The Power of Dreams

Chapter 8

The next morning had arrived. Sonic and Knuckles were the first to get up and get ready for the day, for they had the Extreme Gear race against Jet and Storm at noon. They had breakfast separate from the others, and went out to test out their Extreme Gear to make sure if they needed any last minute modifications done.

While the two were practicing, Kate, Amy, Luigi, and Tails watched from afar. They had brought their breakfast out to the garden and were sitting at the garden table on the porch. As far as they knew, no one else was probably going to come to watch the race. Sonic's siblings, Silver, and Princess Daisy all had some errands to run, while Vanilla was staying at the villa to watch over the younger ones.

Mario was among one of the last to wake up. When he woke up, he was surprised to find that everyone else was either gone or focused on their own things to do. Vanilla told him that his brother was in the garden with a few others, which led the plumber to go outside. And when he stepped out, he saw Sonic and Knuckles practicing the gear.

"Hey, whats'a going on?" he asked his brother.

"Oh. Sonic and Knuckles are going in an Extreme Gear race at the city today," said Luigi.

"Extreme Gear? You mean, on those hover boards?" asked Mario.

"Yeah. They're going against the Babylon Rogues," said Amy.

"Old rivals of ours..." muttered Tails.

"A race against them? What time?" asked Mario.

"Noon. We're going to go and watch the race," said Kate.

"All of you?" asked Mario.

"Yeah. The Rogues said they wanted us to watch, especially me. I wanna go for sure, both to watch the race and see what it's like on Extreme Gear for myself, and because I want to see if I can become friends with the Rogues," said Kate.

"I don't know if you can, Kate. We uh... have a rather rocky history with them," said Tails.

"Well, I won't know until I try, right?" said Kate, smiling at her friends.

"Yeah... right..." said Mario, trying not to frown.

He turned his attention to watch Sonic and Knuckles prepare for the race. The plumber fell silent as the others watched along with him.

'I knew letting her go to the city was a bad idea. What if these Babylon Rogues know about Kate's "posters"? I better talk to Sonic about this later. But until then, I'm going, to make sure Kate is safe. Something's up with how these guys want to see Kate rather than have a race with Sonic...' thought Mario.

Just a little bit later, everyone headed out and to Westopolis, ready for the race. When they made it to the racing spot, they saw that the Rogues were already there, and they were with another Mobian. The Mobian was wearing a referee shirt, which meant that the Rogues invited him over to monitor the race.

Sonic and Knuckles left the group, heading to the starting point for the race. The rest of the group went over to a spot where some chairs were set up, where they could watch the race begin and finish.

As the group waited for the race to start, Kate noticed that Wave was sitting nearby. She was greeting some fans of hers, but none of them really sat down with her.

"Hey Kate," she heard someone call to her.

Kate turned back around, seeing that it was Amy who called out to her. The pink hedgehog was sitting in between Luigi and Tails.

"Wanna sit next to us?" asked Amy.

"Thanks Amy. But... I think I'll sit with someone else," said Kate.