[angelfire]

"What are you talking about?!" Razor went up to Maria and gave her a hug. "I have never seen someone your age go so fast like that!" Travis walked up and put his arms around them both. "She's right. You did better than most people I've seen." Travis was looking straight at Raor when he said that. "Shut up!" she growled, chucking a rock at him. It hit him in the side of the head. HARD. "Ow!" he wailed, holding his head. "I swear to God, when I get my hands on you-" he lunged at her. But Razor blocked him as best as he could with her arm, then jumped up and took off with him following her. "It was an accident!" she shouted over her shoulder. "Calm down!" she was laughing uncontrolably. Maria, suddenly happy that her friends were always there for her, jumped up and ran after Travis, who had managed to tackle Razor to the ground. "You suck, Travis..." she slurred as she lay in a tight ball on the ground. And to think she might've never have met them....

[KJ]

"Oooh, I suck, huh?" Travis asked sneakily, then started to run off pretty fast, leaving Razor and Maria by theirselves. He came back moments later on his motorcycle, this time wearing his helmet. He put down the visor and cranked the engine. He then started to race towards Razor and Maria. "Try and dodge this one!" Travis screamed in excitement.

[angelfire]

Suddenly scared, Razor grabbed Maria's arm and dragged the little pink hedgehog torwards her and out of Travis's path just as the motorcycle raced by at a high speed. A few yards away, Travis was hopping off the motorcycle and walking torwards them. Razor's heart was beating out of her chest and Maria was crying with fear next to her. Travis walked up to them and outstretched his hand tho them, offering to help them yp. But Razor batted his hand away and stood up in front of him. "Have you gone insane?!" she screamed with rage. "You coulda killed us, you moron!" she forcefully placed her hands on his shoulders and shoved him away. Now it was Travis who was getting mad. "I wasn't trying to hurt you guys!" he insisted angrily. "I'm not stupid! I was gonna stop but then I noticed you guys jumped outta the way, so I didn't have to!" "Heh, yeah, I'm supposed to believe that?!" Razor asked, still mad. "You should, because I'm not lying!" he shouted. Suddenly, Maria stepped in front of them. "Stop it!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. "Look at yourselves! You're best friends and look at how much you guys are fighting!" Razor and Travis looked up at eachother at the same time. "I'm sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have done that." Travis said. "I guess I did get a little over dramatic about. You know what you're doing, anyway." Razor admitted. She walked forward and hugged Travis tightly. "I shoulda believed you." she said. Travis, a little shocked by Razor, hugged back. They both pulled away. "C'mon!" Maria grasped their hands and pulled them torward the stadium where the race was. "We should find out where the next race is at!"

[Cutechaos]

"Lets go go!"Maria said. Someone blocked the exit..."Ms.Maria you have to stay here..." said a doctor. "huh?" Maria was confused. "What don't you remember? You got injured.." stated the docter.

[KJ]

"And... who are you?" Travis asked a little stunned, "I am Dr. Fredrick Kunningstein, I majored in medical physics and-" Travis put his hand towards his face. "Niot here to listen to your life story, man. Now, Maria doesn't seem to have any broken bones or such, so we'll be taking her now." Travis closed his eyes as he picked up Maria and put ehr on his shoulders, and was then heading for the door.

[KJ]

When the racing trio entered the stadium, they saw Eggman standing on a podium, he was about to begin his speech for the next race. "All right, ladies and gentlemen, I have the results for the race." Everyone quieted down, wanting to hear the name of Team Future City be called. "It seems we have a tie between Team Future City and Xuliang the Hedgebat's team." Everyone gasped. "Yes... yes, sorry to disappoint you Future City fans, but here's a video clip to prove it." He grabbed a remote and clicked it once to play an instant replay of the finishing of the race. There was Annie shredding on the board, and Xulian g was hot on it's tail. She made a boost, and made a tie by reaching out with her head some. Everyone nodded in understanding, but still shocked. "The tiebreaker race will begin tomorrow evening. That is all." Eggman finished his speech as he left the podium.

