Mossmask: Okay everyone. Don't have much time for an author's note this time because it's my bedtime, but thought I'd get it up before I crashed (as I probably won't have ANY time to get online all weekend - ugh, homework).
(Though I AM gonna try and get up and edit as soon as I can tomorrow morning. I have a feeling this is just riddled with stupid errors. Sorry. No spellcheck, I read it over twice, so that should have gotten rid of any REALLY big, stupid blunders... I hope).
Point anything out if you notice it.
~Cya on the other side
Chapter Two
It was about nine the next morning when Sonic walked into the front doors of the Rockstar Inn. He looked all around him as he entered, trying to take in all the details of the huge lobby. The hotel was five star, and about a block away from the stadium, so it made sense that a lot of the teams from the competition would be staying here.
As he was making his way over to the elevator, fox in hand, someone called his name from the dining room attached to the main lobby. He turned to look and saw Sonia sitting at a table there and waving him over. Apparently this hotel had free breakfasts. Most around here seemed to. Sonic and Tails had already eaten before they left, so he made his way over to her and sat down at an empty seat beside hers.
"Hey."
"Hey." He looked around. "So where's everyone else? Uh... Cream and that other girl?" He asked, not seeing them anywhere. Tails walked off and grabbed a plate from the end of one of the long tables, filling it with chocolate muffins until he had trouble keeping them all on the plate.
When he came back to the table, Sonic gave it a quick grimace but didn't say anything against it. And Tails took "bro, you're going to make yourself totally sick if you eat all that" as permission enough to dig in.
"Cream's just gone back up to our room to get Amy up. She was out late last night so we decided to let her sleep in." Even as she spoke, rabbit and hedgehog girl - still in her pajamas - stepped out of the elevator and made their way back to the table. Cream sat in the last empty chair and Amy pulled one over from the table beside them.
Cream cast a worried glance at Tails' plate, which was by now over half empty, but still as equally covered in chocolate as his face. He saw her looking and grinning, held out a muffin to her, which she politely declined.
"So." Amy said, eyeing the hedgehog seated across from her. "You're Sonic, then?"
He nodded. "Last time I checked, at least. And you are?"
"Amy. Amy Rose."
"Nice name. So then, is this your guys first time here?"
Amy nodded, Sonia shook her head. "Well, it's my first time entering," the magenta hedgehog specified. "But I've been here before. My brother's been in for the past three years. I always came to, well, support him I guess. Really, I'm just glad to get the holiday off." She laughed. "I think he'd be happier without us here, but whatever. This is my first year to be in the Tournament myself though. And his first not to."
"He's not entered this year?"
"Nope. He broke his arm." Amy filled him in. "So he wasn't allowed to enter. But he still came with his girlfriend anyway."
Amy's comment made Sonia suddenly laugh so hard she started coughing. "Sorry," she said to the confused looking Sonic after a moment. "But he came with a friend. Sort of. Well. In any case, they're totally not dating."
"They are." Amy muttered mutinously.
Sonia shook her head. "Amy's convinced that practically everyone's a couple. But believe me, they're not." She was still snickering slightly. "And I don't think either of them would be too pleased to hear that."
"...Right." Sonic said, a little awkwardly. Tails interjected before he could say anything else though.
"Hey, when do we getta see your 'Streme Gear?" He asked through a mouthful of chocolate.
Cream cringed.
"Tails," Sonic moaned. "Don't be so rude."
"Sowwy." He spoke with his mouth still full of chocolate, and Sonic facepalmed before turning away.
"Oh, soon, bud." Sonia said, smiling, apparently not put off. "I've got to head up to our room to go get it now anyway. We're leaving soon."
"I'll go get them." Amy said, standing up abruptly. "I still need to go get dressed anyway." She said, gesturing towards her pajamas. "Someone grab me a coffee when I get back." She added over her shoulder as she walked off.
She had to side step abruptly at the doors to the dining room as a bright blue fox dragged a hedgehog in, leading him by the hand, and stood the unresponsive lump of quills directly in front of the coffee machine.
It was a few minutes later when Amy returned, fully dressed in pink top and red shorts, holding three Extreme Gear boards. She set them down on the table which Sonic, Sonia, and Cream had helped to clear. Tails was already sitting up in his chair and poking around at them before Amy had sat back down.
