Sonic: And we're back to our regularly scheduled chapter! Man, TeamSSSFan257 needs to get on with editing, I've got like 30 chapters already written. I'd have more, but I think she's stressed enough. So...Uh...Are those chili dogs?
TeamSSSFan: Yes
Sonic: *Leaps out of his seat* GIVE ME! GIVE ME!
TeamSSSFan: Whoa whoa whoa! These are not just for you, they're for all the Sonics taking part in this story.
Sonic: But how would I even get them the chili dogs? Maybe you should just let me...
TeamSSSFan: No! And you can just write them in at the end of this chapter, we can add a couple paragraphs, right?
Sonic: *Grumbling* I guess.
TeamSSSFan: You know, you're lucky I even let you continue this after you stole the idea from me.
Sonic: I did not!
TeamSSSFan: You asked if you could write a story, I said yes, 5 minutes later I find you in my room reading through my ideas booklet. Then you come to me asking about a Sonic multi-verse story, and that idea was 5th on my list.
Sonic: I, uh, can explain.
TeamSSSFan: Oh, please do. I didn't really mind before, but you've been harping on me a lot about editing those chapters, and I've had enough. So explain, or I'm giving your portion of the chili dogs to your alternates.
Sonic: Um, how about we discuss this well they read the chapter, no need to drag them into this. Go ahead readers.
...
The echoing boom of 12 hedgehogs running at the speed of sound shook the room and left the other mobian's ears ringing. They weren't holding back; this was the ultimate race, to decide once and for all...
Timeout! The disembodied voice called.
"Hey!" First Sonic shouted back; skidding to a halt.
"What's the big idea?" Boom Sonic added.
I apologize, my young hedgehogs. But I just realized I haven't explained the rules. I didn't even start the race correctly; I counted down instead of saying ready set go.
"Oh come on!" Everyone complained, and Short Sonic waved his fists at the ceiling like he was cursing the puppeteer.
Don't be like that, this won't take long. He assured them. Rule One: You will run 100 laps around the track.
"That seems like a lot." Electric Sonic interrupted.
Well, we don't want the race to be too short, do we? You run really fast.
The blue and black hedgehogs muttered how that was a good point.
Rule Two: Don't touch each other at all during the race. We're trying to find out who's the fastest, not who can trip the most people.
Boom Shadow instantly found all eyes on him. "WHAT!?"
Rule Three: No chaos abilities, Shadows. And finally, Rule Four is for the audience: Be supportive of the racers, but mingle with each other also.
"Why do you want us to mingle?" Electric Tails asked.
I find it intriguing how you've grown so close in the past morning, yet you still know next to nothing about each other. Discuss your worlds, your adventures, your hopes and dreams; anything to make this experience more fascinating.
"Huh." Boom Amy said. "I never thought of that. Why do we get along so well, even though we just met?"
Nine put a hand on his chin and his metal tails lifted him up as he spoke. "My guess would be that as you're all the same person. just from different dimensions; you already know each other, in a way. And for some reason, we're the odd one's out."
He gestured to the Pirates, (who were playing limbo) the jungle people, (who were watching the pirates with curiosity) and the New Yoke residence (who looked tired of both the pirates and jungle people).
"It's because your worlds were created when Sonic," Prime Shadow shot his rival a glare. "Destroyed the Paradox Prism."
"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry!?"
Enough with the blame game, let's start the race.
The Sonics immediately stopped pretending to nap on the track, and blurred back to the starting line with their black rivals.
Racers ready? Set. Go!
They were off again, with just as much enthusiasm as before. None of the blue and black hedgehogs were willing to lose...
Wait! Hold on a second!
"Again!?" Xtreme Sonic complained.
"What in the name of Chaos is wrong now?" First Shadow cursed at the ceiling.
First Sonic wagged a finger. "Watch your tongue, Shadz. We're trying to keep this room PG."
Nothing is wrong, hedgehogs; my computer just found another dimension, and I was wondering if you would like to meet them.
"Another version of us?" Prince Sonic asked. "Oh yeah! Do it to it and bring him here."
"Hey wait a second." Xtreme Tails said. "Didn't you say the rest of us coming here was a glitch? And now you're saying you can control it!?"
I couldn't control it at that time. When I noticed that multiple dimensions were getting sucked here, I shut the summoner thing off; but my computer is still scanning parallel universes. I think I've figured out how to bring just one world at a time, though. I just bring the pillow back and flip this doohickey switch and...
The giant, white pillow was once again situated in the middle of the floor, and the screaming followed momentarily.
