Chapter 1: Flight to Sunshine Coast
Hey there! Second chapter is finally up and running after countless hours of writer's block. I'm so sorry for those I've kept waiting and would just like to say a massive THANK-YOU for all your support. I had to change the categories from Sega Superstars to a cross-over between Sega Superstars and Sonic the Hedgehog due to lack of viewing. I would also like to say a big thankyou to AsSafeAsSnape, because without her support, I probably wouldn't have got this up this soon.
I would also like to point out that the taxi driver has a lisp and I don't know how long I spent correcting it to sound exactly like it looks. It's supposed to be misspelt, and I don't have anything against people with lisps either.
I've also made two or three references to certain events that happened in Sonic the Hedgehog, and I've also made a true fact about Reala that is placed at the end. Review in the comments if you know of the references. Don't cheat!
In conclusion, I would just like to mention that either next chapter or the chapter afterwards the first race will start. It will be a fairly short chapter, but it'll be worth it, trust me! Why are you still reading this?! Get reading, my little munchkins!
"Why do we have to take taxis again?" Vyse looked over to the girl called Pudding, "Don't we deserve a bit better than this Danica? I mean, really…" Danica glanced up from the loose documents she was studying.
"Pudding, it isn't that bad, is it? They're just taxis; it's not like their driving us down the path to Hell. Just calm down a bit-"
"I'm perfectly fine!" she cut off angrily, gaining the attention of the old taxi driver and the black hedgehog in the front. An awkward silence stretched out for several minutes before Danica turned away from her papers a second time to stare at the pouting, blue-clad reporter next to her. Vyse took note of how her lips drew a sharp line; the unimpressed school teacher face. He's seen it way too many times to forget how it ended.
He swept his sepia eyes over the rest of the cab. Danica sat next to him in the middle, separating him from the moody girl and Shadow sat in the front with the taxi driver, not really giving him any company. They were the odd group – the others took taxis with their friends. Sonic, Knuckles, Beat and his friend Gum were together; AiAi, his friend MeeMee, Amigo and Alex Kidd were a group; Dr Eggman, a metal copy of Sonic dubbed Metal Sonic (go figure), a red, flying jester called Reala and a big guy named Ralph were a pack; Tails, Amy, Ulala and a purple, flying jester called NiGHTS got a taxi; then there was them.
'We definitely have some variety', the rogue thought, sneaking a look at everyone. Danica was the enthusiastic one, Pudding was the princess, he was the friendly but lonely one and Shadow was the introvert.
'Although', he pondered, shooting a quick glance at the midnight-black hedgehog, 'he was smiling last night…'
~Flashback~
"Hey, it's Shadow!" screamed Sonic, "And he's smiling! Is this a dream?!"
~Flashback~
To say Vyse was confused would be an understatement. Sonic said that like it was rare to see him smile. 'But his smile was so natural and carefree-'
"Do you mind?" Vyse was snapped out of his thoughts by an irate Shadow. "I don't particularly like being stared at…" Shadow seethed through his teeth with a steely tone. He then realised he was ogling Shadow while he was zoned out.
"Uh… sorry. I-I didn't mean to… s-sorry…" The Blue Rogue fumbled on his words, unable to think of a way to calm the irritated spikeball. Truth be told, Vyse really hated making people mad or upset unless they had done the same to him before. He'd only met Shadow last night and didn't want vendettas against him before the racing had even started. He could only hope he accepted his apology.
A hand on his shoulder caused his thinking pattern to halt as he turned to the brunette. She smiled in a motherly way, patting him twice before twisting her head towards the taxi driver.
"How far away from the airport do you think we are?" she asked politely.
"It's jutht to tha left of thith round-'bout Mithy", he replied in a gruff voice with a lisp. "Then you can all be out of thith "death mathine"." Vyse hid a smirk as he watched Pudding's expression change as she listened to the voice.
Pulling up at the entrance to the airport like countless other cabs and carpoolers, they stepped out of the yellow vehicle and went to open the boot. The driver came around to help with the luggage, but was quickly shooed by the reporter as he pulled one of her various suitcases out of the car. Vyse felt sorry for the poor old man, imagining how he'd feel if this happened to himself day in and day out. When everything was removed from the boot and sat safely on the sidewalk, Danica handed him two $20 notes - allowing him to keep the change – and watched him mechanically drive back to the city they came from.
Shadow pointed out to Danica that AiAi, MeeMee, Amigo and Alex Kidd had already arrived and having dilemmas with paying their grumpy taxi driver (they're three monkeys and a kid) and Danica went over to assist them. Soon after, the taxi containing Dr Eggman, Metal Sonic, Reala and Ralph arrived, swiftly followed by Sonic, Knuckles, Beat and Gum. The last to reach their destination were Tails, Amy, Ulala and NiGHTS, whom had come across some issues along the way.
