Maverick shrugs. "I don't know from politics."

Nevertheless, once the announcement is made, should the twins create a portal, the receptionist looks shocked to see them arrive that way. Even if he is warned.

Echo may not be a science major, but dodgeball is plenty to convince a kid that the closer a fast-moving object is, the harder it is to avoid.

"Yeah."

"Sooner is better."

"Not like we had anything more important to do today."

They nod to Mav.  "Me neither."

"And I don't wunna know."

"So all the more reason to pass the buck to the important people."

Teleport is go!  On the way, they accidentally fuse back into one person.  It's pretty disorienting, so they stumble and wobble a bit.

  Joe is hardly surprised that an existential crisis being more physical than usual would literally trip someone up.

  "Are you going to be allright?"  Is Echo going to talk with an echo, now?  Wait, no, they started out this way.

Maverick is glad Echo is stumbling and wobbly. He wants to keep up his "cool kid" appearance around his peers, so he does his best to keep from showing his own disorientation. Then it occurs to him! Compliment the power and disguise disorientation as being in awe! "...woah. And you can do that all the time? You're amazing, guys-what in the?!" when it sinks in the two boys are now one, it hits Maverick like a ton of bricks. "Did your power just fuse you two?"

Maverick has never seen a portal. Nor has he ever seen two people fuse into one person.

Heck, probably only Sonic and people of his caliber can claim things like "seen a portal AND seen two people fuse into one" experience. Despite the fact this is Mobius, people fusing together is actually surprisingly rare.

....portals not as rare, but still somewhat uncommon.

Echo is enjoying the reactions of his friends for more reasons than one.  It's always reassuring when people show that they care.  And it's nice to be called amazing.  And then there's mischief.  "Thanks.  Yeah.  It fused me back tor normal.  I think I'll be ok."

He pulls his arm into his sleeve then pokes his hand out of his shirt's collar.  "Oh no!  My hand reattached to the wrong spot!" 

The hand flails about, occasionally bumping into his face.

  Hah, Normal.  Good joke.

  "Well, best to get it out of your system now.  Before you have to be taken seriously again."

Maverick giggles. The receptionist composes himself when he notices the child acting like a child. Somehow, the silliness just completely defuses the whole "just opened a portal into the palace" deal. "Ah. You three. I assume you are here to visit Angel?"

Maverick nods. The receptionist offers to show them the way.

Echo blushes and rubs behind his head.  Every time a grown-up says, "get it out of his systems," the "it," is code for "annoying childishness that will not be tolerated once we get to serious place."  And he's already in serious place.

Echo follows along with a nod and adds, "We'd like to say, 'Hi' to Sally too if she's in."

See? Echo's such a smart kid.

Not exactly a social call, but not an immediate sort of problem either. For once."

"Sally is busy." the receptionist informs. He then has someone escort the bunch to where Angel is. When the escort knocks at a door, Angel's voice can be heard from inside saying, "Come in." Angel has been given guest quarters and has a small pile of papers on her desk, currently tapping her mouth with a pen while leaning back and looking down at the papers. She notices the others and says, "Oh! Hello. Wasn't expecting you to visit..."

Echo is disappointed that Sally's too busy and pouts a little.  "Aww..."

He lightens up a little that Angel's available and gives a smile and wave, having completely forgotten that he never told her that Marco and Polo are the same person.  "Hi, Angel.  This is my buddy Maverick.  Told him all about our weird adventure.  Well we found a secret hidden computer bank full of info on everything..."

He gets nervous and adds, "Especially things that'll end life on Mobius!  There's an asteroid coming that'll destroy the whole world when it hits in 70 years!"

  "Likely not in your jurisdiction to confirm old Mobian computers are getting accurate readings.  But if it's true, then that would be inconvenient for your home as well."

Angel looks at Joe. Then looks at the kids. "...I remember Joe, but who are you?"

"'Inconvenient?!'  Yeesh.  You have a weird way of describing 'everybody dies.'"

Echo looks at Angel, confused.  "You don't remember me?!  From when we met Princess Sally and she cleared you as not the one who...  attacked...

"Oops.  Doh.  I was split in two back then.  Of course you wouldn't recognize my normal self.  It's me, Angel.  Your friend Marco and Polo."

He shows off his wings and tail as proof.  "My name's Echo."

  "Yeah, it's them.  Maverick is entirely new though."  Unless he was lurking slightly off panel in the previous thread.

