It was another fun day at the park. All seemed to be going well. The villagers were doing their own fun things, and Penny enjoyed her happy time training Bea. Sonic turned the radio up and started dancing to a tune while Sonic and friends played a soccer game.

"Wicked!" Knuckles grinned.

Sonic nodded. "Man, I love playing soccer at the rec center, and keeping the beat, yo!"

"I just love playing with my pet!" Penny grinned. "This park is the best place to do so!" She noticed the mayor at the corner of her eye and frowned. "Hey, is that the mayor?"

The rest of the team turned to see the Mayor post something, and they read it, and Sonic's eyes widened. "The rec center's closing forever?"

Fink turned to them. " The funding was pulled 'cause the city needs another houseboat."

Amy's eyes widened. " You can't close the rec center! What about the disenfranchised youth?"

"Yeah!" Knuckles added. "Where will they enfranchise themselves?"

Fink shrugged. "Eh! You win some, you lose some."

At Meh Burger, Penny and the others seemed to be sharing the same depression about the re center being closed. Amy glanced at the team. "We've got to fight City Hall."

Knuckles growled, clenching his fists. "I'll fight any building if it'll save the rec center.

Amy glanced at him. " A better approach might be to gather signatures and petition the government for redress of our grievances."

"I actually agree with Amy," Penny said, feeding Bea a bolt.

"I don't know what that is, but I wanna fight it, too!" Knuckles said.

"Let's print out a petition and hit the streets!" Tails suggested.

"That's good too!" Penny said.

"OK. I'll hit the street, but after that no more fighting. I'm trying to go legit."

Later, the group met up again, and Sonic zoomed up, holding a petition with excitement on his face. "I got another 30% of the village. Two more people signed!"

"Great job!" Penny grinned. "I've got the other 30%!"

Amy grinned and ran up to Wild Cat, holding up her petition. " Excuse me, sir. Are you registered to vote?"

Wild Cat frowned at her. "If I sign it will you leave me be?"

Amy frowned at him. "Well, yeah. After you sign it I don't need you anymore."

Wild Cat took it, signed it, and walked off.

Amy grinned. "That's how democracy is supposed to work."

Sonic and the rest of the team walked into the Mayor's office, handing him the petitions. Sonic grinned. "We did it, Mr. Mayor. We got organized in order to bring about meaningful change!"

"Fantastic!" Fink grinned. He took the papers and placed it in the paper shredder, much to Penny's horror.

"My petitions!" Penny cried.

When the last paper was shredded, Fink turned to them. "I needed confetti for the budget parade. As for the rec center, you're out of luck."

"Unbelievable..." Knuckles sighed.

Fink glared at them. "Did you really think it would be over so quickly? We're only two minutes into this thing."

The door opened, and Eggman, Orbot, and Cubot walked in wearing safety hats. Eggman walked up. "I'd like to buy the rec center. I'm gonna tear it down to build myself a rec center, just for me. And there's nothing you arrogant bunch of street kids can do about it!"

Fink frowned at Eggman. "Unfortunately, control of the rec center can only change hands in an athletic competition. We live in a society of rules. Granted, they're convoluted and arbitrary, but still..."

Sonic turned to Eggman. " I challenge you and your team to a game of soccer against me and my team! Oh wait. I sarcastically forgot you don't have a team cuz you have no friends!"

"I don't need friends to put together a soccer team. I have something even better!"

Eggman bought his robots to the soccer field to practice, but none of them seem to be the perfect team for Eggman.

Orbot glanced at Eggman. " I'm afraid the only team that could beat Sonic and Friends is, well, Sonic and friends."

Eggman frowned. "But where can I find exact duplicates of Sonic and rats?"

Pretty soon, Eggman landed his ship in Roboken, and put down a ladder, and the doctor stood on the enterence of his ship, looking around. " Now I just have to figure out a way to get the attention of Cyborg Sonic and the rest of the cyborg rats."

Lasers started shooting at him and Eggman shrieked, falling off his ship. He winced as he turned to face Cyborg Sonic, Penny, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks.

"That was easier than I thought..." Eggman hummed.

Cyborg Sonic growled at Eggman. "The evil Dr. Eggman! Why did you return to Roboken?"

"To make a peace offering." Eggman said. "All I need is 30 minutes of your time, and you each get one of these." He held up a wristband with a timer on it. "You can count your steps. Some people use it for exercise. I use it to save time with my obsessive counting. Either way, they're my special gift to you."

Cyborg Knuckles grinned. " I was going to get one of those things anyway. All right! We're listening!"

"So in conclusion, please do this for me. Any questions?" Eggman asked, looking up from his slip of paper.

