Archive of Our Own ^beta

“What do you mean someone took all of our finance money!?” 

Jewel flies around her office, holding her phone close to her ear with both hands in case she heard the caller wrong. Her wings buzzed out into the room. If it weren’t for her voice filled with panicked worry, it would be the loudest sound in the room. “I left for one night! One day off! Are you seriously telling me someone stole it all!?” She yelled.

Lanolin, who heard her screaming in the hall, enters the room. “Hey, are you doing okay?”

Jewel snaps her eyes over to the sheep. “I’m gonna have to call you back.” She hangs up before letting out a loud bawl and falls on her desk chair to hunch herself over it. 

The sheep hurriedly walks over to her. “Whoa, whoa, hey, what’s going on?”

“All of the Restoration money… GONE!” She sniffles loudly. “It all freaking vanished!”

“Wait, what?! How? Wasn’t it all mostly in an account or something?”

“It WAS!” Jewel yelled, “That’s why I’m so confused! Barely anyone even knows it exists! Who would steal it!?”

“Did someone use it on something? It would show on the account, right?”

“It didn’t say anything! Not what it was spent on or anything!” Jewel then lets out a loud groan. “Lanolin, this is like the one thing I do here! If I fail this, I’m screwed!” Her face fell on the table.

Lanolin pats the gembug’s shoulder, “Come on now, cut yourself some slack; you're good at other things.”

Jewel’s face rises immediately with frustration, as she grabs the sheep’s collar and pulls her close. “Don’t give me that bullcrap, Lanolin! I know damn well I’m good at other things! But this is my best thing! And if I fail my best thing, then all of the other good things I’m good at fall apart!” She lets her shirt go, and her face falls on the desk once again.

“Okay, okay, I get it. Calm down. Breathe in, breathe in.” Lanolin pats her on the back. “Look, I’ll figure something out. 

The gem bug releases a wet, sniffling sound. “R-Really?”

“Yeah! Definitely! I can solve this all today, heck!”

“Are you sure, Lanolin? I-I don’t want you to pull your hair out too much dealing with this.”

“Jewel. This is a Restoration problem. If we don’t deal with this now, it will likely get worse. Besides, you just got back from your day off. Just relax, a little worried about something else in the meantime. I can handle myself.”

“Thank you, Lanolin.” She wipes a tear from her face and inhales deeply before slowly exhaling. “But, I’m still here to help if I can. I don’t wanna leave this to you alone if I don’t have to.”

“Don’t worry. How hard can it be?”

A lot more than Lanolin assumes, actually! For one, since the money was only in an account, not in physical form, and the transaction history wasn’t shown, a lot more work had to be done to get to the bottom of this.

Interrogating work…

Finally, there was a use for the interrogation room they had installed!

Interrogation One

“Do you have a history of asking to use the Restoration budget money?” Lanolin asked.

First on the list was Mend the Sassquatch, the main engineer for the restoration.”Well, I don’t recall using money directly from the card recently. But I do ask for things I need for repairs, whether I need them.”

“Like what?”

“Like… Wood, tools, batteries, gas, and such.”

Lanolin picks up a stack of paper, stands it up, and looks at it. “It says here you work part-time as a constructor outside of the restoration, that correct?”

“Is… Is that a file on me? Do you guys have files on all of us?”

“Oh, no. These are just notes filled with information on you guys.” Lanolin thinks over what she just said and clicks her tongue. “‘Kay, it is a file on everyone technically,” She stresses. “But Jewel didn’t make it. I did, mainly just me.”

“...Why do you feel the need to do that?”

“Mend, I’m asking the questions here, try to answer them.”

“Uh, yes. Yes. I do work in construction.” He nodded his head. “I don’t do anything different than I do here.”

“Would you say you get paid well?”

“Yeah, I… Wait, are you suggestin’ I stole from the restoration budget?” Mend brows lower and crosses his arms. “Lanolin, I volunteer here. I would steal from my actual job, not from here.”

“Mmm…” Lanolin writes something in her notepad; she could’ve brought up that stealing the budget money just for tools would’ve been unnecessary if not for the Restoration. However, that assumes his hypothetical motive was the Restoration in the first place. “I’m not, not saying that. But I’m also plainly not saying that. Everyone is a suspect until proven otherwise.”

“I guess…” He crosses his arms, clearly uncomfortable. “But I still didn’t do anything, let alone would!”

“You sure? Would you say that Belle would defend you on that?”

“No, but she wasn’t even here yesterday, man! She told me she wouldn’t! So she couldn’t have done this either.”

