Author's note: I want to apologise in advance if you find the OC names silly. Anyways, enjoy!
Sonic the Hedgehog:
Tales of Soleanna
Chapter 2: The Race Begins
In the city of Soleanna, there stood a castle, home to Princess Elise, ruler of Soleanna. As mentioned in the last chapter, Sonic thought she was living a happy life. He was wrong.
At the moment, Elise was standing on the balcony in deep thought. She had been having weird dreams lately, and last night's one really got her mind turning. Her dreams were normally the same. The city was covered in flames and a huge monster was in the centre of it. But last night, she dreamt she was walking in a green field with a blue hedgehog. And, for some bizarre reason, she was happy being with him, like she knew him from somewhere. But she didn't know any blue hedgehog. She didn't even know any other species besides humans. She wasn't really allowed to leave the city. Her advisor was really strict.
Speak of the devil, a tall, rather sharp, looking man walked onto the balcony. He was sharply dressed in green, with galoshes, white gloves and spectacles. He was the Royal Advisor, Augustus Smit.
"Your Highness, the race is about to begin" he said. Elise shuddered. Being the princess, she had to attend all important things. After being told about this race, she began wishing for something to happen to postpone it. Nothing. The day was perfect and the whole city was going to be watching it. She wouldn't have minded herself if she wasn't going to actually meet the winner and invite him to the castle. She'd already seen the participants and they were all cocky male teenagers who probably thought she was the trophy. Even though she was beautiful and most boys would fight over her, she didn't want to be in a relationship at the moment. Smit kept saying, "You must find someone soon, otherwise you won't have a strong king to rule with you". In order to get him to leave she always retaliated by saying "Do you mean I don't have what it takes to rule the kingdom?" This always got him stuttering for an answer, eventually running off. He was a bit of a wimp.
Anyway, she really wasn't looking forward to this. As she walked towards the carriage that would take her to the race, she began thinking what to say to the winner if they tried something with her. She was the princess, but she knew some men were greedy and tried coming up with something to get them to know she wasn't interested. She couldn't say something horrible. She was too nice. It took Elise a while until she realised they were there. She got out and went to sit in the royal chair, near the start/finish line. She looked at all the participants and they were all the same, looking extremely cocky that if they won, she'd want them. She was slightly disgusted and turned away, not wanting to look.
Meanwhile, the announcer was reading out the participant's names. "And in lane 7 is our resident speedster, Sam Nic!" At this, a few girls cried in delight as a 20 year old man, in a blue shirt, jeans and roller skates appeared on the scene, waving to the crowd. One word came into Elise's head as she looked at him, arrogant. But Elise knew of Nic's reputation and had a big feeling that he would be the one she'd have to show around the castle. Then, she received a big shock as she heard the name of the final contestant. "And in lane 8 is…Oh my God! Can you believe it people; the fastest thing in the world is here! It's Sonic the Hedgehog!" Elise turned and there, standing next to Nic was a blue hedgehog. The same one in her dreams.
Sonic was feeling both confident and nervous. He knew the chances of him losing were slim, very slim. But when he found out that the winner would be shown round the castle with Elise, he began to sweat. He wanted to see her but not in her own home. A lot of sick thoughts were in his mind and he tried to shake them out, but Elise's smiling face stayed in there. He finally pulled himself together and took his place next to Nic. He looked around and waved to the crowd. He actually got more screams than Nic and even saw some people wearing Sonic hats. While waving, he saw Elise, looking at him. He was stunned to see her after all this time. She didn't seem to have changed one bit. He was so enthralled, he inadvertently waved to her. When he realised what he did, he turned away suddenly. Elise herself was confused. Did Sonic know who she was?
Nic had seen Sonic waving to Elise and whispered to him "Listen, pal. I don't care if you are the fastest thing alive, I'm winning this race". Sonic smirked. "Like to see you try" he replied. The flagman took his place. "OK. The first one to go all round the course and back here wins not just the trophy, but is given a chance to meet Princess Elise in her castle! To avoid getting yourself lost, follow the arrows. Also, there is to be no mid-race fights. And if you leave the track, you automatically lose. Got that?" The contestants all nodded their heads. The flagman lifted the flag. "On your marks, get set, GO!"
Everyone shot off after he swung the flag down. However, two people were further ahead than the rest, Sonic and Nic. Sonic was just ahead of Nic and trying to maintain the lead. Man, he's faster than I thought. Better not get cocky, he thought.
Back with Elise, she was listening to the commentator. "Six of the contestants seem to be lacking true speed. Nic and Sonic are the only ones who have a chance of winning. At the moment, Sonic is just ahead and picking up speed". Elise put her hands together, wishing that Sonic would win. She needed to get some answers of him.
Back with Sonic. He had already manoeuvred around the course and was steadily approaching the finish line. There was no way that Nic could catch up. Then Sonic noticed something, a floating silver dome-shaped vehicle, the Eggmobile. And sitting in it was Sonic's arch-enemy, Eggman! "What's Egg-head up to?" Sonic thought. He was about to stop and follow when he realised that if he left, he'd lose the race. If he kept going though, Eggman would be out of sight. He sighed as he realised what he was about to do. He skidded to a halt, turned and chased after Eggman.
The whole crowd was surprised as they saw Sonic leave the track. "Unbelievable! Sonic has left the race! That means that Nic looks like a sure winner!" And he couldn't have been more right. Nic crossed the finish line, with a triumphant look on his face. As the crowd cheered, he walked up to Elise and bowed before her. He looked up, expecting to see a longing look in her eyes. But saw nothing. Elise had her head down in disappointment, thinking about why Sonic would leave? She was brought back to reality when Smit cleared his throat. "Your Majesty, I believe you must congratulate Mr. Nic here on his victory. "Oh, well done" she said in a dull tone, handing Nic the trophy. The man in question was stupefied. He was being given the cold shoulder. No girl didn't want him. So why was she different? At that precise moment, he swore he would make Elise his.
Back with Sonic, he had followed Eggman to an abandoned warehouse. After he saw Eggman go in, he followed him. Inside, he hid behind a crate as he heard Eggman speaking. "Excellent. With this, Soleanna will be mine!" Sonic poked his head round the corner to see what Eggman was talking about and saw what looked like a giant mech suit. It had a clear dome on its head, its right arm was a missile launcher and its left arm was a huge sword. Sonic thought it be best to destroy the mech while he had the chance. That plan went down the drain when he turned to find one of Eggmans white robots (from Sonic Next-Gen) facing him.
He ran out of his cover to avoid being shot. But this allowed Eggman to spot him. "Ah, Sonic. Come to witness my take-over of this city?" he asked his life-long enemy. "Nah, more like stop it?" Sonic replied. "I'd like to see you try. Robots, attack!" On Eggman's orders, a bunch of white mechs and red ones with missile launchers appeared and began shooting at Sonic. He used his super speed to avoid the shots and jumped on top of one of them. Another turned to fire but Sonic jumped at the last minute, causing the robot to shoot its partner. Sonic came down to bounce off another robot, kicking against it to jump off and onto a pile of crates. The robots began to shoot, but didn't notice that Sonic was standing on a pile of exploding crates. Sonic jumped into the air again, letting the explosion finish the robots off. He then turned to fight Eggman but noticed, instead, a much larger robot with thick armour holding a hammer (like in Sonic Heroes).
As he back flipped to avoid being squashed by the hammer, Eggman had got inside and activated the mech suit. Using the rocket boosters, Eggman took off, smashing through the ceiling and headed towards the centre of the city.
