The family settled into their seats once they got inside the stadium. Max sat close to Ben and Gwen, while the Gold siblings took their places together a little farther down, with both Evan and Orfevre keeping a careful eye on Gold Ship the entire time.
According to Orfevre, the last time Nakayama Festa had taken Gold Ship out to watch one of her friend's football games, that little troublemaker had somehow managed to burn half the stadium to the ground.
Fortunately, nobody had been hurt, and nobody had ever figured out who caused it.
Unfortunately, Nakayama Festa had lost the right to take Gold Ship anywhere unsupervised after that.
Even so, Festa still never really blamed her younger sister. Gold Ship was the kind of person who seemed to be ruled entirely by impulse and excitement, and once she got it into her head to do something fun, common sense usually got left far behind.
At this point, it was almost a family pattern.
Every Gold sibling seemed to inherit some strange, overwhelming obsession trait from their father. Journey was chaos. Festa was gambling. Evan was power. Orfevre was also power, just with considerably more restraint. Gold Ship was pure impulsive enjoyment, the kind of person who would throw herself into trouble simply because it looked fun. Fenomeno, thankfully, had not developed her own strange obsession yet.
The inside of the stadium was packed with security, with several agents stationed around the stands and entrances to make sure the President stayed safe and that no one repeated the kind of incident that had once turned half a stadium into ashes. It was a little much for a children's game, but then again, if the President was going to show up, nobody wanted to take chances.
"If the Cannons don't win this game, the series is over," Max told them. "The Squires will take the title."
Ben, meanwhile, was busy stuffing his face with a hot dog, though his eyes never left the field for long. Gwen had her laptop open and was already digging through the Little League database, clearly trying to learn more about the opposing team.
Gold Ship, on the other hand, was playing with her Rubik's Cube again.
Evan and Orfevre had both taken turns keeping watch over her, and at this point it looked more like they were guarding a live grenade than sitting with a little sister. Gold Ship had already promised, several times, that she would not cause trouble in the stadium, but neither of her siblings trusted that promise for even a second.
And honestly, neither did Max.
The moment a Gold sibling said they would behave, the odds of disaster went up.
"You two are acting like I'm gonna blow something up," Gold Ship muttered.
Evan gave her a flat look. "Better safe than sorry."
Ben swallowed his food and glanced toward the field.
"Something about those guys is off," he muttered.
Gwen looked over. "What do you mean?"
Ben pointed with his drink. "They're too perfect."
Down on the field, the Cannons walked out of the dugout in their blue uniforms and waved to the crowd as they took their positions. The Squires, dressed in brown and black with a shield emblem marked by a bold K, stood across from them with a level of discipline that looked almost unnatural.
Cash was already playing to the crowd with a smug grin, acting like he owned the whole stadium.
"We want a pitcher, not a hairy-"
Ben started to shout something rude back, but Max immediately grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him down.
"Benjamin."
"What? It's not like they can hear me from up here."
The umpire stepped into position and lowered his mask.
"Let's play ball!"
The game began fast.
One of the Cannons managed a clean hit, sending the ball out toward the field. For a second, it looked like a good start. Then one of the Squires sprinted forward, leaped high above the hedges, and caught it at a ridiculous height that made the entire crowd go quiet for a second.
Ben's jaw dropped.
Gwen blinked.
Max frowned.
Even some of the Cannons on the field stared in disbelief.
When Cash stepped up to bat, he managed to hit the ball too, but the play still went wrong in a way that only made the Squires look more annoying. The catcher suddenly ran behind him, climbed the batting cage, and snatched the ball out of the air before leaping back down like it was the easiest thing in the world. He tossed it back to the pitcher before Cash had even realized what had happened.
"You're out!" the umpire called.
Cash stalked off the field with a sour expression.
A few innings later, the Cannons were at bat again. This time one of their players swung so hard that the bat shattered in his hands, and the ball launched into one of the stadium lights with enough force to make it explode in a shower of sparks. The pitcher looked down in defeat while the batter ran the bases, and for a moment the Cannons actually had a reason to cheer.
Then J.T. came up to bat, and the next Squires pitcher threw a ball that seemed to move with almost unnatural force. It was fast enough to make everyone tense, and for a split second the ball even looked like it had caught fire on the way in.
J.T. barely managed to move, and the catcher snatched the pitch cleanly.
"You're out!"
"Oh man," Ben groaned as he slumped back in his seat. "We're getting destroyed out there."
"But I thought you hated J.T. and Cash," Gwen said, glancing at him.
