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Pomni woke up with a yawn. “Another day, another stressful adventure.” She said sounding tired. However, she couldn’t help but remember the other day bonding with Ragatha and how happy she was afterwards. She smiled at the memory.
After hopping out of bed and putting on a new outfit, she walked out of her room and headed to the main area of the circus where everyone was eating breakfast. Ragatha notices Pomni taking a seat next to her, “Wow Pomni, you’re up bright and early.”
“Yeah usually you pull a Zooble and stay in your room all morning until Caine drags you out for an adventure.” Jax chimes up only to get pushed out of his chair by Zooble. “Hey it’s true!” Jax cackles.
The rest of the breakfast went relatively normal or at least as normal as the circus can be. “I’ve always wondered what his issue is. Was he always this way?” Pomni asks Ragatha as she and Gangle are trying to make a house of cards.
“Funny you mention that. I think his behavior started when-” Ragatha is about to place another card before she looks at it with a picture of Caine on said card.
“Guess what my Wacky Watch says!” He shouts gesturing to his wrist. He then pops out of the card and causes the house of cards to topple over.
“Adventure ti-” Bubble says before being popped by Caine.
“Shush! You wanna get sued?!” Caine then looks around before wiping his top jaw in relief. “Anyways it’s time for another invigorating adventure! Now after receiving some complaints.” He glances over to Pomni and Zooble. “I’ve decided to do an all time classic that I’m sure everyone will love! No more truck chases, visits to hell, or… actually I don’t think anyone had any complaints about the fast food job.”
Jax nervously coughs Caine doesn’t pay any mind to him. “So todays job is… A Walk in the Ballpark!” Caine says with his signature glee. “So today you six will be teaming up in a game of baseball against a team of NPCs! Now there is no price other than the warm feeling in your heart for having fun! So go my Home Team Homunculi!”
He snaps his fingers and everyone is transported to a baseball field already in outfits, caps, and helmets. They then glance over to the rival team that consist of the usual wooden mannequins, and for some reason a single Gloink. They then spot a keyboard in the dugout that asks for their team name.
“So I guess we name our team?” Pomni says before looking at everyone. “Anyone have any ideas?”
“Fabric Hearts!”
“I don’t care…”
“Masked Dingers!”
“The Lepidopteras!”
Pomni is taken off guard by the sudden input of names. She’s suddenly pushed away by Jax, “Move it pipsqueak let the professional do this!” He begins typing. Everyone looks at the screen in horror.
“Jesus that’s kind of harsh.”
“Are you allowed to say that?”
“Jax maybe that’s not a good idea.”
“Relax dollface it’s not like I’m targeting anyone.” He presses enter but there’s a loud buzzer before an automated Caine voice is heard. “Sorry your name is too foul. Jax shall receive a penalty and instead our automated name generator shall generate a name for you.”
A bunch of letters appear before settling on a name a jingle is heard and the name appears on everyone’s jerseys. Pomni looks at it in confusion.
“The Enthusiastically Amazing Munchers… our team name is T.E.A.M?” She then goes over to look at the other team. “Looks like they’re gonna be batting… so what’s the plan?”
“Well, I’ll be pitching and the rest of you can each be at a catcher. Sound good?” Ragatha says before she’s interrupted.
“Who died and made you captain, licorice hair.” Jax speaks up in annoyance.
Before Ragatha can respond a small jester steps up beside her. “Well she is the oldest and most mentally stable person here so I say she’d make a great team captain. No offense Kinger.”
“None taken.”
“Oh wow look at this everyone. Little PomPom’s sticking up for her girlfriend whose old enough to stick up for herself.”
Before the argument could go further an airhorn sounds off and everyone goes onto the field except for Jax who remains in the dugout.
A baseball organ is heard being played as everyone gets ready. Ragatha prepares to throw as Pomni stares at her, the latter’s memory of the other day’s events still fresh.
