"Ooh, look at how lush this all is," Serah said, sitting up in her seat, amazed at the greenery that surrounded the monorail they were now on. "It's a lot different than Bodhum."

Each team was given their own monorail car on this train, which also contained a few outfits for each team, some refreshments, and a guide, so that no one would get lost on their way to the hotel in which they would be staying.

"Well, since you're our alternate, you'll have a lot of time to yourself to explore it," Sazh said from his seat across the car.

"Yeah, I know." Serah sat back down in her seat, and asked, "Hey, Lightning? Why did you guys choose me to be the alternate, anyway? I'm old enough to drive, so it certainly can't be that."

"To protect you." That was all the older pink-haired woman was giving at the moment.

Snow added, "We're gonna be racing on a whole bunch of planets that we've never even seen… and that some of us have never even heard of, and we don't want you being carried off by some monster or anything like that."

"But I can protect myself!" Serah folded her arms. "I'm not a kid, you know."

"Hey, look at it this way; you have a lot more time to plan for our wedding now!" Snow grinned, and continued, "And if you do some exploring, you could tell us what it's like around here so we know how to race."

Serah smiled, satisfied with this. "Okay. You do have a point; after all, I've been driving the least time out of all four of us."

"That's exactly right," added Sazh. "They say teenage drivers are the worst. And if how I drove as a teenager is any indication, they were right." He laughed a little before taking a look out of one of the windows. "Hey, it looks like we're stopping."

"We are." The guide spoke. He was a tall, lanky man wearing a uniform similar to a Buckingham Palace guard. "It shall be my pleasure to escort you to the Terra Arms."

"This is where we'll be staying?" asked Vanille in disbelief.

The hotel in which the four Pulsians found themselves now, the Terra Arms, was unlike anything they could've ever imagined. It was decorated like a jungle inside, with a waterfall on either side of the check-in desk, and many trees scattered throughout. There were nature sounds playing from somewhere, too.

"You can tell this place is really fancy underneath all this," Vanille said knowingly to her three companions. "This place is amazing! Look, the banisters for the stairs are made of gold!"

"Oh." Noel hadn't noticed that. "That seems wasteful, but hey, what do I know?"

"Can we just get to our room already?" asked Fang impatiently. "We only have two hours before we have to head to the next race, and I'm starvin'."

"Yeah, and I could use a bath," agreed Vanille. "Are you sure you're gonna be okay here all by yourself, Yeul?"

"I suppose that I don't have a choice," replied the blue-haired girl.

"Sure you do!" Fang said. "You could always come watch! I heard everyone that's in the stands watchin' gets free popcorn and cola."

"It's your call," added Noel. "Remember, you have two whole hours to decide."

There were thirty minutes left, and Hope sat in the garage with his team, trying to configure their cars to fit three fourteen-year-olds who had only a slight idea of how to drive.

"How is it coming, Hope?" asked Elida.

"Better. I've adjusted all the seats and acceleration and brake pads so they'll accommodate our heights better, and I've made the grips of the steering wheels easier to grasp. But, I'm still trying to think of what I can do to compensate for turning…"

"Have you tried adjusting the sensitivity of the wheel?"

The three teens were approached by the girl from Team Bandicoot. "Um, no, I haven't," replied Hope. "You can do that?"

"Yeah. If it isn't as sensitive as you need it… I'll just take this off…" She removed the steering wheel, and handed it to Alyssa. "Here, hold that. You can stick a small object in there. I used to use a packing peanut."

"Oh." Hope frowned. "Thanks."

"Why are you helping us?" asked Alyssa. "You know that if we win, your home will get destroyed, right? Those are the rules."

"Yeah, unfortunately. But it would be unfair for you guys to not even get a chance at winning because you can't drive. By the way, I don't believe we've met." She extended her hand, "Coco Bandicoot."

Hope was the first to shake her hand. "Hope Estheim," he said. "This is Alyssa Zaidelle, and Elida Karmic."

"You know, whenever I'm whisked off on an adventure with my brother, I'm usually the only girl," Coco said. "It's nice having more of them around."

Elida nodded. "You seem to be really smart, Coco. Do you know if there's a way out of the whole 'only one planet can survive' thing that Emperor Velo has in effect?"

"Not at the moment, but I'm working on it," the blonde bandicoot replied. "I know there has to be some sort of loophole somewhere."

"And what if there isn't?" asked Alyssa worriedly. "What if we never get back to Palumpolum? What if we're stuck here forever?"

"I wouldn't worry about that. My brother has saved the worlds before."

First on the Galaxy Circuit was Inferno Island, a track set on a tropical island where most of the racing would be done on sand. Sazh, Crash, Cortex, Vanille, Dingodile, Zem, Alyssa, and Koala Kong all drove their cars up to the starting line.

"Three laps! You know the deal!" The flag guy readied his flag. The lights counted down, and when it his green, everyone took off.

Each team was given headsets to communicate with each other while the races were going on, similar to in a Nascar race. "Hey, kids?" asked Sazh. "What are these boxes? Should I avoid them?"

"No, Sazh, those are good!" Serah was watching the race from the TV in the hotel room, while researching on the laptop provided by the staff. "If you drive into one, you'll be given a power-up. After receiving the power-up, there should be a button on your dashboard that looks like a red letter B, as in boy. Do you see it?"

