Chapter 10: Baseball Game

It was early morning, and Sonic was running around Central City and Station Square at the speed of sound, getting in a good morning run.

After dropping by a hot dog cart, and buying a couple of chili dogs, his favorite food, he ran up the sides of the city's scapers, leaping from one to another, before stopping on top of a roof, sitting on the edge as he began to enjoy his impromptu breakfast.

Looking down at the skyline, Sonic pointed his finger out, and cheekily said, "yeah, now this is happening."

"Words can not begin to describe for infuriatingly annoying you are," someone spoke behind him.

Looking behind him, Sonic found Shadow standing behind him, arms crossed.

"Hey, Shadow. Fancy seeing you here. ...You're brooding as ever it seems," Sonic said to his black and red look-a-like.

Shadow just closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "May I join you?"

"Uh, sure. Always love having a friend join me!"

Shadow walked up and sat by his blue rival, staring out beyond the horizon.

"Hey, I've got an extra chili dog. Want it?" Sonic said, offering his second dog to Shadow.

Shadow simply nodded, and grabbed the offered food, taking a good bite out of it.

"So, what's up?" Sonic asked. "You seem kind of..."

"I'm fine," Shadow replied, "it's just..." he sighed, "you know, as much as you irritate me, you know that I respect you, right?"

"Well, yeah, kind of figured. What, did you want to be friends?"

"Not really, but... I would like to become part of you're circle."

Sonic was expectedly confused. Why would Shadow, of all people, what to be a part of his "circle"? Shadow wasn't exactly the most outgoing person, even if he did have a few friends (though those friends were a treasure hunter/ thieving bat with lots of feminine charm, who somehow had a side job as a government agent, and an ex-Eggman E-series robot that was battle-crazy and practically a walking arsenal).

"Okay, Shadow, what do you want?" Sonic asked as-a-matter-factly.

Shadow was quiet for a moment, before saying, "Sapphire... you adopted her as your sister not too long ago, right?"

"Um, yeah. Yeah, I did. She was an orphan, and never had a family, so I took her in. What about it?"

"There's... there's something that... bothers me about her," Shadow said.

"What!?" Sonic exclaimed, appalled by the statement. "You don't think she's going cause the world to end, do you? I mean, I know I've dabbled in dangerous stuff like that before, like with Emerl, but Saph is just an ordinary, kind girl. She couldn't possibly be a part of something like that!"

"Idiot, I didn't mean it ANYTHING like that! She just... she reminds me of someone."

Sonic had a feeling about who he was talking about. Maria. Sapphire had told him that Shadow had called her "Maria," and Rouge mentioned that the two looked kind of similar, but not really.

"So, you want to get to know her, huh?" Sonic asked his rival.

"Yes... to put it simply," Shadow answered.

"Well, okay then. I could introduce you two properly, and I'm sure Saph would love to thank you for helping her before."

"Actually..." Shadow finished his chili dog, and then pulled out four strips of paper.

"Are those... tickets?" Sonic asked.

"Yes. I... just looked online for the closest big event, and there is a baseball game in a week. I don't know if she would like to go, if that's something she'd interested in, but if she wants to..."

"Yeah, I don't think she's a sports fan, but it's to hang out with me, and maybe Tails... she'll probably go."

"Good. I got four tickets. One for me, and then three for you, Sapphire, and Tails," Shadow explained, handing him three of the tickets. "It would help if you and Tails were there. I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea. That, and I'm worried that your sister will..."

"What, find you intimidating? Edgy? A complete 'bad boy'?" Sonic replied, starting to have fun with what he was saying.

"I just told you I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea!" Shadow exclaimed, irritated. "You really are annoying..."

"Aw, but we're still friends, right?"

"Hmph! Maybe."

"All right, welp..." Sonic finished his own chili dog, and put away his tickets. "I guess I'll see you in a week. I better go and let Tails and Saph know about this now. See ya!"

And with that, Sonic lept of the side, and dashed straight down the side of the building, before racing off towards the Mystic Ruins.

"See you then," Shadow quietly said, before yelling "Chaos Control!" and disappearing in a flash of light.

"Yo, Tails! Saph!" Sonic called out to his housemates as he walked through the front door.

