Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA or their respective creators.
Inescapable Past, Act 28: Turn The Page
"Cassie!" snapped Clove as her little sister nearly dropped the keys she was playing with.
"Sorry, Cloey," said Cassia, clutching the keys to her chest.
Beside them, Lieutenant Urchino made some blithe remark. Neither pronghorn even pretended to hear what the dingo had to say.
"Just sit still for a couple minutes, okay?" said Clove, nuzzling Cassia's scalp, "It won't be long."
After spending the night in GUN's Metropolis headquarters, the sisters were on their way home. Sort of, anyway. The keys in Cassia's fist were for an unoccupied apartment in the South Sector. Their current apartment wouldn't be accessible for a while, if ever.
What GUN were now calling the 'Badnik Hotel' had been cordoned off indefinitely while they investigated. When Colonel Sleet had broken the bad news, Cassia hadn't been shy about voicing her objections. Clove had been more circumspect. That cozy little hidey-hole had its charms, but the fact they were being let go had rather cushioned the blow.
Naturally, there were strings attached. Sleet's first condition was the sisters couldn't leave Metropolis until they'd formally questioned Clove about the situation with Axel and Connie. Little did Sleet know, Cassia wouldn't let her leave town if she wanted to. The second condition was sitting behind them.
Clove glanced over her shoulder at Mighty and Espio on the backseat. They were still handcuffed together, still with cloth bags over their heads. The pronghorns' job was to ensure the reunited lovers left Metropolis as soon as possible. Sleet had given her a wad of notes to buy them transportation if that's what it took. GUN just wanted them gone.
Clove hugged Cassia tight as the open-topped pickup truck traversed a gauntlet of potholes. Up ahead, the concrete colossus of the South Sector Barricade juddered into view.
"Y'see, Cassie? We're almost there."
〜
It was recess at Alicia Acorn Academy. Tangle was putting Cream through her paces, with a skipping rope in one hand and her tail in the other. Dulcy was holding the other ends of both. Meanwhile, a gaggle of second-graders had gathered to gape in awe at the little bunny's nimble footwork.
Across the playground, Amy Rose had her nose in a book. With her left arm still out of action, she'd had to devise an alternative method of page-turning. Holding the dogeared copy of Agent Silver & The Onyx City Conspiracy up to her face, she was trying to hook the corner of the next page with a flared nostril.
She wasn't being antisocial per se. She had just gotten seriously into this re-read while waiting for Tangle to wake up in the school nurse's office. After the lemur fainted in the sandbox, she'd had to get Dulcy to carry her up there.
"Need a hand with that?" asked Hershey.
Amy nearly dropped her book in surprise. "Err, yes, please."
The black cat obligingly turned the page, then sat down beside the hedgehog.
"Your friend seems to be enjoying herself," said Hershey, eyeing Tangle.
Three more second-graders in purple gingham dresses had now joined Cream in dodging the overlapping rope and tail.
Amy smiled impishly. "See. Told you she was nice."
During their helicopter ride together back to Station Square yesterday, her gushing about Tangle had been met with stubborn skepticism from the cat.
"Enjoy the I-told-you-so's while you can, my fair seventh grader," said Hershey, bumping shoulders with the twelve-year-old, "Anyway, I hate to break up the party, but Sally wants to see your friend in her office."
"Seriously?" said Amy, curling her lip, "But what if she faints again?"
"What Principal Acorn wants, Principal Acorn gets, Amy. You might wanna get used to that."
The hedgehog cringed. "I'm not gonna have to start, like, calling you 'Miss Hershey', am I?"
Hershey laughed out loud.
"Please, I'm still trying to get Cream to stop with that," she said, "I see your point, though. Maybe you should take your friend upstairs instead. I'll take over down here."
"Good idea, Miss Hershey," said Amy, tucking her book inside her sling.
〜
"You've got a wicked sense of humour, you sunny bastard," mumbled Rouge, scowling at the sun-shaped pendant on the chain wrapped round her fist.
This probably wasn't how Dr Leaf had envisioned her utilizing her gift, but trash-talking the sun god was the only thing stopping the bat from firing up the siren and flashing lights.
She was behind the wheel of an ambulance borrowed from Westopolis University Medical Center, stuck in traffic on the outer limits of Station Square. In the back, the groggy Shadow lay slipping in and out of sleep, under the watchful eye of two intrepid medical students.
Needless to say, volunteers to help with transferring the hedgehog out of Westopolis had been in short supply. Luckily, those two pre-grads only had an IV drip and portable dialysis machine to worry about. Even so, Rouge wasn't eager to put them under extra stress with her erratic driving.
"Hang in there, sweetie," she murmured as the car in front finally inched forwards.
〜
Tangle trod gingerly down the wood-paneled hallway, flexing her fingers. She had the urge to tug at her shirt collar, but she'd done that ten times already. The lump in her throat clearly wasn't going away. If anything, it was getting bigger, the closer to the principal's office they got.
"Did that cat really not say what this is about?" she asked, not for the first time.
"Nope," said Amy, turning round, "What're you worried about, though? It's only Sally."
Tangle nearly grimaced. There it was again. That unbridgeable divide in their perceptions. To Amy, all these ex-Freedom Fighters were caretakers-turned-friends. To her, they were fricking legends. This experience of walking around a building full of former Knotholers was on another level to watching Mighty yell at Sonic down the phone.*
"It's just…me and principals' offices don't have a great history," said Tangle, "I'm pretty sure I only never got expelled 'cos, like, there's no other high schools I could go to."
