This took forever! I'm glad it's finally over. Now we can focus on the fights! By the way, read chapters 2 and 3 if you missed them. I replaced them.
Strike, Aqua, Axel and Sally are owned by me
Other OCs are owned by respective authors
Sonic the Hedgehog:
Tournament of the Stars
Chapter 4: New Rivals
As Sonic was chasing Shadow, he got zapped from behind. He turned round and saw his half brother, Strike with Aqua Bubbles next to him.
"Strike! Aqua! It's been ages. How's it going with you two?" he asked.
"Oh, it's amazing!" replied Aqua. "I had no idea that the world was so beautiful. Strike has shown me so much." As she spoke, Strike was blushing.
"Well, you deserve it. After all, the world hasn't seen how beautiful you look" he said, getting him a kiss from his girlfriend. Sonic felt like gagging but decided against it. After all, he was in love once.
Unfortunately, Strike and Aqua's moment was interrupted when another familiar voice was heard.
"Well, if it isn't the abomination."
Strike turned and came face to face with Axel, who was clearly not happy to see him. Next to him was Sally who scolded him.
"Axel, don't be mean" she told her brother as she gave Strike and Sonic a hug each.
"What are you two doing here? Are you entering the tournament?" asked Cream.
Strike cracked his knuckles. "Oh I hope they are. So then maybe I can show Scruffy here a thing or two!"
"You wanna fight? Could've just asked!" Axel retaliated, pulling his sword out. Tikal stepped between them.
"Now, we don't have to solve this by violence. I'm sure there's another way" she said.
Axel put his sword away. "Fine. I'll just save my strength for the tournament" he snarled, turning away.
Sally was about to chase after him before turning back to Sonic and saying "By the way, mum is going to watch. She's having a hard time getting here but she promises to get here before it's over."
Sonic nodded. He hadn't seen his mum in a long time either. Perhaps she could convince Axel to give Strike a break. Speaking of which, Strike decided to go do something to take his mind of Axel. Aqua suggested something in his ear which only he heard. Last the team saw of him he was rushing back to the hotel with Aqua in tow.
As the heroes, ate and drank, they saw several people come and go. The first two were a dark blue hedgehog with green eyes, white gloves, blue sneakers and a green necklace and a human girl with long red hair, a green shirt, brown gloves, green boots and a miniskirt that reached knee length. Sonic decided to start a conversation.
"Hey, I'm Sonic. What are your names?" he asked the hedgehog. He didn't reply. Sonic was wondering what was wrong with him when the human spoke.
"Don't mind him. He's not good at talking to new people. I'm Marisa Harmon and this is Larcen."
Elise decided to join in the conversation. She hadn't seen any other humans here apart from those that were watching. "Hi. I'm Elise" she said.
Marisa recognized her instantly. "You're the princess of Soleanna! I can't believe this. Are you taking part as well?" she asked.
Elise nodded. "I've been training myself to fight. I'm not the best in the world" she said.
Marisa smiled. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll do fine."
She and Larcen decided to leave but Larcen looked back at Sonic once more. He finally spoke, "Watch yourself, hedgehog. If you hurt Marisa, I'll make you wish you were never born."
Sonic stared in shock as Larcen walked off. Elise stood next to him. "What's his problem?" she asked.
Sonic shrugged but a few cogs in his brain started whirring. He looked at Larcen and Marisa one last time and a thought came to his head. Larcen wasn't… He'd have to find out.
Another hedgehog appeared, this one an adult female. She had purple fur, golden eyes, black gloves, a black Chinese style dress, a white undershirt and brown boots.
"Don't mind Larcen, pal. He's always like that. I'm Kera" she said, shaking hands with Sonic.
Omega saw the sword on her back and scanned it. "Sword identified as the Dragon Sword" he said.
Knuckles overheard this. "Dragon Sword? Wasn't that used to kill the Black Dragon, thousands of years ago?"
Kera turned round to reply but seeing Knuckles, she began to blush. "Uh, yeah. I found it and have been using it ever since. I was hoping to kill the leader of the Black Arms with it."
"Well, you're a bit late. Shadow took care of him" Knuckles said, indicating the black hedgehog.
Kera shrugged. "Well, I can still look for my brother. I thought he might be here or I could use the emeralds to find him" she explained, slightly disheartened.
Knuckles felt sympathy. "You'll find him. I'm sure of it."
Kera blushed again and bid farewell. Amy had a faint idea of Kera's feelings to the red echidna but kept her mouth shut. Shade was keeping an eye on the purple hedgehog and seemed a bit miffed.
