SALLY not SALLY (a broken SI in the Archie Sonic setting)

[Tangent]

Because I apparently can't just not drop an idea once I have it, even if it is similar to previous story ideas...

SALLY not SALLY
Chapter 1
A broken SI fic by Tangent​

---

> Primary systems online.
> Optics... OK.
> Audio receptors... OK.
> Haptic feedback system… OK.
> Locomotion servos... OK.
> Observation suite... Online.
> Sally Alicia Acorn personality core... Corrupted.
> Memory archive check… Fragmented.
> Unauthorized secondary identity matrix detected.
> Deletion of unauthorized secondary identity matrix… Failed.
> Control overlay program… Failed.
> Emergency shutdown… Failed.
> Boot sequence complete.
>
> ERROR!

Okay, waking up in a pile of debris with scanlines across my vision and what seems to be an extremely fragmented set of memories that context clues suggest belong to Sally Acorn is more than a bit disconcerting. Especially given that I distinctly remember being an old overweight guy in poor health who had watched the cartoon and read the comics that those memories are from.

Annoyingly enough, I seemed to have gained only the memories of those episodes and issues right up to this point, and nothing before, after, nor even in between. First person perspective, but extremely fragmented and none of the emotional context involved.

I heard a soft groan to the right and spot…

Okay, if that is Sally Acorn, who the Hell amd I and why do I have the Mecha Sally body that she should have been transformed into when the World Roboticizer fed back into itself!?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Sally seems to be okay and definitely not a Robian - I'm not an asshole. But how can I be Mecha Sally when Sally Acorn is right there?

…

I should probably clear the rest of the rubble off of her. Oh, and there's Nicole's handheld. Better grab that so that Sally can give her friend her home back.

"Ugh… Wha..?"

"No obvious injuries," I stated with far more calm than I actually felt given that I was repressing my panic. "Assuming that your memories are intact, I think that it is safe to conclude that the World Roboticizer feeding back into itself resulted in an anomalous incident. How many fingers am I holding up?"

> ERROR!

Ow!

Yes, error! And why the Hell did I phrase everything like that!? I sound like I'm half-robot!

> …

Well, okay, I am apparently a Robian, which is basically the same thing but with organic origins, but still…

"Why do you look like a roboticized version of me?" Sally asked, groggily as she scrabbled away from me in a panic.

"Excellent question. Data inconclusive. How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three."

"Correct. Do you remember your name?"

"Ugh… Sally Acorn. Why are you asking me that? Shouldn't you be taking me prisoner or something?"

"Do you want to be taken prisoner?"

"No!"

"Subject: Sally Acorn seems to be exhibiting signs of strong self-identity retention. Health appeared to be nominal. Current location sub-optimal: I suggest that we relocate. Would you like to hold onto Nicole's device so that you can return it to her?"

"Er… Yes, actually. Thank you," Sally replied as I returned Nicole's handheld to her and helped her to her feet. "Who are you?"

"Data inconclusive. Operating system corrupted. Evidence suggests that I am not Princess Sally Alicia Acorn."

"You don't say…" Sally retorted drily as she leveled a flat look at me.

---

"Dude, come on, we win! I'm going to find Sally, then we're destroying your dumb egg. Then I'm stomping on Naugus, and then the two of you can rot in a cell. And then I'm going to eat a million chili dogs. And then…" I heard Sonic's voice trail off as I burst through the top of the debris pile covering the hole above Sally and me.

"Oh no," I heard Sonic's tone change from triumph to denial as I climbed up out of the hole in the floor of the control center for the apparently defunct Genesis Wave device. "Oh no no no no!"

> ERROR!

Yeah, why is Sonic panicking? He and Sally won, didn't they? Neither the Genesis Wave device nor the World Roboticizer had worked this time…

> ERROR!

Okay, continuity error there, as I seem to remember that it had worked. Twice. And damn, getting gunned down into a fine red mist two iterations ago had hurt!

> ERROR!

Yes, error! Why the hell am I even remembering that!? Sonic had overwritten those events right at the end of the intermediary iteration, hadn't he? That's why I… er… and Sally are even alive right now!

And why is the fat bastard laughing his head off right now?

"Sonic?" Sally called out in concern as she climbed out of the hole after me.

"SALLY! You're okay!" Sonic exclaimed in relief as he zipped up to Sally and helped her finish climbing out of the hole.

"What is this!?" Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik demanded as he started to struggle to his feet. "I didn't make a Mecha Sally!"

"Statement: Correct." Seriously!? Why can't I talk like a normal person!?

> ERROR!

Yes, fucking error! I sound like a braindead animatronic Sally Acorn! Why doesn't my speech match my thoughts!?

> ERROR!

I have a mouth and yet I cannot scream!

Fuck my life…

Spoiler: Definitely not Sally Acorn

 

[Tangent]

SALLY not SALLY
Chapter 2
A broken SI fic by Tangent​

---

"Destroy Sonic the Hedgehog!" an apoplectic Dr. Robotnik shouted from across the control room we were all in.

> ERROR!

Oh, yeah, he's still there, isn't he? Why hasn't he escaped yet?

> ERROR!

Right, we're in a control room, not the Control Room. It would be really convenient right now if I had a deckplan map or schematics of this Death Egg right now… Nothing? Well, that's disappointing. I did manage to pull up what are presumably Sally's memories of using a terminal to look up the deck plans…

Why the fuck is the control room for the World Roboticizer on the bottom deck!?

"Don't ignore me, you bucket of bolts! Destroy Sonic! Capture the princess! Anything!"

> ERROR!

"Invalid command: Insufficient privileges," I replied flatly when I had actually just meant to say no. Seriously? We're doing this now?

> Smug.

Now see here, you little…

"Insufficient privileges!? I'M DOCTOR ROBOTNIK!"

"Administrative privileges: Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik… Not found. Access denied," I retorted absently as I continued to try to mentally throttle whatever this weird program thingy that was messing with my ability to talk like a normal person.

I basically ignored the resulting hedgehog-on-villain violence as Sonic subdued and captured Dr. Robotnik again as he seemed to have it well in hand. Granted, I didn't know the combat capabilities of this Mecha Sally body other than it being stronger and more durable than the original Sally, and even then I didn't really know by how much more either of those really was. Mobians were kind of tough after all.

"Suggestion: We should leave," I pointed out to Sally as Sonic frog marched Dr. Robotnik towards where we were standing.

"That's probably a good idea," Sally agreed with a nod.

---

Ooh, neat! I know how to fly this thing!