"Heh, awesome!" Travis shouted, "Another chance to show our skills!" "Yeah, but we still didn't win it, we still have to race Xuliang." Razor pointed out, brushing her hands through her fur. Maria whined a little, "Aww, Annie didn't win..." Travis's expression lghtened up. "Hey, I heard a new restaurant opened down the street, how about we celebrate there?" "Yeah, great idea!" Razor nodded in agreement. At early evening, dressed in their best formal outfits, the trio walked into the new fancy restaurant. Pure white drapes were placed on every window, and the tables and chairs carved from bright mahogany, and covered with silken cloth for comfort. There were wonderful smelling candle sets on each table, giving the whole restaurant the fresh scent of vanilla and cinnamon. After being placed to their table, Travis started to order. After the Razor and Maria were done ordering, they went to the restrooms. Travis called the waiter and whispered, "Hey, do you sell any alcoholic beverages here?" "Yes we do sir." "Great, great, I think I'll just have a shot of tequila." "Right away, sir."

When the girls came back, the waiter came back with Travis's drink. Razor spotted this and had a strange look on her face. She didn't want Maria hearing what she was going to say, so she directed her to an artist to paint a picture of herself. When Maria was gone, Razor went really serious on Travis. "What do you think you're doing!?" Razor hissed, "We brought Maria here! And you're oing to start drinking!" Travis felt a little pissed, so he replied angrily, "Hey, I'm an adult, I can do what I feel like. And besides, I'm only going to have one drink. Maybe two, two tops." Razor sighed and gave up on the conversation. After about hald an hour, halfway done eating dinner, Maria noticed that Travis was acting funny, but Razor realized he was getting drunk. Travis had a drunken smile on his face, and started talking in a weird way. "I'm sorry, but that freakin' balloon guy is just freakin' me out right now, I mean, he's just bending those damn balloons in different shapes, why can't he just be normal, like that stupid son of a bitch artist there???"

[angelfire]

"Oh, God." Razor muttered to herself, extremely pissed off. "Maria, we'll be right back." Razor got up and seized Travis by the arm, literally dragging him into the parking lot. Once they were outside, Razor got down to buissiness. "Are you nuts?!" she yelled enraged. "Maria is friggin' eight years old! You're like an older brother to her! And you're defineley not setting a good example for her right now!" But Travis only staggered around a little and giggled drunkenly. "Heh, you need to mellow out, sweetie." he lowered himself onto the sidewalk and layed down. "God, is it, like, one hundred and fifty degrees out here or somethin'?" Razor was infuriated. "You're drunk!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, not even giving a shit who could hear her. "Mellow out. Maybe you should drink a little something..." he slurred, then broke into a fit of giggles. "I'm 13, I can't drink!" Razor shouted. "You know what? I'm so pissed off at you, I can't even see straight. I going to get Maria and we're outta here!" Razor stopped back inside, leaving Travis by himself on the sidewalk. She came back a few minutes later, leading Mari by her arm torwards Travis's motorcycle. "Razor, what's wrong with him?" Maria whimpered, staring at Travis who was trying to stand up but fell down with evey attempt. "He's being a dumbass, that's what!" Razor was so mad, she didn't care if Maria could hear her say that or not. Razor climbed on the motorcycle while Maria got on behind her, strapping on a helmet. "Hey!" Travis yelled drunkenly at them. "You can't drive that!" he tried to run after his motorcycle. "Oh yeah? Watch me!" Razor growled. The engine came to life and the motorcycle took off down the street. Travis was still running arounfd the parking lot. "Hey! Come back here, you little bitch!" And with that, he passed out on the cold asphalt.

[KJ]

(Lol, ouch, she burned Travis badly hehehe...)
********************************************************************

It was about 9:30 in the evening when Razor took off with Maria, Travis couldn't really see where Razor was, but he ran around in slow drunked circles trying to chase Razor. "Hey, come back here you little bitch!" He yelled drunkenly. She was too far away, Travis slowed down some, his head pulsing madly. He sat down on the curb, still in a giggle-fit, and laid down. "He-he-he, wow, I feel fuuuuuunnnyyyyy....." His voice trailed off and he went into a drunken sleep.

When Razor parked Travis's bike in front of Maria's home, she slammed the door open with Maria running closely behind her. Maria started to cry a little, Razor was acting very strange, she was just so mad. "Razor, why did you leave Travis like that?" Razor softened up, then knelt down to Maria, and started to cry a little. "I'm sorry if I scared you, or if Travis did, but Travis has been doing something he shouldn't have." Maria cocked her head a little. "What'd he do?" Razor laughed a little, then answered her. "Well, there's a thing adults drink, called alcohol. It does very bad things to you if you have too much. That's all you need to know for now. Now let's go to sleep." Maria went upstairs to her room, Razor sat down on the couch, watching the late evening news. She felt a little bad leaving Travis back there like that, but he deserved it, he got drunk in front of her, but worst of all, in front of Maria.

