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The faint, red glow of a recently awakened sun filtered through the tightly-knit boughs of a flowering mimosa and illuminated the pair of viridian hedgehogs standing at the front of the school building that morning. One had two pages of paper before him and seemed to be examining a chart of some kind. The other had his back against the sun-warmed brick wall behind them. He was wearing a leather jacket which was odd for the summer time, even in the mornings, but he seemed to be unaffected by the stifling heat. Apparently, he was used to it. This one's eyes were half-lidded, and he was frowning.
The other laughed once he arrived at a certain point in the chart. "The staff here is amazing. Get this. Our first period teacher? Yeah, we share this class together. Dr. Eggman. He went back to get his teaching degree. He wasn't lying at the end of Generations."
While this hedgehog continued to laugh, the other continued to grimace. "Yeah. He was here the year before last," he said, still not opening his eyes.
"Hey, I wasn't here back then. I started showing up to school that January, remember?" The hedgehog holding the papers rolled his eyes. "Here's your schedule back."
The other hedgehog opened his eyes just long enough to retrieve his paper, but something on the page made him stop and start to read it. He had first lunch, so the period before that was third. Advanced Biology. That made sense. He had taken and passed the entrance exams for that class at the end of last year. His acquiring this class wasn't what caught his attention, though. It was who the instructor would be. The biology teacher was-
"Uh, please excuse me!" Scourge exclaimed suddenly. He stood up from the wall and pushed up his red-framed glasses.
Manic tilted his head. "What's up?"
Scourge looked around frantically. "I need to go find someone." His baby blue eyes came to rest on a scarlet fox coming down the road. Her eyes crossed his for a moment. She had been watching them apparently.
"Hey, Fiona," Scourge said, appearing in front of her. She looked mildly ticked for some reason. Scourge tilted his head.
"Uh, what's up with you?"
Fiona's gaze softened for a moment as she was about to answer him. However, her mouth got only somewhat agape before she then fiercely shut it again. A vein appeared on her forehead before she attempted to speak again.
"What's the deal with you leaving me at the bus stop every morning? I told you to wait like seven times!"
Scourge narrowed his eyes and stuck his hands into his pockets. "I thought you told me to keep my distance from you when we walked."
"But you were running."
"I told you. It's these shoes."
Fiona shook her hand in front of her face, gesturing to him to forget about it. "Oh, just nevermind. What was it you were going to tell me?"
Scourge sighed before speaking. "Oh, yeah. We have a new science teacher this year."
Fiona didn't look very interested.
"It seems to be the Doctor."
Fiona looked confused. "Doctor Eggman?"
"I wish," Scourge said. "He teaches math and robotics. No, I'm talking about the other Doctor."
Fiona looked upset. "No, you're not talking about-"
"Yes, I am," Scourge said. He didn't look upset. He just looked very serious. "We need to talk this over with Honest."
---
It had turned out to be a glorious start to the first day of school this year. The people taking up residence in Snow's house were taking their time getting to school this morning.
Well, besides Sonic anyway.
You couldn't pay the Fastest Thing Alive to take anything slowly. He had been at the school for awhile now. However, Honest and Shadow arrived at the front of the school only eight minutes before the bell.
Honest turned her head at an unheard sound, and Shadow turned his only after he had seen her do it. Scourge came running down the hill towards them, halting to catch his breath once he had reached them. Fiona could be seen at the crest, watching them and resembling a silent statue.
"Honest! We need to talk!"
The cat being referred to looked to Shadow as if he could possibly know what was going on. He didn't pick up on it and simply stared blankly in her direction.
Scourge and Honest decided they would gather between the buildings to discuss whatever it was. This area was especially dark this time of morning. The only light came from the entrance. The branches overhead completely blocked out the sun, being fully overgrown this time of year. Fiona's silhouette partially obstructed the light from the entrance.
