I own no Sonic characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Sega.


Before I begin, I'd like to thank blazetigresa for adding this story to their favorites.

Reply to explodinghead's review of Chapter 2: I had a look back and fixed some of the errors. Hope it makes the story look better!

While you shouldn't expect too much of 'ho ho ho', it will appear quite a number of times. Good old Eggy has made that laugh a trademark of his.

Reply to ballandcup's review of Chapter 2: Well, what did you like about that 'one'? To be honest, I can't respond too well to one lined reviews.


The Next Day...

"All participants of the fifth preliminary round, please report to the city's starting gate to begin the race."

Four other preliminary rounds took place beforehand and two more were to take place afterwards. Knuckles, Tails and all but one of the three rogues from two days ago won the rounds they competed in and qualified for the actual tournament. It was Sonic's turn to compete for his position, so with the Blue Star in hand, the hedgehog made his way to the designated location.

The noon sky loomed over the whole of Future City, as well as its starting gate. The gate itself was essentially two futuristic looking pillars, projecting a 'START' sign in between them. Below it was the orange starting line, with stripes of black crossing it. As Sonic arrived at the scene, he noticed the looks on the other seven competitors' eyes. They were filled with determination to win, yet the fear of losing also mixed in. Vows were made solemnly, legs shook slightly and all eight competitors turned to the track. With Sonic finally present, the race was about to begin.

The race's announcer and judge floated by the starting gate. Omochao, the blue, robotic Chao, had a yellow wind up key on his head, a microphone in one hand and a camera on the other. Other cameras were set across the entire race track to get close up shots, but Omochao played the role of 'eyes in the sky'. While he was a robot, he was just as excited for the race to begin as the competitors, if not more. In this excitement, he paced back and forth along the starting line, taking glances at the racers and the chrome road ahead of them. He couldn't help but squeal (well, the racers thought it was a squeal, anyway).

"Alright, folks. The rules are simple," he finally declared after taking a moment to calm down. "Whoever finishes three laps of this track first will win the preliminary round. Any questions?" No one put up their hand, for they knew the rules already. "Okay, then, good luck out there! Take your marks..."

As the eight racers lined up next to each other behind the starting line, electric lines shot out from the gate's pillars, blocking the track from the racers' sights.

"Get set..."

The racers' Extreme Gear were clutched tightly.

"Three..."

They took running start positions.

"Two..."

They began to make their running start.

"One..."

They were ready to dash out!

"Go!"

The electric line disappeared and all eight racers shot out of the starting line.

They sped down a chrome slope and rose along the upcoming hill, only to be greeted with a bright ramp. Nearly all of the racers merely sped over it before gravity pulled them back onto the track. Because they suffered a minor speed loss, they had to build up their speed again. Up in the sky, they could see Sonic performing a clockwise turn, the Blue Star's thrust trails spinning along with it. Lining up the board parallel to the track, Sonic landed perfectly and gained a small, temporary speed boost, which aided him in blowing past his opponents.

Speeding down along the road and into a transparent tunnel, the blue hedgehog caught sight of an amber rail with a blue glow in front of it. Experience told him to jump onto it and witness the results, so he did just that. Sonic grinded on the rail, while keeping his balance on the Blue Star. Sparks flew from the board as he shifted his weight over to the right, to keep himself from falling off the bending rail. He saw a red glow, signaling the end of the rail, but after it was another blue glow, meaning that there was another rail.

"Heh heh," Sonic grinned, placing his back foot at the end of his board. "I've done much more extreme tricks than this!" True to his word, he lifted himself off the rail and landed on the second with ease. More sparks flew off the Blue Star as the blue hedgehog leaned forward to push himself in that direction. "Not as fun as running away from the cops," he mused. "But whatever!"

Passing over the end of the rail meant that gravity played its role in pulling Sonic back onto the track. Said hedgehog found himself back outside, hearing the sounds of his friends supporting him.

"Don't lose your lead, Sonic!" Knuckles encouraged him.

"You can do it, Sonic!" Tails cheered, giving his surrogate brother a thumbs up. Sonic returned it with the same gesture as he rode along a slope, losing his speed from ascending up it. The peak of the slope was where he regained his speed, bur he gained even more from rocketing down it.

