So, I'm Sally?

[Tangent]

CHAPTER ONE​

---

"Wh… where am I…?" I felt incredibly disoriented and my short-term memories were unhelpfully muddled and ambiguous.

I was in some sort of metal-plated laboratory with a busted-in window along one wall, a row of robotization tubes containing captured subjects along another wall, and my lord and his chief lackey were arguing with the intruder who had just deroboticized me.

"She's back to normal," the chief lackey - Snively - called out.

"I'll do it myself!" my lord insisted even as he shoved me aside. "Out of my way!"

Er… Dr. Robotnik is not and never was my lord. I was a princess, dammit! And even if the Kingdom of Acorn had fallen, I had never surrendered to Dr. Robotnik! Been captured? Yes - too many times for my liking, even if some of those were part of a ruse on my part…

Which had backfired in a big way this time.

Ugh… Coming down from a post-derobotization sucks!

Granted, being a Robian with no choice but to obey Dr. Robotnik also sucked.

Letting myself get caught so that I could be a sleeper spy against Robotnik was a wash all around.

"Oh no you won't!" the intruder - no, my friend Dulcey the Dragon - proclaimed just before breathing fire towards the control console, melting it immediately. And incidentally setting Dr. Robotnik's pants on fire.

As Dulcey drove off my masters… the villains, I moved to free the subjects… my friends… from the robotization tubes.

Something's wrong. Not only did the mission fail, it went seriously sideways in ways that literally made no sense!

I should have made sure that the Neuro-Overrider chip Rotor had given me was attached more securely behind my ear, where I'd hidden it. It had fallen off right as my robotization had started, meaning that I had immediately gone from being a spy on an infiltration mission to betraying my friends to our greatest enemy.

Yeah, in retrospect, so many things could have gone wrong with this mission that it's a wonder that only some of them had happened.

Anyway, I am once again Princess Sally Alicia Acorn, leader of the Freedom Fighters and nominal leader of the overall resistance movement.

Except that I am also some guy from another Zone where everything in this Zone is considered to be fiction. I am also something of a fan of said fiction, and a writer of fanfics.

Which is oddly much less horrifying than it sounds, because neither I nor my friends are fictional, so that part of me was obviously from some sort of recursive Zone.

But how did I end up becoming me? I mean, Sally?

"Are you feeling alright, Sally?" Hedgehog: Priority One… er… Sonic asked me.

What the figurative Hell was that!? I'd been deroboticized! I shouldn't have any trace of the control overlay program in my flesh and blood thinky-thinky bits! And, to be fair, I don't think it's actually still there. This just seems to be some weird after effect.

"Not really, no," I replied. "Coming back from being a slave… I mean robot… kind of hit me harder than we predicted."

"Let's get you back," Rotor suggested. "I'll check you over carefully and see if there was anything the portable deroboticizer missed when you became you again."

"Sounds good," I nodded. "I've been having lingering intrusive terminology issues. Some of it's minor, while other bits are kinda jarring. I'll be including a lot of the apparently random nonsense in my after action report so we can go over it later and see if anyone can figure it out."

I wasn't too worried about having apparently merged with some fanfic writer from some nameless Zone. I've had weirder experiences. I'd deal.

What was more of a concern was the terminology that didn't seem to come from the part of me that had been that guy. Being under the control overlay program had sucked. Not that it was particularly bright in and of itself - if it had been, the experience wouldn't have been so humiliating.

No, the issue was that it used my own mind as its operating system, so while the directives it had imposed were actually simplistic, that simple compulsion to serve and obey Dr. Robotnik to the best of my ability did quite a bit all by itself.

I mean, what can you do when the moment you figure out how to apply malicious compliance you automatically shelve the idea to do what you figure your lord actually wanted you to do?

And I was doing it again. Dr. Robotnik is not and never was my lord. If anything, he had - very briefly - been my owner. Being my lord would imply that I had actually made the choice to serve as his vassal, and I never had that choice.

---

During the trip back I took the time to reflect on the part of me that had been a fanfic writer. One who might not have qualified as whatever the Hell a 'super-fan' of our Zone and others like it was, but who had done deep archive dives into various comic books, not all of them by the same publisher, binge-watched several different…

Okay, what is a cartoon and how is it different from a movie?

