The next morning, the sun rose upon the Hard Rock Hotel, and light glimmered (but did not Starlight) through the curtains of room 103, Sugar Belle slowly stirred, rubbing her eyes. The last day had been extremely taxing on her, and she sat up.
"At least I had a nice ni-" she stopped. Glancing down, she realised why her voice was suddenly so low.
Or rather, his voice was suddenly so low. He had changed back to good old John Rooke overnight, and his clothes had miraculously changed back to how they had been before he had changed. Goodbye to that blouse and skirt (good riddance to those). And, of course, he had something else back too.
He climbed out of bed. "Tom mentioned something about this happening for several nights. Does this mean I'm infected now, like them?" As he glanced over the mirror in which his reflection sat, he ran his hand along his chin. "Hmm, I need to shave," he said, before stepping into the shower room where he had left his razor and razor charger. He would also need a shower later. That was going to be fun. These hotel showers could be very unpredictable, to say the least.
John was used to scoring bargains, and this sometimes meant that the quality of his meals was less than amazing. However, he was thoroughly enjoying breakfast this morning. Although it was self service, the quality was mind blowing, as he usually associated hotel food with tasting like regurgitated crap (I am aware of how disgusting that image is; it accurately reflects what eating at most chain hotels is like).
All around the table, the six friends, all back to normal after yesterday's shenanigans, sat chatting about the upcoming day.
"So, where is anybody going today?" Jimmy asked. "I'll be off to Islands of Adventure again."
"Are you riding Forbidden Journey again?" Tom asked. "By the time we finished yesterday we could recite the attraction script word for word!"
"No, actually," Jimmy smiled. "I'll be riding Flight of the Hippogriff!"
"The one that used to be themed around unicorns?" Steph asked.
"Yes," Jimmy replied.
"Just make sure it doesn't get distracted by stairs," Ink joked. The table promptly started laughing.
"Another round of coffee, anybody?" John asked. "I'll be riding a rollercoaster, amongst other things."
"There are several in the park," Steph noted. "I'll be in the main park, because two guys are on a mission from God!"
"So, you're listening to the Blues Brothers?" Katrina chimed in, silent up until this moment.
"Yes!" Steph answered. "Then doing a ton of other cool stuff."
Ink then spoke up again. "I'll be on the only remaining attraction from opening day. ET Adventure."
"That's a nice one," Tom admitted. "I rode it when I was a lot younger and when Jaws was still around." He suddenly started fuming. "Never got a chance to ride that."
"Anyway," Katrina interjected, putting a hand on Tom's shoulder, "should we try and go in groups? Last time some of us got left behind."
"Good idea," John added. He then looked at his plate and realised how quickly he had demolished his food. "Wow, had no idea I was that hungry."
Just then, a phone went. "Great," Tom sighed. "Way to rain on the parade. Can I go answer that? It's my sister."
"Sure thing," Steph smiled. "We'll wait for you."
"No need, I'll catch you up!" Tom soon vanished into the distance as he headed for the lift.
"Shall we get going then?" John asked, as he stood up and wiped his mouth before burping.
Katrina facepalmed. "Oh not this again," she groaned, remembering Jimmy's less than stellar table manners at Disney.
John and Steph headed off together, as their ultimate destinations were not too far apart from one another and were relatively easy to get to.
"So, what exactly is Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket?" asked Steph, not being too knowledgable on roller coasters.
"Tom tells me it's an X Coaster," John replied. "And that doesn't mean you have to be 18 to ride it. It combines a vertical lift hill with sudden drops and inversions, and it even comes with a synchronised custom soundtrack. You get to select which song you listen to as you ride! Here's hoping it's not all modern crap."
"You're telling me!" Steph snorted, rolling her eyes. "Most days I can't turn on the radio because the music's so bad."
"It's almost as if the music industry has no clue what we want to listen to," John laughed, the sarcasm present in his voice. Moments later, they reached the stage where the Blues Brothers were supposed to be performing, but not yet. John bid Steph goodbye, and then set off on his way. But as he looked back, he spotted something odd. Steph seemed to be wearing a hoodie, which she hadn't before.