"I do," Ben replied, taking another sip of his cola. "I want them to suck. I don't want the whole team to suck."
Gold Ship, who had been playing with her Rubik's Cube again, looked up at the field only long enough to lose interest and go back to twisting the colors around.
Her older siblings kept an eye on her while taking turns holding the leash attached to her back, though by now it was obvious they were doing that more out of habit than anything else.
Ben took a sip of his cola.
Gwen was still typing on her laptop, searching through the Little League records, when she gestured for Ben to look at what she had found.
At the same time, Evan noticed Ben suddenly stand up.
"I'm gonna go get another double-chili cheese dog," Ben announced, already moving away from the seat.
As soon as he left, Evan reached across and took a chili fry from Orfevre without bothering to ask.
Orfevre glanced at him, then back to her little sister.
The three Gold siblings had one thing in common besides their strange family talents: sports never really held their attention for long. It was not that they could not play. It was more that they simply did not enjoy anything that relied too heavily on ordinary physical competition. When your raw strength already outclassed most people your age, the fun part tended to disappear.
That was why the Gold siblings usually preferred things that relied on something else entirely.
Dream Journey had her GTA games.
Festa had her gacha games.
Orfevre liked learning new skills.
Ever Gold preferred messing with the Another Omnitrix and seeing what new upgrades he could add.
Gold Ship liked random toys, strange objects, and anything else that seemed amusing for about ten minutes.
Fenomeno simply liked playing dress up.
Gold Ship reached for a fresh double-chili cheese dog from the tray and took a bite. Then she suddenly paused.
"Wait a minute," she said, looking down at it. "Was this Ben's?"
Both older siblings turned toward her, then toward the tray where the food had been left untouched.
"Yeah," they said at the same time.
Gold Ship did not seem especially bothered by that. She just shrugged and kept eating.
Evan looked back toward the field, then narrowed his eyes.
For a second, he had caught something strange.
A faint blur of blue and black, barely visible, flashed across the stadium before disappearing.
It was too quick for anyone else to notice, but he had seen it clearly.
There was no way anyone else would have picked up on it.
Evan and his siblings were not exactly normal. Between their strange physical abilities and the monstrous stats they had somehow inherited, their senses were simply far beyond those of ordinary people. Their eyes were sharper too, which meant they could catch details most others would miss.
"Does anyone hear some kind of fast wheel spin?" Gold Ship asked, although she didn't care very much.
"Is it just me, or does there seem to be some kind of flies moving around the field?" Orfevre asked before rubbing her eyes.
"I think Ben fell into a toilet," Evan said casually, already standing. "I'm gonna go look for him."
He handed Gold Ship's leash over to Orfevre and stepped away.
A moment later, XLR8 appeared near one of the pillars, moving so fast he seemed to blur in and out of view. He paused just long enough to grin.
"Ready to take one for the team, Cash?" he said with a smile, then snapped the visor of his mask into place and took off again.
On the field, the pitcher threw the ball toward him.
XLR8 zipped in, caught it, and adjusted its angle just enough that it flew straight into Cash's hip.
Cash yelped and shot an angry look toward the pitcher, who looked just as confused as everyone else.
"I'll get you!"
XLR8 appeared under one of the stairways, half-hidden in shadow, laughing under his breath.
"No pain, no gain, jerk face!"
He was about to take off again when a hand suddenly shot out and grabbed his wrist.
"What the hell are you doing?"
XLR8 froze; he turned and found Fasttrack staring at him with a serious expression.
"Evan?" XLR8 blinked, clearly caught off guard. "Oh man."
"Look," XLR8 said hurriedly, "I know what this looks like, and yeah, it might look bad, but let me explain first."
He was not really afraid of Evan himself, but he was absolutely aware of how badly this could look if Max found out. That was enough to make him nervous.
Fasttrack folded his arms.
"Go on."
"I don't know exactly what's going on," XLR8 said, glancing back toward the field, "but don't you think those guys on the Squires seem a little too perfect? One of them just jumped over the hedges like it was nothing. They're playing baseball like a group of super-soldiers against a bunch of kids."
"One of them did what?"
Fasttrack stared toward the field, then toward the hedge, then back again. The hedge was taller than three grown adults stacked together, and the idea of someone clearing that in a baseball game was ridiculous.
That was not normal.
Not even close.
Then XLR8 blinked.
"Wait," he said. "You weren't watching the match, were you?"
Fasttrack was quiet for a moment.
Then he gave a small shrug.