Never mind - found the explanation, didn't like it, moving on…

The music was catchy, but why did they draw our heads so big compared to our bodies? We looked like animated dolls in some of those depictions! And don't get me started on how the art styles used by some of the comic book publishers were so all over the place you could sometimes see the switch in styles multiple times within the same issue!

Oh yeah, and I'm never telling Sonic that most of these shows and books were named after him. As much as I appreciate all he does for us, his ego is big enough already.

I sighed as I considered the jumbled, disorganized mess that represented Tangent's memories of the medium. There was actually quite a bit, really, but very little of it was actually related to our world and situation. I mean, yes Star Trek seemed to have been a legitimately interesting show, and I guess that show about candy-colored pony people was alright. And I apparently now had opinions on what order to watch something called Star Wars.

Approximately none of which was particularly useful or actionable in any meaningful way.

And the stuff that actually did seem to pertain to Mobius was even worse because it was so difficult to sort which people and supposed events happened in this Zone and which were more likely to be associated with entirely different Zones. Was some super-metal invented by a canary going to be a thing here? Was Sonic going to be forced to go into hiding in a traveling circus with whoever Porker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot were? Was Eggman going to try to rewrite reality at some point?

Well, okay - it was kind of a given that he would if he could. Dr. Robotnik literally reveled in being evil. But was that actually going to be a thing I'd have to worry about?

I didn't know.

And if knowing was half the battle, I fear that I may actually be at a severe disadvantage here, what with a multitude of negative-value information.

And as much as all that was concerning, there was this whole Tuvix situation I had going on right now. I mean, sure, I mentally identified as being Sally Alicia Acorn, but that's mostly because that's the identity that actually goes with this body. And don't get me wrong - I am Sally Acorn.

It's just that I am also Tangent.

And not in the two minds in one body sense.

I was just… Me.

One single solitary individual.

Who, while opting to self-identify as being Sally for convenience's sake due to actually physically being Sally, was now facing the difficulties associated with the fact that the Tangent part of me had been nearly three times older than the body I currently have.

How am I supposed to filter out what I need to be me when part of me has so many memories that I have trouble remembering things that happened to me as the previous Sally?

 

[Tangent]

CHAPTER TWO​

---

"Okay, the good news is that there is zero trace of any remaining roboticized elements that may have been left behind," Rotor reported as he completed the scans he had been running me through. "The disorientation and mild persistence of the… you called it a control overlay program?"

"I did, yes," I nodded. "We already knew that Dr. Robotnik did something to the robotization process to enable him to actually control anyone who went through it. I'm just putting a name to it."

"Control overlay program…" Rotor said it again slowly with a thoughtful expression. "Yeah, I guess that works."

"Says the tech genius who thinks that neuro-overrider chip is a reassuring name for an anti-control device," I teased.

"It's what it does," Rotor defended his labeling decision. "Look, I had only just made the thing right before Bunnie even came up with the idea for the mission, so I didn't exactly have a lot of time to think of a better name.

"Autonomy liberation module comes to mind," I suggested, drawing it from the mess I had inherited from the part of me that had been Tangent.

"That's just the same thing put through PR branding," Rotor complained. "But I guess it's accurate enough. I'm going to have to put some serious work into the mark two version though. The one I gave you was not supposed to fall off like it had."

"And Snively found it and showed it to his uncle," I reminded Rotor. Not that he would have had time to read my after-action report, but I had gone over everything that had gone right and wrong with the mission during our trip back to Knothole. The after-action report I had written once we got back, while he was getting the testing equipment ready, was just the more detailed version. A record of everything I remembered experiencing which would hopefully help others later. "That means you're going to have to plan around the fact that Robotnik already knows that the device exists, whatever we end up calling it."

"Point," Rotor conceded. "I'm not only going to have to find a way for the… module… to be carried more securely, but for it to remain hidden and be harder to counter as well."

"Anyway, I better get going" I said. "I'm going to go grab a utility belt from storage. While it probably wouldn't have solved the issue with this mission, I now have this urge to make sure that I can actually carry my gear more securely than just in a pocket."

"Makes sense," Rotor Nodded. "In the meantime, I think I'll work out how best to secure the next model of nu… autonomy liberation module… to somebody. Maybe a hairclip?"

"Sounds good. Bye, Rotor."

