This was what life was supposed to be! Pulse racing, adrenaline pumping, life and death a mere hairs breath apart. Sonic, fastest thing on Earth was plummeting at terminal velocity. From this high up, he felt like a god. Nothing, nothing could ruin his mood right now.
"Pull your chute Sonic." Sonic sighed. Nothing except Shadow! You'd think that being the ultimate life form would at least let him have some sense of adventure.
"Why didn't you wait for us to land?!"
"Loosen up, will ya!" Sonic called back into his throat mike. He spun in the air, taking pleasure in the freedom of zero gravity. His altitude meter read 20,000 feet.
"Why didn't you wait for us to land?!" Shadow repeated into his ear.
"Because there's no fun in that!" He flipped, heading straight for the ground at full speed. To him world looked like a giant game board. He angled himself to point at the small island in the sea of blue. "Whooo Hoooo!"
A fighter jet pulled along beside him as he reached 15,000 feet. Sonic glanced into the cockpit. At the pilot's seat was a thin, lanky blonde boy with loose T-shirt and goggles round his neck. His eyes were fixed on the controls of the jet. Next to him was an older boy with spiked black hair with red streaks, a leather jacket, jeans, crossed arms and cold red eyes. Sonic couldn't actually make out his eyes, but they were always cold. In the back, a muscle bound boy with red dreadlocks and a prim, pink haired girl were arguing, most likely over him.
Sonic didn't even need to see them to know what they looked like or what they were doing. He knew them so well that all their movements were like a second sense to him. Tails would be focused on his job, Shadow would be angry, Knuckles would be yelling about him being irresponsible and Amy would be defending him.
"Sonic," Tails voice sounded. "You've passed 15,000 feet! You're in danger!" Sonic laughed.
"Lighten up Tails!" He saw Knuckles grab the mike.
"Sonic, pull your chute now or I'll throttle you with it!" Sonic winced as Knuckles booming voice went straight into his ear. He heard the muffled sound of Amy yelling at Knuckles over the comm. He glanced at his altitude reader. 10,000 feet.
"You guy's are no fun, you know that," he said as he pulled his parachute.
"I wish he wouldn't do that!" Espio muttered.
"Aw, come on Espio," Silver said from the back seat. "It's not that bad."
"You were ready to jump, weren't you?" Blaze accused him.
"So?"
"You don't have a parachute on."
"SO?!" Blaze sighed. Silver was her best friend, and a psychic, but sometimes he just didn't get the meaning of over the top. Espio was at the controls of the team's second jet, the Whirlwind, with Silver and Blaze as his passengers. Sonic had been next to Silver, until he'd activated his ejector seat to get a thrill.
"We're coming up to the airport now," Espio said. The jet dived towards the landing strip, coming in low and hard behind Tails in the Tornado. Out the window, Blaze saw the small blue figure of Sonic land with a great splash in the sea alongside.
As they exited their respective jets, they were met by men and dancers with necklaces of flowers. These were placed round their necks. Shadow stared with disdain at this, as did Espio. The picture of these two serious figures in something so colourful was a perfect picture to start the week. Then a short, plump man in a flowery shirt walked up to them.
"Children, welcome to paradise!"
This is SPEED, GUN's top team of agents: Shadow, Sonic, Silver, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Espio and Blaze. They are a group of teenagers with powers that mean they are only ever called in emergencies. But for this week, they aren't GUN agents; they aren't fighting some inhuman enemy. For this week they're on holiday, and hope to stay that way.