Shadow, after overhearing Kera's hatred for the Black Arms, thought back to when he killed him. He shuddered.
"Boy, those memories still freak me out. Good thing I wiped those Black Arms out when I had the chance" he said to Rouge.
"What?" a voice said.
Turning, Shadow saw a black owl with a black magician's hat, silver gauntlets, a hard blue plated chest that covered his body, dark blue boots, a blue cape and green eyes that reminded Shadow of Mephiles.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Rothion the Owl, loyal to Black Doom. You must be Shadow the Hedgehog. I've heard about you. How you destroyed the Black Arms" the owl said, staring at Shadow with a look that could kill. "I was hoping I could meet you, so I could kill you. If we fight in the tournament, I'll be sure to deal as much pain as possible."
Rothion walked off, with Shadow staring after him. Rothion was with Black Doom? He'd have to see to him when this was all over.
Silver and Sonic were having a discussion (well, Silver was actually interrogating him about him and Elise) when they were interrupted by a familiar tanuki, one that Sonic was freaked out by.
"H-hey, Chrono" Sonic said, nervously, remembering how badly he was injured when they fought.
"Hello, Sonic. And you too, Silver" Chrono said, sounding serious.
Silver became suspicious. "Why are you here? Wasn't the future saved?"
"Yes but GUE sent me back here because of this tournament. They said something would happen here so I entered to find out what's going on. I promise that if we fight, Sonic, I won't nearly kill you. But I may badly injure you."
The tanuki strolled off, leaving a very scared Sonic. He nearly wet himself. Silver suggested he take his mind off it so Sonic decided to talk with Amy. That would definitely take his mind off it. To his surprise, she was talking to a brown hedgehog with unusual black streaks all over his body, five quills are arranged so that his middle one goes straight down, two side ones arcing down to the shoulders, and his last two going straight out, a slightly deeper colored muzzle, and burning amber eyes, black gloves with cuffs around them, and boots with yellow and green lines going around the bottom.
"Sonic, I'd like you to meet someone. This is my cousin, Gemini" the pink hedgehog introduced.
Gemini stared at Sonic. "I understand you and my sister are an item" he said, with a deadly look on his face.
Sonic began to stutter. "N-no. We're just friends. Amy, seriously, stop telling everyone we're a couple, coz we're not!"
Gemini seemed to relax a bit. "Well, I hope we fight, Sonic. I've heard a lot and I want to see how good you are" he said, darkly. Something about him seemed to scare Sonic more than Chrono. Amy decided to save him by telling her cousin there was a casino on the other side of the park. For the first time, Sonic was stunned to see someone run as fast as him.
The two went back to the group. Silver was surprised to see Sonic wasn't any less worried. Sonic meanwhile was busy writing his will in his head. He was wondering what he could leave Blaze when Amy screamed.
"What? What is it?" he asked, looking for any sign of a threat. Amy wasn't listening. She was trying to catch a purple hedgehog's attention. She wore a black t-shirt with a single dark-silver stripe up the sides; trousers with an identical colour scheme, white gloves and a pair of Extreme Gear skates. She also had one quill that droops over her left eye, blocking part of it. Upon noticing Amy, she immediately ran over, or skated really.
"Amy! How have you been?" the hedgehog girl asked, clearly ecstatic about seeing her.
"Oh, I've been fine. How about you, sis?" Amy replied, casuing Cosmo to turn.
"Sis?" she asked, confused.
"Dusk here is my sister. Well, not biologically. Eggman made her using my DNA, so we consider ourselves sisters" Amy explained.
Omega retracted his claws and pulled his guns out. "All Eggman creations must be destroyed!"
Shadow jumped in front of his robot comrade. "Omega, don't! Dusk is on our side!" he told Omega. Since he could trust Shadow, Omega replaced his guns with his claws. Dusk blushed due to Shadow defending her.
"Well, I hope I do well in this tournament" she said.
Amy smiled. "I'm sure you'll do fine." Dusk smiled back.
Tails picked up a chilli dog that he bought and was about to take a bite when an arrow came out of nowhere and hit a nearby post, with Tails' food on the other end. Stunned, the fox turned to see three figures.
The one who was holding the bow was a white wolf with long silver hair tied in a ponytail by a blue bow, a bluish grey muzzle, a sky blue tunic, a white sash around her torso, brown boots and gauntlets, and a silver shoulderplate on her left shoulder.