A small trick ramp awaited the Blue Blur, who jumped off it and performed a handstand on his Blue Star. Before landing on the track, he jumped back on his feet, turned behind him and posed for whatever camera he passed. What he didn't hear was the sound of gasping and fainting fangirls. Despite this, he managed to keep a good lead throughout the first lap.

After the second lap began for Sonic and he made it past that same point, he was, for the second time, greeted with an orange tinted tunnel. Zooming in it, he noticed the shapes of various pedestrians block the way for Sonic. Of course, they were just props for the racers, but it annoyed the speedster just the same. After swerving around one, he leaped over another, following up with another leap over a third obstacle and a deliberate near miss with a fourth.

Sonic reached the tunnel's end, to be greeted with a busy looking intersection. Taking a glace upwards, he could see billboards with artists' interpretations of his various exploits, such as the whale chase in Emerald Coast and the final battle with the liquid monster called Chaos.

"Nice to see that they still remember that time!" Sonic grinned to himself. In truth, he didn't think that he was going to make it, but make it through he did, with the help of his friends! But that wasn't the situation at hand.

There were more obstacles in the way, all of which were hover cars. However, Sonic noticed a wide half pipe just before the group of pedestrians, leaving him two options: swerve round the cars or perform a trick off the half pipe. Because he did the former in the previous lap, he immediately leaned over to the left and jumped off the half pipe, performing what was known as a 'nose grab' in the process. Landing successfully, Sonic twirled round and posed once more before continuing with the race.

Despite Sonic's performance so far, three of the racers gradually closed in on the Blue Blur, desperate for victory. As the final lap began, the largest of the three, a polar bear, became blind in rage. In this rage, he swung his fist at the nearby squirrel, knocking him off his board and overtaking him. The last of the three, a weasel, also decided to play dirty. After ducking under the big guy's second punch, he stretched his foot to his opponent's ankle, tripping him up and making him fall off his board.

"Ouch! That must have hurt!" Omochao commented on the situation. "But you know what they say: anything goes in these races! Let's see if they bring themselves back up and catch up!"

They never did.

The little weasel closed in on Sonic even more as the two performed tricks off the half pipe. Said hedgehog turned around to find him in the distance.

"Well, took him long enough!" he told himself. "But now, it's time to step it up!" Bringing a foot off his board, Sonic kicked along the ground, propelling himself forward. However, as he noticed the incoming bend, he had no choice but to shift his weight to the right. Drifting on the bend ensured that he lost no speed. However, his opponent was not so skilled with Extreme Gear (or any type of boarding at all) and was forced to brake, turn and move forward.

As Sonic approached the end of the turn, he brought his foot up and 'kick dashed' out of his drift. Chuckling at his opponent's stumble, he leaned forward to move faster on his board, nearing a giant ramp. The hedgehog crouched, then lifted himself and the Blue Star off the ramp, performing a backflip and an anticlockwise turn in sequence. As he landed, he encountered another ramp. Since he was confident in his victory, he decided to play it stylish by breakdancing as he made a clockwise turn. He gained a round of applause from the audience for the trick and an even bigger one for finishing the race.

"Wow! What a fantastic performance from Sonic!" Omochao cheered. "And by my calculations, Sonic just established a new track record!" Another round of applause rang in the city as Sonic waved to the cameras, catching a glimpse of the nearby weasel scurrying away in frustration.

"You win some, you lose some," he muttered to himself.

"So, tell me, Sonic," Omochao said to him. "How does it feel to break the previous record by a second?"

"Hah, winning was too easy. A piece of cake, if you will," the hedgehog grinned. "But breaking the track record? Didn't see that coming!"

"You know, if you keep this up, you could be the one to become the champion!"

"Then I guess I'll have to keep at it, won't I?"

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Future City, a green hawk kept his eyes on one of the giant video screens. After watching Sonic's race, he closed his eyes and smirked.

"Hmm, not bad. But still unimpressive for someone of your reputation, Sonic the Hedgehog! I will get those Chaos Emeralds, I will win the Grand Prix and I will prove that I'm the fastest thing alive!" Jet broke out in another eccentric sounding cackle as his vows were made.


In this novelization, tracks will be broken down into three parts, each of which will be novelized for each lap. I think it's a better structure than describing everything in the first lap, then pulling words out of nowhere in the second and third because the description will be spread out evenly.

By the way, I definitely did not reference Bark the Polar Bear, Ray the Flying Squirrel or Nack the Weasel in this chapter! Nope!


~Have a great day, week, fortnight, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!~