Travis woke up really early in the morning, his head hurting like mad. He started to shake his head, but it hurt him too much. He couldn't remember much of last night, most of it was a blur, but he could remember Razor taking off on his motorcycle with Maria. He felt really guilty about this. 'I shouldn't have drank, I shouldn't have. I wasn't thinking, I've done a really bad thing.' Travis got really angry. "SON OF A BITCH!!!" he yelled as he charged at an abandoned 18-wheeler and started punching it. After a few minutes of rage-driven barrages, he stopped and got sad again. He decided to apologize to Razor and Maria, and walked slowly towards Maria's home.

[angelfire]

It was extremely early when Razor woke up to the sound of someone banging on the front door. She groaned and rolled out of bed and trudged to the front door. She pulled it open to see Travis standing in the doorway, looking sadder than she had ever seen him before. She was getting ready to let him inside and then she remembered what he did to her and Maria last night. "Yes?" she asked him. She used the same tone she would use if she were talking to a random sales person. Travis exhaled slowly before he started to talk. "Look, I'm so stupid for doing what I did last night. Maria was there and she's so little, and you're still pretty young yourself, and I shouldn't have done that and I'm so sorry for what I did and I won't-" he knew he was rambling, but he thought he might as well get it all out now while Rzor was still listening to him. But she laughed softly and said, "Look. I forgive you. Just never do it around us ever again, or that precious motorcycle of your is history. Oh, and I'm sorry for taking that!" They both laughed. "Hey, what's goin' on?" They both turned to see Maria wander into the room with Annie trailing behind her, rubbing her eyes. She blinked twice slowly and then she saw Travis in the ahllway. "Travis!" she squeeled She ran up and hugged him tightly. "I'm happy to see you!" Suddenly, her face turned serious. "You're not acting all funny like Razor said you were yesterday, are you?" Razor and Travis laughed. "No. I'm normal again." He said. "Hey, we have that re-match today, son't we?" Razor asked. "Oh, yeah!" Travis said. "Yay! I can't wait!" Maria smiled, then she took off upstaris. Once they were alone, Travis asked, "Alright, what did you tell her?" Razor only shook her head innocently. "I only told her what she needed to know." Sge walked off to get something to drink, leaving Travis in the hallway. He decided to leave the conversation at that.

Later that evening, the three of them arrived at the stadium for the rematch. They were up at the front registering. The man checking the racer's profiles and forms looked at Razor, Travis, and Maria's profiles. "Hmmmmm." he said, then looked up and examined Travis and Razor. "Isn't there a bit of an age difference between 22 and 13 to be having a kid?" he nodded down at Maria. Razor's eyes widened and her mouth dropped. She was about to tell the man to screw off when Travis took his gun arm and whacked the man across the face. "C'mon. Let's go!" he said quickly and took off for the stadium entrance. Razor and Maria followed.

(Heh, sorry, but I could not resist that oppurtunity to pull a funny! Hehehehehehehe!)

[KJ]

(ROFLMFAO!!!!!! Now that was funny!)

When they entered the stadium, they saw Xuliang standing at the racing line, ready to go. "I think I'll race." Travis said immediately as he set off for the starting line, but was stopped by Razor's hand again. He stopped her short from talking and said slowly. "I'm doing it as an apology, and I'll make sure we win." He made a smile and set off for the starting line.

[angelfire]

(I know. I'm so funny! lol.)

Razor sighed and smiled. "Go beat 'em!" she said, and he took off for that starting line.

Travis stepped onto his board, ready for the race to begin. He quickly glanced over at Xulaing, who was already in position, ready to go. She noticed him staring and he looked away as fast as he could. Suddenly, Eggman's voice sounded over the speakers. "It's Team Future City up against Xuliang the Hedgebat's team! Time to find out who wins!" he boomed. Travis looked around and saw Razor and Maria in the stands cheering for him already. "I gotta win this!" he said quietly. "After what I did to them, I can't let them down!" He looked straight ahead, more determined than ever! "Racers on your mark!" Eggman said. "Get set... GO!" And Xulaing and Travis sped off down the track.

(Sorry, I'm not gonna write about the race cause I don't know alot about the Extreme Gear and stuff. But I'm gonna look into that and then I'll be able to understand it all better!)

[KJ]

(All right, then I'll do it for ya.)