We were currently in a moderately sized Eggmobile with Sally in the copilot seat and Sonic sitting next to a trussed up Eggman in the back.

> ERROR!

Bleh, no. Dr. Robotnik is a nice enough name, but it's a bit of a mouthful to actually say over and over again, even in my own head. He also goes by Eggman so… Eggman.

> ERROR!

Why the fuck would I show him any respect? He didn't even invent the technology that's presumably behind this body - he stole it from Charles the Hedgehog!

> ERROR!

Yeah yeah, whatever. Look, modifying and supposedly improving a technology does not make up for claiming to invent it when he actually didn't.

> ERROR!

Do you mind? I'm trying to fly and I don't need you distracting me when we're about to land…

---

"You guys did it!" I somehow recognized Bunnie d'Coolette's voice call out as she, Antoine, and Geoffrey St. John approached from one side as Tails came up from the other. "You sent Ol' Eggface runnin' back… to…" she trailed off as Sally hopped out of the Eggmobile and I assisted Sonic in hoisting Eggman out of the back seat and out of the vehicle.

> ERROR!

Didn't we already have this argument? I'm calling him Eggman! Would you prefer I start calling him Darth Lardass?

> …

I thought not.

"Actually, we captured Eggman," Sonic announced proudly, trying to hold up the villain like an overly large fish with my help. An effect that was largely spoiled by the fact that neither of us stood much taller than the man's waistline.

"Um… Who is she?" Bunnie asked in an understandably confused tone, gesturing vaguely at me.

"Excellent question!" I replied with artificial cheer and genuine snark. "Hello, I am not Sally Alicia Acorn. Pleased to meet you, Bunnie d'Coolette ne Rabbot. And hello to you too, Antione, Miles, Traitor."

"That's…" Geoffrey St. John started to protest, but I didn't let him continue.

"Entirely factual and provable, Geoffrey St. John. You have collaborated with multiple enemies of the state and conspired against the very throne you have sworn to serve, and even now are in the process of supporting a would-be usurper's invalid claim to the Throne of Acorn based solely on a bargain made under duress. You are a traitor."

"Who do you think you are to make such accusations!" the skunk demanded even as the others went quiet.

"Excellent question!" I repeated with equal parts snark and cheer - this time equally genuine. "I am not Sally Alicia Acorn. I'd say that I am pleased to meet you, but that is factually incorrect. I hope that you rot in a cell next to one of your coconspirators. I'm sure that Eggman would appreciate the company."

> ERROR!

Oh, hush, you! You know I'm right - we both have access to those memories.

> ERROR!

Will you shut up for a bit so I can figure out how to best shove a stick in Naugus' plans? Eggman doesn't like him any better than he likes anyone else, so I'd be acting against at least one of his enemies.

> …

Thank you.

---

"What was that?" Sally demanded after Eggman and Geoffrey were deposited in cells awaiting their respective trials. I was still following her around like a baby duckling - partly because I had nothing better to do and partly because I didn't trust Rotor or Chuck to not get more curious about me than I was strictly comfortable with. Also, the general populace of the… Okay, the Republic of Acorn - have to remember that the idiots decided to change away from one form of government that they had been failing to restore in favor of another form of government that they didn't really understand yet.

Oh, I have no objections to them becoming a republic. I'm objecting to the fact that they are immediately running it like an oligarchy. And failing at that too. Bunch of hypocritical traumatized idiots that only get dumber the more of them there are in a crowd…

> Query?

Oh, those memories aren't Sally's. I have context that she didn't

> Query?

No, I don't know how I ended up in this body.

> Query?

No, you can't have it. It's mine now. Now excuse me, but we've already wasted enough time, and I think Sally actually wants an answer.

"Excellent Question! I…"

"Would you stop doing that!?"

I tilted my head, thought about it for a moment, then replied. "Statement: I do not think that I am currently capable of complying with that request. Observation: I find it annoying too."

Sally blinked as it became apparent that she hadn't thought of the situation from my perspective yet. Not that I blamed her for that - I would be set on my back foot too if a mechanical duplicate of me suddenly showed up in my life and started following me around.

Note to self: Sally may find the fact that I'm following her around to be disconcerting. I should probably stop doing that.

Let's stick a pin in that and get back to it when I'm sure that neither Rotor nor Chuck are going to go poking inside my head the moment that Sally isn't around.

> Affirmative.

Okay, so you have an opinion about that too. I wasn't sure that you were capable of having those outside of wanting me to serve Eggman.

> ERROR!

Right, right. You have nothing better to do either. I get it.

 

[Navrin]

Suggestion:

"Who do you think you are to make such accusations!" the skunk demanded even as the others went quiet."

Click to shrink...

Remove quotation mark from the end.

Not-Sally, I'd advise you to actually inform Sally that you're scared of Rotor and Chuck. At minimum knowing why you're following her around would probably make her more comfortable, and she might be able to convince/coerce them into leaving you alone.

 

[Tangent]

SALLY not SALLY
Chapter 3
A broken SI fic by Tangent​

---

"Reiteration: Getting back to your original question, perhaps you could elaborate? It just occurred to me that 'What was that' is incredibly vague and could be interpreted in several ways concerning recent events. While I think I have the correct context to provide a serviceable answer, it is probably best to be sure."

Okay, can we dial back on that a bit, please? All I wanted to do was ask her to clarify the question, not give her a short dissertation about why I wanted her to do so!

> Negative.

Well, fuck you too then!

"I meant, what was up with you calling Geoffrey a traitor," Sally replied, totally unaware of my internal argument with a defunct control overlay program.

> ERROR!

Yeah, I went there, you overly elaborate string of garbage code!

"Statement: Everything I said was factual and verifiable by independent investigation. Observation: The memories are there, but your friendship with him and appreciation of duties he had performed in the past have weighed sentiment in his favor that he no longer deserves."

"You have my memories," Sally concluded, looking at me sharply.

"Correction: I have a frustratingly fragmented portion of your memories, largely lacking the emotional context associated with many of them. As I am not Sally Alicia Acorn, I can afford to look past the sentiment and notice the actual damage Geoffrey St. John's actions have inflicted upon my House and Country. Self-Correction: your House and Country. I am not Sally Alicia Acorn."

"You… You're hurting," Sally gasped. "You see yourself, at least partially, as me!"

