Feel the Air

Chapter 1 – Departure

Everything was quite normal with Mobius at the moment. Sonic, a blue hedgehog, lives with his two friends, Tails and Knuckles, and fights off the evils of his enemy, Dr. Eggman. But now, there has been silence for the three heroes for quite some time. Dr. Eggman hasn't been plotting anything, and it has left all of them, especially Sonic, extremely bored.

Fortunately for them, that was all about to change that afternoon.

It was a warm, sunny afternoon, and Sonic and Tails were doing what they normally do. Sonic was trying to find something that he liked, and Tails was working on another one of his inventions. Knuckles was away guarding the Master Emerald.

Shortly after, though, there was a knock at the door and a voice that said, "Mail call". Sonic's mail had to be personally brought to him since he doesn't own a mail box. Sonic turned off the television, and walked over to the door.

He opened it to find a purple cat standing there with a few envelopes in her hand and several more in her large mail bag. She brought her paws forward to hand over the mail, and Sonic gladly took it from her.

"Thanks, Talia."

Talia smiled and nodded. "You have a good day now, Mr. Sonic."

"You, too." Talia then ran off to continue delivering mail on her route.

Sonic closed the door and shuffled through all of the envelopes to see the contents. Two of them were junk mail from a ridiculous clothing company that Amy signed Sonic up for, and then another one was a house bill. Sonic set that one aside, and then looked at the last two envelopes. They looked like junk mail, so he was just going to throw them away. He threw the first one into the trash can, and just before he was about to toss the second one, something stood out to him.

Sonic got a good look at it, and noticed a very familiar logo at the top right corner of the letter. He recognized it as Eggman's personal emblem.

Sonic didn't even know if he should open the letter, but it was Eggman he was dealing with, so he decided that this could've been important. Sonic ran his finger through the sticky portion of the envelope and managed to smoothly open without any issues.

He tossed the envelope and opened up the folded paper on the inside. It read:

"Eggman Corporations Presents: the Grand Mobius Race!

Due to the high demand of the previous races, Dr. Eggman has decided to respond to the ravage amount of fans request for another race. The only difference with this one is that this race is bigger and better than ever!

First off, all racers will be happy to hear that they will now be chauffeured across the galaxy in one of Eggman's very own 'Egg Colossus'. This monstrous flying craft will contain large and pampered rooms for all of the contestants, and facilities like fancy restaurants, hilarious comedy clubs, and an enormous dance club. This will ensure the best results from all of our amazing racers, and thus best results for all of our viewers.

Racers will compete against the best of the best teams around the universe. Several teams have already signed up for this extravaganza, including the alleged and popular Team Babylon. So sign up using the attached sign-up sheet as quickly as possible, and you may just be able to win the prize of large amounts of money and gems!"

Sonic read the letter twice to get all of the information into his mind. After reading the second time, his eyes stopped at 'Team Babylon'. This brought his mind back to the times where he was at their necks. He didn't like Wave and Storm. Wave is extremely arrogant, and Storm, although he is obedient, is dumb and annoying.

But Jet. There was something different about Jet. There was something about Jet that made Sonic smile whenever the two of them raced them together. Jet was a good competitor and could actually keep up with him. Sonic almost even thought that the two of them could've been good friends if Jet wasn't as arrogant as Wave and as dumb as Storm.

The thoughts of Jet and the rest of Team Babylon escaped Sonic's mind, and he merely just thought about the race. According to the letter, he only had one week for him to submit his sign-up sheet and two weeks until they actually departed. That seemed like somewhat short notice to him, but he was eager to actually do something exciting for a change.

Sonic then took the letter and when into the garage where Tails was working. Sonic went next to the two-tailed fox and sat down in a nearby chair. At the look of Sonic's presence, Tails stopped whatever he was doing and turned his attention towards Sonic.

"Hey Sonic, what's up?"

"Good, I just got the mail. When Knuckles gets home, we'll deal with the house bill together, alright."

Tails sighed. "Alright. I never liked dealing with those ridiculous bills, but I guess everyone has to at some point.

"Yeah." Sonic paused, and before Tails could continue on with his invention, Sonic continued. "Do you remember our races with Team Babylon?"