Eggman shot another flare from his flare gun and Travis and Xuliang shot off. Xuliang got a head start and leaped from a ramp and performed a 360 degree spin and an indy, Travis was slowly gaining speed due to his arm, but boosted to give himself enough air to perform a corkscrew-like backflip. Eggman was commentary again and exclaimed, "WOW! Look at those racers go! Xuliang ahs a head start, and Travis is showing his stuff with amazing tricks!" Razor and Maria were still cheering Travis on, knowing he would pull through. Xuliang smirked and boosted once more and leaped from another ramp, leaving a large trail of turbulance behind her (Turbulance is like a really big air trail). Travis sped up some and latched onto the turbulance, then the weight of his arm pulled him to the right, making him land on a grinding rail. Eggman exclaimed once more, "Look at the sparks fly! Travis is doing excellent, but Xuliang still has her lead." Future City fans were staying quiet, waiting for him to get in first.

Travis leapt off of the rail and was right behind Xuliang, who wasn't too happy to see him. Future City fans' cheers were ringing in his ears, and he boosted to be right beside Xuliang. They were coming up to the ramp leading to the finish line, and they both boosted and performed amazing tricks. Xuliang leapt from the edge, gripped her board with one hand and spun clockwise, then flipped forward twice and landed with ease. Travis pulled off an indy and a stale japan, then spinning in a 720 degree spin, but his board hit the edge the wrong way, and snapped. Travis shouted in shock, "Oh, shiiiiiiit!!!!!" Travis fell off of his board, skidding on the hard asphalt, leaving a small trail of blood. Future City fans gasped and their eyes widened, especially Razor and Maria, who were screaming at him. Xuliang won the race.

[angelfire]

(Thanks for doing that!)
"Damn it!" Razor said throught her teeth. She jumped down from the stands and to the finish line as fast as her feet would take her. Travis was standing alone, throwing his board onto the asphalt and stomping on it in rage. "God! I screwed up so bad!" he shouted, throwing the board over his back. Razor raced up and caught it, then slowly walked over to him. Maria was behind her all the way. Razor gently touched his shoulder and he turned around slowly, a sad look on his face. "God, I'm so sorry. I can't belive I could let you down like this!" Travis sat down on the ground, holding his head in his hands. Razor sat down next to him. "You didn't let us down. You were doing so good until you fell...." she said. "Yeah, I was doing so good before that. It always seems like I;m doing so great in life until something happnes and I fall. Then I have to pick myself up and start again!" he kept his head down, refusing to look up. Razor looked behind them to see Xulaing celebrating with her teamamtes. And to think that could be them. She looked past them to watch a clip of Travis's fall. They played it once, then played it again. That's when Razor noticed something. When they played the clip a third time, she saw that Travis's board had a weird crack on the bottom that was deep and long and ran vertically down the entire board! That's why it had snapped! But the line looked too precise to be just split by grinding or something. It looked like the work of a machine. But who had done it?

[Cutechaos]

"Travis...?" Maria asked quietly.. "Yeah?" Travis responded. "Do you remember what you did yesterday?" Maria asked him with pleading saphire eyes staring at him waiting for him to respond...

[KJ]

Travis stared at Maria with his bright golden eyes, then closed them and responded. "No, I really don't Maria, all I knew was that I've done something very bad, and I came back to apologize for it." Maria smiled and hugged Travis tightly. Travis smiled too and hugged her back, no one could see it, but a tear went down his cheek, then landing on the ground. Razor interrupted the little reunion saying, "Hey Travis, I know how you lost." Travis had a look of concern on his face. "How?" "Did anything happen when you were still drunk?" Travis put his hand on his chin, scratched it a little, then shook his head. "Nope, all I remember was you taking off with my bike, and then I blacked out." "Where was your board at the time?" He laughed a little and replied, "On my back, as always." Razor shook her head, then said. "Well, you lost the race because your board was sabotaged." Travis got mad at this comment, "What!? Who?" "A robot probably, Eggman must've wanted to prevent you from winning, but you made it easy for him getting drunk." Travis stomped on the ground in anger. "Aw, damn it!" Their conversation ended when they heard Eggman speaking through the microphone on his podium. "Hello again, everyone. I would like to give out the results. Xuliang's team wins." There were three faint cheers from the team. "Our next race will be hosted once again tomorrow evening. This time this race will have two team members competing against the other teams." Maria cheered quietly, "Cool! Two of us get to race!"