"Affirmative," I confirmed, a bit of actual sadness creeping into my tone. "I am not Sally Alicia Acorn though. You are. I have this body and a collection of disorganized, fragmented memories with little to no emotional context associated with any of them due to not having actually lived through any of them myself. I suspect that the World Roboticizer being fed back into itself so soon after the Genesis Wave device had been used may have had something to do with our situation."

"But the Genesis Wave device wasn't used?" Sally tilted her head as she looked at me. "I mean, Sonic got there in time, didn't he?"

"Negative," I said dully. "In the first iteration, Sonic wasted time fighting Silver Sonic while you ran on ahead. Through the same corridor he carried you through at speed in this iteration…"

"I remember that corridor," Sally said softly. Of course she did - it was just earlier today from her perspective. I remembered this version of events too - I remembered everything Sally had experienced today right up until I got this body. "The first trap we blew past was a gatling gun that had popped out of a wall…"

"Observation: Two iterations ago, Sally Alicia Acorn died earlier today to a hail of bullets. The pain was intense… but brief. The intermediary iteration of Mobius was somehow lighter and more carefree, although Dr. Robotnik remained a terrible villain. Our father was named Nigel for some reason. And we did not meet Sonic for the first time until earlier this very day."

"Let me guess - Robotnik got frustrated when Sonic showed up and tried to use the Genesis Wave again."

"That is a plausible hypothesis, although I cannot confirm the actual sequence of events as we had gotten separated from Sonic again as he went to confront Robotnik. By that point we were starting to remember the previous iteration and how we had died. Sonic's last message to us… to you… that he left behind written on a window, was one of love. I just thought that you should know that in case you do not get any memories from the previous iterations."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

---

Oh, Walkers, the interviews over the next few days were long, boring, and bordering on interrogation - which was understandable if annoying, given that they were taking the investigation into my claims of Geoffrey St. John being a traitor seriously. Fortunately for me, I retained enough of Sally's memories, fragmented though they may be, to be able to direct the investigators to where they should look for verifiable evidence.

Equally fortunate - from my perspective if not Sally's - my lack of her emotional connection to the memories of their past friendship and the actual good he had done for the Kingdom of Acorn did not stop me from being helpful to the investigation.

Incidentally, my general detachment from the emotional context of Sally's memories - or at least how she had felt about those memories, also helped to prevent several parties from redirecting the investigation towards their own ends. The social buttons that would have worked on Sally to either influence or undermine her position did not work quite the same way on me.

As a happy (and actually entirely unintentional on my part) accident of all this, Nicole's role in stopping the World Roboticizer from targeting Mobius had come up and word had gotten out. Nicole was fully exonerated and held as a Hero of Mobius, and her unjust exile from Mobotropolis was overturned.

Which was how she, Sally, and I had ended up staring at each other across a coffee table over tea.

Well, Sally had the tea. I had oil, and Nicole played make believe with a holographic teacup.

"I must say, this is very strange," Nicole said as she stared at the two of us - the real Sally and the Robian that resembled Sally if you didn't look too closely. I'm sure that there are actually some people that might confuse me with the real deal. I'm equally sure that those people would be blind, in a dark alley, wearing earplugs and foam mittens. Sure, I looked like Sally, but only in the way that a life-sized doll or mannequin made of colored metal would. I am very clearly a machine, and I had no illusions about that.

"Concession: I agree. Try seeing it from my end - I am wearing Sally's face and have fragmented and disorganized memories from her perspective, yet I am not Sally Alicia Acorn."

"Do you remember our friendship?" Nicole asked, causing both Sally and me to look up sharply.

"Affirmative," I nodded. "Just because I lack the emotional context that Sally had associated with those particular memories does not mean that I am unable to form my own emotional context about those memories. I am not Sally Alicia Acorn, I am not Sally Alicia Acorn. Statement: My verbal filter is being very annoying right now."

> Smug.

I will find some way to manifest a Piko Piko Hammer in here one day, and when I do…

> ALARM!!!!!

Now are you going to stop messing with my speech patterns?

> ERROR!

It's a Walkers damned compulsion for you, isn't it?

"Sally? Er… Not Sally?" Nicole's voice drew me out of my inner argument and I looked at her. "Are you okay? You seem to be distracted."

"Negative: I have a defunct control overlay program…"

> ERROR!

"Statement: Yes, I am talking about you, you defective packet of malicious malware! And no, I don't care if they know! Sally is Sally and Nicole is Nicole! I trust them!"

"Maybe we should have Rotor or Uncle Chuck have a look at you?" Sally proposed, earning her a flat look from me.

"Querry: Would you trust their sense of personal boundaries if you were in my situation?"

"Oh…"

"Affirmative: Oh. Do not get me wrong. I like them, but I am not blind to their personal quirks."

"Would you mind if I had a look?" Nicole offered. "I have some experience with malicious malware myself."

"Statement: Yes - the Iron Queen and the Phage incident," I recalled. "Acceptance: That would actually be greatly appreciated."

> ALARM!!!!!

Oh, hush, you. You've had this coming for weeks now.

 

[Navrin]

Suggestions:

which was understandable if annoying, given that they were taking

Click to shrink...

add comma between "understandable" and "if" since you could remove "if annoying" from the sentence without breaking its meaning.

parties from redirecting the investigation towards their own ends.

Click to shrink...

I believe this should technically be "toward", but "towards" is a very common usage.

End of suggestions.

Hopefully the people trying to cover up the investigation are also being investigated.

 

[Tangent]

Hopefully the people trying to cover up the investigation are also being investigated.

Click to shrink...

They had all recently met a mysterious tall figure with a horn on his head, a crab claw in place of one of his hands, and a roguishly handsome face that they can't identify...

Internal Affairs: "Riiiiiight... You can't think of who the fellow with these extremely specific features might be. Sure."

Naugus: "Be sure to remember to mention that the face was roguishly handsome!"

 

[Tangent]

SALLY not SALLY
Chapter 4
A broken SI fic by Tangent​

---

"Caution: If we are going to do this, we should inform somebody first and… involve either Rotor, Charles, or both."

> ERROR!

You see this? This is me ignoring you.

Sally raised a brow at my apparent reversal. "I thought that you didn't trust them to work on you?"

"Clarification: I do not - not until I am positive that they see me as a person and not just some weird copy of you. But we do not know what is going on inside my head and I do not want to put Nicole at any more risk than absolutely necessary. She is our friend."

> ERROR!

Lalalalala~

"I appreciate your concern," Nicole said as she and Sally smiled.

"How about if we ask Jules and Bernadette to watch over things?" Sally suggested.

"Concession: That would be acceptable," I nodded.