"Well, we're going to have to be at the arena early to sign in, and finish tuning our Gear. Plus, if there's time, we might get to do a few practice laps on the first track." She said to the others at the table.
"Yeah yeah." Sonia waved her off. "We've got time. We'll leave in a few minutes."
"Mind if we come?" Sonic asked.
"Well, you can if you want, but it might be a bit boring without anything to do. There's a good hour or so left before the first race even begins." Amy shrugged.
"That's fine, we'll just watch you practice." Tails said, suddenly sitting up. It was only when they looked at him that they realized he had a screwdriver in his hand, from who-knew-where, and had a panel off Sonia's gear, with one paw stuck right inside.
"...What?" He asked, folding his ears back at the awkward stares he suddenly found himself getting.
"Tails..." Sonic said slowly. "Put it back."
"What?" He suddenly looked down at his hands, and then looked back up at the group, grinning slightly, ears flat. "Oh. Umm." He pulled his hands back as if he'd just been burned, and then quickly started putting it back together, while at the same time nearly flattening himself against the table, trying not to be noticed. "Sorry." He muttered.
"I'm sure he didn't break anything!" Sonic tried to explain quickly. "He just, um, likes to see how things work. I'm sorry, I should have been watching him closer. I didn't think he still had-"
Sonia waved him off. "Oh, don't worry about it. We were gonna check them all out once we got there anyway. If he did break anything we'll be able to fix it then. But I'm sure it's fine."
Sonic and Amy both looked dubious as to how she could just wave something like that off so easily. An eight year old had just been digging around inside of important electronics that didn't even belong to him, and she was just... okay with it.
Sonic still looked like he wanted to add something else, and Amy looked like she wanted to tell hedgehog, or fox, or both off just a little bit, but they were interrupted again before they could get any further.
"'Sup dudes?" A dark green hedgehog asked, walking up and tipping Sonia out of her chair, before sitting down and leaning forward on his elbows, grinning. He had a red-orange vest, a sling on his arm, and hair that looked more like a fern than anything else. Before anyone could answer, his chair suddenly fell backwards, and he rolled off the back with a startled yelp.
"And that, would be my brother." Sonia said, sitting back in her chair calmly.
"Manic!" The newcomer added, propping his elbows up on the table and grinning broadly at everyone from where he sat on the floor.
"There ya go, should work fine." The green hedgie said, handing the Extreme Gears back to Amy, Sonia, and Cream respectively.
Tails had been standing over his shoulder asking questions the whole time, and had even been allowed to help out a few times while Manic had been double checking that they were all working fine. The two of them had even been able to make a few last minute improvements which they hadn't, for the most part, bothered telling the others about.
They didn't have any sort of designated area or anything to get ready in. They had simply walked into the stadium, signed in - as Team Rose, apparently - and been allowed to set up on the stadium floor. Sonic, Tails, and Manic had been allowed in with them. Once they were ready to go, they could take a few practice laps around the arena for a while until it was time to get to their gate, or their seats. They weren't, however, allowed to leave the stadium once they'd signed in. No one team was allowed more of an advantage over the others, so they couldn't practice on any of the predesignated tracks.
A few other teams were already here as well, some getting their Gear set up, some doing laps. Once Team Rose was ready to go, they made their way to the far side of the arena to practice for a bit. Cream was the only person in sight with a helmet and elbow pads, but if she was embarrassed by it, it didn't show. Manic was nowhere to be seen, presumably he had also gone to find his seat.
Sonic and Tails stayed a bit longer before deciding to make their way up to the stands. They had a relatively easy time finding their seats because the stadium was still fairly empty. It was just starting to fill up now, and soon, most of the seats were filled. Tails was quite literally on the edge of his seat, leaning forward and trying to keep track of everyone at once. He could still see Amy, Sonia, and Cream on their Gear.
There was a pair of cats who looked similar enough to be siblings - maybe twins, were looking both frustrated and bored, while nearby a manx fiddled with their Gear, apparently trying to get it to work properly.