The second one was another white wolf with long silver hair ,green eyes, a bluish grey muzzle, purple robes with a gold sash around his torso, a white cloak and brown boots and gauntlets.
The third one was a cat with deep purple fur with a light purple tail tip and a white muzzle, deep purple hair, blue robes, a green cloak and white boots.
The second wolf said "Nice shot, Amelia."
The first one replied "Thanks, Matty."
"It's Mathias!"
The cat stopped the argument by saying "You may have hit the target but you've peeved that guy off."
They turned and saw Tails, angrily trying to get his food of the arrow. As he did that, Cosmo turned to them.
"Who are you three?" she asked.
The first wolf handled the introductions. "I'm Amelia. This is my brother, Mathias and our friend Blitz."
Cosmo bowed to all three. "I take it you three are entering the tournament.
Blitz nodded. "You bet. It sounds like fun. Plus I need a challenge."
"You could've asked me" said Mathias.
"He said a challenge, Matty" Amelia joked.
"It's MATHIAS!!!"
Cosmo watched the siblings running off and bid Blitz farewell, who sighed and decided to go stop the squabble.
Elsewhere, a yellow hedgehog with red quills, crimson red gloves, black shoes with a blue stripe down the middle with lightning on the sides. He was sitting on a bench, enjoying the peace. Cream noticed he was sitting alone and decided to join him.
"Hello" she said, cheerily.
The hedgehog turned to the rabbit and smiled. "Hello. What's your name?"
"I'm Cream and this is my chao Cheese" she replied, with Cheese chirping, happily.
"I'm Ozone the Hedgehog. If you're taking part in the tournament, be on your guard. It'll be tough but don't let that put you down. Just do your best" Ozone told her.
Cream nodded and thanked him for the advice. She rejoined the group. As they sat there, still waiting for the tournament to start, two new figures approached.
One was a purple tiger with a blue armour vest, black gloves, black trousers and black shoes. He also wore a scanner and a funny looking watch.
The other one was an orange fox wearing a grey leather shirt, blue shorts, black gloves and brown shoes. He wore a water cannon on his right arm.
"Hey, are you guys in the tournament?" the tiger asked.
"Yeah, I'm Sonic the Hedgehog" the blue hero said.
"I'm Armand Novak the Tiger and this is Basil Giles" the tiger said.
Sonic nearly choked on his food. "Novak? As in Tobias Novak?"
"I take it you've heard of him" chuckled Armand.
Tails stared at the watch on Armand's wrist. "Is that the watch he made?"
"Yep. It can do nearly everything. Except tell the time" the tiger explained.
"Why?" they all asked.
"Because there wasn't enough room for a clock" Armand replied sheepishly.
Basil nudged his friend. "Hey, maybe they know something about Nega" he suggested.
Sonic and Blaze's attention perked up. "Nega? How do you guys know him?" Sonic asked.
"Nega killed our dads and we heard a rumor that he's involved with this tournament" explained Basil.
"I highly doubt Nega's involved. He's busy spending a lifetime in jail in my world" Blaze told them.
Taken aback, the two sighed. "Guess I'll never get revenge" Armand said.
"Hey, look on the bright side. At least he can't hurt anyone anymore" Sonic told them.
"I suppose" Armand replied.
Basil became distracted for a while, just looking around until he saw someone.
"Armand, heads up!"
The tiger turned, wondering what his friend meant when he was dog piled by a cheetah with blue hair, black markings on her white muzzle, a heart spot on her forehead, white gloves with blue square patches, a white tank top, light blue jeans and white shoes with blue gem circles on the sides. What was weird was the blue gem imbedded in her navel.
She was joined by a red tiger with black stripes, blue fingerless gloves, white shoes with blue outlines and a silver jetpack. Armand pushed the cheetah off of him and brushed himself down.
"Emily! Stop dog piling me!" he said.
"C'mon, you know you like it" the cheetah said.
Blaze asked, "Armand, who are these two?"
"This is Alan the Tiger" Armand gestured to the other tiger who waved, "And this is Emily Leot the Cheetah. She's my…" He stopped trying to find the right words but Emily finished it for him.
"Girlfriend."
"Yeah, girlfriend."
Alan spoke "I tried to stop her but you know what she's like."
"What the hell does that mean?" asked Emily, sounding quite annoyed.
"Emily, calm down. C'mon, let's go do something nice and calming" Armand soothed, relaxing the cheetah. The two went off somewhere, while Basil and Alan decided to go see more of the park.