While Sapphire was getting used to Sonic's sudden arrivals, this outside caught her by surprise, causing her to drop the book she was reading. Tails was doing maintenance on his Tornado 2, but pushed himself out from underneath the plane on his roller, in response to his friend's arrival.

"Geese, Sonic, you really scared me," Sapphire said, picking up her book.

"Heh, sorry," Sonic replied. "So, guys, you would not believe who I just talked to."

"Knuckles?" Tails asked, as he flew (literally) onto his feet.

"No. Shadow!"

"...Okay, and this is surprising because?" Tails asked skeptically.

"Well, guess what he gave me!" Sonic pulled out three tickets.

"Um..." Sapphire just looked at them confused.

Tails walked over to Sonic to get a closer look at the tickets. "Are those... baseball tickets?"

"Yeah, crazy right?" Sonic responded. "Shadow apparently wants to join our 'circle,' so he got us tickets to the next game. In particular, he wants to get to know my little sis over here," he continued as he nodded to the hedgehog girl in question.

"H-he wants to get to know me!" Sapphire replied in shock. She remembered the last time she saw him, when he had saved her. He was really intimidating, but she remembered that warm feeling he gave her. And when she met Rouge, the mobian bat said she also knew him, and had mentioned that Sapphire had been bothering him for some reason.

"Yeah, I guess you're pretty popular now."

"I guess..." Sapphire responded meekly. While she liked having friends, she really didn't want all this attention.

"Well, these tickets are for me, and the two of you. I don't know if you're into sports, but-"

"Oh, baseball is a guilty pleasure of mine!" Tails interjected.

Sonic gave him a quizzical look. "Really!? We've been friends for a VERY long time, and I'm NOW just hearing that you like baseball!?" he exclaimed.

"Well, I've admittedly never gone to an actual game, but I'll watch them on the computer during my free time, and I'll listen to past games while working. You've just never really been around. And you know what, I'm surprised YOU don't like baseball more," Tails countered. "It seems like you're kind of sport, AND they have a team called the Blue Blurs, which was named in YOUR honor. In fact, they're going to be playing next week, probably for the game those tickets are for!"

Sonic took a look at them and nodded. "I've heard about the Blue Blurs, and sometimes, when I'm on a run, I'll drop by and watch a few of their games, though I'd sit on TOP of the stadium. I never have tickets. You should've told me you're a fan, I'd definitely would've taken out to a game!"

"Yeah, but you're always on the go, you know."

"Um," Sapphire spoke up, wanting to get her say in, "I'm not a really big fan of sports, but I'll go if it means doing something fun with you guys! ...That doesn't involve nearly crashing a plane!" she quickly added at the end.

"Okay, if everyone's on board, then next week, we're heading out to the ball game!" Sonic exclaimed.

The following week, the trio of Sonic, Tails, and Sapphire were arriving at the Diamond Stadium.

"Wow..." Sapphire gasped. "That's a really impressive stadium. I wonder how its structure is made."

"Uh, yeah, that's an interesting thought..." Sonic said, a little baffled. This was the kind of thing he'd expect from Sapphire, but still...

Tails was just trying to contain his excitement, as he was going to his first game ever. He was even wearing his team's baseball cap, and wondering if he'd get to meet some of his favorite players.

As they approached the stadium, they saw their provider of tickets, Shadow.

"Hey, Shads!" Sonic called out.

"Don't call me that," Shadow replied, annoyed, as he was approached.

"H-hi, Shadow," Sapphire said meekly.

Shadow's slight anger disappeared as his attention turned to the yellow hedgehog. "Hello, Sapphire. Is... Amy treating you well?"

"Oh, yeah, she is. We're good friends now, but I don't want to see her hammer again."

"Yes, as long as you don't get on her bad side, she'll only use it to fight the doctor's mechs. And I would to never want to see you involved fighting him."

"The doctor? Do you mean Eggman?" Sapphire asked.

"He does," Tails explained, "Shadow may be an enemy of Eggman like us, but he does have some respect towards him. I think it's partially because Eggman's grandfather, Profesor Gerald Robotnik, created him."

"Cr-created?" Sapphire responded in shock. "Shadow, are you... um..." she couldn't finish her sentence.

But Shadow got the idea. "Yes, I was born artificially, but I'm still a mobian hedgehog, just like you. I'm just better than the rest of you," he finished smugly.

"Yeah, and you're also part alien," Sonic remarked.

