowardly and disgraceful of him to not go all out. It's clear that Sonic is purposefully poking and prodding at him, trying to get under his skin first before stealing victory from his grasp in the last second.
But as Sonic's smirk grows wider, Shadow decides that two can play at that game. He has an item ready in his grasp, and without any hesitation, he throws it right at Sonic.
It hits the other perfectly. Sonic's gloating is immediately interrupted as he flails in the green slime, his nose twitching from the smell and his face grimacing from the terrible consistency.
As someone who's been victim to the item once, Shadow allows himself to empathize with the other while outwardly smirking. Perhaps it's because he's been spending too much time with Rouge, but he's tempted to laugh and bat his hand in mock sympathy to Sonic.
Either way, he regains his position in the race and doesn't give Sonic another thought.
As expected, Sonic doesn't take long to recover, and they're annoyingly side by side again, though the other hedgehog is still flecked with green slime.
"You've got something on your face, hedgehog," Shadow helpfully supplies, not bothering to glance Sonic's way. He hears the other release a sarcastic hum, however, and that's enough to make him smirk.
When they approach the curve, Shadow's already prepared to drift. His eyebrows furrow in concentration, and his hands wrap around the steering wheel in a more secure grip. However, his focus is broken when he catches a glimpse of blue from the side.
His ears twitch from the loud roar of an engine, and his quills ruffle from the sudden current of air, his only warnings before he meets green eyes.
Sonic shuffles around his seat, adjusting the controls in his car, before meeting his eyes. He smiles lazily at Shadow and leans back in his seat, arms resting behind his head.
He doesn't bother to turn his head around and continues to carelessly drive the car in reverse. Annoyingly, his speed is able to match Shadow's, and Sonic's ease in his movements is far from forced.
"Keep your eyes on the road, Sonic," Shadow orders, his voice gruff with irritation. Sonic's lazy smile doesn't waver and instead stretches even wider with a smug curl of his lips.
"Tempting, but I prefer my current view instead," Sonic responds, tilting his head to the side. He's gazing at him even more intently now, and Shadow returns the intensity by stubbornly locking eyes with Sonic, not daring to look away.
They stay like that for only a few more seconds before Shadow's ears twitch at the roar of an engine approaching them. The others are rapidly catching up, and their advantage is gone.
That realization makes Shadow glare fiercely at the other, and he's tempted to blame Sonic entirely for distracting him before deciding to focus on building speed.
It ends up a fruitless effort, however, when he's suddenly covered by a large shadow. He sees Sonic leaning forward in his seat in sudden realization, but it's already too late as the weights fall on them and force them both into an immediate stop.
Shadow jerks forward in his car, his temples hitting the back of his hands. When he lifts his head, he sees Silver passing by them with an apologetic wave. He frowns in response and turns his eyes to Sonic, who's sprawled out in his car beside him.
"I hope you've learned how your negligence rewards you," Shadow grits out. If it weren't for Sonic's carelessness, he would've secured first place by now.
"Worth it," Sonic replies, his voice trailing off into a laugh. Shadow rolls his eyes, tempted to climb out of his car and deliver a punch to Sonic's annoying smirk.
But he's never been one to restrain himself when it comes to Sonic, so he does exactly that.
The crunch beneath his knuckles is satisfying and makes up for all of the annoyance he's endured.