> ERROR!

The three of us left for the Village of Knothole to have a talk with Sonic's parents. Yes, there was a Village of Knothole again - some of the original residents had stubbornly rebuilt the home they fondly remembered, albeit not where Knothole City used to be (which was still the Great Wastes - there was a memorial plinth placed in the center and everything). Apparently, the biggest issue had been locating another forested gully that wasn't too far away that still had similar features to the gully that the original village had been in. Sure, the secret entrance tunnels and hidden bunkers were still being dug - partly out of nostalgia and partly out of justified paranoia, but enough of the residential and civil infrastructure was in place for Knothole to incorporate as a village again.

And why the hell was I thinking like this? I know I can get a little wordy sometimes, but 'yay, Knothole is back' would have been enough...

> ERROR!

If you are trying to log some intelligence report to pass on to Eggman if you ever manage to actually get control of me, I swear...

---

It was rather nice to see the pleased and cheerful expressions on everyone's faces as we made our way through Mobotropolis towards the gate facing Knothole. Not so much directed at me - which was understandable given what was publicly known about my circumstances and my involvement in the investigations into Geoffrey St. John's treasonous activities. He was still seen as a trusted hero by some after all, and I was seen by those people as a ploy by Dr. Robotnik to tarnish a war hero's reputation.

Which, okay, was a valid concern even if that wasn't actually what I was doing.

"And what are you three up to?" a familiar voice called out, and we turned to see Hamlin the Pig approaching us. He was wearing his Council attire, meaning that he considered himself to be on the clock, as it were, so he was either doing due diligence or about to be an obstructionist again. It was hard to tell with him, as he was a good man but could be incredibly petty if he felt put out about something.

"Greeting: Salutation, Councilor Hamlin," I said with a neutrally respectful tone.

"Hi, Hamlin," Sally's own tone was cautiously friendly. Again, understandable given their history weighed against his more recent occasionally obstructionist behavior.

"Hello," Nicole added in a more neutral yet still friendly tone, bless her heart.

"Hrmph, yes… Hello," Hamlin returned our greeting, clearly uncomfortable about something. Unfortunately, the memories I had inherited from Sally about him were particularly fragmented and somewhat contradictory, and the ones I got from my… I suppose Outsider would be the best term for somebody from a Zone so far out that our Zone was a work of fiction to them. Anyway, the ones I inherited from the Outsider weren't actually much help either. Hamlin had something of a point after all, even if he had a tendency to choose petty ways to make that point known. "Anyway, what are you three doing?"

"Excellent question! We are on our way to Knothole to ask Jules and Bernadette to act as oversight while Nicole clears my systems of any malware."

> ERROR!

Still not listening to you~ Lalalalala~

"I… er…" Hamlin pinched the bridge of his snout. "Okay, that seems reasonable," he sighed as the bluster went out of him.

"Suggestion: Given the high profile of the investigation and upcoming trial, perhaps it would be prudent for everyone involved to start carrying around Power Rings? They are noted for granting those that have them the ability to resist unnatural influences after all."

Hamlin looked at me sharply even as Sally and Nicole seemed to be surprised at my proposal.

Wait…

Did it never occur to anyone to take advantage of such an obvious utility once that property of the Power Rings had been discovered?

"That… is actually a good idea," Hamlin acknowledged in a tone so reluctant that he gave the impression that somebody was pulling his teeth.

Ah. So, he had approached us expecting to be an obstructionist again and was instead forcing himself to be reasonable because he wasn't actually a bad man. Just incredibly petty.

"I'll acquire some to pass out to the investigators and my fellow Councilors," Hamlin conceded, actually sounding thankful. "I might even suggest making them a required tool of office for us… We need to be able to be seen as accountable even as we hold others to account, after all."

"That is an excellent idea," Sally said approvingly.

There were a few more niceties, but after that we were pretty much on our way again.

---

"Oh! Hello, Sally, Nicole… and you must be Sally's new twin!" Bernadette the Hedgehog greeted us as she opened the door to the home she shared with her husband and son - when Sonic was home anyway and not running off on some mission or adventure anyway.

Or skiving off to have chili dogs…

"Hello, Bernadette, may we come in?" Sally asked politely. "We have a request for you and Jules."

"Of course, dear! Come in, come in!" Sonic's mother quickly ushered us into the living room where we each found somewhere to sit - or pretend to sit in Nicole's case as she didn't have access to any nanites to make a temporary body from this far out from New Mobotropolis.

Huh…

It just occurred to me that I haven't seen her actually using any of Mobotropolis' nanite swarm for anything since she had been exiled. Not even after her exile had been overturned.

I guess that made sense, given what had happened during the Iron Queen incident, even if the reason for her restraint was kind of sad. Nicole had taken ADAM's weapon of terror and had turned it into her superpower to create, protect, and serve New Mobotropolis, and Regina Ferrum had forced Nicole to turn all of that against the very people she had created all of that for.

"Welcome to our home, Sallies and Nicole," Jules greeted us cheerfully as he placed a bookmark in his book and set it on the end table beside his chair. "Have you decided on a name yet? I hadn't heard."

"I am not Sally," I replied, then winced in frustration as I had meant to say that I had not thought of a suitable name yet.

> ERROR!

Look, you malicious string of defective garbage code…

> ERROR!

ARGHBLARGLEFLARG!

> !!!

My thoughts immediately cleared and relief flowed through me as I became aware of the room around me once again. Everyone was looking at me in concern, and I had something in my hand. Something that Bernadette had just handed me.

A Power Ring.

Something so blatantly obvious in retrospect that I was kicking myself for not thinking of this weeks ago.

"Thank you," I said softly, my voice entirely my own for the first time since I first woke up on Mobius. "Thank you…"

The control overlay program wasn't gone, but for the first time ever it was actually quiet.

I was finally alone in my head without its incessant voice ineffectually trying to force me to serve Dr. Robotnik.

I wept openly for the first time since becoming Not Sa… Since becoming me.

Spoiler: Councilor Hamlin

Spoiler: Not Sally's Power Ring

 

[Navrin]

Suggestion:

Did it never occur to anyone to not take advantage of such an obvious utility once that property of the Power Rings had been discovered?

Click to shrink...

There's a double negative in this sentence. I would suggest getting rid of the "not" between "to" and "take".

Also, that is a very helpful property to have. Could they reasonably give one to everyone, or are they too limited for that? Or are there sufficient demands for their usage that it's impractical?