A red echidna with a stetson was shouting at an equally red armadillo, and they seemed about ready to break their Gear over each others heads. A yellow something-or-other - he couldn't tell what it was from this distance - was hiding behind his own Gear, peeking over the top nervously at his arguing teammates.
The last team he could see were racing around the track - and had been since he and Sonic and the others had first arrived. There was a green hawk, an albatross, and some girl, but Tails couldn't recognize her species. They'd only stopped a few times while they'd been here, each time to bicker for a few minutes before getting back on their Gear.
Sonic and Tails' seats were in the front row of their section, so Tails was able to stand, out of his seat, and hold onto the metal guard rail in front of him. That was what he was doing at the moment, gripping the rail tightly and leaning as far forward as he could, both namesakes waving excitedly behind him. Sonic, for his part, was leaning back in his seat with his legs crossed at the ankles, resting on the guard rail. He was looking around, bored, waiting for something to happen. He wished he'd thought to bring a watch or something, so he could tell when the event was supposed to start.
Tails flicked an irritated ear and glanced at his brother when he noticed him tapping his feet against the metal rail beside the fox, but then shrugged again and went back to observing the teams, a wide grin plastered on his face.
Suddenly he turned to face his hedgehog companion - who had noticed with no small amusement that the excitement was starting to make Tails look less like a fox and more like an oversized, two tailed pom pom. "Heya, Sonic? We should do this next year! Wouldn't that be great? Doncha think? We could totally-" but the blue hedgehog cut him off with a casual wave of his hand.
"Naw. Sorry, but no can do bro. Have you seen the entrance fee on this? We could never afford it. And that's if I hadn't already spent most of our money getting us here this year-" he cut himself off when the fox seemed to deflate at his words, and realized that he hadn't meant to mention how much coming here was costing him. The fox was used to traveling around with Sonic - the two of them were pretty much vagrants - and so he wouldn't realize that this trip would be so much different than the rest.
"Sorry Sonic." The fox frowned, ears folded down. "I didn't mean for you t' spend all your money on me... I just thought it'd be fun..."
"Hey," he tried to amend. "I didn't mean it like that. 'Sides, it was worth it, for the coolest birthday present for the coolest little bro."
Tails perked up slightly at this, but still seemed less excitable then before. The hedgehog sighed, then tried to change the subject. "Hey, we didn't get here that early, don't you think something should be happening by now?" He took a look around and his thoughts were confirmed when he saw confusion and impatience mirrored on the faces of those around them. He could also pick out worry and anger mixed around, but not as much.
Standing up abruptly, the blue hedgehog stretched his legs. "Hey, I'm gonna go take a walk and see what's taking so long. You wanna come?"
The orange fox jumped forward eagerly, grabbing the older hedgehog's hand in his own and scampering away towards the isle, tugging an amused hedgehog behind him.
"I'll take that as a yes then."
Manic paced nervously. What was taking so long? He was pacing in front of the small row of benches near the bottom of the arena reserved for those who were here with the participating teams. He growled under his breath as he turned again, before abruptly stopping and looking up. He lifted his good arm to shield his eyes from the sun as he peered into what he assumed would be the technical booth. If anyone would know what was going on, it would be them...
"I'm gonna go find out what's the hold up." He said aloud to his bat companion, sitting on the bench beside where he stood and looking bored. She turned and looked up at him indifferently. "Oh yeah? Alright... Lemme know if anything interesting's going on."
He gave her a nod before turning and starting to climb the rows of mental bleachers, taking them two at a time. The stadium had pretty much filled up by this point, so he had to shove his way through groups of people to get where he was going. When he finally got there, he tugged on the door, to find it was locked. He frowned and knocked on the heavy metal door impatiently.
A frazzled looking badger stuck his head out quickly, fixing the grassy headed hedgehog with an annoyed stare. "What is it kid? We're kind of busy." He snapped.
The kid in questioned back off, but only slightly. "Uh, dude. What's the holdup?" He looked down at his wrist as if there was an imaginary watch there. "Thing should have started ages ago."
"I know, I know. We're working on it." He went to close the door back on Manic's face, but the hedgehog had already slipped past him and inside. By the time the already flustered badger realized what had happened, Manic was standing beside the second technician, staring over his shoulder at the computer screens.
