Sonic X: Penny's Tale: Book One

Unfair Ball

It was a late night, and all that was going on was the X-Tornado flying through the sky.

"The X-Tornado seems to be running great since we installed the Chaos Emerald!" Tails smiled brightly. "This has to be just about the smoothest flight I've ever been on! Hu?" He gasped suddenly, looking at the Chaos Emerald in front of him.

Something was making the emerald glow brighter than ever.

"I think it's picked up on something!" Tails said nervously. The X Tornado suddenly started to do some jerky movements.

"I can't control it!" Tails cried. The X-Tornado zoomed over some trees, and seemed to be going crazier by the minute.

"Something's pulling us off course!" Tails said. He looked up to see a baseball stadium in front of him.

"Maybe it's another Chaos Emerald!" He gasped. The X Tornado suddenly took a dive, and Tails yelped. As he got near the stadium, he saw someone waving his arms and yelling, "STOP! STOP!"

The X-Tornado was so out of control that it nearly ran the guy over.

"I'd better get down there!" Tails grunted.

The guy looked up, surprise written in his eyes.

Soon, Tails was walking down a deep entrance to a new building that he's never been in before. He looked up to see stairs and a bright light up ahead.

After walking up the stairs, Tails gaped in surprise at the stadium.

"WOW!" He exclaimed. It was one of the most amazing places he's ever seen! His two tails twitched behind him in excitement, and using the two tails, he flew up and surveyed the scene.

He continued walking until he saw the man from earlier trying to start some kind of machine.

"Excuse me, sir." Tails said to him. The man didn't seem to hear. Tails tried again. "HELLO! You."

The man looked so startled that he hid behind the machine. "KEEP AWAY!" 

"Sorry. I was just in my plane and the Chaos Emerald started glowing and...." Tails realized he was saying a little too much than he was supposed to, and he decided to go with: "Don't worry, mister. I won't hurt you!"

Later, Tails and the manager were talking. "It was some story, little fella. Never would've guessed that it was you flying that plane up there."

"I'm sorry if I frightened you just now, sir." Tails said, looking sorry. "I've never seen a stadium as pretty as this before! You know, the grass is actually glowing!"

"Thanks for the compliment." the man smiled. "Lots of folks say that the turf here at Diamond Square is the best in the world, which makes me happy because I've been the groundskeeper here at Diamond for about 30 years."

"Thirty years?" Tails asked, pretty impressed.

"You bet." The man smiled. "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."

He looked out into the sky, sadness written on his face. "I tell you, leaving this place behind feels like an end of the era." He turned to Tails. "But by the way, little fella, did you say something about an emerald?"

"Yeah." Tails reached into his one of his tails and pulled out a sparkly green Chaos Emerald. "See, I'm looking for one that looks just like this. It's called a Chaos Emerald."

"A what?" The manager looked confused. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a crystal blue emerald. "Would this be what you're looking for?"

Tail's eyes widened. "AH, A CHAOS EMERALD!" He gasped, shocked.