Shadow glared at Sonic. Sapphire was just trying to process what she just heard. She remembered that he claimed to be "Ultimate Lifeform", but did that mean he was actually made that way?

"Hey, Saph, don't worry about it too much," Sonic told her, noticing her distress. "He may be cocky, and we might make fun of him for that, but he's an alright person."

Sapphire nodded, as Shadow rolled his eyes at Sonic. "We should get inside if we want to get good seats," the black hedgehog said.

Everyone was in agreement, and they began to make their way into the stadium. As they did, lots of people were gawking or pointing in their direction, which made Sapphire nervous.

Tails hung back with the girl when he noticed her discomfort. "Yeah, those people are probably fans of Sonic and Shadow, maybe even me. Just hang back, and let them deal with it."

As if on cue, some people approached them, exclaiming, "You're Sonic the Hedgehog! And Shadow! Can we have your autographs!"

The look-a-like hedgehogs looked at each other before turning back to there fans. "Sure!" Sonic said, excited to meet some fans, while Shadow just nodded in agreement.

As they were signing various apparel that the fans had on hand, one of them looked over and asked, "so, is that the girl you adopted as your sister?"

Sonic looked over to Sapphire and said, "yeah. But she's not a big fan of attention, so maybe..." but was ignored as several of the fans split off to see the yellow hedgehog.

Sapphire shrunk into her jacket as the overenthusiastic fans swarmed her.

"So, what's your name?"
"What's it like to be Sonic's brother?"
"Do you go on adventures with him?"

As she kept getting bombarded with questions, she started to freak out. She tried finding a way out, until a dark shadow fell over.

"Excuse me! If you stayed and listened, maybe you would have heard my associate saying that his sister wasn't comfortable with attention. And yet, here you are, bothering her anyways."

The fans backed away, and Sapphire looked up to see Shadow above her, with an intense look on his face, and protectively standing between her and the crazy fans.

"Now, I appreciate how much you adore and respect Sonic and I for who we are," Shadow continued, "but you shouldn't drag others in they don't want to. We are here to enjoy a game, just the same as you. Not to bother others. Agreed?"

The fans nodded in understanding and ran off.

Sonic walked over, and hung his arm over Shadow. "Nicely done, Shads."

Shadow just glared and push Sonic's arm off him. "Let's just go find our seats."

They managed to get seats close to the field. Sonic sat next to the aisle, next to him was Sapphire, then Shadow, and lastly Tails.

Sapphire was happy to be next to her brother, because with Shadow on her other side, she was nervous. He was intimidating, but that wasn't what was bothering her about the black and crimson hedgehog. She just didn't know what it was.

As they sat down, Sonic turned back towards a food vendor, and called out, "hey, can we get two chili dogs over here? And put the works on 'em!" Turning back to his friends, he asked, "anything you guys want?"

"Um, I'll take a hot dog, without no chili, please," Sapphire replied, "and maybe a soda. Oh, and see if they have any pizza slices. I love pizza!"

"I'll get a soda as well and a pretzel," Tails said.

"I'm fine," Shadow told them.

Sonic added those items to the order, and soon the game began. Tails watched with great earnest, while the rest of them just enjoyed the game.

As the game went on, Sapphire looked over at Shadow. Should she say something to him?

Gathering her courage, Sapphire said, "hey, Shadow?"

The black hedgehog looked over, "yes?"

"I... I wanted to thank you for saving me from those thugs when I first got here. Oh, and from those fans too, I guess, though they weren't as dangerous, of course."

"...You're welcome. I just want to make sure that people are safe and happy. You included," Shadow told her.

"So, um... you know I met Rouge a while ago, and she said she knew you."

Shadow nodded. "I should apologize, I should've told her that when I said 'Sapphire', it was the name of a person. Rouge is obsessed with jewels, so I must have been... awkward dealing with her."

"Oh, that's okay. Sonic handled that, sort of." Sapphire turned to her brother, who was paying attention to the game and his enjoying his chili dogs, of which he had already finished one of them. If was listening in on their conversation, he wasn't showing any signs of it. "He mostly made a fool of her."

"I see... Well in all fairness, she was the one that fooled herself. Sonic probably just took advantage of that for the sake of a joke."

"You'd really say that about a friend?"

"Well, it's not like I despise her. She's a good ally. But, I'm not... good with friendships."