"So what's this then?" He asked the squirrel rapidly entering commands into his computer, pointing to a small section of the screen shaded in red.
"That's where the cave in was." The squirrel replied.
"Cave in? What cave in?" Manic raised an eyeridge, curious, as he wheeled over the second chair in the room and dropped down on it, leaning his feet up on the computer consoles.
The badger just seemed to get more flustered before storming up to the hedgehog. Manic held up both hands before he could utter a word. "Hey, dude, look. I'm not harming anything, am I? I'm just curious. No one even needs to know I was here. No harm done." He turned back to the squirrel, completely ignoring the badger now, and leaned forward. "So, you were saying. Cave in?"
"Yeah, it's really no big deal. A small section of road caved in over the older part of the city. The problem is, it's directly over top of the first course. We need to map out an alternative route before we can let the racer's out."
"Oh, that's all?" Manic frowned, mildly disappointed. He had been hoping for something a little more exciting. "How long 'til they can start, then?"
The squirrel shrugged. "We've come up with the new route, we just need to get it emptied. The original course was cordoned off for the race. Now we need to get the new route clear of pedestrians and we'll be good to go."
"Ah..." The hedgehog nodded, seeming bored. "Alright then, cool. 'Cya round, guys." He called, standing up and waving, before swinging the door back open and stepping back outside.
The badger muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath about punk kids, while the squirrel only seemed the mildest bit amused.
He found his seat again after the expected struggle with the crowd, and a bit of help from Rouge, who stood up and waved him back over. He sat beside her and gave her a quick rundown of what he'd found out. She seemed disinterested though, so he didn't go into details. She instead seemed to been paying more attention to a silver mink a few rows away. Manic, noticing, rolled his eyes and leaned back, careful not to fall over - the benches they were sat on had no backs - and leaned his feet up against the bench in front of them.
It was a good twenty minutes later before the race was actually finally able to start. When the announcement was made, those twenty minutes later, it was greeted by a huge round of applause and cheering. Everyone, it seemed, was happy to have the day finally get started. Well, everyone that is, except for one extremely perturbed squirrel.
"W-why did they have to pick me for the first race?" He wondered, gripping his blue extreme gear tightly as he made his way dizzily to the starting gate. He knew the participants from each team were chosen at random for each race, but he had really hoped that Mighty or Knuckles could have gone first. What if he messed up? He hoped his Team wouldn't be disqualified. He couldn't remember if that could even happen after the first race, but at the moment he was sure that they'd be willing to make an exception for him.
This was his first time racing against anyone besides Mighty or Knuckles. This was his first time ever being in such a big crowd, let alone being it's focus - or at least part of. He realized he was jittering, and almost lost his grip on his board. He tried breathing to calm himself down, like Mighty had taught him, but the more he though about it, the harder it became, until he found himself hyperventilating.
"Hey, calm down." A pink cat with short blond hair, who stood beside him, clutching her own light blue gear, advised. "You'll do fine, I'm sure. I'm nervous too, ya know. It's my first time racing without my sister."
For some reason, she actually did a pretty good job of calming the squirrel, with just a few words. He supposed he wasn't expecting any of the other competitors to actually be nice, or want to encourage him. He looked to his other side, and realized that a pink hedgehog girl in cherry red short shorts had been listening to their conversation, and gave him a grin and a thumbs up.
Suddenly feeling a lot more sure of himself, he did his best to grin back at the both of them - though the best he could come up with was an awkward grimace, and pulled his sky blue goggles down over his face. He stepped onto his Gear, along with the others, and waited for the starting bell to go.
A few seconds later it did, and nearly gave him a heart attack at the same time.
Mossmask: Alrighty guys. As always, if you read, review?
Constructive criticism is always welcome (and so is pure unadulterated praise, but. Pfft.)
Oh, and tell me what you think of the characterization so far. I'm doing my best, but that always get's sort of iffy when you're doing an AU.
And I know Rouge hasn't gotten much screen time yet - and other characters even less so. No worries, they'll all get their chance soon enough.
Next chapter should be up sometime next week. No guarantees, but that's what I'm aiming for.
~Dash Out.