5 short forms landed on the enormous cushion. As the crowd of mobians moved to surround the newcomers; a blue minifigure slid down and froze at the sight of his taller alternates, who stared back in surprise.
"Whaaat?" Boom Sonic gaped.
Prime Sonic blinked, "Um, no offense but...what are you?"
The short, weirdly-shaped mobian put his hands on his hips. "I should be asking you the same thing."
Electric Sonic circled the newcomer, who looked a little uncomfortable with the scrutinizing.
Electric stopped his observation and grinned. "No doubt about it, you're a Lego."
"Oh." The other Sonics realized.
Xtreme Sonic raised his hand. "Uh, I have no idea what that is."
The rest of the blue hedgehogs mumbled how they didn't know either.
Electric Sonic stared. "You guys don't have Lego bricks in your world? Man, your loss. Legos are a bunch of brocks that connect to each other to form structures; and the minifigures look like this." He gestured to Lego Sonic, who quickly started posing.
Short Sonic walked up and held a hand out to the new Sonic, who was almost exactly his height. The Lego awkwardly shook it with his cupped hands. "Well, it's nice to know I'm not the only small Sonic here.
The young Sonic nodded.
Lego Sonic looked confused by the lack of a vocal response, so First Sonic spoke up. "Yeah, he doesn't talk much. I'm First Sonic, by the way; cause I arrived here first. And this is Xtreme; Prime; Electric, have him explain the nickname to you sometime; Boom; Prince, ask him sometime to; and you've already met Short Sonic."
The smaller Sonic folded his arms and gave his older self a very Shadow-like glare to show what he thought of the nickname.
First continued, "And all the other mobians behind me are..."
"Alternate versions of my friends." Lego Sonic realized. "So is this like a meeting place for our worlds?"
Well, he learns quickly. The puppeteer observed.
"I once traveled through a bunch of dimensional rifts, it was crazy." The Lego explained.
"Cool." Prince Sonic high-fived his shorter alternate.
"Sounds like we should sit down after the race and exchange stories." First Amy suggested.
"There's a race?" A black, Lego head peeked out from the top of the pillow.
"Hey! Is there another me up there?" First Tails called up.
A yellow fox head peered down and grinned. "Look guys! It's a bunch of me!"
"Is there another me?" A pink head was seen and a second later, a red head joined her.
"Come on down guys!" Boom Knuckles called. "We don't bite! Or at least, I don't." He glared suspiciously at everyone else in the room, much to their annoyance. He suddenly ran up to Electric Knuckles. "You don't bite, do you?!"
"Of course not! to sink your teeth into an opponent during combat is dishonorable. And as Sonic would say: Cheating."
"Oh." Boom Knuckles backed off and nodded. "Right, we have our honor to think about. Just, one question: What exactly is honor? It has to do with knight, right?"
"Is that guy for real?" Lego Knuckles asked.
"Usually? No." Boom Sonic answered.
"You get used to it, though." Boom Tails added.
"Can we go back to the part where you said 'race?'" Lego Sonic asked. "Or; actually, let's go back to that weird, disembodied voice. What was that?"
I am the puppeteer, the overseer, and I'm here to ensure you and your friends have a wonderful time at the, er, 'Sonic Party.'
"Don't tell me we're actually calling it that." Electric Shadow groaned.
"Grumpy hedgehogs and invisible overlords aside..." First Sonic said. "I think we've been waiting for that race long enough. Come on guys!"
All the blue hedgehogs cheered and sped back to the starting lime alongside 6 Ultimate Lifeforms.
Lego Tails scratched his head. "So we're going to ignore the mysterious person lording over us? What if it's Eggman?"
Short Tails walked with his Lego alternate over to the stands. "As long as the Sonics are here, we have no reason to worry."
"Yeah, that's true." The brick fox agreed.
We're doing this for real this time, right?
A cheer rose up from the blue racers.
Alright then. Ready? Set...
"You're not going to interrupt us again, are you?" Electric Sonic interrupted.
He was quickly buried under 6, furious hedgehogs; as the 6 shadows watched in amusement, and Lego Sonic stood there confused.
All right, that's enough. Are you brave, speedy heroes or impulsive, hot-headed teenagers?
"Both!" The black hedgehogs shouted back.
Well...yes, I suppose so. Sonics get off your alternate; we can still have our race. It's not the end of the world.
Slowly; the blue hedgehogs let up on their alternate and went back to the line. Electric Sonic sat up; eyes wide. "I didn't know I could be so aggressive."
From the stands; the Tails group was watching with interest.
"Do ye think they actually be startin' this time?" Sails asked.
"Looks like it." First Tails answered.
Mangy climbed onto the rails; muttering nonsense and hopping up and down.