Watching the heroes from a dark area were a robotized echidna with 8 dreads with one covering is left eye, which is a red robot eye, two black metal fists, maroon fur with his robotized parts a blue-silver colour, with the top left half of his head, arms, legs, feet and right of chest robotized and a mark on his chest which resembles a spiked cog and his comrade, a hedgehog with jade fur, 3 pronged crest on his forehead like Silver's, 2 quills like Shadow's with purple highlights and another 2 quills like Silver's underneath, a tuft of fur around his neck and chest, white gloves with emerald encrusted golden rings and silver and green boots.
The echidna said "Just imagine how much money I'd get if I captured all those guys. Eh, Havoc?"
The hedgehog turned to him. "Look, Zero. That's not the reason why we're here. We're here for the emeralds. They need to be kept safe."
"What if you-know-who turns up?" Zero asked.
"Then things will get interesting" Havoc smirked.
Unbeknownst to them, a robotic duplicate of Havoc, which looked like Neo Metal Sonic, was watching them. He clenched his fists. "Havoc. I swear I'll kill you!"
As the group continued talking, they saw two anthros that grabbed their attention. One was a golden dog with black contacts covering his eyes. The hair on top of his head was very messy and he had one bang in the shape of a boomerang. He wore black and white sneakers with the tongues hanging out, black jeans, a white sleeveless hoodie, a black bandana around his neck and a pair of black sunglasses.
The other one was a yellow hedgehog with black highlights in his quills that were in a similar style to Shadow's. He also wore black contacts, yellow and black sneakers, black jeans, a yellow polo shirt with black diagonal stripes, a black fingerless glove on his right hand and several bandages covering his whole left arm.
Sonic was nervous about starting a conversation. So far he'd been given several death threats so Shadow took over.
"Hey, I'm Shadow. Who are you two?"
The dog seemed a bit chattier than the hedgehog who stood there in silence.
"Why, I'm Damien Christian Angels! I'm surprised you've never heard of me. Oh and the quiet dude is Mario. Ain't that right?" he turned to his friend who simply nodded.
"He's awfully quiet" Shadow stated.
"Yeah, he's had a rough time but he's a great fighter. Not as good as me of course but still when he gets rolling, watch out!" Damien exclaimed, failing to notice that Mario walked off. When he found out, Damien chased after him, giving a hasty goodbye to Shadow.
As Sonic took a sip of his drink, he noticed the Babylon Rogues coming towards them. Tails and Knuckles got edgy, expecting them to start something but they walked past and confronted two other figures that arrived.
The first one was a crow with course black feathers with white tattooed flames on his wrists, yellow crooked beak with grey lining around his eyes. His head feathers were in a ponytail with two feathers coming down to his shoulders and a long bunch of four feathers cropped together in a wild row for a tail. He wore a red cardinal's uniform with a white under cloak. He also wore red gloves.
The other one was a black falcon with wry feathers on his head that fall to his back and a straight tail that reaches the backside of his knees. He wore a long blue robe with a white sash around his waist, metal gauntlets, and a belt under his robe for his sheath and sword and black sandals with cotton white socks.
The Rogues stared at the avians opposite them. The two stopped walking and the crow spoke.
"Look who it is. A bunch of solar scum!" he mocked.
"You're one to talk, lunar trash!" Jet retaliated, pulling out his fans.
Sonic jumped between them. "Hey, let's not start something here."
"Stay out of this, Sonic! This between me and Cesare!" Jet yelled.
The falcon smirked. "Don't bother trying to fight. You'll only get disqualified."
"Well, when the tournament starts, we'll be sure to deal as much pain as possible!" challenged Wave.
"Yeah, if you're as easy to beat as Rodrigo…" Jet started but Cesare interrupted.
"You leave him out of this! C'mon, Tagio. The smell of solar scum is making me sick!" He strolled off as the falcon followed him, making a backwards glance.
Storm waved his fist at them. "Run, lunar trash! RUN!" The three Rogues walked off in the opposite direction. Sonic and co. had no idea what that was about but decided against it.
Watching the fight was another tanuki. His fur was completely black, except for the red rings around his ears. His muzzle fur was black, like the rest of his fur, though at the stray strands near the sides of his mouth, specs of red are visible. His eye colour could be described as a fiery orange. He had two simple locks of hair drooping from the sides of his head, and three locks protruding from his forehead and drooping to the right. His tail was quite bushy, though not overly long, and had crimson rings around it, like his ears. For clothing he wore a black and purple striped long sleeved shirt, which had a large red circle on the chest. He wore a red tie around his neck, along with a necklace which had a black flame symbol on it. He wore a pair of black trousers, and a crimson red leather belt at his waist. He wore a simple pair of slim white gloves, along with a pair of black skate shoes. He had seen the commotion and smirked.