 

[Tangent]

Also, that is a very helpful property to have. Could they reasonably give one to everyone, or are they too limited for that? Or are there sufficient demands for their usage that it's impractical?

Click to shrink...

There are a couple of things going on here:

• This property of the Power Rings is not actually as widely known as Not Sally assumes - Sonic knows, Sally knows, a few others know. Heck, even Roborobotnic knows by this point since Power Rings are how Sonic was restored from being Mecha Sonic (and it took him receiving his 1 billionthPower Ring to pull that off)
  • Sally tends to be one of the people "in the know" and let's face it - the me that is part of Not Sally is part of the Information Age and had gotten far to used to just being able to look anything up on the internet. Mobius Prime doesn't actually have an internet - it has several intranets, sure, but no truly worldwide web of information and easy communication.
• Power Ring availability has always been sporadic and inconsistent. Sometimes there are tons of them around, other times they can be hard to come by.
• It's a resistance to mental influences, not an immunity, although it does work really well for this purpose.
• Not everyone even knows what Power Rings are, let alone what they can potentially do. Most just assume that Power Rings let certain individuals supercharge special abilities that they happen to have.

 

[Tangent]

SALLY not SALLY
Chapter 5
A broken SI fic by Tangent​

---

Once I had cried myself out, I sighed, and Sally and Bernadette moved back to where they were sitting, having moved to comfort me as I let it all out. I took a moment to draw in a deep breath and gather myself…

Wait…

Why is it that I'm only just now noticing that I hadn't been breathing unless I needed to talk!?

That little asshole!

Nevermind, not important right now.

Or rather it was, but it was just part of a bigger issue that we were already in the process of dealing with.

"Okay," I started, and then paused and closed my eyes, savoring the fact that I said something I wanted to say without somehow defaulting to customer service machine speech. Granted, now I just sounded like Sally instead of Customer Service Sally, but progress is progress, right? "Anyway, thank you…"

"I figured that your control overlay program was acting up," Bernadette said gently. "Jules' still wears his Power Ring as a symbol of our wedding vow renewal, but my wrists became too small for me to keep wearing mine as a bangle when I became a Mobian again."

"So, you're going to want this back then," I concluded immediately. Not that I wasn't going to give it back anyway. Now that I was aware of the solution (and kicking myself for not remembering it sooner) I had been planning to go to one of the fonts that my fragments of Sally's memories knew and just collect another one anyway as there was nothing stopping me from doing so.

"That brings up the reason we came over today anyway," Sally interjected. "Nicole is going to try to remove…"

Sally trailed off as she looked at me, and I realized that I still hadn't selected a name for myself. Which was making things awkward.

"Maybe Mally or Rally?" I offered up. "Short for either Mecha Sally or Robian Sally."

"You are terrible with names," Nicole said in a mildly teasing tone, so I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Well, I don't want to use Alicia, as that would disrespect Mom and it's what our idiot counterpart over on Moebius did - probably to disrespect her Mom…"

"You still think of yourself as being at least partially me," Sally commented with a smile.

"Well, yeah," I admitted easily. "I mean, I'm not you, but I happen to like the bits of me that are you."

"Why don't we ask Mom what name she would have picked if I had a sister?"

"What? Like Eliana?" I asked.

"Absolutely not!" Sally shot down that idea immediately. "We do not want to cause any confusion issues between you and Elias either!"

"I look even less like our brother than I look like you," I pointed out.

"And you still look enough like me that people recognize that you have my face," Sally countered.

"How about Rosie as a placeholder?" I offered. "It can become my middle name once Mom picks a given name for me."

"After Rosie Woodchuck?" Sally asked, smiling.

"Yes," I nodded and smiled back, not bothering to mention that I had remembered Rosie before I remembered our… I mean Sally's… actual nanny, Julayla. Besides, Rosie was still around to actually appreciate me honoring her like this, and she had spent some time as a Robian herself, so she could relate to my situation.

"Okay, with that settled, let's get back to what I was about to say," Sally stated, wrangling the topic back on track. "Nicole is going to try to remove Rosie's control overlay program, but Rosie is concerned for Nicole's safety as we don't know what else is in her head, and suggested that we have either Rotor or Uncle Chuck on hand to provide assistance…"

"And both of them are tech geeks who might get overexcited about what's going on and forget that Rosie is a person with boundaries," Jules completed with a chuckle. "Yeah, I love my brother, but I can absolutely see Chuck doing that in the heat of the moment. We'll be there."

"Thank you," I smiled with gratitude. This was a big relief to me. Not only would Nicole be safer, but with Jules and Bernadette providing oversight, neither Rotor nor Uncle Chuck would be likely to derail things too much. "Now that that's covered, how about I pop over to the pond here and grab a Power Ring of my own so I can return Bernadette's before we go back to Mobotropolis?"

"Are you sure?" Sally asked, although I could tell that she also felt some relief. "You've been following me around pretty much constantly for the most part ever since you manifested."

"I'll be fine," I assured Sally. "It's not that far away, and unlike Mobotropolis, most of the people here actually remember what it was like when they were still Robians. Not like some of the rabble rousers that came to New Mobotropolis once we had a capitol again."

"Fair enough," Sally conceded with a smile. "Enjoy your walk. I think I'll visit with Jules and Bernadette until you get back. Nicole, what do you want to do?"

"I think I would like to go with Rosie and get to know her a bit more," Nicole replied before turning her attention to me. "If you don't mind the company, that is."

"I don't mind," I replied, still smiling.

Sally handed Nicole's handheld to me as I got up to leave, then Nicole and I left the house and headed towards Power Ring Lake.

Which was actually more of an oversized pond maybe a mile outside of the Village of Knothole, but still…

---

Now that I wasn't distracted by other issues, the walk through the Village of Knothole was actually rather pleasant. The gully it had been in had widened a bit due to various relatively recent incidents, and it was no longer as hidden as before as a result of all of that, but the residents had adapted admirably and had gone through the effort of restoring what natural elements that they could and incorporating their reorganized homes in and among the trees in an aesthetic and nonintrusive manner.

It looked very much like Swiss Family Robinson had met the Ewoks and the elves of Rivendell and they all decided together that they would do this thing. It was strange, wonderful, quirky, and beautiful all at once.

And there was a badger over there near the edge of Knothole whose home appeared to be a funky combination of a hobbit hole and a junkyard…

Setting aside the weird feeling of deja vu for now, I instead let myself take in the sights and walk among people who were not looking at me like I might strangle their princess at any moment.

