Sticks smiled as she picked beige berries. "No one at the pie festival will guess that beige berries are my secret ingredient!" She frowned. "Unless... one of these trees is a spy in disguise!"
She cautiously looked at the surrounding trees. "I'm on to you, tree!" She shrieked. "You'll never get the recipe! NEVER!"
Tails soon flew up in his mobile. He smiled at her. "Hey, Sticks! How's tricks? I see you're making beige berry pie!"
She winced and whispered to her basket of beige berries. "I don't know what he's talking about! I'm taking you live on a farm!" She turned back to Tails. "Now if you excuse me, I have a few trees left to pick." She walked off.
"Looks like you could use some help!" Tails smiled. "Be right back!"
He drove off back to his workshop.
...
Tails smiled as he lifted his mask. "Grab-claws connected to the trap-jaw! Trap-jaws connect to the scoop-maw! Scoop-maws connected to the positively-charged resistor-cuffing ion-matrix!" He sang. Tails turned on the iron-matrix and frowned. "Oops! Lot of trees means lot of "v's"!"
He walked over to some matrixes, frowning. He eventually turned to Sonic, who was playing volleyball with Penny. In the end, Penny frowned as he ended up playing against himself.
"YES!" He said.
Soon, Penny watched as Sonic stood on the exercise machine attached to Tails' invention. She frowned. "You sure about this Tails? You know how Sticks is about machines."
"Penny's right, bud," Sonic said, looking at Tails. "You should think this through."
" But this thing runs on natural energy: yours! It's better than going green, it's going blue!" Tails said.
"Say when!" Sonic said and started running. However, he went so fast that it caused Tails' machine to explode, covering Tails and Penny in soot.
"When..." Tails muttered dizzily.
...
Sticks let out a yelp as the ground rumbled, and she fell off the ladder she was standing on, and her berries she picked rolled everywhere. Her eyes widened to see a machine rolling towards her, and she hopped out of the way just in time. Tails walked to her, holding a remote and controlling the machine.
However, the machine started eating up the trees instead of collecting the berries, quite the opposite of what Tails had in mind. Tails panicked as he tried to control the machine, but soon enough, the machine had crushed every beige berry tree in its path, leaving an empty orchard.
Tails frowned. "Well, my work here is done," He said. He was about to walk off when Sticks grabbed him, pulling him back. She glared at him. "Your machine destroyed the orchard!" She hissed, pointing to the now-empty orchard with tree parts scattered everywhere.
"Could be worse," Tails smiled nervously. "At least you still have the berries!"
The machine spat out the berry juice onto the ground.
Sticks growled at Tails.
"What happened here?!" Penny gasped, running up with Amy, Knuckles, and Sonic. Sonic smirked at Penny. "Looks like Tails got himself into a jam!" He laughed, smirking at Knuckles. "Get it?" He asked, raising his hand.
"Not at all!" Knuckles smirked, high fiving Sonic. "But I never leave a hog hanging!"
Penny giggled, shaking her head at the two jokesters. She smiled at Sticks. "At least one tree is still standing!" She pointed to the only tree in the forest, and to her shock, the tree stood up and ran away.
...
"Thanks for helping me out with this orchard, Penny," Tails said sadly as he flew lane after lane, planting beige berry seeds. "Though I am going to miss the pie festival."
"Who knows?" Penny looked up from her work and smiled at Tails. "Maybe if we hurry, we can make it in time!"
"I doubt it," Tails said sadly.
"Uh, Tails..." Penny gulped. Tails looked up saw three hooded figures.
"Who are you guys?!" Penny asked suspiciously.
"This is for you," the third guy said, handing Tails a letter. Tails took the letter and tried to open it, but the letter stayed glued shut.
"Maybe it would be easier if we just hold you," The shortest member said.
Penny glared suspiciously at the three men. "What are you playing?"
"We're not playing anything!" The shortest member said.
