"Thanks..." Polo says in answer to Joe's defense.

"That...  didn't go as expected," Marco mumbles, "She coulda at least acted a little worried for me."

Echo was wide-eyed and intimidated enough already as it was, but the sight of the palace and getting scanned had him shaking.  Then the Princess shows up!  They both stare in slack-jawed shock.  At least he's not the only one...  even the agent wasn't expecting this.  He can't figure if he should side with the agent and mention he has a super power that would make it easy for him to kidnap the Princess or...  Who we kidding?  Side with the nice, beautiful girl!

"..."

Hmm... not so easy to speak up in this situation.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:21, Thu 03 Dec 2015.

  "Yeah, but you might not get grounded for being suspected of terrorism is she doesn't think it's real." you are rather hit and miss with the whole comforting words thing, Joe.

  Joe has his own worries, of course.  They might have file photos of his brooding loner ragged cloak days. Uuuuugh, so tacky in hindsight.

  "If you need an alibi, Princess. We were all eating ice cream at the time."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:50, Fri 04 Dec 2015.

The princess shrugs at Joe. "The city has cameras. I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this soon enough. Speaking of!" Sally puts her hands on her knees to be more level with Marco and Polo. "How would you two like to see the monitor station and see yourselves on recorded camera?"

Angel says, "Quickest way to confirm alibi. And it does sound kinda fun."

"Oh..."

She didn't think it was real!  Duh!  No wonder Mom was so casual!  Marco and Polo look ashamed when Joe so easily makes the offer that they wanted to make, but were tongue-tied to say.  They try to figure out some other way to support Angel but... sudden Princess in your faces!  The two squeak in unison, freezing wide-eyed like deer in the headlights.

"W-w-whatever you say, M-ma'am," they answer in perfect unison.

"Ma'am?"  That's not how you address royalty!  They both turn beat red.

  Well yeah, but bringing up the constant surveillance of her subjects wouldn't sound as good if HE brought it up.

  He looks over to Polo and Marco, and takes a moment to remember that normal people treat royalty like, well, royalty.

  "It's going to be fine, don't worry about it." probably fine.

The group is taken to see the monitor station. Sally has the man at the station review the happenings of Joe, Marco, Polo and Angel over the past 48 hours. Three monitors come up and show the group's past two days in rewind... at least as long as everyone had been in Mobotropolis over the past two days. Whenever they are inside their homes (or hotel room in Angel's case), the cameras show just the satellite view of whatever building rather than peeking inside the rooms.

Sally explains, "The computers are programmed to detect odd behaviors like the creation of a bomb or firearms. Sure, most people wouldn't think to do so outside their own home, but we do have cameras at places people might think they aren't under surveillance, such as abandoned warehouses."

Echo appreciates Joe's assurance, and the lack of reprimand sure helps, so they calm down.  His past two days are what you might expect:  While Marco goes to school, Polo roams free, playing in the park, using his power to pull harmless pranks on mean thugs, or to swipe drinks from a vending machine and the like.  When Marco gets out of school, they double the fun!

They gasp at Sally's mentioning bombs.  "You were attacked with a bomb?!"

  "I heard some mention of attackers, so unless they were willing to blown themselves up" which... is an actual possibility  "A bomb may not have been involved in this case."

  He looks over to Sally, "So just what did happen, if you actually had the need to check where we were at the time?"

(Curiosity, what was Joe doing and was he in Mobotropolis the whole time?)

Sally shakes her finger at Polo upon seeing footage of him swiping drinks. This his pranks on mean thugs make her smile or even giggle, depending on severity and cleverness.

Angel just smiles through most of it.

Sally says, "I was in my room playing on my SEGA Genesis, when I herd a disturbance at my door. I went to check it out and three guys were there fighting my guards. Since I had two guards at the time, only two of the attackers were occupied. So the third one came at me with a knife. Fortunately, I was able to disarm him and put him on the ground."

Angel raises an eyebrow. "You're a fighter, Princess?"

Sally says, "I take martial arts as a hobby... the enemy must not have known, thankfully."