"This will be an interesting tournament" he said to himself. Suddenly, he got a call from his mobile and answered.
"Crisis, it's Aero. Has it started yet?" the voice asked.
"Not yet but the competition is certainly interesting" Crisis replied.
"Well don't forget, you have to find out who's behind it. They may know something. Aero out." Crisis hung up and proceeded to check out the park some more.
Sonic was getting very bored. He needed to fight something and the tournament was still showing no signs of starting. He sighed wishing for something to happen. Something did.
He heard a hissing sound. At first he thought a balloon was letting out air but he felt something tickling his neck. Turning he came face to face with a brown snake with a few black stripes and yellow eyes. He wore an unbuttoned, grey trench coat, white gloves and black boots.
You'd expect Sonic to be taken aback. He wasn't. His face turned as white as a sheet as he backed away from the snake, tripping over in his haste.
The snake sniggered. "Oh, good. Someone I've already scared."
Silver stepped forward. "What's your problem, pal?"
The snake turned to face him. "I'm Alexander and I've come for the emeralds. They'll help me deal as much pain to the world as I can!" he hissed, malevolently.
Silver was about to retaliate but the snake was already leaving, making one last look at Sonic. As the blue hedgehog got back up, Elise walked up to him.
"What's the matter? You nearly passed out" she said, slightly worried.
"Sorry. I just don't like snakes" Sonic explained, shuddering at the thought.
Another voice spoke. "It's OK. Everyone has a fear of something."
Sonic faced the speaker. It was the hedgehog he saw at the airport. The one he thought he'd seen somewhere.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Gale the Hedgehog. King of Pirates!" Gale exclaimed.
"Pirates? We don't like pirates!" Everyone turned to see Strike, who had come back with Aqua, as well as Axel and Sally.
"Well, I'm not an evil pirate. Sure I steal but I don't kill anyone" Gale defended, staring at Axel.
"Well, prove it" challenged Knuckles.
Suddenly, a commotion was heard. Everyone went to check it out and saw two figures arguing. One was an echidna while the other was a hedgehog, both adults. Another figure, a female fox, stood there watching. These three grabbed Tails, Knuckles and Amy's attention.
"Look, I told you to stop spending so much on rum!" yelled the hedgehog.
"Thorn, I didn't spend that much" the echidna defended.
"You bought 10 jugs of it, Wrist!"
"But once we win the emeralds and sell them, we'll get the money back plus more."
"What if we don't?!"
Gale stepped in. "Will you guys stop fighting! Sheesh, every day you manage to argue about something. Kyira and I are sick of it."
The fox just stood there. Sonic noticed that she had nine tails that reminded him of Tails. It was then he noticed the surprised expressions on his friends' faces.
"What's up with you three?" he asked.
The crew all turned and several things happened. It sort of went like this:
"Amy?"
"Dad!"
"Knuckles?"
"Dad?"
"Kyuta?"
"Mum!"
Now, Sonic was confused.
"What the hell?" was all he could say as some sort of family reunion emerged in front of him.
After all the hugs stopped, an explanation was needed. Sonic was stunned.
"So, your dad, your dad and your mum are all pirates and are with Gale?" he asked.
Tails nodded. "Yeah, I haven't seen mum in years."
Kyira seemed to go soft as she hugged her son. "I'm happy to know you're alright, Kyuta" she said.
Cosmo walked up and bowed. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Cosmo."
Tails blushed. "Yeah, Cosmo and I are… You know."
Kyira raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Knuckles and his dad were discussing about how their lives were while Amy just hugged her dad.
Silver began to chuckle. "You know it's funny. Tails' mum, Knuckles' dad and Amy's dad are all in a pirate crew. Wouldn't it be funny, Sonic, if your dad was…"
He stopped when he saw Sonic's face. "Oh, I forgot. Sorry."
"Why? What happened?" asked Thorn.
Axel stepped forward. "Our dad was killed by pirates. Sonic blames himself for it."
Sally began to hug her brother. "Aw, Sonic. You need to let it go" she told him. Sonic simply nodded.
Gale was interested in this. And the name, Sonic. He couldn't be… He looked at the other three, who all looked as interested as Gale did. Before he could ask anything else, a voice was heard over an intercom.
"Could everyone come to the stadium. The first round is about to begin."
Everyone immediately stopped the chat and proceeded to the stadium. The tournament had begun!