"Your ingenuity just earned you an invitation to the five monthly, potluck dinner and raffle of the super-secret exclusive club known as..."
The shortest one played a tune on a little Kazu. Tails and Penny frowned.
"...The Lightning Bolt Society!" All three members said, raising their hands.
"Wow!" Tails said, clasping his hands together. "The Lightning Bolt Society?! I've never heard of it!"
"That's because it's super-secret!" The shortest one said.
"It's no secret anymore if you let it out for the world to hear." Penny glared at the shorter one. The shorter one ignored her and turned to Tails. "Come! We'll take you to our clubhouse! You can even invite your little friend beside you!"
"Hey, I'm not little!" Penny hissed.
"As much as Penny and I would love to go off with you strangers, our friends left us with an entire orchard to plant!" Tails said.
The tallest member took out some type of machine gun and started firing seeds all around the orchard. Penny's mouth dropped open.
The orchard was planted.
"Cool gizmo!" Tails said, impressed. "How much was it?!"
"Let's just say, it was a steal!" The middle member said.
"Well," Tails said. "Our work here is done. And since Penny and I missed the festival, I think I will take you up on that pot-luck!"
"Tails, are you sure about this?" Penny frowned at the fox.
"I am sure!" Tails told her.
"Suit yourself," Penny sighed. "I will go with you for your own protection, even though I can't really fight yet..." She muttered that last part.
"Notify the membership at once!" The middle member told the short member. He nodded.
She sighed as she walked off with Tails and the mysterious hooded figures of the Lightning Bolt Society.
...
Penny stood close to Tails as he helped himself out with some food.
"Tails! Penny! Welcome!" The shortest member said. "Such an honor! I assume you two met everyone?"
"I guess..." Penny muttered warily.
Tails nodded. "Actually, no. Although that tree looks familiar..." Penny turned to where he was pointing and she saw a tree from earlier. Her mouth dropped open in surprise. So that tree was a member of the Society. She knew there was something off when that tree ran away from the orchard.
"Nice to meet you!" The tree said. Tails shook his hand, and the tree motioned his hand towards the food stand. "Have you tried the shrimp yet?"
Tails grinned and helped himself to the shrimp.
"What did you bring to the pot-luck?" Willy asked.
"Uh..." Penny gulped nervously, but Tails saved her, holding out a jam jar. "uh, all I had was beige berry jelly." He held out the jar to Dave, who tasted it and spat it out. "It's full of dirt and twigs."
"Ha! I told you he was evil. Do I know how to pick 'em or what?" The tree grinned. "He even has his own sidekick! And she's pretty cute! What's your name, hon?" He asked flirtingly.
Penny glared at him. "None of your business, tree!"
Willy Walrus walked up to the stage, smiling. "The Lightning Bolt Society is proud to welcome our newest members. They're a team with deforestation sensation and berry bad kids. I give you...Tails and his sidekick, Penny!"
Penny hissed at the members as they picked her and Tails up, dropping them on the stage. Tails and Penny glanced at each other and glanced nervously at the other members, who still had their heads covered by their hoods.
"They bought the jam with the dirt in it," Willy said. He held out two hats and gave them to Penny and Tails. Even though Penny was suspicious, she still knew she had to play along, so she took the hat and placed it on her head anyway. Tails did the same.
"Oh, uh... Thanks." Tails said. "It's an honor to be among so many..." He paused. "Uh, guys with hats like these!"
"Really, Tails?" Penny muttered. "Really?!"
"Sorry, that was all I could think of at the moment!" Tails hissed back.
"With an evil genius like Tails to lead us, and an evil sidekick like Penny, we can go from two-bit crooks to four-bit crooks; or dare I say it, eight-bit crooks."
Penny and Tails stared at Willy suspiciously. Did they hear the word evil?
"Yes!" Dave said. "Combining the warped genius of Tails' deforestation machine, and Eggman's mutant seed gun, we can finally launch our master plan: To control all the fruit in the village! And beyond."
