Knothole Village Meeting

[Leda]

It looked like everyone had arrived, so she should probably start soon. Princess Sally reviewed the list of topics to go over with the group inside of her head; unlike most meetings, this time there were several things to talk about. She was certain she had a logical order to address them in, however, so the princess doubted it would be a problem.

Sally climbed atop of the tree stump that served as a miniature stage. The sun had already disappeared behind the treeline, sparing her eyes of the piercing rays, but the atmosphere was still ablaze with the pinks and oranges of dusk. "Okay, everyone," she announced, raising one hand to help silence the group, "let's get started.

"First of all, some of you already know that Sonic and I had to leave pretty abruptly earlier today for Never Lake. Before I get too far into that, I want to let everyone know that everyone made it back safely, and not only that, we also brought home a hover unit." The princess turned to Rotor. "We left the ship at the northern border of the Great Forest, right before getting into the Great Plain. I wasn't sure if Robotnik would be able to track the ship or not. If you don't mind, I'd like you to head on over to check it out, Rotor. Once everything's squared away, we can bring it back to Knothole. It'll probably be very useful in infiltrating Robotropolis."

The princess' face became more grim. "The next point of order is a bit of troubling news. One unexpected element of the mission to Never Lake was a new robot that Robotnik's built." Sally turned to the blue hedgehog in question. "Sonic, why don't you brief everyone on this? You were the closest to the action."

[Lans]

Sonic nodded. He was already standing, in preparation for this. "Well folks, seems I won't be the only blue blur kicking it on the streets of Robotropolis anymore. See, 'ol Buttnik apparently likes me so much he's built a robo look a like," he said, with his usual smirk, but then his face turned a bit more serious, "Unfortunatly he's done a pretty good job of it. This bucket of bolts is fast, though not as fast as moi, but still. It's also got razor sharp claws, is brighter than your average SWATbot, and totally lacks my totally kicking personality."

He paused for a moment. "Now I trashed this thing once, but it seems Buttnik ain't willing to give up on this faker yet, so keep your eyes open for this thing if you go on a raid, and steer clear!"

[Sipp]

Amy was seated on Knuckles's lap, squirming a little, but he held her still and listened without comment.

[Jamie Lee]

Nearby Lance was seated. His arms were folded over his chest and one leg crossed over the other as he watched the meeting with a bored expression. His organic eye was beginning to droop with tiredness and he momentarily stifled a yawn.

Bunnie on the other hand was listening intently near the front of the crowd, a look of concern on her face over the revelation of this new robot.

[Leda]

"With any luck, it'll be out of commission for a while," Sally added in, "but Robotnik has been known to repair his favorite machines quickly. All we can really do is keep our fingers crossed for now." Sally nodded in thanks to Sonic, then turned again to the group.

"Also, before I leave this subject, I have an announcement to make. ..." The princess paused and made the most peculiar smile; it seemed to contain pride, relief, and embarrassment all bundled together. She drew in a long breath. "I'm happy to inform everyone that, even though it scared the daylights out of me at the time, Tails single-handedly destroyed his very first Swatbot during our escape from Little Planet!" Sally looked warmly down at the twin-tailed fox in the crowd, flashing that unusual smile again, and began to clap loudly for his victory.

[Lans]

Tails just stood there, looking tremendously pleased with himself and terribly embarrassed at the same time.


"All right Tails!" Sonic shouted, hoisting the little kit up on his shoulders. "Let's hear it for the big guy!"

[Sipp]

Amy clapped vigorously, urging Knuckles to do so as well.

He gave a few half-hearted claps at her prompting.

[AnT]

Knothole's resident dragon, Dulcy, who noticeably stood way behind the crowd, was all teary.

"Oh my...little Tails is growing up! It's so....TOUCHING!!" grabbing a handkerchief from her kangaroo pouch, Dulcy blew her nose in it, making a noise and mighty blow towards some people before her.

[L]

Alice clapped for the small fox, her gaze appearing not completely focused on the situation. She was beginning to wonder where Dash was....

@walter@ Walter attempted to clap, but then realized that he'd never been able to do so using his claws. He promptly dropped his arms to his sides and let out a low sigh.

[Topaz Mutiny]

Even Antoine, who noticably paled when he heard about ANOTHER Sonic (an evil one to boot), gave a short little clap. In his mind, the boy was much too young to go about with that crazy hedgehog.

[Leda]

The princess smiled and continued to clap as she watched Tails' recognition. Even though Tails' action had been reckless and dangerous, it was very commendable; he deserved this. He just needed more Freedom Fighter training. I can't stop him from growing up, she thought to herself, even if it makes me nervous.

"Okay..." Sally began lightly, allowing the group some time to settle back down before getting going again. "On to more local news. I'm sure many of you have noticed that we have some new neighbors. I'd like to introduce them to you now.

"Earlier today, Tails ran into the first two new members, Lance Silverpaw and Dashiel Tadelesh." The ground squirrel gestured to partially-roboticized wolf. "This is Lance; unfortunately Dash can't join us tonight, because he's sustained..." Sally's eyes bored into Lance for a moment. "...A compromising injury. Those of you that haven't met him yet will have the opportunity to do so once he's feeling better. We also have Alice Garland joining us, whom I understand is from the same village as Lance and Dash.

"Our other two new residents," the princess continued, turning to her other side, "are Knuckles the Echidna and Amy the Hedgehog. Their stay with us will only be for the next year, as they're actually residents of the Little Planet. It only appears once a year, and when it vanished this time around, Knuckles and Amy were left behind. Please make them feel welcome; they're not used to the environment."

[Sipp]

"Hmph." Knuckles simply scowled.



"HI!" Amy waved cheerily, however.

[Jamie Lee]

Lance had dozed off by this time, but quickly snapped his head up with a grunt when he heard his name mentioned and looked around with disorientation. "Huh? Wha--?" Comprehension set in and a wide sideways grin spread his face. He snapped his fingers and pointed into the air as his way of waving to everyone. "Yo everybody!"

[Lans]

Sonic and the still jubilant Tails continued to listen to the meeting from the sidelines, though Sonic was starting to get impatient, mostly cause he was rather tired from all their activities today.

[Leda]

"That wraps up our discussion topics; unless anyone has any questions, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you, everyone, for coming!"

Hopping off the tree stump, Sally made a beeline for Lance and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Excuse me," she began, her voice already firm, "I'd like to speak with you for a moment -- privately."

[Jamie Lee]

The wolf glanced up when the princess touched him. He probably would have grinned at her request under normal circumstances, but instead his expression grimmed a bit, already having a pretty good idea of what this was about.

"Yeah, sure," he said, strangling another yawn. With a grunt he pushed himself away from his tree and pulled himself up. He gave another loud groan and stretched his back, wincing slightly in pain between the punctures all over him and his metallic shoulder blades digging into his back. Man he was exhausted. And sore. Really, really sore.

"Lead the way."