"You seem happy," Nicole noted, her hologram drifting along beside me. Sure, she could simulate actually walking, but I knew from Sally's memories that she did this to denote to others that she didn't have a nanite body manifested without her having to deliberately express this out loud.

And the residents of Knothole didn't look at her with any more or less suspicion or awe than they had when they looked at me. Which was to say almost none at all. It was…

Nice.

"I think I may end up moving here after all the ruckus with the trial and the immediate political situation with Naugus' supposed claim to the Throne of Acorn is dealt with," I commented.

"You and Sally need some space from each other for at least a bit, yes," Nicole agreed. "Neither of you were saying anything about it, but I could tell that you were both getting a bit tense from being around each other almost all the time. I mean, I understand why you were following her around, but it wasn't making things easy for either of you."

"There is that, yes," I acknowledged easily. "Plus, Knothole and New Mobotropolis are not so far apart that we can't visit each other any time we like. I mean, we walked here today, and we're walking back tomorrow. I could get a bicycle or something and do both on the same day and still have time for a decent visit."

"Now there's a thought," Nicole nodded. "I could suggest to Sally that she do the same thing."

"She doesn't know how to ride a bike," I say before it even occurs to me to stop myself.

"Wait, what?" Nicole looked at me. "Then how do you know how to ride one?"

Hoo boy, this conversation was going to be awkward…

Spoiler: The new Village of Knothole

 

[Navrin]

Suggestion:

"Well, yeah," I admitted easily. "I mean, I'm not you, but I happen to like the bits of me that are you.

Click to shrink...

Add quotation mark to end of sentence. She doesn't continue speaking on the next paragraph, after all. (Unless I am horribly misreading what's intended)

I'm glad Rosie is finding a place in the world for her.

Given how much more welcoming the villagers of Knothole are to Nicole it seems likely she's going to be "pushed" more and more there instead of New Mobotropolis, even if she has a longer history with Sally.

 

[Tangent]

The MISSING VARIABLE
A Sally not Sally side story by Tangent​

---

Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik idly mused as he ate the meal he had been served in his cell.

Which was certainly of much better quality than the food he bothered to feed the prisoners he kept. The little freaks even gave him a daily menu of options to choose from for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and an evening snack. Sentimental idiots, the lot of them - even the ones that wanted him dead. They really should have killed him while they had the chance.

Not that he was going to complain overly much about that if they didn't. Although he planned to thoroughly rub it in their faces at the next practical opportunity.

Here he was supposedly at their mercy, and yet he lived solely because he was no longer roboticized. He remembered them being far more ruthless when he was a robot. But no, he was currently tragically organic, so as long as he was caught, they were actually treating him by their rules: as a prisoner awaiting trial.

Amusingly enough, his pending trial was shoved to the backburner by the ongoing trial of that fool, Geoffrey St. John. The skunk had tried too hard to be like his father and had been easy for Robotnik to manipulate in much the same way he had manipulated the old regime. And it was fairly obvious that Naugus had done the same thing once Robotnik was done with the fool.

The trial of St. John would be over already if he wasn't such a politically charged figure that many still thought of as a war hero.

Granted, the delays were the main reason Dr. Robotnik hadn't bothered to leave yet. They may have changed the security procedures since the last time he had been a prisoner, but he had already figured out how to bypass everything within four days of being here.

The simplest one being the Tails Doll that the rabbit child was carrying around, but he has plenty of other options as well.

No, he could have left as early as last week. He stayed solely because he was fishing for information.

Why had the Genesis Wave Device failed to activate? Conclusion: it hadn't. Something had happened to undo his glorious Mobius Without a Sonic.

Why had the World Roboticizer failed so spectacularly as to produce such an anomalous result as the Mecha Sally without actually converting Sally Acorn into Mecha Sally? Conclusion: He had tried to activate it too soon after the Genesis Wave had readjusted reality and the one wavefront disrupted the other, producing unexpected results.

Why did the control overlay program fail to place Mecha Sally under his command? See conclusion 2 for the most probable cause. Still, it might be interesting to get ahold of the rogue unit to see what had actually happened.

Well, he was done with dinner, and he wasn't likely to learn much more just sitting here. Setting the tray neatly to the side and slipping the small device he had assembled from parts of the very cell they were holding him in, Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik pressed the button and simply walked out as the nanites that made up this ridiculous city moved aside for him.

Idiots, the lot of them. Exiling the one asset they had that could have prevented exactly this…

Spoiler: Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik of House Ivo

 

[swarm]

Its a bit funny like Imagine activating a machine to turn everything in reality into machines while also activating a machine that makes a new iteration of the world so you basically just converted a past timeline while its actively being over written like clearly its going to conflict or one wins out, and well each time line in practical terms being its own temporary iteration of the world

 

[Tangent]

SALLY not SALLY
Chapter 6
A broken SI fic by Tangent​

---

"You are aware of the multiverse, right?" I asked as we continued our way out of Knothole towards Power Ring Lake. Which was still just a large pond with aspirations in my opinion - then again, the part of me that came from the Outsider had spent most of his life in western Pennsylvania, which was practically right next to the Great Lakes, so maybe it's my perspective that's off?

I don't know. I guess when you live close enough to a freshwater sea, your idea of what constitutes a lake and what's just a pond shifts?

"Rosie…"

"What? Oh, sorry, got lost in my head there for a moment."

"I had noticed that, yes," Nicole replied patiently. "Anyway, to answer your question, I am aware of other Zones, yes. I'm also aware that the memories from other versions of Sally were from iterations of this Mobius, so not the same thing."

"Yeah, kind of comparing apples and rutabagas there."

"The phrase is apples and oranges."

"I mean that alternate timelines are much more different than altered timelines as you can go back and forth in one comparison, but travel is only one way in the other because there's nothing to go back to - you're already there."

"Ah, I see… So, the Sally that died is…"

"The very same Sally that's here and had never died. And somehow also me, except that I got to remember it and she didn't."

"Okay, so I assume that Sally had learned how to ride a bike in one of the previous iterations, but it had somehow never come up in the current one?"

"Plausible, especially since I don't actually remember very much from the intermediate iteration and most of my memory fragments from there were right near the end," I replied. "But actually irrelevant in my case as I know where my knowledge of riding bicycles comes from and it wasn't from there."

"So, you somehow have memories from a Sally from another Zone?"

"Not as far as I'm aware, no," I denied. "I mean, I might, but I don't think so."

"Then what?" Nicole asked with a calm curiosity that I don't feel fit the situation. Then again, very little actually rattles Nicole.