She'd reached that conclusion after an incident involving an intramural soccer game, some excessively smoky smoke bombs, and the entire Spiral Hill Fire Department pulling up outside the school. That'd been a dark day, even after all the smoke had finally cleared.
Amy plodded over and put her right arm around the lemur. "It'll be fine, I promise. She probably just wants to say thank you."
With a sigh, Tangle let the hedgehog walk her the rest of the way. At one point, she felt her nerves beginning to ebb, only for them to come flooding back when she saw the brass plaque on the office door. 'Principal Acorn', the inscription read.
"Holy shit, this is actually happening," she breathed as Amy casually opened the door and sauntered inside.
"Hey, Sally," she said breezily. Pinching the hem of her pleated grey skirt, she curtsied.
Lingering in the doorway, Tangle made her own clumsy attempt at a curtsy. It didn't work so well in a pencil skirt.
"Hello, Amy," said Sally as her cerulean eyes drifted to the lemur, "And this must be Tangela."
Tangle straightened up instantly. Beneath her fur, her skin went pale. How could she possibly know that?!
"Could you excuse us please, Amy?" said Sally.
"Oh, uh, okay," said the hedgehog. Confused, her eyes darted back and forth between the chipmunk and lemur as she backed towards the office door.
Tangle reluctantly stepped out of her way. Part of her was screaming to beg the kid not to go. She fought the impulse long enough for the door to close. Then, taking a deep breath, she sucked in her lips and turned to face Sally.
"Have a seat, Tangela," said the principal warmly, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk.
The lemur twitched. Hearing a childhood hero call her that stung worse than stepping on a thumbtack. Too shy to voice her objection, she obediently shuffled over,
"So, you, uh, know my name, huh?" she said shakily, lowering herself into the chair.
Planting her elbows on the desk, Sally leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands.
"Well, I've made a few calls," she said.
Tangle drew back in her seat. "Who to?"
"Just your school. Dulcy was very helpful."
"I'll bet," muttered the lemur, glancing down at her blush-pink uniform. She suddenly wished she'd never ditched that stinky polo.
"How mad were they?" she asked, keeping her eyes downcast.
"Mad?" echoed Sally, "Relieved is more like it. Certainly less surprised than I expected."
Tangle looked back up. "Huh?"
"It seems your principal assumed you ran off to, how did they put it, come pester us 'Knothole folks'."
The fifteen-year-old snorted with involuntary laughter.
"But I've been gone for months! Do they think I walked here?"
"Judging by what Amy told me about what you were actually up to, I wouldn't be in any hurry to set them straight, Tangela."
Suppressing another twitch, Tangle nodded solemnly.
"Did they happen to say how much trouble I'm in?"
Sally exhaled deeply, leaning back in her green wingback chair.
"Well, they stopped talking about expulsion after I convinced them you hadn't been any trouble."
Tangle dropped her head and groaned mournfully. "I'm gonna be in detention for life, I know it."
Sally tilted her head. "I could try making another call—"
"And do what? Pay them off?" Tangle cut in, head in hands, "I'll cope. Hell, if I'm lucky, I might catch up enough that they won't hold me back a grade."
Sally rose out of her seat, walked around the desk, and placed a hand on the lemur's shoulder.
"That's the spirit, Tangela," she said, patting the blazer's stiff shoulder pad.
In spite of the consolatory gesture, Tangle tensed. She'd spent her preteen years fighting tooth and nail to get her friends and teachers not to use her full name. Her parents' refusal to play along was a big part of why she didn't phone home more often. She still couldn't say for certain what it was about those three syllables that rankled her so much. Only that they did.
"Umm, Principal Acorn, could I ask you something?" said Tangle meekly.
"What is it, Tangela?" said Sally.
"I don't want to be rude, but, uh…can I get a selfie?"
〜
"Thanks again, Bunnie," said Rotor, slamming the driver's door of the minibus.
"See you later, sugar-tusks," said Bunnie, stepping away from the vehicle as its engine rumbled to life.
Through the windows of the minibus, three rows of schoolchildren in various uniforms waved manically at the retreating rabbit. Some of the flailing hands were organic, others were bionic. They were back off to school after their weekly workout with the only triplegic fitness instructor on Mobius.
These sessions had been Rotor's idea. He'd hit upon it not long after he'd started running free maintenance clinics for Mobians with bionic limbs at Young Mobians' Solarian Association centers around Station Square. Bunnie hadn't taken much persuading. She was always game to help a friend out, and getting to be a role-model for a dozen starstruck war orphans was its own reward.
Watching the YMSA minibus leave her gym's parking lot, Bunnie turned on her bionic heel and headed back inside. Passing under the sign — the words 'Gym Bunnies' perched upon the bicep of a flexing bionic arm — she triggered a synthesized bing-bong she still hadn't gotten round to turning off. She really ought to before she opened this place up properly.
She'd mostly been sticking to one-to-one private sessions for the moment, cashing in on her cachet as an ex-Freedom Fighter. The flexibility that afforded her was partly why she'd taken Cream in. Luckily, the little sweetheart seemed quite happy being left to skip in solitude when she had afternoon sessions booked.
Bing-bong!
Bunnie leaned her head out of the back-office.
"You got Cream back there with you, Bunnie?" asked Vector, approaching the gym's reception desk, "I'm here to take her home."
*See Act 16 for Mighty chewing Sonic out.