Feel the Air

Chapter 11 – Storm of Games

"So…" Sonic started, "when did you find out?"

Knuckles sighed and said, "You know how last night you brought Jet over to our table last night, and I made of the both of you?"

Sonic frowned and responded, "How would I forget something like that? You insulted my boyfriend. You didn't know that he was my boyfriend, but you insulted him."

"Please, don't use the term 'boyfriend' around me. It makes me uncomfortable."

"Fine. Continue."

"So… the entire table told me to go apologize to the two of you, so I was forced to get up. Though, when I got there, you two were sitting on the stairs, and Jet was crying pretty badly. I have never seen Jet cry like that, and I actually wanted to apologize at that point. But then… you actually kissed him."

"Oh… yeah. I didn't think you actually saw that. When I went to the "bathroom", I was actually following him. I won't go into anything more than that, but in the end, we ended up getting into a relationship. All I'm looking for from you is for you to accept that, instead of following me and Jet to a store you don't even like and make us feel uncomfortable."

Knuckles laughed a little to himself. "Yeah, I'm sorry for doing that. But you have to admit what I did there was at least a little funny."

Sonic frowned at Knuckles for a second and then smiled. "Yeah, I guess it was a little funny."

Knuckles smiled and threw his arm around the back of Sonic's neck. "Now, there's the blue hedgehog that I remember. Always in a good mood to the point where it annoys me."

"Now there's the red echidna that I remember. Always being arrogant to the point where it annoys me."

Knuckles laughed awkwardly and said, "Yeah, I guess." Knuckles released Sonic and they faced each other again. "So… does anybody else know about you and Jet?"

"Just Tails. Jet and I are being a little bit too public about our kissing, and Tails caught us up in the buffet area."

Knuckles sighed, "Sonic, I eat there. Can you at least keep it away from the food?"

Sonic laughed and said, "Knuckles, when you find some love for yourself, you'll understand when you start kissing over the food. You just have to stop being so lonely."

"I'm not lonely; I just don't need to drag around a girl with me wherever I go."

"Then maybe you should find yourself a guy. It's worked out for me."

"No, I'm straight as a line. Guys are gross."

"I don't know. I know you've been eyeing Storm for quite some time." Sonic then began to walk away laughing before Knuckles completely explodes on him.

"Sonic, I just fall on Storm awkwardly ONE TIME, and you don't seem to let that go!" Sonic laughed even louder after hearing Knuckles. Sonic knew Knuckles was as straight as a line, but it was fun to make fun of someone as arrogant as Knuckles is.

Sonic then returned to the store and found that Jet was examining one of the boards on display.

"Did you find anything that you like," Sonic asked.

"No, but I did find a lot of things that I didn't like. Look at this board. It clearly has a poorly-made warp receptor."

Sonic looked good and hard at the board, but couldn't make anything of it. Sonic then said with uncertainty, "Oh yeah, only an amateur to Gear designing would make such a mistake."

"I know."

"Well, Jet. If you knew that there were going to be things that you weren't going to like in here, then why did we even come here in the first place?"

"Oh, I almost forgot! I need to show you something really important." Jet got somewhat excited and led Sonic to the other side of the store. Sonic had no idea what Jet had to show him.

When they got to the other side of the store, Jet grabbed something off of one of the shelves and showed it to Sonic. Sonic looked at it for a second and noticed that it was a jacket that was blue, red, and yellow. Sonic knew immediately what those colors meant to him.

Sonic gently grabbed the jacket and asked, "Jet, what is this?"

"I was wandering around here before I went to go find you in your cabin the other day. I saw this, and the cashier told me that the top three teams had their color printed on jackets. This is… why I went to tell you about… how I felt about you."

"This jacket… reminded you of me." Sonic felt the fabric of the jacket and liked how comfortable it was for just being a racer's jacket. He looked up at Jet and saw that he had a nice and cute smile on his face. "I'm going to buy it for you, Jet."

"What, why? You shouldn't be the one to buy me gifts. That should be the other way around."

"Well, it says on this sign here," Sonic pointed to a nearby sign, "that all owners of each of these teams will get this jacket for free. Since I'm already getting one, then I guess I should get one for you."

"But- …"

Sonic silenced him and simply shook his head. "Jet, you have done so much for me, and you seem like you want to just keep doing me more favors for the rest of our lives. I'm happy, and now I want you to be just as happy as I am."

Jet tried to think of something to say back to Sonic, but he couldn't. "Fine, I guess you win this time, Sonic." Jet then lightly kissed Sonic on the cheek. "But, I just want to let you know that I am as happy as you are. I chose you for that reason."

Sonic held his hand to where Jet had just kissed him. "Thanks, Jet." Sonic went over to the cashier and dropped the jacket onto the counter. The dark green hedgehog cashier scanned the jacket and said, "Your total comes out to 26 rings."

Sonic got out 26 rings and dropped them onto the counter. "I think that should cover it."

The green hedgehog counts through the array of rings and nods his head. "Would you like a bag for that jacket, sir?"