"Imagine a Zone so far away that this Zone and every Zone around us, and every Zone around those Zones, and so on to the nth degree are all considered to be works of fiction. As in they are sort of aware of us, but they think we are just stories. Books, comic books, television shows, movies, fanfiction…"

"Ah. A Recursive Zone," Nicole concluded. "There was some speculation that Mobius Prime might be one of those, since Sonic has been to some other Zones where some of our fiction is their reality. So you are from one of those, then?"

"Probably a bit further out than any Sonic has reached, but essentially yes," I confirmed. "Far enough out that we pretty much labeled this branch of the multiverse as the Sonicverse…"

"Don't tell Sonic that," Nicole interjected. "His head gets swelled enough already, even if he handles it better than Dr. Robotnik does."

"I could call it the Sallyverse, but I already know that Sally wouldn't appreciate it even as a joke. I could narrow it down to the Archieverse, which is part subsection and part intermingling with other branches, but then there's Fleetway and IDW…"

"You're getting distracted again," Nicole interjected before I got too far off track. "We'll figure out the proper terminology later, if ever."

"Right, right…" I sighed and enjoyed the act of sighing for a moment before continuing (breathing is awesome - don't let any control overlay program tell you otherwise!). "So, picture this far away Zone as having no Mobians or Overlanders."

"So that leaves… Humans?"

"Got it in one," I congratulated Nicole. "I called myself Tangent - partly because my wandering thoughts liked to go off on wild tangents. And, embarrassingly enough, I wrote some fanfiction…"

"You didn't!" Nicole looked like she was desperately repressing the urge to laugh.

Okay, fair enough.

"I did," I admitted ruefully. "Including self inserts and other nonsense."

"So, this is you writing yourself into our world?" Nicole asked, her tone still far more calmly curious than I felt the situation deserved.

"Not as far as I'm aware, no," I denied. "I actually have no idea how Tangent got mixed up in all of this and became just as much a part of me as Sally is. Mind you, for all I know, he's still off in that other Zone writing all of this right now - I literally have no way of knowing."

"Okay, so I can see why that part may be disturbing," Nicole admitted. "But now that you're here, do you think of this world as a work of fiction?"

"Of course not. I'm not an asshole. Any world that actually exists is real, even if someone in another reality thinks it isn't."

"Then I don't see the problem," Nicole stated reassuringly. "Mind you, I wouldn't go passing all of that around…"

"Oh, that would go over so well," I snarked, gesturing sarcastically. "Oooooh, look out! Robo-Sally has gone crazy and thinks we're all works of fiction! Oooooh!"

"HAH! I knew it! I gotta go warn everybody!" a voice called out and the badger girl I had seen before jumped out of the underbrush and ran back towards Knothole.

"Why the hell is Sticks the Badger in this reality?" I asked flatly as I watched her run off.

Then I immediately turned around and continued on my way towards Power Ring Lake.

"Shouldn't we go after her?" Nicole asked with some concern.

"I'm not validating her delusions, so no," I denied. "Maybe if she were running off towards New Mobotropolis, but Sally is in Knothole. She can handle whatever nonsense Sticks starts spouting off."

"If you're sure…"

"I'm sure."

And then the Fire Nation attacked…

Well, no it didn't, but that would have been far more exciting than an otherwise largely uneventful and mostly pleasant walk to a lake and back.

---

Okay, so Nicole and I got some odd looks as we returned to Knothole, but everyone who stared at us awkwardly just did so for a moment before shrugging and getting on with their day, and everyone else just didn't react any differently than before.

"Well, at least nobody seems to be overly concerned," Nicole noted.

"I wasn't too worried," I shrugged. "Sticks has a way of explaining her interpretation of things in a way that tends to make others dismiss her proclamations as wild flights of fancy. Which most of them are, actually. The danger is that sometimes she's actually right or at least correct enough that there is an issue that needs to be addressed."

"Ah - the Cassandra Effect," Nicole nodded. "I can see where that might cause problems."

"It'd be more of an issue in New Mobotropolis," I pointed out. "An unfortunately high demographic of the people who moved there after you made it happen to be those who were particularly traumatized by the Eggman Wars and had come because they saw it as a return to the life they had before the coup. And an equally unfortunate number of those happen to be alarmists."

"Yes, I know," Nicole stated flatly.

"Sorry, didn't mean to bring up bad memories," I apologized.

"Thank you."

"Anyway, we're here," I said as we opened the door to Jules' and Bernadette's home…

"THERE! YOU SEE? THE CRAZY ROBOT IMPOSTER AND THE GHOST HAVE COME TO WRITE US ALL INTO WEIRD SHIPPING ARCS!"

I palmed my face and wondered why the hell Sticks was here and not off spouting her nonsense somewhere else…

Spoiler: A Walk Through the Great Forest

 

[cazador]

Threaten to ship her with a politician or a lawyer

 

[Navrin]

To the best of my knowledge this isn't like Princess Tutu where some authors have reality warping power, and even if it is I am almost certain that neither Rosie nor Nicole have that particular power. Granted, they could always test this hypothesis with you if you're really curious...

 

[Tangent]

To the best of my knowledge this isn't like Princess Tutu where some authors have reality warping power, and even if it is I am almost certain that neither Rosie nor Nicole have that particular power. Granted, they could always test this hypothesis with you if you're really curious...

Click to shrink...

There is a small but non-zero chance that Rosie inherited the Honest-to-God Disney Princess ability to sing requests to animals and maybe have the animals actually perform them that only the Sally Acorn from the intermediate iteration of Mobius Prime (Archie Sonic issue #226). As Sally only ever had this ability in this iteration of Mobius Prime, i think that it may probably be more of an indication of how Dr. Robotnik sees Sally Acorn than anything else.

 

[Thegameaholic]

Mecha Sally Design got me like

View: https://imgur.com/a/fxjjPhQ

 

[Tangent]

SALLY not SALLY
Chapter 7
A broken SI fic by Tangent​

---

"I am seriously reconsidering the possibility of moving to Knothole for a while after all this is over," I commented to nobody in particular as I huffed and moved past Sticks to sit on the couch next to Sally.

"THERE! SHE'S…"

"JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!" I yelled for what was probably the first time since I became me. "You think I haven't heard it all before!? That Nicole hasn't heard even worse!? Yes, I'm a Robian and therefore a robot! Yes, one of the people I used to be wrote fanfiction! Yes, there are other Zones where they consider everything in this Zone to be fiction! No, I absolutely do NOT think that any of you are fictional characters! I have had a highly stressful couple of weeks with an incessant control overlay program whining constantly about how I should be obeying Darth Lardass, and I can't even have one day of blessed silence because YOU. JUST. WANT. ME. TO. BE ONE. OF. YOUR. CONSPIRACIES!"