Cyborg Sonic frowned. "You didn't tell us anything. You just said "in conclusion, please do this for me"."

Eggman looked at his cards and chuckled sheepishly. " Ohoho! The index cards got mixed up. My bad." He switched the cards and read them in order. "Good afternoon. I want you guys to beat Sonic's team in a soccer game. In conclusion, please do this for me."

"Seriously? My human twin sister best friend is over there, I'd say no thank you." Cyborg Penny huffed, looking away.

"No thanks." Cyborg Sonic said in agreement.

"No way." Cyborg Amy said.

"Nah." Cyborg Tails said.

"Nope." Cyborg Sticks grumbled.

Cyborg Knuckles grinned. " Are these little pencils to keep?"

"Thank for your time, now please accept your gifts." Eggman said, passing the bracelets to the team. They slipped each one on, and a second later, they started sparking. They turned to Eggman, a new type of atmosphere surrounding them as they spoke at once.

" Team "Eggman is awesome" reporting for duty."

Penny had been practicing her soccer skills with Sonic until she spotted someone familiar. The human girl poked at him, and Sonic turned to see the Cyborg duplicates walking towards them. Sonic grinned. " Oh, word. Our cyborg duplicate! What up guys?"

" You're about to get served." Cyborg Sonic growled.

Sonic frowned. "I thought we were cool."

" No. We're cool. You're losers." Cyborg Knuckles sneered.

" No. We're losers." Knuckles frowned at his cyborg duplicate.

Penny raised her eyes at her duplicate, who was poking fun at her. "Me, what's going on?"

The duplicate said nothing, but continued pestering her. Penny cringed. "Hey, knock it off!"

Sonic noticed and quickly pulled Penny behind him, a little curious as well. "Okay, that's enough. What's up with these guys?"

Eggman flew up to them. "They're under my control."

Sonic frowned. " You just flew in at the exact right moment to respond to that?"

"Honestly, I was hiding behind the tree for a while." Eggman said. He cleared his throat. "Nevertheless, thanks to mind control, I have my team."

Sonic and the gang got into their fighting poses. "Not for long." Sonic growled.

Eggman chuckled. "Don't even bother. After the game, I'll release them. Do you have any idea how much mind control costs?"

"You're on, cheapskate. Split the field! Let's practice!" Sonic said.

Penny took a deep breath before running after Sonic and the others. Sonic made sure that Penny stayed with him. As long as the Cyborgs were under Eggman's control, who knows what would happen if Penny was out of his sight for a moment?

The practice began, and the gang seemed to be playing against themselves. Orbot glanced at Eggman. "It appears as though they're evenly matched. You need to somehow enhance your team."

"I'll have to reprogram their behavior. What's the most unpleasant, mean-spirited and brutish aggressor society has ever known?"

"A high score jock?" Cubot suggested.

Eggman shook his head. "No. A high school jock. I have a firmware update for that but it's just too evil. On the other hand, I really want that rec center something fierce." He pressed his controller, and at once the cyborgs started sparking again, much to Penny's horror.

Cyborg Sonic smirked, glancing at himself. "Bro, I feel strong bro!"

Cyborg Knuckles grinned. " I feel strong bro too, bro!"

" Let's school those weeds!" Cyborg Tails said.

"I call the lame pink one." Cyborg Amy sneered.

"I wanna beat the human to a pulp!" Cyborg Penny sneered, readying her bo.

Penny gulped, and Sonic growled, getting into a fighting stance, and the game started up once again.

Penny groaned as she followed Tails and Sonic into Meh Burger.

" I can't believe the beating we took out there." Tails groaned.

"Yeah," Penny moaned. "I'm gonna be sore for weeks..."

"Now I just think you're being a bit dramatic there." Sonic said with an eye roll as they walked up to the counter. "She didn't even hit you that hard."

Penny gave him a sour look, showing him her bandaged arm and he sighed. "Fine, she hit you a little hard..." He shook it off and walked up to the counter. "Can I get a double Meh Burger and regret-sized fries?"

At that, Cyborg Sonic, Penny, and Knuckles hopped onto the counter, and Sonic instantly got in front of Penny protectively, scowling at the Cyborg Penny. Cyborg Sonic spoke mockingly. " Can I get a double Meh Burger and regret-sized fries? Out of the way, bluser!"

Cyborg Penny snickered and walked up to the human girl. "My, what an ugly face here!" She sneered, wrapping an arm painfully around the human girl, who coughed at the sudden movement.

Sonic shot the metal versions of them a glare, hissing, "Hey! Get off the counter or I'll drag your metal butts off!"

"Oooh!" Cyborg Sonic sneered.

Tails put an hand on Sonic's arm. "We don't want to hurt them. They're our friends. They're just under mind control."