"Bye, Sally…" Rotor replied already in deep contemplation.

---

There was a white utility belt with some matching pouches and a hip-pouch with a leg strap that were also white, so I tried them on and decided that they were good. I made sure to strike them from the common inventory manifest and note that I had been the one to claim them, then I transferred Nicole's handheld from my boot to the side pouch.

It was weird to just know that Nicole might somehow awaken as a fully sentient AI program one day. God only knows how, considering that the memories I had inherited from the part of me that had been Tangent weren't terribly clear about when, how, or even why. Nicole being a gift from Dr. Elidey seemed to line up with the memories I had as Sally, but one set of memories was so jumbled and the other memories were from over ten years ago, so i just couldn't be sure of anything.

Something to maybe look forward to if it happened, I guess. Right now, Nicole was still more of a sophisticated AI assistant that I sort of treated as an imaginary friend with real world feedback options. If she ever fully woke up as her own person? That was something to look forward to, but I didn't even know if it would happen in this Zone.

So, what could I prepare for?

For that matter, what should I prepare for?

I had no idea how much of what I had known as Tangent even applies to this particular Zone.

Johnny Lightfoot seemed to be a capable leader type. Enough so that I'd feel good about handing off the secondary team to him and letting them pick and choose their own missions. Solid guy, dependable, and apparently got along with - or would get along with - Sonic even when Sonic was being a jerk. Which was no small order. I might love Sonic, but he wasn't perfect and could be a bit much sometimes.

Both Porker Lewis and Tekno the Canary would be welcome additions to the fight against Eggman. Between them, Rotor, and the technical genius that Tails was apparently going to be someday, we'd have a solid tech support team of engineers, mechanics, scientists, and inventors. Which would be a huge equalizer against someone like Eggman.

The pink hedgehog, Amy Rose, was going to be a powerhouse between her strength, her Piko Piko Hammer, and how good a shot she was with that hand crossbow of hers. And by power house, I meant it! Maybe not as fast as Sonic, but easily as strong as Knuckles and more inclined to actually join the team.

Except that there's a possibility that the one for this Zone is still a child?

Argh! I hate this! I don't even know if any of these people even exist in this Zone or how old they might be if they do exist! What if they're all kids right now?

How can I prepare for any of them if the information I have on them is so unreliable!?

Okay, Sally, if planning for who might show up is off the board for now, how about planning to make use of the ones who are already here? More than six members might be a bit much to wrangle in a field cell, but we do have enough for two field teams, not just a field team and a backup cell. That is something I could work with.

Okay, now to gather everyone.

---

"I hope I'm not too late?" Larry the Lynx announced his presence as he joined us in the community hall.

"We'd only just started, Larry," I assured him. "It's good to see you finally out of the clinic, although you might not be happy with the results of this meeting. You've managed to miss every single training and preliminary mission I ran with the secondary cell."

"Oh…" Larry winced.

"Yeah, oh," I said flatly. Allowing Larry to gather enough volunteers to even form a backup cell with had been a favor to Sonic. And, to be fair, Larry's picks had all panned out and proven themselves as capable operatives. Unfortunately, Larry himself had, through no actual fault of his own, failed to actually attend or participate in any training or proving missions.

At all.

Larry the Lynx's bad luck made him his own worst enemy, and the ability to sometimes turn that aura of misfortune against his opponents wasn't going to make up for that if he couldn't be trained to counter his own liabilities.

I was going to have to bench him for now.

And, from Larry's expression, he was just waiting for the hammer to drop.

Of course his bad luck ensured that he'd actually make it to the group meeting where this would be the most humiliating for him. There went any hope I had of this meeting going smoothly…

Spoiler: So, this is Sally's new belt?

 

[Renko]

So you went from Robot Sally to just plain ole' regular Sally (SatAM)?

 

[ArsMagna1337]

Okay, so... the text is rather small. Had to zoom in a bit to make it readable. Nice to see that Sally shenanigans are back, except she isn't a robot this time around.

 

[Tangent]

So you went from Robot Sally to just plain ole' regular Sally (SatAM)?

Click to shrink...

One of my readers over on SpaceBattles complained that I made too many Sally SI stories.

So, I made another Sally SI story...

 

[Renko]

I made too many Sally SI stories

Click to shrink...

You mean that there are others!? There are more!!?