"Well, that was a bumpy ride", Tails pronounced shakily, stumbling out the passenger door and collapsing onto Sonic. "I don't think I've felt this queasy since Eggman's Ultra-Accelerating Space Elevator."
Sonic revolved into a fit of giggles, watching as Amy and Ulala toppled out of the backseat. However, NiGHTS seemed unaffected, calmly floating out and helping the girls onto their wobbly legs.
After they recovered from their little joyride and had obtained their bags before paying, the racers walked into the airport and sat in the reserved area to await further instructions from their female host.
"Are you all prepared for the flight guys?" Danica queried, chuckling at the chorus of complaints that followed.
"It's going to take ages", Sonic whined, "and apparently, I have to sit next to Amy and Eggman!"
"But, don't you want to sit next to me Sonic?" Amy questioned the downcast hedgehog.
"Yeah, Sonic", Beat piped up, Knuckles quietly laughing behind him, "she is your girlfriend after all."
"Ugh, stahp Beat, STAHP!"
"I'm not in the mood to listen to crying babies and restless children for 6 ½ hours straight", Pudding nagged.
"We better not be flying in the economy class", Amy criticised.
"Whoa, whoa, WHOA GUYS!" Danica exclaimed, "Who ever said we'd be flying in the economy class, or listening to babies at all?!" This gained the attention of all.
"Just because I made you take taxis, that doesn't mean we'll be on an ordinary plane. Vyse", Danica gained his attention, "and Tails", said fox smiled, "have something better in-store for you…"
Whispers went around the 17 other racers, causing nervousness to tug at Vyse's anxiety. Tails ran up to him, looking more pumped than tense. Vyse just let him talk, preferring not to be the centre of attention.
"This was more Vyse's idea than mine, but we've devised a genius plan that we believe all of you will enjoy. We won't be taking a plane today", a series of "What's" and "Huh's" followed, "instead, we'll be taking a jet."
"A private jet", Vyse added, seeing faces lit up with excitement.
"Oh my God! A private jet?!" Ulala exclaimed, gobsmacked at the thought.
"Yes, winning!" Pudding yelled, jumping up and down.
"And Sonic, a little newsflash for you, you're allowed to walk around on jets", Tails told the restless hedgehog.
"Well, thank Chaos for that", Sonic grinned, along with the rest, "So, where is this private jet of yours Vyse?"
xxASRTxx
"Welcome to your temporary home, All-Stars." They're hearts stopped for the second time that week.
On the outside, the jet had a sleek, snow-white design. On the inside, it was totally different. They ambled dreamily into the dining room, where a long, pistachio green table covered with ceramic dinner plates, silver cutlery and various bottles of wine and spirits had been set upon cream/apple-green linoleum. Placed around the table were twenty leather, asparagus-green swivel seats with a cream, plush pillow sat upon them. The outside and backs of the chair were a sterling silver, along with the base of the table, which basically looked like a long board sat upon a smaller, silver rectangle. Above the table hung a magnificent pale-green chandelier that was adorned with crystal balls (they appeared to be a lighting decoration). Behind the end chair was a spacer wall that had a built-in flat screen showing a map of their current destination and the flight path the jet would be taking.
The flooring on the plane was a polished timber panelling with vector lines that took their eyes down the jet to land on the "lounge room". Three beige couches sat in a square formation around a copper-coloured coffee table, facing an identical spacer wall with another built-in flat screen showing exactly the same as the one in the "dining room". Additionally, there were several tables and lamps around the plane.
Going further through, they came to two doors: the left one went into a sparkling kitchen and the right one stretched out into a linear hallway lined with more panelling and the most incredible feature wall. Black mosaic tiles accentuated the beauty of a mosaic wave decorated with every colour possible and spots on the wall were lightened due to the sunlight filtering through the circular windows that dotted the entire perimeter of the plane.
Reaching the end of the hallway, the way-past-impressed racers entered the last two rooms: the "bedroom" and the bathroom. Moulded around the walls of the bedroom was an elongated, cherry-red lounge and in the centre sat a black spacer wall with two crimson-red beds on each side. The ceiling was covered in red tiles and the floor had pure white carpeting. They were asked to place their luggage in this room, with only Amy, Ulala, Pudding, Gum, Alex, Tails and Danica allowed to share the four beds, as the others could cope with "crashing on the sofa". Connected to the "bedroom" on the right hand side was the bathroom, complete with two showers, a large spa-bath, a separate toilet and a vanity that stretched down one side of the bathroom. There was also a cupboard filled with bath towels and warm blankets for extra comfort.
Walking back out into the bedroom, Danica and the flight attendant conducting the tour turned to the jaw-dropped racers.