Honest would be lying if she told you there wasn't some awkwardness included with this whole situation. This area's grassy floor had only been graced by two pairs of shoes in the entire history of Honesty is the Best Policy-- hers and Scourge's. And now it wasn't just being violated by one new person's shoes, but by two pairs-- Fiona's and Shadow's. Both were important people to them, albeit in completely different ways, but for some reason they felt almost like strangers here...
Honest shook off the strange feeling in her gut and coughed. "Um... So what did you want to talk about..." Honest hoped the emerald king of air and empty space could sense the unsettledness in the air. "...again?"
Scourge leaned against one of the four or five trees occupying this small space between the main school building and the old gym and regarded both Honest and Shadow rather seriously. "Do either of you have science classes this year?"
Honest's two triangular, orange-tipped ears perked up at this. "Ooh! I have Psychaotology and Shadow has smarty-pants biology!"
Shadow crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Advanced Biology," he corrected.
"Psychao- I'm not even going to ask what that is." Scourge looked concerned. "You do know who your teacher is for those classes, right? That Dr. Finitevus is the very same mad scientist who almost systematically brought about the end of the entire Echidna race in the comics-- all in the name of 'science'."
Honest rested a white, gloved hand on the side of her hip. "I'm not going to let him do it again if that's what you're worried about."
Shadow felt awkward and somewhat left-out seeing as though he had no clue who the heck this "Finitevus" character was.
Then, suddenly, another thought came to Honest's head and she straightened up. "You used to work for him though, didn't you? I was thinking that maybe you would be excited, or at the very least, somewhat interested in possibly taking advantage of this."
Scourge acted as if he were appalled at what Honest was suggesting, but it was at this moment that Fiona decided to join in on their conversation.
"You're right. We're both very excited by Dr. Finitevus's sudden admittance into the story. Maybe, with his help, it will become easier for us to achieve our goal of taking back Moebius."
When Fiona said that, a red flag was raised within Shadow's mind.
"Wait, huh?" Everyone began to stare at him in a confused manner. He turned to Honest. "Was that what you were trying to do?"
Honest nodded her head. "Yes, but, well, not exactly. If you read the comics, it will become clearer to you. Um-" Honest turned around and regarded the fox and the hedgehog behind her with a pleading expression. "Will you please step out so I can talk to Shadow?"
Scourge nodded and left with Fiona following moments later. "Do be quick about it, though. It's almost time for first period," the viridian hedgy called.
Honest suddenly sat down in the grass. The dirt and grass were dry, but not so dry that dust would coat her, so there was no way they would get dirty, but this movement was still very much unexpected. Shadow slowly moved downwards to sit in front of her.
Honest's violet eyes glew softly in the dim light. Alright, well, one could argue that wasn't very realistic, but hey-- if you were to draw this scene, would you make her eyes glow? I would. How else are you going to see them?
"Dr. Finitevus is a mad scientist who is obsessed with knowledge. His primary goal is to get Knuckles on a dissection table. Is there anything I left out?"
Shadow thought for a moment. "Well, what should I be wary about when I see him?"
"He is willing to do anything for knowledge, he survived falling off of Angel Island so he's pretty powerful, he has dark chaos abilities-"
"Wait- 'Dark' chaos abilities?"
"You know, like the lightning powers that old, decrepit dude from Chao in Space had. Also, he kind of reminds me of Sonic in that-"
When the bell rang, Honest jumped. Her ears then drooped. "Of course."
She stood up and grabbed her yellow, white polka-dotted backpack, slinging it over her shoulder. Shadow didn't believe in backpacks. He would much rather just carry a binder from class to class.
Honest and Shadow dashed up the front steps and into the school. This was going to be a long first day.
---
This story is going to be a doozy. My plan is to thoroughly look into every single major character in the comics (or, well, just those I deem relevant), and then, in the end, develop a general idea of what characters I need to continue to incorporate into my story. I already know I need Scourge, Fiona, and Rosy because their whole characters depend on long-term relationships, but there are other characters I'm very unsure of. The anti-Tails for instance. Or Doc Fin.
Thank you so much for reading this, and I hope you continue to stick around. I've got a lot of writing to do.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