He shrugged it off. She probably had it in her bag at some point. As he made his way onwards through the streets, he at last came to it. Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket.
One of the few vertical lift hill rides he had ever been on, as he had ridden on Saw: the Ride at Thorpe Park, the structure towered over the entire area with its plethora of climbs, drops, and near misses. John joined the queue line and prepared for the wait.
"Hey there!" said an oddly young voice. John looked forward and did a double take.
The boy standing before him had sandy yellow skin and green and blue hair, and was currently wearing dark green shorts, a pair of white shoes, and a dark green T shirt. His green eyes seemed to glow in the relative dark.
"Sandbar!?" John exclaimed. "Alright, who were you originally?"
"Eh?" Sandbar replied. "I'm here of my own accord. Seen Ocellus recently?"
"Er, no, I haven't," John replied, before suddenly noticing his voice was off. It was no longer his own. It was the voice of Gallus.
His skin turned a very light blue, followed by his hair turning a darker blue with yellow strands at the front. These strands stood up on their own and seemed to float, countering gravity. His eyes shifted to dark blue, even darker than any blue encountered before, as his height and musclulature seemed to melt away. He was reduced to the height of a boy on the verge of his teenage years, complemented by a voice quite similar to that effect. "Well, this is convenient," he said, the sarcasm in his voice indicating the exact opposite as his clothes were suddenly a bit loose.
Thankfully, that was soon to be fixed. His socks turned white and his shoes turned to trainers with white laces, as well as black and white frames. His shorts turned to black with cream-yellow lines down the sides of the legs, and his shirt was joined by a blue hoodie with the same yellow-cream pattern on the front.
Gallus noted it seemed to be over. "Hey, I'm still a guy!" he said.
"Wanna ride together?" Sandbar offered. "It may take a while to get used to this one."
Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket has a unique loading system. Rather than have the trains stop to allow for loading and unloading, the trains never cease moving and instead the passengers have to get on whilst the train is moving. Sandbar seemed to be used to the setup, and took his seat, but Gallus wobbled over the platform and almost fell into his seat.
"Well, that went smoothly," Gallus sighed, before looking at the touchscreen. "Select song?"
"Yeah, it's pretty cool," Sandbar smiled. "You can create your own soundtrack for the ride. Neat, eh?"
Gallus scrolled through the options, and promptly selected Born to be Wild. The train, after the restraints were checked, began to climb up the first lift hill. "Now is a bad time to admit I'm afraid of enclosed spaces, right?"
"It's not really that enclosed if you think about it. We've got plenty of air and space-"
"I was talking about the restraint, genius." Gallus facepalmed. "It feels like somebody dropped Yona on me."
"You'll be glad for it. Here we go!" Sandbar put his hands in the air as the train roared down the first drop. "WHOOHOO!"
The train roared down a fierce drop, reaching 65 miles an hour. Gallus whooped as the airtime hit him like a ton of bricks. The train flew up into a loop, but the track rolled around to the right at the top, and then again when the train began to descend. The train went into a brake run, flew down another drop and into a banked bend, before jumping up and down repeatedly. After more drops and sudden left and right turns, they were back at the station.
"So, how was that?" Sandbar asked, as the two boys got ice cream.
"That was a lot more fun than I thought it would be," Gallus said. "I bet you Smoulder would have loved that."
"Silverstream would have spent too much time looking at the stairs!" Sandbar laughed.
Suddenly, a girl with orange skin, purple hair, blue eyes, and wearing a yellow shirt, orange hoodie, blue jeans and black and white sneakers ran over to them. "You guys!" she said. "I've got a problem. Tom's not picking up on his phone, and the others haven't seen him either!"
"Who's Tom?" Sandbar asked.
"A friend of mine you haven't met," Gallus replied. "Do you want some help? Cause if you could explain what happened to you, Steph, that'll help us unravel what's going on here."
The girl nodded. "It might be easier to call be Smoulder from now on..."