"How's it going over there, Tails?" Penny called to the two tailed fox as the X Tornado flew in the air.
The fox turned to her with a grin. "The X Tornado seems to be running great since we installed the Chaos Emerald! This has to be just the smoothest flight we've been on!"
"I agree!" Penny grinned. She was about to say something else when her eyes trailed to the Chaos Emerald, which was surprisingly glowing. Her eyes widened. "Tails! The Emerald!"
Tails' eyes widened and he turned to look at it. "I think it's picked up something," he told her, sounding uneasy. "You might wanna..." The plane shook suddenly before Tails and Penny could finish.
Penny let out a startled yelp, clinging to the seat in front of her and squeezing her eyes shut.
"Hang on, Pen!" Tails yelled, trying to control his ship. He narrowed his eyes. "I can't control it!"
"What are we gonna do?!" Penny yelped, shaking.
"I don't know." Tails responded, trying to stay calm as he glanced at the glowing Emerald. "Something's pulling us off course!"
"Tails, look ahead!" Penny suddenly said, and the fox turned to glance at the stadium up ahead, and he mumbled to himself. "I bet it's another Chaos Emerald. Hang on, Penny, this might get rough!"
Penny nodded, quickly clinging to Tails' seat again and squeezing her eyes shut. She let out a startled yelp as Tails moved the plane upwards all of the sudden, and she fell back into her seat. "Ow! Gimme a warning next time, huh?!"
"Sorry," Tails winced. "I was trying to avoid hitting a man."
"A man was down there?!" Penny asked, sweatdropping.
"Yeah." Tails said, looking out the window. "We'd better go down there and make sure he's okay."
"Sounds good to me." Penny said. "I need to get off this plane anyway."
When Tails landed the plane, he helped a shaken up Penny to climb out of the X Tornado and gripped her hand. "Stay close. If you got lost Sonic will never forgive me."
Penny nodded. "Lead the way."
Tails nodded, and the two began walking. Penny glanced around the dark staircase and gulped. "Now I wished I stayed with the plane..."
"Hey, it'll be fine." Tails said reassuringly, pointing ahead. "See? Light!"
Penny glanced at the light and sighed in relief, quickly breaking free from Tails' hold and running to the entrance, sighing in relief when she made it to the light.
"Wait up!" Tails whisper-yelled.
"Sorry." Penny squeaked softly. She was about to say something else when she noticed Tails looking around the place they were in in awe.
"What's up?" She asked.
"Look around, Penny!" Tails grinned. "It's a stadium!"
Penny looked up, and her vision completely cleared and she gasped in surprise.
It was the most amazing place she'd ever seen. Bleachers everywhere, the most brightest lights you've ever seen lit the grass under their feet.
"Wow..." Tails gasped. He used his twin tails to lift himself in the air to get a better look at the sight.
"Wait for me!" Penny cried, running after him. The two walked for a while until the sound of a machine caught their attention. They turned around to see a man working on one of his machines. Tails and Penny glanced at each other, and she nodded. Tails took a deep breath and walked up, Penny following close behind. Tails glanced up happily at the man. "Excuse me, sir!"
The man didn't seem to hear.
Tails tried again. "Hello!"
Again, nothing. The man couldn't hear a thing due to his machine.
"YOU!"
Tails jumped at Penny's sudden outburst, but it got the man to turn to them. He yelped in shock at the sight of two walking talking animals right in front of him. The man quickly hid behind his machine, fright in his eyes. "Keep away!"
Tails shared the same amount of fright as the man and started speaking quickly. "I'm sorry. It's just, Penny and I were in our plane and the Chaos Emerald started glowing and..."
"Tails, you're scaring him even more." Penny hissed.
Tails glanced at the man who was staring at them with wide eyes and winced. "Right. Sorry, Mister. Penny and I won't hurt you."
"Huh?" The man asked, finally edging away from his machine.
After telling the man their story, he hummed. "Sure is some story, little fellas. Never would've guessed that was you two up in that plane up there."
"We're sorry if we frightened you." Penny said sheepishly.
"Nah, don't worry about it, hon." The man said sweetly, causing Penny to blush in embarrassment.
Tails turned to him with a smile. "I've never seen a stadium as pretty as this before."
"Me neither." Penny said with a grin. Tails nodded. "You know, the grass is practically glowing!"
The man smiled at the two. "Thanks for the compliment. Lots of folks say that turf here at Diamond Stadium is the best in the world, which makes me happy because I've been the groundskeeper here at Diamond for 30 years."
Tails and Penny's eyes widened. "Thirty years?!" they asked in sync.