Boom Tails grabbed his feral, striped alternate and set him down on the ground; where he sat on his haunches and stared through the bars of the railing.
Ready? Set. Go!
"At long last they're off. I don't know who's in first, cause they're moving to fast for my-I think they're pink-eyes to keep up with. But I know who's in last!" Boom Knuckles pointed an accusing finger at the stationary Electric Sonic.
The hedgehog smiled up at the audience, did a quick stretch, and vanished.
"No, he literally vanished! The other racers are leaving purple and orange streaks in their wake, but this guy literally disappeared!" Boom Knuckles declared into the microphone he'd found. "Talk about speed of air!"
The other 13 speedsters didn't even notice that one of them had basically just frozen time around himself. They kept on racing lap after lap; exchanging petty insults with each other.
"Hey Shadz! Don't die again!" Xtreme Sonic called to his rival.
"Yeah!" First Sonic added. "And don't hit your head either; last time you got amnesia, we had to deal with your psychotic family reunion."
Okay, maybe not so petty. Both blue hedgehogs instantly had to speed up to avoid death by furious hybrid.
Lego Sonic and Shadow watched as the four ran past; yelling apologies and death threats. "Why can't some rivals get along?"
Back up in the stands: the Amy group was getting hyped up and placing bets on their Sonic.
"I bet my hammer that my Sonic will finish in the top three at least. Xtreme Amy bet.
"Don't ye have, like, a billion of em though?" Black Rose asked.
"That's unimportant."
"I bet my tarot card deck." Short Amy chimed in.
"I completely forgot about that old deck." First Amy knelt down beside her younger self to examine the cards.
"I don't understand." Thorn Rose said in her gruff voice. "Why would you bet things that are so important to you?"
"We're not actually gonna bet these things." Boom Amy explained. "There's no way all of us would be right. We're just having some fun."
"This is illogical." Rusty Rose monotoned.
"Never try to explain fun to a robot." Lego Amy said. She turned to her other alternates. "So. How long have you been chasing your Sonic?"
Boom Knuckles suddenly ran by with the microphone; chased by the other 10 echidnas. "You'll never steal Mason!"
The puppeteer just sat in his armchair, watching the whole thing play out on his screen. 90 laps.
95
96
97
98
99
100! He called.
All 14 hedgehogs collapsed on the ground; breathing hard. They'd given their all in that race; and had barely any energy left.
"So who...pant...won the...pant pant...race?" Prime Sonic gasped.
Sounds like you all should have a drink of water first. And here, take some chili dogs as well.
The Sonics gave a weak cheer as the bottles of H2O and plates of chili dogs appeared in front of them.
Xtreme Sonic chugged the bottle. "Man, I haven't raced this hard since I went up against Sam Speed in that fancy car of his."
"Was it a tough fight?" Lego Sonic asked.
"Eh, I guess. You guys are much better competition."
"I once raced this green Shrew on a hoverboard." Boom Sonic commented. "I couldn't figure out how he kept getting ahead of me; but it turns out that not only was he an Eggman robot, there were like, 5 of him."
"I sometimes race a green hawk on a hoverboard." First Sonic added. "Jet's not a robot or a villain, but he is a jerk sometimes."
"Man, I seem so boring compared to you guys." Electric Sonic complained. "I guess I raced an avalanche on a makeshift snowboard."
"Nice." Prince Sonic gave his alternate a high five. "Next time my sibs and I go see the oracle, I'll have to try that out."
Prime Sonic swallowed his last bite of his chili dog. "Now can we find out who won?"
I think I've got everyone's placement; but there was this huge clump of racers I couldn't place accurately. So I guessed! Anyway, in first place we definitely have...
"Wait! Can Mason and I read the results?" Boom Knuckles asked, waving the microphone around.
Er...why not? It'll keep you occupied.
A scroll poofed into existence in the buff echidna's hand. He eagerly unrolled it, put on a pair of glasses that suddenly existed, and declared into Mason for all the room to hear: "Oh yeah, I forgot I can't read."
It was the Knuckles group's turn to snap and turn on their alternate. After a brief scuffle, a questionable sword incident on Dread's part, and Gnarly yelling how he knew his alternate had been on the tree's side all along; Electric Knuckles claimed the scroll and Underground Knuckles retrieved Mason.
He tapped the microphone a couple times. "Hello? Is this thing working? Good, now I can read the results. Hand it over me."
Electric Knuckles refused. "The scroll is a spoil of war, which I have rightfully earned.
"Alright, we'll both read it. Come here."