"No, thanks anyways."

"Have a good day."

Sonic grabbed the jacket and went over to Jet. "This is officially yours, Jet." Sonic offered the jacket to Jet and Jet took it off of his hands.

"Thanks, Sonic. I appreciate it." Jet unzipped the jacket and put it on; zipping it back up after it was over his shoulders.

Sonic got a good look of Jet after he put on the jacket and said, "You look nice in that jacket."

Jet blushed lightly and said, "Thanks, Sonic."

"What should we do now, Jet?"

"I think Storm said he would be at the arcade by now. Do you still want to go there?"

"Of course, I do. I love games."

Jet smiled and nodded, leading Sonic to the arcade. They went around the ship searching for it since Jet didn't know exactly where it was. Eventually they made it to a large room that was packed full of games that are known from all around Mobius.

"Wow… this place is huge," Jet stated.

"Yeah, and I'm surprised it's not filled to the brim with people."

"Most people on this ship are way too competitive to even understand the concept of fun," Jet said with a smile.

"Most racers are so boring."

"Come on. Let's go find Storm. Hopefully he's here already."

Sonic grabbed hold of Jet's hand and they slowly looked around the vast arcade, admiring the many arcade of games. Most of these games, Sonic recognized, but some of them were so foreign that he couldn't even tell what they were. He was eager to find out. Jet was as well. They continued to search the arcade for Storm until they made it towards the back of the arcade.

In front of them, they could see a grey head pop out over one of the chairs of a game. They noticed that the grey head belonged to Storm. He was playing some kind of racing game, and he was showing clear signs of frustration. Jet embarrassingly let go of Sonic's hand and went over to see Storm's progress. Sonic followed closely behind.

When Sonic got over there, he had noticed that Storm was in second place, following closely behind the first place racer. Storm clearly didn't like this and made every attempt to get around the racer. Though, he made a dumb mistake when he wasn't paying attention to the track and ended up crashing into a wall. Storm grunted as several racers passed by him, bringing him down to fifth place.

Jet laughed brightly. "Such bad luck, Storm. You can do better than that."

Storm turned to his side to look at Jet and said, "Yeah, boss. These games have been tearing me apart today, and now I can't get first place anymore."

"Well, let's put it to the test. Do you mind if Sonic and I join you?" Sonic's ears perked up when he heard his name.

"Sure, boss. We can cream that little blue hedgehog together."

Jet looked over at Sonic and Sonic smiled. "We'll see, Storm. You'll be rooting my name when you and Jet are behind me at the finish line."

Jet smiled deviously. "I believe that's a challenge." Jet grabbed himself a game console next to Storm, and Sonic sat next to Jet. Sonic and Jet looked at each other and smiled.

"I'll see you at the finish line, Jet."

"No, we'll be seeing Storm at the finish line." Jet winked his right eye and turned back to his game so he could choose a car.

Sonic chose his own car and the three of them were ready to play. Storm selected the track and they simply waited for the level to load. When it did, the three of them got prepared to win this.

When the green light finally lit up, the three of the zoomed off, instantly attempting to get ahead of all of the computer players. After only the first lap, Sonic, Jet, and Storm managed to get so far ahead of the computer players that there was no chance for any of them to catch up. For most players, they would only dream to get to the three computers. These three racers were not like most players.

They stayed neck-and-neck for the entire second lap. Though, when they crossed the starting/finishing line the second time, their placings began to fidget. Storm was making more and more mistakes and was beginning to fall behind, while Sonic and Jet were making a near-flawless run. Storm was getting frustrated again as he saw that he was in third place. He tried to pick up the pace, but Sonic and Jet were not even going to let him come close.

In the end, Sonic and Jet were really close together when they hit the finish line. In reality, Jet had actually won, but he won by only a quarter of a second. The three of them looked at the scoreboards and Jet cheered valiantly that he won, while Storm was upset that he lost to Sonic by a full 5 seconds.

Storm got frustrated enough to the point where he just left the game so that he could find something that he could actually win at, even if he didn't particularly enjoy it. By that time, all Storm really cared about was winning. He was a Babylon racer, so it made sense.

Sonic and Jet, on the other hand, stuck around. Sonic kissed Jet on the cheek, hoping that no one in the arcade noticed it. "You did a good job, Jet. Congratulations."

"Eh, it's no big deal. I only beat you by a little bit."

"But I guess it's something to celebrate."

Jet chuckled and gently shoved Sonic. "Well, let's not celebrate. That was just a game. We still have to wait for the real thing to happen out on the track tomorrow."

Sonic smiled deviously. "Oh, even after what we've been through, you still want that trophy, now don't you?"

Jet nodded his head, "Yeah, but I guess I can just stick with the trophy that I have now."

"You have a trophy?"

Jet nodded again. "Yeah." Jet kissed Sonic on the lips. "Let me tell you, this trophy has golden lips and a golden body." Jet kissed him again. "And the gold shines like a sun."

"Hm… that sounds a lot like me."

Jet chuckled.

"What a coincidence."