Angel rubs her forehead with her thumb and index finger in a show of simultaneous confusion and frustration, then says to Echo, "I'll ask you more about your no longer being two people shortly... but before I do, I assure you Joe knows everybody dying is more than an inconvenience. It is more of a figure of speech. And nice to meet you, Maverick." She then looks at Joe, "Seventy years is probably plenty of time to prepare. But the question is why the data was on a computer that has been seemingly abandoned. Is the problem already dealt with? Was it proven false? Or maybe the problem is already being addressed and is already known. Either way, bringing a mobian computer to the attention of the mobian authorities seems the proper thing to do. That said, if you show me the exact location of this computer, I can be sure to show it to the King."

Maverick looks over to Echo. "...are you able to separate and merge whenever? What does it feel like?"

Echo is blushing to have caused poor Angel a headache and squirms bashfully.

"That's another weird thing.  We checked on the computer's last use.  It was recent!  As was the latest update on Princess Sally!  But noooo.  When we call the authorities, they're all, 'Yeah yeah, whatever, kid.'

"But what if this is all connected to the attack on Sally?  Maybe the computer was set up by people who want to save the world but they were all killed!  And now it is enemy spies using it to get at the royal family!"

He puts on a mock non-plussed adult demeanor.  "'Whatever kid!  Maybe we'll look into it.  Someday.  If we're in the mood.'"

He folds his arms and harumfs.

To Mav he asides, "I think?  I try not to overdo it.  It feels like...  uh...  using a parascope."

  Well, it depends on how important a protagonist you are.  Then inconvenience might be more literal a term for death.

  "Getting some confirmation on the accuracy of the data was on the to do list, though I'm also curious if whoever accessed it recently turns out to matter." The Janitor just wanted to play minesweeper!

  Then Echo goes off on a wild doomsday cult espionage tangent.  Joe's so proud.

Angel looks at Joe. "If the data is accurate, then who accessed it matters a lot, politically speaking. But finding out whether it is accurate or not is the first priority. I'll follow you all to the computers so I know where it is, and then I'll inform the crown."

She then looks down at Echo. "You speak a lot of maybes, and they are important. But don't dwell on them too much until you have facts. Maybe I'll be dead tomorrow. Without knowing for sure, or knowing how, thinking about that will only make me too scared to do anything since for all I know, anything I do would get me killed. That said, let's get something done: Show me this place."

Echo is flabbergasted at the idea of wasting time double-checking after a computer.  Computers never lie!  ...unless deliberately programmed to lie by an especially nasty troll.  OK.  So verifying makes sense after all.

"Let's hope that the last person was a prankster who entered false data.  And the world isn't coming to an end after all."

He opens a portal for the group.  "Weird thing is...  I'd never seen that stairway before.  Hope it's gone..."

Echo steps through.

  Joe trails along, probably more comfortable with hopping through holes through spacetime than he should be.

  "It would be one of the most boring mysteriously vanishing door setup I've ever heard of, then."  Despite the news, that's like finding a magical closet with an Apple II computer in it that just says 'Doom, I guess'

Angel steps through. Moving right along, the overlander ambassador checks the computer, takes pictures, makes a computer copy backup of the data, returns to Acorn Castle and reports. It quickly becomes boring grown-up stuff, though, and the kids soon get called by their worried mothers who went to pick them up from school in the rain to find their kids missing.

Thankfully, it is a weekend, so when the next day comes, Echo is able to go wherever and call whoever. It is quickly confirmed that the Acorn family is now checking on the data and that the whole ordeal is out of the hands of the kids. Angel takes the kids and Joe out to ice cream.

"I'd take 'boring' over 'end of the world' any day," Echo answered.

Little did he know that, 'end of the world' could wind up boring grown-up stuff anyway.  On the bright side, it was a great excuse to give to worried parents.  Truthful even!

---

Echo has learned that ice cream is more enjoyable in stereo, so Marco and Polo are nomming theirs separately.

"Thanks for the treat, Angel!" they chime in unison.

  Coming full circle is generally more appreciated when icecream is involved.  "Yeah, thanks for the snacks.  I'll admit I'm more used to problems that don't involve enough time to file paperwork about it."

Maverick is just quietly licking his ice cream, but also smiles at Angel and says, "Thanks, Angel."

Angel says, "You're welcome." to the bunch of thankful people. "That whole ordeal was actually good for Mobian/Overlander relations. While the details won't go into the news, Sally plans on sharing with the media that overlanders worked together with mobians to bring something to light that will be of great importance to the Kingdom of Mobotropolis. For reasons of national security, none of our names will be mentioned. But trust me, that is best."