The pair of echidnas huddled over the unrolled scroll. "So it looks like only the first 5 places and last place are 100% correct." Underground Knuckles explained. "Cause they've got little stars next to them. Electric me, you wanna read 1st place?"
"After the number one and a dot is..."
All the Sonics started patting their legs in a drumroll.
"Electric Sonic!" Knuckles paused. "Oh, that is my Sonic."
Electric Sonic got to his feet and started flossing. "Oh yeah! Sonic for the win! Woot Woot!"
His 7 alternates were quick to congratulate him and give him fist bumps. It didn't matter that they'd been beaten, as long as they'd been beaten by one of their own and not a Shadow.
Speaking of; Xtreme Shadow was frowning at the cheering group. "I didn't even see that Sonic on the track at all."
"In 2nd place." Underground Knuckles continued. "We have Xtreme Sonic."
The celebration turned to a different Sonic, but the joy was the same. If this was a points system, they would've been beating the Shadows.
"After the number three and another dot is..." Electric Knuckles read. "Electric Shadow!"
There wasn't a cheer from the anti-heroes, they didn't need to be loud to prove their skill.
"Um, moving on I guess; we have First Sonic in 4th place!"
The short break in the party ended, and the blue hedgehogs went back to clapping and whistling. This continued when Prime Sonic earned the last guaranteed winners spot, in 5th place.
"Enough with the dancing!" Prime Shadow shouted at the Sonics, who'd started a conga line.
"We've got the rest of the results." Underground Knuckles interrupted. "Even if they're not exactly accurate."
"Who's 6th?" Boom Sonic asked.
The rest of the results were as follows:
6. First Shadow
7. Prince Sonic
8. Prime Shadow
9. Xtreme Shadow
10. Boom Sonic
11. Lego Sonic
12. Lego Shadow
13. Short Sonic
"And finally, Boom Shadow is last because he cheated." Underground Knuckles finished.
"How dishonorable." Electric Knuckles declared.
"I didn't cheat." Boom Shadow stated.
You tripped Boom Sonic and chaos controlled a few feet away to a void getting caught. That's two of my rules broken, cheater!
"That was him?!" Boom Sonic yelled. "Oh, you're in for it now, Shadow!"
But the other black hedgehogs held him back. "He's our alternate." First Shadow explained. "And he just gave us a bad name. We'll take care of your Shadow."
By 'taking care of' he meant beating the stuffing out of the other Shadow and leaving him barely able to stand.
"Remind me never to get on Shadows bad side." Electric Sonic whispered to his First alternate.
"Be careful what you say." First Sonic agreed.
"So what foolish game are we going to play now?" Lego Shadow asked. "And the Sonics better not choose."
"We could go spelunking in caves." Lego Knuckles suggested.
"Or a maze!" Xtreme Sonic added.
Don't even think about it! No, seriously, this room responds to thoughts, and it's almost impossible for me to counter them; don't think about it!
"And didn't Lego me just say to not suggest anything? Shut your mouth." Xtreme Shadow said.
"Rude." Prince Sonic countered.
"We could do a sleepover!" Boom Amy suggested. "Not like the one where you trashed my house and Knuckles turned on the air conditioning, a real sleepover."
The Amys chimed in; listing things they liked to do at slumber parties.
"Slumber parties are for girls." Xtreme Knuckles declared. "I think spelunking in a maze sounds like a great idea."
"Now wait just one second." Electric Sonic stepped forward. "I think we should do the sleepover." He held up a hand to the Knuckles group. "But not the way the girls are thinking."
"Well, you did win the race." First Tails said. "What are you thinking?"
"There's a guy on Youtube, don't remember his name, but he once did something with a bunch of people in a shrinking circle and the last one left in the circle wins a million dollars, or something." He snapped his fingers. "We should sleepover in the circle and have a few people outside the circle making it smaller for us and trying to bait us out. Who's with me!?"
Surprisingly, everyone was game with the idea; and the room transformed into a smaller room with a red circle in the middle, a balcony to one side, and tons of supplies in the center.
"Oh yeah! It's on now!" Prince Sonic declared.
"Sonic?!"
Everyone turned in sync to find three crocodiles, two chameleons, and two bees staring at them in shock.
...
Sonic: *munching on a chili dog* Don't worry, the story will continue. I worked things out with TeamSSSFan257. She left to go finish the next chapter of Journey Across Frontiers, that should be up this week.
Sonic: And now for a contest! Who is the Youtuber who did that video? You should be able to get it, he's popular. Anyone who guesses right before the next chapter gets...uh...
Sonic: This chili dog! *holds up a chili dog* I'll even sign it for you, if you want.
Sonic: Bye readers! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!