Tails chuckled. "You mean the races with the cheap, annoying, ridiculous, arrogant, dumb, fast, evil, flabbergasting team that wins every race."

"Uh… no I'm pretty sure that's the… other team." Sonic chuckled.

Tails giggled along with him. "Yeah, what about them?"

"Well, we just got a letter from Eggman Corporations and apparently they are hosting another set of races."

"Eggman Corporations?" Sonic handed the letter over to Tails. Tails looked it over for a few minutes and then looked back up to Sonic. "What do you think about this?"

"I actually want to do this, to tell you the truth. We haven't exactly been doing anything exciting lately with everything being so peaceful, so I thought we had nothing to lose if we just try it out."

"I guess you're right. Besides, I want another chance to get Wave's head onto a stick." Sonic laughed brightly. "So when does this whole thing start so that we can get start getting ready?"

Sonic pointed to the bottom of the letter. "It says that it starts two Wednesdays from now, so that's a little less than two weeks."

Tails looked at where Sonic was pointing and continued reading beyond that. "It also has a 10 ring sign-up fee for each participant, so I'm sure we'll be able to get 30 rings should Knuckles decide to join us."

"I'm sure he will. He has just as much of a beef with Team Babylon than both of us, and he would be more than happy to give them a clean rematch."

Tails laughed semi-deviously. "I truly hope so." Tails paused and brought the sign-up sheet over to his own printer. He designed it so that it could scan certain documents at a high speed and print them out three times as fast as a normal printer. He scanned the sign-up sheet, and two duplicates were spat out of the machine.

Tails kept the original document for himself and handed the other two to Sonic. "One will be for you, and you can leave the other one on the kitchen table for Knuckles to find."

"Alright."

Sonic exited the garage and Tails went back to work. He then dropped the letter off onto the kitchen table and headed back into the living room to watch some television.

A couple of hours later, Knuckles returned from guarding the Master Emerald and headed into the kitchen. When he did, he saw the letter that Sonic placed there earlier that day. He picked it up and read its contents while going over to the living room. When he got there, he leaned against the couch that Sonic was sitting and finished the last details of the letter. When he did, he lowered his head and got Sonic's attention. Sonic turned off the TV and faced Knuckles.

"Did you see this, Sonic?"

"Yeah, I left it for you so you can take a look."

"Well, what do you think of it?"

"Well, I think it would be a pleasant opportunity for the three of us to get back at those Babylonians. The minute I saw the 'legendary Team Babylon' in that letter, I knew that I was finally going to get my revenge on Jet."

"Oh, trust me; I have a beef to settle with those Babylon idiots."

"I kind of figured you would be. Tails and I want to do it, so are you in or are you out?"

"I want to go with you guys, but who would watch the Master Emerald while we're gone. With crooks like Rouge the Bat wandering around, I just can't leave that thing unsupervised for more than a day."

"Then you need to find yourself a trustworthy replacement. Have you ever thought of asking Team Chaotix to do something for once? Espio might be a good person for the job, and Vector has always been asking for some cash ever since we've known him.

"I don't like the three of them over at Team Chaotix. The name of their team suits them very well."

"Well you hate Team Babylon even more, don't you? Can't you just ignore the fact that you hate Espio, Vector, and Charmy for a week and come with us? We need a third person on our team anyways, and I don't trust anybody as much as I trust you."

"Really? You trust me that much that you don't even want anybody else on your team? I guess that's good enough for me."

"Good. I'll call them tomorrow for you and ask them alright?"

"Sounds good to me."

Knuckles went away, and Sonic went over to the kitchen table where he left his sign-up sheet. He sat down with a pencil in hand and began filling the paper out.

Two weeks later, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were all ready for the trip and the races. They got a letter three days before that stated that the three should wait at a certain spot for the ship to arrive. Sort of like a bus stop.

As instructed, the three of them followed the distinct instructions and ended up in Sickle Valley, which was only a few minutes away from Sonic's house. Once they got there, a few familiar faces were there as well. When they got close, they noticed that Vector, Charmy, Cream, and Vanilla were standing there with their luggage and gear.

The three of them greeted all of them. Sonic then asked, "Vanilla, are you competing in the races, too?"

Vector answered for her, "Since you asked Espio to watch the Master Emerald while we're gone, we needed somebody else to replace him on our team, so I asked Vanilla."