He nodded. "You bet." His smile turned to a sad one. "Only I'm afraid that today is my last day at the old place. You see, the Diamond's manager wants to build an indoor stadium with artificial turf, so this place is gonna be demolished. I tell ya, leaving this place behind feels like the end of the era. By the way, little fellas, did one of you mention something about an Emerald?"
"Oh, yeah!" Penny said. "Forgot about that. Tails, show him! I think it's okay to tell him."
"Me too." Tails whispered. He took a breath and rummaged through his tails, pulling out a shining green Emerald. "See, I'm looking for an Emerald that looks just like this one."
"Would this be what you're looking for?" The man asked, digging into his pocket and pulling out a bright blue Emerald.
"A CHAOS EMERALD!" Tails and Penny completely flipped out in shock. The man held it next to the green one. "I saw it lying next to the dumpster a couple of nights ago. Wasn't sure what it was."
"Uh, guys..." Penny said. "The Emeralds..."
The three looked down, and were completely shocked when a glowing light emerged. It glowed for a while until it shimmered down.
The man glanced at them in shock. "What just happened there, little fella!?"
"That always happens when Chaos Emeralds come together." Tails said, worry in his blue eyes.
"I hope that the wrong person didn't see it..." Penny gulped.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my foxy high flying friend and that annoying pink hedgehog."
Penny and Tails gasped. They turned around to see Eggman smirking down at them from his mobile, dressed in a baseball outfit and with a bat in his hand.
"Doctor Eggman!" Tails and Penny gasped, and the fox instantly got in front of Penny protectively.
Eggman snickered and glanced around in sudden confusion. "Where's the rest of your team? It's almost game time!"
"Team?" Penny asked, confused. "Game time?"
"Forget it!" Tails hissed. "You want this Chaos Emerald, but I won't give it to you!"
"Could it be that Sonic and his pals are choosing to forfeit?" Eggman asked, ignoring Tails' outburst. "I must say that's very unsporting about them." He gritted his teeth angrily. "IF THERE'S ONE THING I HATE MORE THAN A MEDLING HEDGEHOG IS A QUITTER!"
Tails and Penny glanced at each other, and Tails turned to Eggman. "We don't get it. What are you talking about!?"
Eggman growled. "If they won't play ball with me, I still win." A giant claw came from his machine and lunged for Tails and Penny.
"LOOK OUT!" Penny shrieked, quickly pushing Tails out of the way. Hearing their new friend yelp, Penny turned around and gasped in horror as the claw snagged the Emerald from the man's hand.
"Oh, no!" Tails yelped. "He got the Emerald!"
Eggman snickered as the claw gave him the Emerald. "One down, one to go. Hand it over. I won fair and square. Now give me that second Emerald or I'll have to use a force play."
"I'd like to see you try it!" Tails hissed. He grabbed Penny's hand with his free one. "Let's go, Penny!"
Penny glanced over her shoulders and her eyes widened to see the claw zoom towards them. She quickly grabbed Tails and held on to him, waiting for the claw to grab one of them...
...but nothing happened.
The sound of smashing filled the hedgehog's ears, and she opened her eyes to see Knuckles smashing the claw to bits, glancing at the two in worry. "That was close. Are you two okay?"
"Knuckles!" Penny grinned. "You have no idea how glad we are to see you!"
Knuckles landed on his feet and smirked at Eggman. "Look who it is. I like your costume."
"And what brings you here? Doing Sonic's dirty work?" Eggman asked with a sneer.
Knuckles glanced at Tails and Penny, grabbing the pink and white hedgehog by the arm. "Let's get out of her, you two."
"Right." Tails and Penny nodded.
Before they could make a single move, Penny felt a gush of wind swoop around her, and soon she came face to face with Sonic himself. "Hey. How's it going, Knuckles?"
Knuckles just smirked.
"Well, well, if it isn't Sonic." Eggman snickered, looking down at him. "I thought you weren't going to show up! So I took one of the Chaos Emeralds and I was just finishing collecting the second." He glanced up, noticing Mr. Tanaka, Amy, Chuck, Chris, and Cream joining Knuckles, Sonic, Tails, and Penny. "But now that you're here, maybe we can play ball!"
"All right," Sonic said, glaring at Eggman. "Just give us back that Chaos Emerald!"
"All in good time, my speedy little opponent." Eggman chuckled. "But first, let me introduce you to my teammates!"
"Teammates?" Penny mumbled, and her eyes widened when she looked up to see a giant ship above them, shooting out robot players one by one until they formed a team.
"They're scaring me, Penny..." Cream whimpered, clinging to the female hedgehog.