[angelfire]

Maria was ecstatic about the news of the race, but Travis and Razor were still thinking. "Well, it looks like we're gonna have to work twice as hard to redeem ourselves." Travis said. "No." Razor replied. "You are gonna have to work twice as hard to redem yourself. You got drunk and became an easy target for Eggman's robots so they could sabotage your board. And you lost, but I don't care about that as long as we win the next one." Travis sighed and looked down. "Yeah, but now I'm gonna have to get a new board for the next few races." Maria ran back over to them. "So who's gonna race tommorow?" she asked, praying that one of the two would be her. "I haven't raced yet, so obviously, I'm gonna race. But who's gonna race with me?" Razor questioned. "I dunno, but we'll talk about that later. Maybe you two should head back to Future City. I gotta find a shop around here and get myself a board." Travis said. "We can't go back until we find out who messed with your first board!" Maria said. "She's right. You go. We're gonna go have a chat with Eggman and tell him about what happned. If he'll listen to us, I don't know. Guess we'll just have to give him a piece of our minds!" Razor smiled. "Alright. Good luck, guys!" Travis said, then ran out of the stadium and into the parking lot.

[KJ]

As Travis ran out to the parking lot, he got ambushed by a bunch of Eggman's robots. "Huh, what-" He was stopped short by getting hit in the back of the neck, knocked unconcious.

[angelfire]

Back in the stadium, Razor and Maria were outside the broadcast room, practically knocking down the door just to get to Eggman. "C'mon, dude!" Razor shouted through the heavy, thick door. "Yeah, we have some important news for you!" Maria whined. "What part of 'Leave me alone' aren't you getting!?" Eggman shouted back. "Now get outta here before I disqualify your team!" Feeling extremely defeated, Razor and Maria trudged out the exit and wandered into the parking lot. "I can't believe that jerk wouldn't let us talk to him about Travis!" Maria said angrily. "Then he's probably the one who did it." Razor sighed. She looked around quickly and noticed something being dragged out of the parking lot by a horde of Eggman's robots. Without thinking, Maria ran over to the gang of robots. Razor chased after her frantcally, trying to stop her without the 'bots hearing them. But it was too late. The robots parted to reveal the largest one dragging an unconciouness Travis out of the parking lot and into a dark van. "Enemies approaching!" a robot said mechanically. "I'll show you enemy, all right!" Razor said, then jumped up and kicked the robot out of the way. Maria was behind her all the way, doing various Homing Attacks. But they were too busy with that to notice Travis was in the van and being taken away. "Oh my God!" Razor shouted, then ran after the van. She reached out her arm and latched onto the back, being dragged on the ground. Maria latched on beside her while they both tried to stop the car. "Maria, get your board out!" Razor suggested. The she pulled her blue and orange board off her back and slid it underneath her, so she was gliding on the ground, being dragged by the car. Maria followed on her pink and white board. The car was headed down a mysterious, dark road, but the two girls weren't gonna let go.

[KJ]

Maria latched onto Razor as she hung on to the big black van which held Travis inside. There was a dim light inside, and Travis's eyes were being shot at by the bright light, holding his hand up to it so he could see. There were two robots with sharp metal tools in their hands. One of them shot a laser from one of the tools and surged through the metallic arm of Travis's. Travis just stared at it, eyes widening at what was happening. They were de-arming him. Travis yelped in shock. "HELP!!!!!"

[angelfire]

As Travis looked around frantically for help, he noticed Maria knocking her fist against the tinted car window, trying to create a distraction. The robot who was lasering through his arm looked up and saw Maria's face pressed up aginst the window. The robot threw down his tool and marched over to the window. The other one followed him. Travis was relieved. Now he could think of a plan to get outta here. Suddenly, the back window swung open and Travis tilted his head all the way back to see who it was. Razor jumped through the window quietly while the robots attempted to get Maria away from the van. "Thank God you're here!" Travis whispered. "Please help me!" "Hold on, we're here to save ya!" Razor said, then snatched a key off the floor next to her and quickly undid the locks that held Travis down to the floor. Razor hleped him up and saw his arm, which was half way cut through. "What happened!?" she asked, wide eyed. "I'll tell you later. Let's just get outta here!" Travis said, then jumped through the back window, forgetting the car was moving. Razor follwed him. They both landed in the middle of the street, bruised and cut up. Maria saw that they escaped and let go of the van. She rode her board over to them. "Travis, are you okay!?" she cried, sitting down next to him on the road. "I dunno." he said, examining his arm. "C'mon!" Razor said, jumping on her board. "We have to get that arm of yours checked out!" Travis got up and mangaed to fit on the back of Razor's board while Maria rode her own. And off they went back down the street.