"Fine," he said. "If we're going to cheat to let your favorite bowling ball team win, we should do it properly."
XLR8 stared at him. "Really? Ever, you're the best. Oh, this is baseball, not bowling ball."
"Tomato, tomahto." Fasttrack shrugged. "Same thing."
He didn't really care what it was called. If he wanted to, he could probably pick up a bowling ball and throw it like a baseball anyway. The real issue would be whether anyone could actually hit it.
Back on the field, a Cannons batter hit the ball high into the air. One of the Squires jumped for it, reaching far higher than any normal kid should have been able to. But right before he could catch it, the ball tilted strangely in midair and slipped past his hand.
Another Squire rushed in, grabbed it, and threw it toward the catcher, only for the ball to veer off course again.
"Safe!" the umpire shouted.
The two alien speeders zipped through the field at speeds no one could even catch, manipulating the game in the Cannons' favor. By stacking [Electromagnetic Pulse] and [Quicksilver Style], Fasttrack's movement was even hard for XLR8 to keep track of.
Then, after a beat, the umpire raised both arms. "That's the ball game!"
The Cannons burst out of the dugout in celebration. The crowd erupted, and even the Squires looked stunned for a moment as the tension finally broke.
Max stood up with a pleased smile, looking out across the field.
"Hey," he said, glancing around, "where's Ben? He would've loved this."
Gwen lowered her laptop and looked around too.
"I don't know," she said.
Fasttrack and XLR8 skidded to a stop beneath the same stairway where they had met earlier, hidden from the celebrating crowd above. The deafening cheers from the Cannons' victory echoed through the stadium, though neither speedster paid them much attention.
XLR8 let out a long breath before the visor over his face folded away. He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned against the wall, his tail swaying lazily from side to side.
"Man..." he sighed happily. "That was worth it."
Fasttrack folded his arms and looked at his cousin. "You sure know how to enjoy yourself."
"I mean, come on!" XLR8 laughed. "Did you see Cash's face after the ball nailed him? That almost made the whole thing worth it."
Fasttrack didn't reply; he simply did not care enough about who bullied Ben, with the Omnitrix in his hand and him knowing how to fight. Evan believed that Ben should be more than capable of defending himself even without that watch.
The two stood there for a moment before XLR8 glanced over again.
"Hey."
"What?"
"Why'd you help me, anyway?" He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I honestly thought you were gonna drag me straight back to Grandpa."
Fasttrack was quiet for a second before giving a small shrug. "I got bored."
"...Seriously?" XLR8 was taken aback, clearly not expecting that answer.
Fasttrack added casually. "You were also being so obvious I nearly fell off my seat watching you."
XLR8 blinked. "Was I really?"
"You appeared the exact same time Ben disappeared." Fasttrack deadpanned. "Then I caught a blue blur running around the field every few seconds. It wasn't exactly subtle."
"Okay, when you put it like that..." XLR8 rubbed the back of his neck with an embarrassed laugh.
Although Evan had only managed to notice because of the abnormal eyesight and senses he possessed, Ben obviously didn't know that.
"I figured if you were already running around the field," Fasttrack continued, "I might as well make sure you didn't accidentally expose yourself while I checked things out."
XLR8 stared at him for a moment before grinning. "So... you weren't helping the Cannons."
"I couldn't care less who won." Fasttrack said casually while stretching his neck.
XLR8 looked at his cousin for a moment. "Still, thanks."
A small smile appeared on his face. "And... thanks for not ratting me out to Grandpa."
Fasttrack looked at him for a second before giving another indifferent shrug.
"If Grandpa asks..."
XLR8 immediately stiffened.
"Then?"
"I'll tell him."
XLR8: "..."
"You're evil." He deadpaned.
Fasttrack smirk. "Nah, you're overthinking it. But you better pray that Grampa didn't ask."
"You and Gold Ship really are related." XLR8 nearly shouted, pointing at the other speedster accusingly.
"We're siblings, genius? Did you forget that or something?" Fasttrack replied, nearly bursting out laughing in amusement.
The two exchanged amused looks before both of them suddenly heard the crowd erupt into another wave of cheers from above.
"Sounds like they're celebrating." Fasttrack turned toward the sound.
"Yeah." XLR8 nodded.
Fasttrack pushed himself away from the wall. "We should head back before Grandpa realizes both of us disappeared."
XLR8 immediately straightened.
"Right."
The two aliens glanced at one another, then activated their super speed at the same time.
Blue and black streaks shot out from beneath the stairway before vanishing completely, leaving behind nothing but a brief gust of wind.