A skunk walks in and says in a stoic tone with a tiny hint of annoyance, "You've said all they need to hear about the altercation, Princess."

Sally looks over and rolls her eyes. But she stops herself from saying something sarcastic. Sally then introduces the group before saying, "This is Geoffry St John. He's training under the head of the Secret Services."

Angel says, "Pleasure."

Geoffry simply nods to Angel.

Echo half wonders if the people crazy enough to try and kick off a war would be willing to blow themselves up.  And if Sally got that finger-wag from Sonic.  And if he's in trouble for swiping drinks.  They duck their heads, blushing.  They're of course intimidated by the scary stern Secret Service guy.  But since the former topic is now forbidden, Echo is emboldened to bring up the one he's much more interested in anyway...

"You have a Genesis!

"It's my favorite.

"I've got all the Sonic games!

"What games do you have?"

This message was last edited by the player at 04:19, Thu 17 Dec 2015.

  "Hello, Geoffry.  Sorry you have such a hard job."  Or is it easy job, when the Princess punches people in the face for you?

  "Ooh, right.  Don't play Sonic Dream Collection. Just... Don't."

Sally glances from the kids to Joe and says, "Heh... you should see Sonic play some of these..." then turns back to the kids. "I have most of the Sonic games. One of them went missing. I've got a bunch of racing games and RTS games... and this interesting one called Rings of Power, but I don't know if you happen to be into RPG-style games.."

Geoffrey clear his throat. Sally sighs and says, "Was there something you needed, Geoffrey?"

Geoffrey nods and says, "The king wishes to see you. He said it wasn't urgent, so you can wrap up whatever you are doing first." he glances at the others, then back to Sally "And you can bring your friends. He was planning on talking with the ambassador anyway."

Sally nods. She smiles up at Angel. "Sorry about all this, ambassador. I really do hope you'll have a nice stay..."

Angel says with a smirk, "Then play me some games later."

Sally chuckles. "Let's all do that later on, then..."

Angel says, "Might be good to call the kids' parents within the next half hour. The Royal Secret Service promised their mother they would be back home within the hour."

Sally says, "Oh... yeah, OK. I'm probably not allowed to leave the palace for the next week or so thanks to this incident."

Done with the surveillance, Sally heads off with the group towards the throne room. Geoffrey goes with, but says nothing.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:19, Fri 18 Dec 2015.

Echo is shocked by Joe showing concern for a Secret Service guy right after being scrutinized on Candid Camera.  He wonders if maybe this is the miracle of a clear conscious.  And it never occurred to him that scary authorities have feelings too.  His minds race with thoughts of what it would be like to be a secret agents...

"What's Sonic Collection?

"And why not play it?"

Then the record needle screeches when it sinks in that he's about to meet meet the king!  And of course another embarrassing phone call to his mom is on the way!  This time with the princess present!

"Th-that's ok!  D-don't trouble yourselves over me!  I... I'll make the call!"

They're very careful to make double sure that the phone is not on speaker this time and turn it way down to minimum volume so no one else will hear.

  Joe doesn't try to eavesdrop on the children's phone conversation, shocking! (and incredibly naive of Joe, not properly paranoid at all).

  As for his sympathy for Gregory, well, they probably have to go sift through conflicting reports about jaguars and coyotes and explosions happening in multiple places at once and all the other twisted tangles of his vague and nebulous background bleeding into canon.

  "You should probably turn your ringer off before we enter the throne room. So your Mom doesn't use parental embarrassment instincts to call you five minutes from now."

OOC: Okay, for serious. "Sonic Dreams Collection" is a "joke" set of "no these were really unreleased sonic games we swear" that starts off merely low quality and spirals off into Not Mind Safe Insanity.  I got a youtube link of somebody playing it for someone who thought they were going to be actual games and not... that, if you still have morbid curiosity.

When the kids ask about Sonic Dreams Collection, Sally rolls her eyes then looks at Echo. "It's... some weirdo made a very stupid game and tried to pass it off as "never released" material. So you can't even play it on a console anyway."

Echo's mom comes up on the phone. What amazing lie excuse will Echo come up with to make her not ACTUALLY worry?