"It's okay.." Penny said, eyeing the robots suspiciously and hugging Cream tight to herself.
Eggman hopped to the ground. "Not too shabby, eh? Now why don't we knock off the pre-game ceremonies and get to the reason why we're all here. It's now game time!"
"PLAY BALL!" Decoe and Bocoe announced, stepping in front of Eggman.
"You can't have your game here!" Tails growled.
"Wait." Chuck said suddenly, stepping in front of Eggman with a smirk. "It just so happens that ol Grandpa Chuck here is a big baseball fan from way back. A nice friendly game of baseball sounds like a great idea to me."
"But...but Chuck..." Tails stuttered.
Eggman chuckled. "Ah, so you're Chuck, are you? Well, it's a great pleasure to finally meet you. A ball game must sound so exciting after being cooped up in that laboratory of yours day after day."
"HEY, IF YOU WANNA HAVE A BALL GAME, THEN YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT SOMEWHERE ELSE! ISN'T ANYBODY LISTENING TO ME?!" Tails yelled.
"Well, Eggman," Chuck said. "If the others are up for it, I would be more than happy to accept your challenge."
"BUT YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR GAME HERE!" Tails continued yelling. "YOU'RE GONNA RUIN ALL THE BEAUTIFUL TURF!"
"What's that loud-mouthed fox getting so bent out of shape about?" Decoe grumbled, glaring at Tails.
"Who knows." Bocoe said.
"HEY!"
The robots yelped as Tails shot at them. "I'll have you know that this stadium means a lot to our friend!"
The man gently bent down and patted Tails on his shoulder. "It's okay, Tails. Only a matter of time before it's demolished anyway."
"Hm? Have I seen you somewhere?" Chuck asked, turning to the man.
"Maybe during the seventh inning stretch. My name's Albert Butler. I'm the head groundskeeper here."
"Ah, I thought you looked familiar! I've seen you on television!" Chuck grinned. "You were good friends with the owner of the Diamonds, Elmer Johnson, right?"
"Wow!" Chris sounded surprised. "You know him?"
Albert looked down. "Elmer and I don't talk much anymore."
Chuck sobbed. "This is such an honor to think that I get to play baseball at the world-famous Diamond Stadium-"
"STOP YOUR BLUBBERING AND LETS' PLAY BASEBALL!" Eggman roared.
"Baseball, huh?" Penny asked.
"How do we play?" Cream asked, holding Cheese tight.
Chuck grinned. "Alright, everybody! Time for the Chaos Emerald baseball playoff!"
Eggman pushed Chuck away. "It's the first annual Eggman Intergalactic Baseball Challenge!"
"This is sad..." Knuckles grumbled.
"And totally embarrassing..." Chris added.
Hearing grunting, Penny and Sonic turned to see Mr. Tanaka doing exercises. "Does he have to be on our team?" Sonic groaned.
"Show some respect." Penny chuckled.
"Amy, do we get to play too?" Cream asked.
"I don't see why not." Amy said.
Chris frowned, studying Eggman. "Grandpa, I'm not sure if this baseball game is a good idea. What if Eggman's got something up his sleeve?"
"Chris, you may be right." Chuck smiled, his arms crossed. "For all we know, that guy could be using a corked bat."
"That's not exactly what I meant..." Chris chuckled.
"Let's decide which team team will be the first to bat." Eggman said, raising his fist. "Rock, paper..." He started doing a rock paper scissors tournament with Chuck when Knuckles interrupted.
"You can't be serious."
Everyone turned to him.
"You do know what will happen if Dr. Eggman wins, don't you?" Knuckles continued, his hands on his hips. "He won't just be wining the game, but the Chaos Emeralds, too. If Eggman wins this game, it'll mean nothing but catastrophy for all of us."
"I'd say that's nothing but stinking thinking." Eggman said.
"Why ruin everyone's fun, huh?" Chuck mumbled.
"C'mon, Knuckles." Amy snickered, popping up. "Don't you wanna play?"
"Don't be chicken!" Cream added.
"Me? Chicken?" Knuckles stuttered.
"Perhaps Mr. Tanaka is simply afraid to play a game of baseball, huh?" Mr. Tanaka smirked.
"I bet he's scared of the ball!" Penny added.
"Afraid?!" Knuckles said, sounding irritated. "I'm not afraid of anything!"
Sonic smirked. "Great, so you'll play, huh?"
Knuckles growled, having quite enough of it. "All right, you asked for it! You want a team player, I'll give you a team player! Let's get this game on!"
"That's more like it!" Penny giggled as everyone got to their stations. "Now, this will be some game!"