Author's note: Ah, Deltoran Merchant showed up. Now all I need is NS, and my original trifecta of reviewers will be here. Next chapter.
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Segment 1: A Whole New World
Chapter 3: Around the Town
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(Kim)
I think this was one of the most awkward moments of my life. I bet you've never been stuck in an anthra-whatever fox body, attached by your tail to your older brother, and without any clothes whatsoever. Take my word for it, it wasn't pleasant.
The tailor, as it turns out, was a pretty friendly sort. He took measurements of me, as Leo and Tails stood pat, and soon had two dresses ready for me that fit perfectly. They were even specially cut to allow my, well, our tail to pass through unhindered.
"Nice job," I finally said as I wore the blue dress. "It fits as if it was made just for me."
"It WAS made just for you," Leo reminded me.
Just like he'd promised, Tails paid for the dresses, and a nice handbag to go with them, and then got Leo and me each a pair of gloves and laceless sneakers. They were a nice fit, just like the dresses.
Around then, I realized that Tails wasn't wearing any clothes other than his own gloves and sneakers. I was about to question him about it, but Leo stopped me. "You get used to it," he assured me. "Trust me."
I decided to take his word for it. To make up for the inconvenience of having to sit there while the tailor measured me for my clothes, Tails entered another store and bought him an official Fox Scouts Adventurer's Kit.
Leo and I looked through the Fox Scout backpack together. Among other things, it contained a map of Emerald County (the area surrounding Emerald Town), a compass, a pair of binoculars, a flashlight, and an official Fox Scout Survival Handbook.
"You know, I was a Fox Scout when I was younger," Tails explained. "Some of that stuff could be useful to you."
"I bet," Leo responded. "Come on, Kim, I'll show you around the town. There are a few places that even I haven't been yet."
That sounded good, so we began to look around. Once I had some decent clothes, I got used to my new body rather quickly. In fact, I didn't even mind being "tailed" to Leo.
Our first stop was Tails' lab. It was a wondrous arrangement of all kinds of technical things. Tails was just finished talking to two figures which Leo recognized as Sonic and Amy.
"Wow, Tails," I finally said as I looked around, "you do some pretty advanced stuff."
"Thank you," Tails replied, bowing. "When Leo was here before, he wasn't as impressed as you are."
Saying this, Tails glanced up at a framed picture on the wall. It depicted a red birdlike figure in some kind of flashy pose, standing on something that looked like a pedestal.
I glanced at Leo. "That you?"
"That's right," Leo explained.
"Oh. Hm, I always imagined you a little differently. I figured your beak was a little larger."
"Well, eh, I guess I can understand that."
After we left Tails' lab, Leo pointed out the TV store. There was a news broadcast going on.
The newscaster, a female grey cat figure, was practically filled with zeal. "This is Kitty O'Brien, your favorite newscaster, here with the evening news. Dr. Eggman has just been sent to the local jail, and you can see the wagon pulling up behind me right now."
Leo laughed out loud. "So the doc finally got his just desserts. I'm glad of it. You know how much trouble he caused me when I was last here."
I smirked. "I bet, Leo. Come on, let's-"
"Wait a minute, Kim. The broadcast isn't over yet. I want to watch it straight through."
"You don't have a crush on Kitty, do you?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Kim. Why would I have a crush on her? We aren't even the same species!"
After I was able to tear Leo away from the television set, we approached the town park. As Leo explained, this was where he had been interviewed with the rest of the "cast" when he'd last been here.
One large tree stood in the corner of the park. One particularly large branch hung a few feet higher than our heads. As we looked at it, a smirk appeared on Leo's face. It looked like he had an idea.
I could never have been ready for what Leo did next. He grabbed our common tail and began to swing me around like a gymnast's hammer. When he had enough speed, he let go, sending me hurtling directly at the tree branch.
Even though I was terribly dizzy, I retained enough composure to grab on to the branch. "Leo," I yelled down, "how in the world did you come up with such a crazy maneuver?"
Leo only shrugged. "I saw something like that on TV. Now climb down on the other side of the branch!"
Despite how odd it sounded, I complied, and as I went down, he went up. When we were at the same level, he stopped me. We were now dangling from the branch by our common tail like some kind of odd holiday decoration.
"Thanks a lot, Leo," I growled. "What did you do that for?"
"I just wanted to test the strength and durability of our common tail," Leo responded off-handedly. "Looks like this 'glitch' is going to come in handy."
At that moment, Amy approached us. "Hi, Leo. Hi, Kim. What are you doing, hanging around here?"
Just when I was about to yell out a snappy comeback in response, the branch broke, and Leo and I were dumped on the ground. Well, on Amy. I guess it was both fortunate and unfortunate that Amy was standing in just the spot where we were going to land.
"Aheh, sorry about that, Amy," Leo said as soon as the three of us were standing again.
"No harm done," Amy assured us. "Sonic himself has done worse to me. You two might need a place to stay for the night; it's getting a little late."
I glanced at Amy. "Really? What time is it?"
"Nearly six," Amy explained. "I know of a pretty good hotel I can book you into. It's right near here. Don't worry, I'll have all the expenses charged to my account."
The hotel was called the Blue Diamond, and as it turned out, it was a pretty nice place. Amy spoke to the front desk clerk for a while, and then returned to us with a room key marked "208".
Room 208, as it turned out, was pretty nice. It had a double bed and all the generic hotel room fixings. The two of us began to kick back and relax.
We were at the hotel for the rest of the evening. When we finally went to bed, the two of us were quite used to being in Emerald Town. What we didn't know was that the next day, it was all going to be ruined.
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END OF SEGMENT
Yes, I'll end the segment now. I'm spacing the segments by plot, not by length. Expect the other segments to be longer.