A/N: Yay! I'm really cooking on this again. It's been (sadly) my new year's resolution the past few years to finish this. I think I will! )
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CHAPTER 10: "That duo of Dug-Out Dunces? Never"
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This inning Sonic and Tails were ready for any Androids antics. They had only begun to pitch!
And unfortunately for Buttnik, the outfielders were ready too. Griz, Mike and Hodge Podge fielded balls faster and got them infield quicker than Buttnik's bots could make it to the bases.
Part of this was because they were being way too reckless. Robotnik was obviously getting desperate because every other runner on base kept trying to steal another base. One particular incident included an unlucky bot who decided to slide into second. Tails's throw dented its head so bad that it deactivated and had to be taken out of the game.
"Oops?" Tails smiled sheepishly and Sonic cracked up.
Not for long though.
"Penalty for the Cyclones!"
According to Mobius Baseball League rules (which the Sergeant had practically memorized), Tails had to sit out for the remainder of the inning in a special caged bench beside the dugout. Tails tried not to yell at Sergeant Doberman, remembering Sonic's words, but it was obvious that he was frustrated. He huffed and plopped on the bench, tossing his hat down in the dirt. Sonic was miffed, but he didn't complain audibly. It's not like Tails was trying "purposefully" to hurt the robot. It was just ticking them off that they were constantly trying to steal the bases. With a sigh he had MacHopper come back to catch and let Weasly come on and play Short Stop.
The second accident wasn't entirely their fault, however, though they did help it along a little.
Okay, well Sonic caused it, but the Android started it!
Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic spotted one of the bots trying to steal second for the 42nd time that inning. He bent over and the crowds shouted at him to look at the player. Sonic quickly threw to Junior at second base, who caught it and leaned toward the runner. That's when the runner decided to play a little dirty. He leapt into the air and soared over Junior's head. One extended robotic hand slapped the base and retracted as Junior turned and tried to tag it. The bot hit his booster rockets and continued on.
The crowd booed and hissed, throwing food and drink items at the Android's dugout.
"HEY!" Junior ran under him and reached up the ball towards its chest, extending his legs to propell him taller.
Sonic ran towards him and took the ball from Junior. Sonic didn't bother looking towards the Sergeant, who couldn't seem to determine whether or not this was cheating. Ha.
Sonic leapt in the air to tag the bot but the bot blasted him back with a blast of steam from its wrist. Sonic nearly ran into Junior who was stumbling from having to extend so quickly.
The stadium vibrated with the low growlings of the crowd and some choice insults from the stands.
With a literal hand from Junior Sonic managed to zipped next to the base as the bot landed and tripped it, making it take a nosedive onto the grass. Its neck squished as the head rammed into the torso, shorting out the robot. Sonic smashed the ball onto it's back, making a nice meteoric dent. "Tag. You're out, cheater."
The previous booing was suddenly overshadowing by more erupting cheers, everyone stomping their feet and chanting the ever-popular, "SONIC BOOM! SONIC BOOM!"
Sergeant Doberman blew his whistle and signaled that it was an out, but also blew his whistle on Sonic.
Bobby immediately volunteered to come back on the field, but Sonic wouldn't let him pitch. He told Bobby to take Weasley's spot and Weasley would pitch. They agreed as Sergeant Doberman led Sonic to the Penalty Cage, much to the dismay of the rambuncious crowd.
Now there were two heroes sitting in a cage beside the dugout. Tails greeted Sonic with a high five and a hug. Sonic quietly made a couple snide remarks about the bots that made Tails giggle. They wouldn't be there for too much longer and as always, it was nice to have the other close by for company.
Robotnik meanwhile, stomped back and forth across his dugout. He was now two players short. And he was too far from his crashed blimp to create more players - not that he had the resources anyway. Eleven had been strain enough on the machine.
"Sir, we need two more players."
Robotnik turned and looked up at the giant Robot number 9. "What's it to you, Nine?"
"If we do not have nine, we forfeit."
"I KNOW THAT, YOU INJUDICIOUS JOCK! BUT THERE AREN'T ANY MORE OF YOU, YOU STUPID SPORTSFREAK!"
"But you have two other robots, sir. They should play."
Robotnik tilted his head, "You mean Scratch and Grounder? Them?" He pointed to them. "Play?"
The bot nodded.
"That duo of Dug-Out Dunces? NEVER!" Robotnik felt like pulling the bot's brain out and bashing him on the head with it. Lucky for the bot, Robotnik still needed him, otherwise he might have. "You Minor League Moron! I'm trying to WIN this game, not LOSE IT!"