" Aww... Little baby going back to his burger-less crib?" Cyborg Knuckles taunted.

Sonic grabbed Cyborg Penny off his young friend and wrapped protective arm around her, escorting the girl out.

" It's the day of the big match. Sonic and gang vs. Cyborg Sonic and cyborg gang. Truly a match for the ages and cyborg ages." Soar announced the day of the soccer game.

Sonic and cyborg Sonic glared at each other, speaking in sync. "You're going down!"

Fastidious stared at the groups, whistle in hand. "I want a fair game. But I want a lot of things I don't get, like a fondue set."

Fastidious blew the whistle and the game began. It was crazy...the Cyborgs were way tense then the first round. Penny almost had a face-to-face with the soccer ball, if not Sonic kicked it away from her just in time. Pretty soon, the first half ended, and Penny found herself sitting on the bleachers jugging down bottles of water, with Sonic patting her back comfortingly.

"It's the end of the first half and things are not looking good for that rec center." Soar announced.

Eggman closed his cyborg team in. "Keep it mean, keep it unfair, and we've got this!" And at that, Eggman's team started doing a celebratory dance.

Sonic frowned, handing Penny another water bottle as he spoke. "How do we beat our unsportsmanlike counterparts?"

"Especially when me likes to beat me to a pulp?" Penny groaned, splashing water on her face.

Tails hummed. "The key is to figure out where their weaknesses and our strengths overlap."

"That's it, Tails!" Penny grinned, standing next to the fox and giving him a high five. "Great idea!"

"NERDS ALERTS!" The cyborgs yelled, and Penny felt a shock of pain on her as the Cyborgs whipped her with their whips. They did the same to Tails, who yelped. Sonic pulled Penny behind him, scowling at the mind controlled cyborgs.

"How original." Amy said with an eye roll.

Tails' eyes widened. " That's it. They're too dumb now to be creative! We need to get a little... unpredictable."

" We've got to get back to our roots." Sticks said.

"Let's do it!" Amy grinned.

"I'm willing to do anything to get my clone back to normal." Penny said. "Count me in."

"It's worth a shot." Tails hummed.

Knuckles, who wasn't paying attention, asked, "Which goal is ours again?"

"The second half is about to begin, and Team Sonic is nowhere to be found." Soar said, glancing around for Team Sonic in confusion. Cyborg Sonic frowned. "What's taking those dweebs so long?"

"Hey, tin cans!" Penny yelled suddenly, getting the Cyborgs' attention. They turned around, and saw them standing near a radio. Sonic turned it on, and in sync, Penny and the rest of the team started breakdancing. They finished their dance with a pose.

"WOO!" Sonic cheered. He ran for the ball, and passed it to Amy just as his cyborg self reached to it. Amy passed it to Penny, who easily kicked it away from her double. Penny passed it to Knuckles, who used his digging skills as a trick to pass the ball to his friends, leaving Cyborg Knuckles on the ground.

This went on for a while, and pretty soon Team Sonic gained the upper hand. The Cyborg Team Sonic started twitching, speaking in sync. " Does not compute. Does not compute."

Fastidious Beaver blew the whistle. "Team Sonic wins!"

Everyone cheered, and Penny shared a happy hug with Sonic. He laughed, hugging her in return. "We did it! The rec center is ours!"

Watching from the sidelines, Old Monkey sighed. "These kids today and their wacky soccer shows. When I was a boy, you got a grapefruit and a broken trash can, and you were happy to have that!"

Fink walked over with a grin. "Now that we only have seconds left to resolve this thing, and since everyone loves the rec center, I decided to keep it open!"

Everyone cheered.

" I'll close the library instead!"

Everyone except Penny and Amy cheered. Penny moaned, hating the fact to go without books for a long while.

Sonic turned to Eggman. " All right, egghead. Time to uphold your end of the bargain and let the cyborgs go."

Eggman snickered. "I ain't freeing nobody! Cyborgs, attack!"

Sonic quickly grabbed Penny and dodged attacks from Cyborg Sonic and Penny, while the rest of the team struggled with their own doubles. Tails glanced at his double's wrist ad saw the mind controller, and his eyes widened. " It's the wristband! That's what's controlling them!"

And at that, everyone started smashing the wristbands off their doubles, freeing them from Eggman's mind control wrist bracelets.

"Hey! Those things are expensive!" Eggman shouted angrily.

Penny freed her double, and the two shared a high five. The two and the rest of the team turned to Eggman, and the doctor gulped. "Uh oh..."

Pretty soon, he found himself being the ball. The Cyborg Team Sonic and Team Sonic passed Eggman to each other as the radio played in the background.

NEXT CHAPTER: HEDGEHOG DAY