"Well this is going to be fun. I wish the three of you the best of luck."

Vector, Charmy, and Vanilla nodded and said 'thank you'.

They then chatted with each other while Tails played around with Cream. After about ten minutes, a small object came over the horizon. With somewhat soft engines, all of them didn't even know it was there until it was close to them.

The large, somewhat intimidating ship then showed up in front of them, and they all took a few steps back to witness how massive it was. The ship was going to hold hundreds of teams, but they didn't know it was going to be so big.

After a few minutes of careful procedures, the ship landed smoothly on the ground, barely kicking up any dust. A minute later, a large pair of doors slid open, revealing a couple of black echidnas in guard uniforms. Both of them simultaneously asked the seven of them to enter. They nodded and continued to enter the massive machine.

Once inside, the two guards were eager to close the doors and signaled the captain to get the ship moving. There was a bit of shaking when it lifted off of the ground, but all-in-all, they thought that it was a smooth ride.

All seven of them went into the very elegant lobby and were in awe of how glamorous it looked. A very formal black hedgehog then approached them.

"Team names?"

Sonic said, "Team Sonic," and Vector said shortly after, "Team Chaotix."

"One moment, please." The black hedgehog then looked through his large bag that was separated into several files. Sonic assumed that the files were separated by team name. Even though there were a lot of them, the hedgehog was able to fluidly find two keys, one with a 'Sonic' etched into it, and another with a 'Chaotix' etched into it. Sonic imagined that the black hedgehog must have spent hours memorizing where every single key was located in the bag. He thought it was very convenient.

"Team Sonic, you are in room 98 on Deck 9. Team Chaotix, you are in room 93, also on Deck 9. There are pamphlets in your room that describe the events and activities that will occur on this ship. These pamphlets are replaced daily to update weather conditions and add and remove activities. The buffet on Deck 11 is open 24/7 and the three dining halls are open on Deck 5 for breakfast between 6 AM and 9AM and are open for dinner as well. You have assigned dinner times, which are located in your pamphlets, should you dine in the dining halls. However, if you do dine in the dining hall, all nights are formal night, and you must dress accordingly. Formal wear can be rented on Deck 7 in the Racer's Market. If you have any further questions, you may consult your pamphlets or talk to a crewmember at the Customer Service desk right here on Deck 3."

Without another word, the hedgehog walked away to accommodate another group. The seven of them gathered in a circle and Vanilla said, "Why don't we drop off our things in our rooms and get comfortable."

Sonic responded, "Alright. It looks like we're going to be just down the hall, so just knock on our door and we might be able to have breakfast together or something."

Vanilla smiled. "That sounds lovely, Sonic. Shall we go?" They all nodded and entered two nearby elevators (the elevators were too small to fit the seven of them and their luggage).

They exited when they reached Deck 9 and headed over to room 98. When they turned the corner to where the rooms were located, a familiar face popped out at them. When the three of them got close, they saw that Jet was waiting at their door to greet them.

Sonic took the lead and stopped right in front of Jet.

"Well, we meet again, Team Sonic. I heard that you guys were joining my competition, and I was eager to be the first to greet you."

Sonic smirked. "Well, too late. The boring black hedgehog that gave us a five-hour long speech about the ship beat you to it."

Jet held back a laugh. "You're very funny, hedgehog. We'll see what happens on the track." Jet then pushed past the three of them. He didn't go far, though, because he stopped at room 94 and took out his key. He put it into the lock and twisted, opening the door. He turned to look at the three shocked racers of 'Team Sonic'.

"Oh, you didn't hear? I'm just going to be a few doors from you. Won't that be exciting?" Jet then cackled to himself as he entered his room and closed the door behind him.

Knuckles brushed the side of his face. "Man, we've only been on this ship for ten minutes, and I already hate him again."

"You're not the only one," Tails added.

They all turned around, and Sonic used his key in door 98. In twisted perfectly and they were let into an amazing suite that was very well-furnished.

Knuckles smiled. "But… if we get to live in a place like this for a few weeks, then dealing with a person like Jet can't be all that bad."

The three of them plopped themselves onto their very comfortable beds and felt like they could fall asleep immediately in them. They were all ready for the trip of their lives.