"Did you call our names, sir?" Scratch asked.
Robotnik turned to find his two S.S.S.S.S. Squad members wearing... cheerleading outfits? Yes, cheerleading outfits in the same red and black as their former uniforms only now with skirts and pom-poms.
"Want to hear our new cheer?" Grounder asked. "C'mon Scratch! Let's do it for him!"
Robotnik was beyond stunned.
Honestly now folks, what did he do to deserve this?
"Yeah, the crowd's gonna love this!" Scratch helped Grounder on top of the dugout and pulled himself up as well. "We'll have them cheering for US for a change!"
Robotnik slapped his forehead and hid in the dugout. Maybe if he was lucky they would be struck by some freak lightning bolt.
They scrambled up and arranged themselves. The crowd fell silent. What the heck was this? The two bots raised up their pom-poms and began their cheer:
ANDROIDS ARE THE BEST!
ANDROIDS ARE THE BEST!
BWAH HA-HA-HA-HA!
ANDROIDS ARE THE BEST!
They pointed down towards the bots who popped up with letters as Grounder wiggled his poms and chanted "O-G-S-T-E-L! OGSTEL! OGSTEL!" The "O" card had a cute yellow smiley face printed on it.
Scratch bopped him on the head with his pom-pom. "YOU IDIOT! YOU MIXED UP THE CARDS!"
Grounder turned at looked at the bots. "Huh?"
"It's LETS GO! Not OGSTEL!"
"Ha! I got it backwards!"
"DOH! Your brain is backwards."
Thus disenchanted, the crowd began to rile back up again and threw more things at the cheerleaders. They ducked.
"GET BACK IN HERE YOU BIONIC BIMBOS!" Robotnik's roar shook the dugout roof and they stumbled down onto the field, knocking over the bots still holding up the letters, leaving one standing with the "O".
A gruff look from Sergeant Doberman caused Robotnik to suddenly pipe down and sweat profusely.
"Well Tubby, you got any more players?"
"Me? Players? Why of course I do!"
"You got five minutes or your team forfeits..."
Robotnik's eyes widened. Of all the ... As much as he wanted to slug the ref and escape with the players, he knew that his blimp would require serious repair and he had not the time to do it, especially if the police were to arrive. That would certainly spell doom for him. And like he would allow those three incompetent robots to handle such a job. Such as it was, he would have to put Scratch and Grounder in the game. He could think of a few positions where they wouldn't cause so much trouble.
What was he thinking?
"SCRATCH! GROUNDER! GET OVER HERE AND PUT ON SOME REAL UNIFORMS!"
Needless to say, Scratch and Grounder have always been big fans of most televised sports and to tell them that they were going to play in a world series against the stupid hedgehog, well, let's just say their boisterous cheering and hugging should say it better than I can.
"WE'RE GONNA PLA-AY! WE'RE GONNA PLA-AY!" They linked arms and frolicked about the Android dugout.
It was then that Robotnik first felt a twinge of regret. Being a surpreme genius he wrote it off as those egg burritos he hungrily gulped down in the 3rd inning.
Robotnik let out a rather vulgar cheer though when Grounder managed to bunt a ball from MacHopper and roll into 1st base a second before he was tagged with the ball. If they could get him home it would be a tie game and he'd be one step closer to a humiliating defeat for the hedgehog.
What a brilliant idea it was to let Scratch and Grounder play!
Grounder cheered happily for Scratch as he stepped up to the plate. Scratch flashed at cheesy smile at his little brother and suddenly glared forward at Wes Weasley.
Weasley smirked and began his sales pitch, "You know Ratchet, is it?"
"SCRATCH!"
"Whatever, I could sell you some good parts real cheap, only resused once by the--"
"WEASLEY!" Both Robotnik and the Cyclones yelled.
"Hmm.. do they come with a warranty?" Scratch asked cautiously.
"WHY DON'T YOU STOP PITCHING SALES AND PITCH A BALL YOU OVERPRICED ODDBALL!"
"Yeesh, everyone's a critic. See me after the game, alright?" He left the negotiation at that and wound up and threw the ball.
Unfortunately Scratch was imagining himself with all those "new" parts and thinking of how strong and powerful he could be and how he would simply flick Sonic away, giving him the confidence to knock the ball far back into the stadium.
Robotnik tumbled out of the dugout and squeezed himself through the rails, gawking at the ball as it soared toward the corner of right field.
Coconuts was up on his feet immediately for the play by play, "WOWIE-ZOWIE would you look at that pop fly! It's heading toward the foul post! The outfielders are closing in! It's going going, GONE!" The ball clanged into the pole and dropped towards the ground, Griz and Mike scrambling for it as it bumped the pole a few more times on it's way down.