"Uh… yeah, I found it." Sazh was about to push it when he frowned, and asked, "Wait. How do I know what I got?"

"I… don't know." Serah looked up from her laptop, confused. "Just use it. It can't be too bad."

Sazh pushed the red button, and a green bubble appeared around his cart. It made a gentle humming noise. "Serah…" he said warily.

"It's a good thing! That's a shield. It'll protect you from exactly one power-up that someone tries to launch at you, unless it wears off. It can also be used as a weapon, if you nudge another cart."

"Oh, I don't think I should be fightin' dirty," Sazh said. "I'm too old for that."

"You might have to, eventually," Snow's voice cut in.

At the end of the second lap, Cortex was in first, with Dingodile, Crash, and Vanille close behind. Sazh trailed behind in fifth, Zem was sixth, and Koala Kong and Alyssa were neck and neck for seventh and eighth. That is, until Alyssa got ahold of an clock…

"Aah!" Sazh screamed. "I'm guessing that was an attack!"

"That was a special clock that slows time down for everyone else but the user," replied Serah. "Not an attack, per se, but detrimental, all the same."

"Well, I hope it doesn't happen again!"

At the end of the race, Crash had won, with Alyssa in second and Cortex in third. Each team received points based on the position they finished in: First place got nine points, second got six, third had three, and fourth had one. The rest got none. This meant that Team Bandicoot was currently in the lead, followed by Team Palumpolum, then Team Cortex. Sazh had finished fourth, so Team Bodhum was in fourth place.

"Wow, that was a pretty lucky power-up, wasn't it?" asked Alyssa with a grin on her face.

Elida nodded, but Hope was busy reading a book. "Researching," Elida whispered, pointing to Hope. "We should probably leave him alone."

"Okay, fine. But you should be getting ready; you're up next."

During the next race, which took place at a track in the jungle, aptly named Jungle Boogie, Hope went back to the hotel to get his tablet where he passed Serah and Yeul.

"Hey!" Serah called out. "You're part of the Galaxy Circuit too, aren't you?"

Hope nodded. "And you guys?"

"Alternates." Serah shrugged. "While everyone else in my team is racing, I've been trying to think of a way to get us out of here without any planets having to be destroyed."

"That is when our paths crossed, for we seek the same thing." Yeul nodded in Hope's direction. "My name is Yeul, and this is Serah."

"I'm Hope," he said to the two girls. "Have you come up with anything yet?"

"Unfortunately not," replied Yeul. "Of course, neither of us has left this hotel today, so…"

"Why don't you come with me to the third race tonight?" Hope volunteered. "I have to do it. My team doesn't have an alternate, and both of my teammates did the first two races."

"Yeah, sure, we can all catch the train there," replied Serah.

Lightning had won the second race, followed by Polar, then Nina, then Fang. The third and final race was at a place called Tiny Temple. Many of the contestants were confused as to why there was a temple dedicated to Tiny on a planet that he didn't come from (supposedly) but no one decided to ask.

"Wish me luck, Serah," Snow said, adjusting his bandana. When there was no reply, he got a little worried. "Serah? You there?"

"Snow! Yeah, I'm here, and good luck!"

"Okay, thanks." As he got into his car he said softly, to himself, "That was weird."

Snow raced as well as he could, but he couldn't see that well because it was dark and his bandana was tied too closely to his eyes, blocking some of his view. The race ended up going to Tiny (big surprise there) with Noel in second, Oxide in third, and Crunch in fourth. This meant the end of Terra's main circuit.

"Now what happens?" asked Vanille when everyone had convened in the ceremony area.

"Have you seen those portals around?" asked Crunch. "Well, there's one that transports you to this world's champion racer. The points are doubled for that race, you know, but only the top three teams from the initial circuit can compete."

At the end of the third race, Team Cortex was in the lead with 12 points. Team Bandicoot and Team Bodhum had 10 points, so they'd also be in the champion race. Team Oxide had 3 points, Team Trance had 6, Team Palumpolum had 6, Team Oerba had 6, and Team Misc had 1.

As everyone dispersed from the ceremony area, Coco ran around until she found who she was looking for, somewhat. "Elida!" she said. "Where's Hope?"

"I think he went to put his car in the garage," she replied. "Did you need him for something?"

"Yeah. I think I may have found my loophole."

[A/N]: Hey, guys! Guess which story isn't on hiatus anymore!
I'm almost done with my other Final Fantasy story, not to mention my iPod got screwed up so that automatically nixed all my Wattpad stories, so, I'm back to writing this! I need to write something, or else I'll go crazy! Thankfully, I had this lying around.
This chapter was mostly Final Fantasy-centric, so I'll try to make the next one (or maybe the one after that, since the next chapter is only gonna be the boss race) more Crash-centric. It's only fair, right? As an aside, this chapter is also the longest thing I've typed for the Fanfiction website. It takes up 3 ¾ pages in Works Word Processor.
Until I can get back to my stories on the other site (I'm timing the final chapter of the other story to be in about two weeks, and I can't even tell you what's going on with my Eternal Sonata story anymore) I guess I'll be writing this.

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, you know neither of these franchises are mine.