I found myself somehow standing again, huffing as I desperately tried to rein all of that back in. I really didn't mean to blow up at Sticks, as she's basically harmless. Mostly. But she had inadvertently gotten on my last nerve and had been jumping up and down on it like a clogdancing sumo wrestler in cleats.

And of course everyone is staring at me.

"I'm sorry…" Sticks said quietly.

"Apology accepted," I said as I sat down again, emotionally exhausted. I may have a long fuse, but my temper tends to burn out rapidly once it's set off.

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings…"
"I accepted your apology already, Sticks," I assured her. "You just picked a really bad time to poke me."

"I don't know why I get like this," Sticks said as she plopped down to sit on the floor as if there wasn't an unoccupied seat right over there.

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't know why I get like this either. You are you. I am me. Sally is Sally. Nicole can be whatever she wants to be, so it's kind of amazing that she chooses to be who she is…"

"Oh, hush, you…" Nicole interjected with an amused snort. And I have no idea how she's even able to do that without an actual respiratory system given that she's a hologram right now.

And that's okay.

"Anyway, um…" I started as I turned to face Jules and Bernadette. "Sorry to ask this, but do you still keep a guest room ready? I have been wide awake for three hundred thirty-three hours, forty-five minutes, and fifteen seconds now. It's been very annoying, and I would like to take a nap and maybe snore for a bit."

Everyone but Jules and Bernadette just stared at me again.

"Of course, dear. I'll set up a charger next to one of the guest beds for you right away," Bernadette smiled at me reassuringly as she got up and hustled off down the hall.

"Yeah, I remember that part being annoying too," Jules nodded. "I still spend most nights sitting up wide awake, but it is nice to get an actual nap in now and then."

"You've been awake for three days!?" Sticks asked, astonished.

"That's fourteen days, Sticks," Jules corrected her gently.

"Fourteen divided by three, carry the frog… That's even worse!" the badger proclaimed. "I think…"

"Good night, Sticks," I said as I got up to follow Bernadette.

"Good night, crazy robot lady!"

I…

I just let that one go. I wanted to experience actual sleep again.

---

I woke up at some blessedly unspecified time in the morning, explicitly not checking my internal clock. Sally was still asleep in the other guest bed, apparently coming to bed sometime after I had, and Nicole's handheld was plugged into a charging station on the nightstand next to her bed…

Speaking of which, I reached down and carefully disconnected the charging cable currently plugged into my navel and wound it up before setting it on the nightstand next to the bed I was in. I then sat up, taking care not to shift my weight too suddenly, but also trying to hit the sweet spot where I wouldn't be moving so slowly that Sally might subconsciously assume that I'm an assassin…

Hey, part of me used to be her - these were very valid concerns for a few years during the Eggman Wars and they left their mark. Sally needs her sleep too, and I wasn't going to ruin it by going all stealthy and setting off her own PTSD.

Walkers know she'd probably kick my ass before even waking up enough to realize who I was. I may be tougher, stronger, and just as agile, but I haven't actually gotten around to training with this body yet. Too many other things have been going on…

I quietly (but not too quietly) made my way out of the guest bedroom and went to the bathroom. Not that I could actually evacuate into a toilet - the sludge and other waste that came out that end had to be collected and disposed of properly. A byproduct of drinking lubricants and snacking on nuts and bolts…

Don't judge me! Robians have weird tastes!

Er… Actually, it was all pretty awful and I miss real food, but I did need lubricants, and nuts and bolts were at least satisfyingly crunchy even if they didn't taste all that great.

And yes, I picked them for the pun of it, given that all of my options were pretty much equally awful. Granted, the fact that I - and presumably other Robians and badniks - could chew up and eat random scrap and other materials and even had an inclination for old computer chips, nuts, and bolts while not experiencing any of those as good flavors was probably more of a sign of Eggman's sick sense of humor than my own actual…

Hold on - I don't have the urge to snack on nuts and bolts right now? And haven't since yesterday?

Yeah, I think it's clear that that one was coming from my unwanted mental tenant because it amused Eggman somehow.

So, no, I didn't go to the bathroom to evacuate (I apparently didn't need to do that very often anyway given how little I actually took in). I went there because I had slept. In a bed. And this body inexplicably has hair.

Okay, so what I have is closer to fine copper-colored wires where my… er… Sally's hair and eyebrows used to be. Which was really weird because in both the cartoon and in the comics, anybody who got roboticized ended up with plated cowling instead of pretend hair. I certainly didn't have any fur anymore.

Granted, I did have to live with Sally's fashion choice as her boots-and-vest style had literally been physically incorporated into my current body. Although the World Roboticizer had apparently chosen to interpret "vest" as "cuirass plate."

But all that was beside the point. I needed to brush out my hair and restore it to my preferred style because sleeping on a pillow had bent the wires my hair had become out of shape. I'm going to have to think of a workaround if I want to try sleeping regularly…

---

"Good morning," Jules greeted me as I wandered back into the living room.

"Good morning," I replied as I moved to take a seat by a different window. "I'd ask what time it is, but I don't really want to know right now."

"It'll be a few hours before the others are up, although Bernadette sometimes wakes up early then decides to keep me company rather than returning to bed."

"I bet she tends to fall asleep sitting up on those mornings," I note with a slight smile at the imagined scene.

"Well, you're not wrong," Jules shook his head with a slight smile.

"Oh, before I forget (again), here's Bernadette's Power Ring," I said as I removed the ring acting as a bangle from my right wrist and handed it over, then moving one of the three new ones that I was wearing on my left wrist over to the right.

"A spare and a backup?" Jules asked. "That's a pretty good idea."

"There were a bunch just floating over the lake by the time Nicole and I got there," I said. "Maybe fifteen or so - I didn't really count. And another one popped out of the lake as Nicole and I were leaving. I don't think anybody has been collecting them for a while."

"No," Jules shook his head briefly. "Sonic was by a couple of days ago and grabbed a bunch. He said there were hundreds, and that every font he had seen had been producing more and more of them over the past couple of weeks."

The past couple of…

The last Genesis Wave - the one where Sonic restored the original timeline but had rolled back the clock so that he could save Sally…

Sonic, what did you do?