"THE WRONG WAY!" Coconuts sank a little but then stood up, "Wait a minute! Grounder's goin for a steal! There he goes down the baseline! He's just hit second!"
Sonic gripped the cage and shook it, screaming, "MIKE! GRIZ!"
They looked back and unfortunately the ball bopped one in the head and then the other, knocking them over. Sonic slapped his forehead as HodgePodge zoomed to the rescue, chasing the ball as it rolled.
Scratch was too busy cheering for Grounder to run and forgot that he should to, somewhat freaked out that he actually made it out there and that the Cyclones finally slipped up for once. Robotnik hobbled out and smashed a folding chair over his head and ordered him to start running as well. Scratch wanted to retort, but one look from Robotnik's face told him that might mean more than a chair to the head. Needless to say he took off for first.
HodgePodge fumbled the ball a little in the nervous tension and threw it to Breezie at second. She eyed Junior and lauched it at him full speed as Grounder shot past him for home. Junior growled and extended his arm a little as he caught her powerful throw, giving it a little snap as he flung it to MacHopper at home, Grounder creating a dust devil from the ferocity of his slide to home. Everyone hung on the cloud, growing silent, waiting for that call. Safe? Out? Please let it be out.
A whining shrill from the speaker broke the ceremonial-like silence.
"OH YEAH! The Androids are kickin' booty now, folks!" Coconuts did a pre-victory dance, shaking his booty at the window tauntingly at the crowd. One cameraman captured the video on the big screen just beside the stadium board.
"Better hang onto your seats losers while you still can! Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!" Coconuts laughed loudly, booming the speakers.
Suddenly the crowd surrounding the annoucer booth reared up and threw some more folding chairs at his window, shattering it.
"This is not my day," Coconuts replied as the angry fans mobbed and climbed into the window. After a brief dustcloud style battle, they tossed him down to the dugout cheering wildly as the dust began to settle from home plate.
"SAFE!"
Grounder sighed with relief, he had just barely made it before the ball had and was hugging the base with his drills tightly. He released and stood up to get some cheers from the crowd. You can't blame him for being that stupid.
The stadium shook with a resounding boo from the crowd until Robotnik picked up his spare blimp mike from the bench and silenced them with his thundering yell for silence, which nearly shorted the blimp's already damaged speakers.
"Any more booing out of you and I'll let me Giant Robots use you for target practice! You either cheer for my team or you PERISH. As always, it's your choice."
That left the crowd speechless as the Giant robots loomed threatenly over them, pointing their massive lasers, causing the crowds to huddle together for protection.
"NOW WHERE'S MY CHEERING!" Robotnik screeched.
A few utterly disgusting and pathetic cheers rose up and a light golf-clapping followed them.
"That's more like it," Robotnik politely replied and slammed back his blimp mike on the dugout bench.
This was about the same time Coconuts finally hit the roof and rolled off down into the dugout. Robotnik whirled and picked up the dented monkey bot from the ground by his tail.
"And just what were you doing messing around with the announcing system? Did I order you to do that!"
"No-o-o-o s-s-s-ir," he whimpered, covering his face with his hands.
"You're just lucky I'm so happy right now or I'd punish you." He let him fall down.
"Oh thank you sir! I won't let you down!"
"You've already done that. However," Robotnik turned and glanced at the penalty cage, "I have a small job for you."
Tails sniffled a little, "What are we gonna do Sonic? They're REALLY good!"
Sonic turned from the bars and set back down beside him, "You listen to me, that was only beginner's luck, alright? They can't keep that up."
Tails sighed. Sonic always knew what to say to make him feel better. He leaned against him and Sonic put an arm around him.
"Don't let them intimidate you either, okay Keed? Under those uniforms they're still the same stupid-bots we beat the tar out of every week." Sonic yawned suddenly.
Tails did as well and his eye lids slowly closed as his subconscious talked himself into napping lightly on Sonic until he was free to go.
Sonic looked down at Tails and wondered what made him so sleepy all the sudden. Then again, he was feeling lightheaded and dizzy himself. Maybe he just needed to stand up and stretch. Sonic started to do so but caught a brief glimpse of Coconuts snapping a large padlock on their door as everything went black and he hit the dirt floor unconscious.
END OF CHAPTER 10
A/N: Uh-oh, looks like someone's getting tired of following the rules! The game is tied, but it's not over yet! Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter! The big surprise of the game is coming up soon. :)
(Yes this gag had been intended before the scene portrayed in Sonic's Christmas Blast, thank you.)