Meanwhile, the GM forgot to have Geoff reply to Joe. The guy actually smirks and says, "It's alright, mate... the job has its ups, that's for sure."

Echo ohs.  "Um...  Thanks.  I'll remember that."

He calls home.  After a few rings he gets the answering machine.  They look relieved.

"Hey it's me.  They took us to see the Princess and she cleared my new friends with video evidence.  Hard to believe anyone would try and hurt her.  But she kicked their butts!  Anyway, she invited us to meet her dad.  So I'm turning off my ringer for a little while.  I'll call again in a bit."

He hangs up and turns off the ringer.  "Gosh.  I don't know anything about royal etiquette."

Bump!  Joe's turn.

  Joe's natural hide in plain sight modifier at work, clearly.  "There is worse royalty you could be stuck with, true."

  And now, PRO TIPS  "Don't rush to bow so hard you trip and headbutt the ground."

Throne room arrived at. The king is currently standing and chatting with security personnel. Sally gives him a hug and then introduces the group.

The king nods and then looks to the group. "Ah yes... Angel. Please forgive the terrible timing of this... debacle. But considering Sally saw who attacked her and knows it was not you, please feel free to make yourself at home."

Angel gives a light bow and says, "Quite alright, your highness. Things went as orderly as I have come to expect from your kingdom. Going along with procedure is best in these situations, so I was actually quite comfortable. Nobody treated me unfairly."

The king looks relieved. "Thank goodness... and you three... since you are here, please accept the hospitality of the crown."

Sally says, "I came to request permission to personally be their host."

The king softens his tone. "After what you've been through? You sure?"

Sally nods. "I think videogames with strangers and the ambassador would go far in calming everyone, including myself."

The king nods and says, "....very well."

The boys sweatdrop at Joe's answer.  "Thaanks."
But when the king looks in their direction they almost do the very thing Joe warned them not to.  Good thing they remember just in time.

"Thank you," is all they can muster to say, though.

  See, sometimes a Darkthorne's Advice IS good advice. Which is kind of a bad sign for the world in general.

  He gives obligatory polite courtesy bow to royalty.  "Gaming is often more relaxed in person than online, it is true."  Though he doubts anyone in the room would compare someone to cancer for shooting arrows as an Archer, even with online anonymity.

Sally escorts the group to her bedroom. Which is super girly and princessy, but she at least does have the cool video game setup.

Sally presents the group with a bunch of multiplayer co-op games. Angel waits to see what the others pick.

Echo is glad they didn't fall apart in the throne room and are relieved to exit.  But they at least had the presence of mind to ask Sally if they can get a picture of them with her and her dad.  Epic bragging rights with the classmates.  Once no longer in the throne room, they ask for a picture with each of the others.

Once in the girly room they sweatdrop at all the pink, but get excited over the violent multiplayer games.  But when they remember people were talking about relaxing they blush and suggest, "Umm...  Sonic Shuffle?"

  Joe figures he'll let the kids or princess decide on the digital entertainment for the moment, probably.  "That works.  I don't suppose you had that co-op violent wizards game handy though?"  Hey, anybody can heal or rez eachother in that game!... Because your as much a danger to yourself and others as the enemies.

Much fun is had, but eventually, the kids are escorted to their home via limousine. Joe is escorted... wherever he wanted to be. And Angel stayed behind at the palace.

Unless there was some odd reason the kids wouldn't return home or Joe wouldn't return to whatever random nondescript thing he was up to and/or nondescript location he sleeps at, the night comes and goes uneventfully.

(Time Skip)

It has been about a month since the PCs parted ways. Angel has been on the news, shown shaking hands with the king and the reporters are talking about how there were a few rebels who attempted to sabotage the peace talks, but were quelled. As a result, overlanders have been moving into Mobotropolis. It seems, however, that mobians are divided on this recent turn of events. Echo has seen first hand mobians treating overlanders with everything from kindness to suspicion to anger/hatred to bullying. But with overlanders being as big in size as they are, usually only large mobians like bears and bulls dare do any bullying.