All Stars! 🌟 Start Your Engines!

Chapter 6 - Into The Night

"Reala!" NiGHTS shouted to his rival Nightmaren.

The called upon nightmare looked toward the purple Nightmaren. "NiGHTS. Come to give yourself up to Wizeman?" Reala asked.

NiGHTS shook his head. "Actually, I wanted to present a deal." He motioned to the seven of us standing behind him.

"And why should I listen to your little 'deal'?" Reala crossed his arms and turned away from NiGHTS. Well, what did I expect? Oh, right, I was actually one of the ones who thought this was a bad idea.

"Because, if you win, I will surrender myself to Wizeman." NiGHTS revealed. At that, Reala seemed to grin. It was a nasty grin. He had big pointy teeth and it looked more like a smirk if you ask me.

"How intriguing." Was all Reala said.

"But if we win," NiGHTS motioned to us, "you and the rest of your army have to leave the waking world." Reala's grin went away. "So? Do we have a deal or are you too chicken to face me?" NiGHTS held out his hand, asking if Reala would take it. That seemed to strike a nerve, if Nightmarens had those.

"It's a deal." Reala shook NiGHTS' hand. "But, we play on my terms." He snapped his fingers. Each of our vehicles materialized on the track. "I've also taken the liberty of dealing with that Dr. Eggman. It was so nice of him to lend me his remote and little stone after helping send us here." He held up a small remote with a little red button and a blue, rectangular gemstone. I figured he was talking about the teleporter he and the rest of the Nightmarens came through. The teleporter seemed to have a strange green glow coming from it too.

"I wonder what this does?" He pushed the red button. I gasped. My car exploded. All those explosives in there. Wonder if Eggman would have tried to do that with me? "Oops, hope you don't need that." He threw the remote over his shoulder. The device hit the ground and shattered. "Shall we get started?"

Everyone hoped into a vehicle. I was practically kicked out of the race. There was no way I could just run to the finish line. Reala would just call us all out right then and there. I had no choice but to forfeit. "I-"

"Hold in a second, Sonic." NiGHTS placed a hand on my shoulder. "There May a few questioning things that have happened during the race, but one thing I know is that you never give up. Why start now?" He stepped on the track. Right before my eyes, he transfigured into a car. Even Reala, who was driving his own vehicle, seemed shocked.

"What I mean to say is, I'm ready!" I exclaimed as I jumped into the NiGHTS car. The car had the same features as any car would; gas pedal, break, the middle console. You get the picture.

"Well then. Go!" Reala took off with speed that even seemed to rival my own. The rest of us were coughing at the amount of dust he kicked up.

"Alright everyone! Let's go!" I shouted as I slammed the gas pedal. The seven of us took off.

Reala was up ahead, slowly creeping further apart. Amigo came up right next to him. He shook his maracas. Reala hit into him, causing the monkey to swerve into one of the neon saws in the Rocky-Coaster mansion. I saw him jump out of his vehicle as it became flames. "You touched the track! You're out!" Reala shouted. Technically that was a rule before when on the track but anyways.

There were still items on the sides of the track. Ulala grabbed one. Reala looked back. "Nuh uh uh. No items. You're out."

"You never said that!" Ulala threw the item out of her hovercraft. Tails and I swerved to avoid a direct hit to the face.

"Too bad, so sad." Reala replied. "Out!"

Ulala was forced to head off the track. Harsh. Seemed like Reala was just making up rules as he went. No items meant that we couldn't attack him from behind. That would also assure that none of us would boost in front of him. He was trying to take any advantage we had out of the race. This meant that he had the advantage to mess us up.

"Let's try a change in scenery, shall we?" Reala held up that blue gemstone. It was like we went in reverse.

Snow hit my face as the happy Carnival Town was replaced by the chilly Icicle Village. I swerved out of the way of eggs but Shadow wasn't so lucky. He had a certain look on his face as his vehicle made a collision course. In a flash of red, he disappeared only to reappear on the sidelines. He was right next to Billy Hatcher who seemed to have wanted to watch. I could imagine that Shadow was explaining the situation to him. That was three of us down. Whatever Reala's game plan is, I'm not looking forward to finding out.

Next world was Monkey Target. This time AiAi wasn't squealing in excitement. We landed on the ramp. I nearly panicked when I saw where we were but the most surprising thing was the fact that there was no hole. The track seemed completely intact. Didn't look like it was recently hit by a cannonball.

We continued on this track until the hairpin turns. Reala must have smiled at this. There were now rolling balls going up the stairs. AiAi spun out. The end of Tails' Tornado Racer skimmed the side of the ball. I was nearly run into the wall by one. Alex Kidd was ahead of us. He was close behind Reala and had missed the rolling balls. Good for him.

"Hm...still some of you left?" Reala cackled as we nearly made it to the finish line on this track. "Let's try one more." The blue gem glowed and we traveled all the way back to Seaside Hill.

There were still loads of badniks littering the track. Well, at least we can ram into them...or so I had hoped. The badniks grew bigger, very nearly blocking the path. Tails pushed a button on his plane. I stared at the narrow path the badniks made. Turning the wheel and slamming my wheels continuously on the brake and gas, I caused NiGHTS to drive through the path vertically.

Tails came out on the other side and flew next to me. Reala seemed to motion toward the sidelines. "Looks like I'm out." Tails stated. "Sonic, remember, sometimes it's better to make up before things get worse." With those last words, Tails flew off toward where Shadow and Ulala were at. It was just me and Alex against Reala.

The badniks went small. I pushed down on the accelerator and tried to catch up to Alex. Reala was trying to run him off the track. The red Nightmaren hit into Alex's motorcycle. He was forced to slow his two-wheeler down. He groaned in frustration. It just seemed to get worse as Reala cackled.

"Maybe you should talk to him?" NiGHTS suggested. I sighed as I came up next to Alex's motorcycle.

"What do you want?" Alex asked. "Isn't this the wrong time to say something about me being too slow?"

"This may be an even worse time for what I have to say. Look Alex, I know we got off on the wrong foot but this isn't the time to get angry. Our friends and fellow racers are at steak here." I explained as I swerved around the badniks. Who knew if drifting was against some sort of crazy rule? I continued. "I never knew I was replacing you as SEGA's mascot. All I knew was that it was a job. I didn't mean to kick you down the ladder. I'm sorry if I hurt you back then Alex." We drove in silence. Alex finally spoke.

"It means a lot to hear you say that, but you're not the only one at fault. I'm sorry too. I was so driven by anger that I blamed it all on you when it was really me." Alex stated. He took a sharp turn. "What do you say we put all of this behind us and win this race?"

I grinned. "Now you're talking! So, how should we take on Reala?"

Alex thought a bit. "I think I might have a plan."