"Yeah...uh..." Tails scratched his head, frowning. "having understood very little of that, did Penny and I hear the word "evil" in there?"
"Indeed!" Willy explained to the two. "With you as our evil leader, and with you as our second in command, we'll be unstoppable... When it comes to fruit!"
"I knew there was something about this Society!" Penny said, her eyes wide at the hooded figures around them. Tails scratched his head and took off his hat. Penny did the same. "We're not evil," Penny told the crowd.
The crowd gasped.
"You two betrayed us all!" Willy hissed, and Penny gulped.
That sounds pretty evil to me." The tree said.
"Now I'm just confused," Dave said, scratching his head.
Sonic burst through the window, and soon Amy ran in, holding a pizza.
"You guys!" Tails and Penny smiled.
"Tails! Penny!" Amy and Sonic said happily.
The ground crumbled behind Amy and Sonic, and they turned around. "EGMAN?!"
Penny watched as Eggman slid down a laser pole.
Sonic smiled. "Gotta admit, that had pizzaz!"
"Sonic," Eggman hissed. "I've seen through your plan to team up with the Lightning Bolts."
"What?!" Sonic yelped. "I thought you teamed up with them. I'm here to rescue Penny and Tails."
"Ahem!" Amy snapped at him. Sonic scratched his head. "I mean, we. I said we, didn't I?"
"Me? Team up with these dolts?" Eggman grumbled.
"Hey!" Dave said. "Words hurt!"
"I'd never team up with these... dolts," Eggman said. He turned to the group apologetically. "I'm sorry, there are no words for you. So. Whose side are you on?"
"We're doing our best to be bad," Willy said.
"Well, then get Sonic!"
"We don't have any weapons!" Willy pointed out.
"Now what kind of villains are you?" Eggman snapped. "Find some!"
The members looked around the room and started firing food items at Sonic and Amy, who easily dodged them. Penny let out a giggle.
However, they easily ran out of food and utensils. Eggman sighed. "Really? That's all you can come up with? I'm not going to say it, but you know what I'm thinking... you dolts."
Dave winced.
Sonic glared at Eggman. "Looks like it's just you and me."
"AHEM!" Amy snapped at him. "I meant you plural, as in "the two of you and me"." Sonic stuttered.
"JUST GET ON WITH IT!" Penny yelled from the stage.
"Hey hey hey, you heard the girl, are we gonna battle or what?" Eggman snapped.
"Uhh, Actually, Dr. Eggman, sir... I was wondering if you could autograph my trunk?" The tree asked sheepishly.
The group roared in excitement, surrounding Eggman. Sonic smirked at Eggman. "You seem busy, Mr. Popularity," Sonic smirked. "I'll catch you on the flipside."
Sonic grabbed Penny in his arms and zoomed off, followed by Tails and Amy.
...
After placing Penny a safe distance away from some strange squealing plants, he and Amy ran up. "Uh, it rained while you were gone!" Knuckles growled at Sonic and Amy.
Tails soon came to the rescue with his machine from earlier. The machine vacuumed them up and spat out the parts all over the orchard.
"Way to go, Tails!" Penny smiled, giving the fox a hug. Sonic nodded in agreement. "Nice going, Tails."
Sticks smiled at him. "I guess that machine of yours was good for something after all."
"And your paranoid ramblings weren't completely detached from reality." Tail said sarcastically.
"Good talk!" Sticks said. "Now get planting."
Tails looked stunned.
"I'd like to stay and help, but a very nice tree invited me and my pie to a pot-luck dinner at some lodge." Sticks smiled, and she walked off.
"I will never understand Sticks sometimes," Penny giggled.
...
Dave placed a Double Meh Burger in front of him and snickered. "Oops, almost forgot the sesame seeds." He picked up his mutant machine gun and fired the seeds on it.
Dave laughed maniacally as he took a bite out of the burger.
Next Chapter: Robot Battle Royal