"Oh..." Sapphire glanced down. "Anyways, I wanted to ask, she also mentioned that I bothered you for some reason. And Sonic said you got us into this game to see me. Why is that? Is... is there something wrong with me?"

"No... nothings wrong... it's just..." Shadow fell silent.

"Does... does it have anything to with Maria?"

"Don't mention her name!" Shadow said angrily. He wasn't too loud, but it did freak Sapphire out. Other people around them looked over with looks of either annoyance or worry on their faces.

Sonic looked over, quickly saying, "yo, bro, calm down. No need to get angry. Or else they might throw you out. And you scared Saph, too!"

Shadow looked at the trembling girl in shame. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. It's just... a sensitive topic for me," he said.

Then Shadow did the last thing anyone expected. He leaned over, and hugged Sapphire.

"I won't do it again, Ma- Sapphire," he told her.

He feels so warm, Sapphire thought.

Sonic whistled. "Wow, Shadow, feeling a little touchy there, huh?"

Shadow quickly snapped back. "Screw you."

"It's okay... thank you..." Sapphire said quietly, though nobody heard her over the roar of the cheering fans, as just then, an incredible play happened.

One of the players had managed to hit a home run, and as he took off running, the ball was sailing towards the stands.

Now, an event like this is fairly quick, so there isn't a whole lot of time to react. Well, except for the two hedgehogs sitting to the sides of Sapphire, that is.

While it was too fast for her to really take in, she found the two rivals looking over her at each other, with a competitive look in their eyes. Then, before she knew, the two of them were GONE, Sonic having run up on the seats and hopping from one to another, avoiding people's heads, while Shadow literally disappeared in a flash of light!

In an instant, Sonic had traversed the stands, leaping up towards the ball. But then Shadow appeared again, right next to Sonic, reaching for the ball himself...

...But rather than either of them catching the ball, the two hedgehogs collided into each other, and the ball bounced off of them. As they unceremoniously fell back into the stands, the ball sailed over to a certain someone...

Without even meaning to, the ball landed in Sapphire's open hands. Sapphire had been so focused on the doppelgangers, that the ball freaked her out, and she nearly dropped it.

Once she had a good grasp of it again, she looked around, noticing all that everyone around her was staring at her in amazement.

"Wow, would you look at that folks!" the game's commentator's announced over the loudspeakers. "After a spectacular fail from our very own heroes, it seems that this little cutie hedgehog has caught the ball!"

Looking up, Sapphire saw that some unseen camera had zoomed in on her, showing the image of a flustered yellow hedgehog girl in a blue hoodie and dress holding the baseball, upon the jumbotron screen.

"Woah, good job, Saph!" Tails cheered, "nice catch!"

Sapphire began to shrink into her jacket as all this attention was placed on her. On the inside, she began to freak out as everyone began cheering on this unnamed girl.

Sapphire would've run off crying, if were not for the timely arrival of her brother, Sonic. He walked in to frame, giving a cheeky smile of embarrassment, waving at the camera, then waving them off, signaling to them that she didn't want attention.

Once the camera was off her, and the game continued, and Sonic, followed by Shadow, sat back down. "Geeze, that was embarrassing! And sorry you had all that attention on you. Didn't think YOU'D catch the ball," he said sheepishly.

"Uh, yeah. I wasn't planning on it either. It just fell in my hands," Sapphire replied.

"Huh..."

"You know guys, I'm surprised," Tails said, "you two usually have pretty good synergy in battle. And yet you two unceremoniously smacked into each other trying to catch a ball! That is something you two aren't going to live down for a while."

Sonic gave another sheepish smile, while Shadow looked away. "Wasn't like I was planning on running into him!" the black hedgehog replied.

"Wait 'til I tell Rouge!" Sonic said.

"You were the one who ran into me!"

Everyone just laughed at the angry hedgehog. He simply gave an unhappy grunt in response.

Once they calmed down, Sapphire took a good look at Shadow. He's so nice... she thought, he's not as scary as he seems. Maybe... I wonder...

Shadow looked over at Sapphire, causing her to look away in embarrassment.

Why... do my cheeks feel so warm? she thought.

The rest of the game went on by without any more crazy events. At the end of it, the Blue Blurs won by a landslide.