“Gosh she looks so gorgeous in that tee…” Pomni begins to think to herself. “She’s the reason I manage to wake up everyday… I wish there was some way I could repay you for everything you’ve done to help me…”
There’s suddenly a loud smack and Pomni looks up seeing the baseball coming towards her she rushes around in a panic as she tries to make an attempt to catch it. It doesn’t work and the batter proceeds to run through the bases. Pomni looks down in shame and embarrassment. This is gonna be a long game.
The rest of the day went relatively smooth depending on who you ask. Team T.E.A.M’s players were how to put this nicely… a bit of a mess. Gangle was unable to catch a ball without breaking her Comedy Mask, Kinger was unable to catch because he was too distracted looking at the insects all over the field, Zooble was unable to catch due to the speed of the ball knocking their arms out of their sockets, and Jax wasn’t participating at all and staying in the dugout and egging on his own team.
After the first inning, the team went to the dugout. “This isn’t working out you guys…” a worried Ragatha says.
“Yeah and whose fault is that?” Jax says sarcastically.
“You’re still sitting here even though your penalty is up dumb%$!#.” An annoyed Zooble tells him.
“Yeah but I had faith in you all that you could do this without me.”
“Okay guys, this arguing is getting us nowhere… next inning is when we’re at the bat so we gotta give this our all.” Ragatha tries to break them up. “Uh… Ragatha…” Pomni speaks up and Ragatha turns to her. “Is it wrong that I’m a bit nervous about this…”
“It’s not wrong at all… Poms. If anything it’d be wrong if you weren’t nervous.”
“Ugh get a room you two.” Jax rolls his eyes when out of nowhere a baseball comes and hits him in the gut. “Okay who threw that?”
Everyone looks away nonchalantly. Pomni steps out with a bat. “Go get ‘em tiger!” Ragatha shouts in support not noticing the faint blush on Pomni’s face. Taking a deep breath she steps onto the home plate. “This one’s for you Ragatha.” She says. The pitcher winds up and throws the ball. Pomni swings!
She misses. The pitcher winds up again.
She hits it. She begins to run to first base. “Yes!” She shouts. She then looks over at Ragatha who’s giving her a thumbs up.
The rest of the game goes smoothly, sort of. Kinger and Gangle strike out and Jax gets another penalty for throwing the bat into another player.
The two teams are now tied. Ragatha is about to go up when she’s stopped by Pomni, “Ragatha… before you go out there. I just wanna tell you…” she begins to look a bit nervous. “NomatterwhathappensIjustwannasayIhadthegreatesttimeever!” She takes a deep breath and looks up at Ragatha nervously. Ragatha just smiles. “Thanks Pomni. I had fun too.”
Pomni smiles as Ragatha goes up to bat. The rest of the game was a blur but judging by the cheering from everyone on the rival team. Team T.E.A.M had lost. Everyone began to walk into the portal home but not before Pomni saw one of the Gloinks wink at her.
“Welcome back my Superfly Superstars! Did you win?” Everyone just mumbles in annoyance while glancing at Jax. “No thanks to Jax distracting Ragatha…” Zooble says before realization hits them. “Wait why do I even care!? Have I really fallen this far?!” They begin stare off. “Well if you lost then what am I going to do with this cooler full of GENERIC ENERGY DRINK? I was hoping to dump it on someone!” Pomni gets an idea. “Actually I think we should dump it on the team’s mvp!” Ragatha then looks at Pomni almost betrayed. “Jax!” Pomni says.
“Haha. No…” Jax says in deadpanned voice. "Hey actually. It's kind of true, he did swing the hardest and got a couple home runs." Zooble speaks up. Excited to get revenge. "Yeah. Even when he was sitting out, he did cheer on the other team like a good sport." Gangle nervously says. "Which one was Jax again?" Kinger says zoning out as usual. “Hmm… considering how everyone is seeming to point fingers at Jax...” Caine says. “Okay Jax come here!”
“No! All of you stay away from me! No!” Jax says before running off before Caine snaps his fingers and stops Jax dead in his tracks. Ragatha walks next to Pomni. “You’re so evil.” She says with a hand on her hip.
"Hey I still had fun." Pomni replies.