"So, what do you think guys? Give me a rating on how good this place is!"
"This is definitely fitting for a genius like myself", Eggman boasted, earning a few glares.
"Yeah, too bad they won't let you sleep in the beds though, Eggy. They're probably afraid that your blubber butt will bend it out of shape", Sonic joked, laughing along with Knuckles, Amy, Amigo, Ulala, Beat, NiGHTS and Reala. Vyse and Tails were hiding their amusement like amateurs, while Shadow showed no emotion at all, despite the irony of the situation. Eggman just pretended he didn't hear the rude comment.
"Well, personally, I think it's absolutely breath-taking", Amy half-whispered, still in awe.
"The view's probably epic", Beat enunciated, nudging his long-time friend, "What do you think, Gum?"
"Uh, well it's stylish, I guess", Gum muttered, mostly distracted by her thoughts.
"Wait a minute", Knuckles articulated, gaining everyone's attention, "Who's flying the jet?"
"Right, thanks for reminding me, Knux", Danica voiced, the rage-coloured echidna going redder than his fur.
"You don't have the right to call me Knux!" The All-Stars racers wondered back into the dining room, taking a seat at the long conference/dinner table with Danica at the head.
"This flight goes for around 12 hours, so all of you will want to get comfortable. Vyse and Tails will fly the jet for 6 hours before Tails switches with Shadow. Vyse and Shadow will fly the jet for another 3 hours before Vyse retires for the rest of the flight, leaving Metal Sonic to sit co-pilot. Before we leave, it's compulsory to give you a safety briefing. My lovely flight attendant, Aurora Sparks, is here to provide a demonstration."
Aurora went over the safety instructions, giving a demonstration on how to apply oxygen masks stored above the conference table and how to wear the aircraft's life preserver, made aware to those on-board where the emergency exits were and how certain procedures would be performed, and asked if any of them had any cardiovascular illnesses or if any of the women were pregnant, which had a hilarious response from the immature males of the group.
With everything went over, the flight attendant bid the racers a farewell and luck for the races ahead. As she left, the service chefs that were preparing dinner came out and announced to them that the entrée would be served in less than an hour, at around 7:30.
All gathered at the windows to watch the mechanic dove take off into the darkening sky.
xxASRTxx
With all the underage racers and those who don't drink retired for the night (Amy, Metal Sonic, AiAi, MeeMee, Pudding, Beat, Gum, NiGHTS, Ralph and Alex), the others (Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Eggman, Amigo, Ulala, Reala and Danica) relaxed in the lounge room with some wine and champagne.
"I can't believe NiGHTS still doesn't drink, despite being a few hours older than me", Reala scolded, sitting his champagne glass of red wine down on the coffee table in front of him, being careful to keep it out of Amigo's reach.
"Woah, is NiGHTS older than you?" Knuckles queried, confusion laced in his tone.
"Heh, well it just proves that the younger you are these days, the more mature you get", he hummed, swiftly kicking Amigo's hand away from his glass.
"I'm just surprised that Alex could devour that much food! I mean, did he have thirds? I could barely swallow half of that steak!" Ulala pondered, gaining a response from cobalt.
"Hey, he's a growing boy. Soon we'll be calling him Alex "Man"."
"I had to admit, seeing him eat that much made me stop", the red jester added, acting like he was going to throw up. Eggman began cackling, but ended up wheezing.
"Jeez Eggman, you're getting worse every time I see you. I swear, you scared the rings out of me when you just decided to cough down my ear", Sonic frowned, Knuckles giggling a bit drunkenly.
"I must confess, Doctor, your health is slowly decomposing", the silent hedgehog stated, taking an elegant sip from his Chardonnay.
"Now you two, don't start worrying about me when we're supposed to be arch nemesis'", the mad scientist reprimanded sternly. Danica was soon to pitch in, along with a sound of agreement from the Mexican monkey. "Alright, ALRIGHT! You've made your point clear, although there's nothing much I can do about it at this stage in time. I'll have to wait until I return from the tournament."
"Well, I think now it's time for a toast, what do you say?" Danica raised her glass of champagne, the others following suit, "Sonic, why don't you start?" Said hedgehog blinked.
"Um, okay. To the following friendships about to be created…?"
"To the rise of popularity in racing", Reala toasted.
"To the future All-Stars racers", Ulala pronounced.
"To whomever wins the end title", Eggman suggested, narcissistically referring to himself.
"To the advance in technology since the last tournament", Shadow declared.
"To booze and alcohol…" Knuckles slurred.
"To the 2013 All-Stars Racing: Transformed, and to the start of something new", Danica finished off, "To a new beginning…"
"To a new beginning!" the others cheered in unison, their glasses meeting with a soft clink.