"Yeah, just what I'd expect from a team named in my honor!" Sonic cheered.

"Go Blue Blurs!" Tails followed. Shadow just smiled, glad to see them so happy, while Sapphire hugged the enthusiastic Sonic.

Before they left, while they agreed the ball was Sapphires to keep, Tails convinced them to have Sonic go and get it signed by the player who hit it into the stands. A task that would normally only happen by chance, but for the speedy blue hedgehog, getting through the crowds was a breeze to him.

As they were leaving the stadium, they were ecstatic for the victory of their favorite team.

"Man, Shads, I'm so glad you got us these tickets," Sonic said, "I never hated this game, but I also never thought I'd enjoy baseball this much either. I can see why you like it so much, Tails!"

"Yeah, we should go to the next game!" the fox replied. "What about you, Saph?"

"Well, it's still not my favorite thing, but I'd love to come!" she replied.

"Yeah-ha-ha," Sonic exclaimed, patting her on the back.

Shadow turned to the group and said, "well, this is where I leave you guys."

"Hey, thanks again for the tickets. See you later, buddy!"

"I'm not you buddy," Shadow told his rival, before yelling out, "Chaos Control!" and once again, disappearing in flash.

"Yeah, we'll about that, Mr. 'I'll just teleport away now'," Sonic mocked.

"Bye Shadow," Sapphire said softly, even though he was already gone.

As they returned home, Sapphire couldn't get her mind off of Shadow. He may have seemed intimidating, but he was kind, strong, maybe a little mean at times, but he was always there to protect those who needed.

Sapphire looked away from her brother and her instructor, trying to hide a blush as she realized, I think I like him.

Author's Note: So (adding this to this story as well), I figured I should add my author's notes for these chapters, because I'm doing with my co-writer for my new Hyperdimension story, and on DeviantArt, where I originally posted these, that's basically what the descriptions were anyways. I'll be adding them over time on every chapter on my other stories, though slightly edited, since some of the info will be out of date. If you're new to the story, you've probably already seen them, so this wouldn't matter to you.

So, let me start here, yes, I did make that extremely cheesy reference to Sonic Adventure DX's opening scene. It just felt right to put it there. And besides, SA1 is my favorite Sonic game (alongside Sonic Mania) due to my childhood nostalgia for it, so I was happy to add this. Also, while it's not worded exactly the same, right at the beginning, I also referenced the first line of "Escape from the City", the song that plays for City Escape, the first stage of Sonic Adventure 2. So yes, I managed to reference the openings of both SA1 and SA2 in one fell swoop. Yes!

(As an interesting fact, while this doesn't show online, since I have to use the chosen online fonts, while writing these stories on Word, I use fonts from the games my stories are based on, in order to get myself in the theme and mood of the story. And for this story, I use SA2's cutscene subtitle text font, which is Comic Sans MS. So, I count that as an honorary third Sonic Adventure reference!)

As for this chapter, what I wanted was to bring Shadow in. He's supposed to be an important character in this story, but he's only had one major appearance, and one side appearance in Rouge's introduction story. I wanted to give him a bigger presence in the story, in particular, pushing Sapphire's connection to the black hedgehog, since it's important to the story.

And really quickly, when it comes to writing Shadow, while it's a little subtle in this chapter, I've realized the best way to write Shadow, as someone who wants to better write him based on his character from SA2, and a bit from Sonic Heroes. Realizing that in those games, he has something going on in both stories, which theoretically would affect how he acts from his normal character, and making a guess on how he should've acted after the fact if they didn't decide he needed to be overly edgy, Shadow... should be a tsundere. No really, he's not the friendliest character, but does care for people, and his best portrayals are not an edgy character, tsundere made the most sense. Not 100% tsundere, to be clear, but he should definitely be a tsundere.

Now, getting back on track, in order to bring this chapter together, I thought of baseball. Well, to be more specific, I remembered that one episode of Sonic X, where everyone was playing baseball for a Chaos Emerald (I believe it was Episode 10, "Unfair Ball"). In fact, the stadium is named after the stadium in the show, Diamond Stadium, and the reason I gave Tails a love of baseball is because that episode focused on him. I guess means I can Sonic X to the reference list this story.

Now, for the next story I write, it will be one I've been wanting to write for a while, and it will introduce someone who is long overdue to join the greater story. So, look forward to that.