“Do you know anyone else who might have?”

“Well…” Mend thinks it over, “Now that I think about it…”

Interrogation Two

“No!” Denied Yellowstone the Golden Retriever. She holds her hands nervously. “I didn’t know I could even ask for expenses on the budget.”

Lanolin sighs, “Okay… that’s okay. Do you know anyone who would have known, or anyone suspicious?”

“Well, maybe, but wait, is this about the broken printer?” She asked nervously. “It’s been broken all day, and I don’t know why.”

“No, who is it?” Lanolin asked bluntly.

“Before that, can we do something about the printer?” She asked nervously. “I have some things I really need to print today, and it would be really nice if it were fixed sooner rather than later.”

“Listen, I’m sure, there is definitely something wrong with it, but I would prefer it if we stayed on the topic of the stolen finances. Is that okay with you?”

“I understand completed, but actually it really isn’t okay.” Yellowstone then pulls out a stack of papers and places them on the table. “We’re planning to have the food court remodeled, and I was supposed to have the remodel plan printed out by the afternoon.”

“I thought you said the printer was broken?” Lanolin looks over the stacks of papers laid out. “Do we really need like twenty maps for the food court?”

“That’s the thing! No!” The golden retriever pulls a piece of paper out of the stack. “This is the first paper I had printed, and it was seemingly the blueprint for it, but it just cuts off completely a quarter of the way in!” She then pulls out half a dozen blank papers from the pile. “I tried again, and it just gave me nothing! I literally had to beg for it for like fifteen minutes to give some kind of map for the food court. And then…” She slams the papers down and pulls out the next piece of paper. “It printed out this!”

Lanolin looked at the paper and saw it was just a blank sheet with big, bold marker writing. Saying: “Put a MehBurger, Those are the BOMB!”

“Why… did it do that?” Asked Lanolin.

“I don’t know! Yellowstone exclaimed. “But we don’t have a Mehburger, so it must mean something, right?! So I asked it why? And it printed out something again and wrote this!” She pulls out another piece of paper. “Because they are the bomb!” She then flips through all the papers. “And it just goes on and on like this. ‘Also, put a DcDonalds if you can.’ ‘Put some explosive pretzels in there.’ Like, we already have good food options there! Is that not enough for some talking printer!?”

Lanolin stares at Yellowstone, very bewildered. Not over the fact that there is a talking printer, of course, but whatever the reason for this was. She assumes that this is just some prankster running around making demands of her. She wouldn’t be shocked if Tangle had something to do with that.

“Thank you for saying this. As soon as this situation is solved, I’ll get to the bottom of that.”

“Why can’t this be solved now?!” Yellowstone screeched,  “This is a serious issue!

She writes down Yellowstone’s complaint about the printer at the end of her notebook. “There it’s written down in issues to deal with. An issue I will deal with later. Now, this suspicious person you were speaking of?”

“Persons, actually.”

Interrogation Three

“…Now, why the hell are you two here?”

In front of her was none other than Rough and Tumble, who were apparently here yesterday. Both of whom were lazily lounging in their chairs, with Tumble’s feet lying on the table, and Rough swinging in his seat.

“What?” Rough asked, insulted. “Can two guys just hang out in a place, chill?! We didn’t steal anything!”

“You say you didn’t steal anything. Do you have anyone who can vouch for that?”

“Yeah! Me!” Tumble points to himself proudly. With the shorter skunk gesturing to the sheep as if saying, “See?” The taller skunk high-fives him.

Lanolin blinks, annoyed. “…Well, who can vouch for you?”

“Me! Obviously!” Said Rough. Receiving another high five.

“No, I…” Lanolin’s hands fall on her hands. “Gaia below…”

“Man! I’ll never understand chicks like you!” Rough crossed his arms. “Always askin’ for verification for things that are none of their business.”

Tumble shoulder bumps the smaller skunk. “Heh, that’s probably why we don’t understand women!”

Rough shoulder bumps him back. “Probably why women don’t understand us!”

The taller skunk then sighs sadly, his legs falling off the table and to the ground. “Probably why we don’t have girlfriends…

Lanolin groans loudly in her hands.

The smaller skunk lets his cheek rest on his hand. “Probably why no women really talk to us, really.” 

“And we’re like hot dudes. What’s wrong with us?!”

“Well…” Tumble scratches his neck. “I hate to be that guy, but we don’t really have the best breath.” 

Lanolin groans even louder in her hands.

“We brush our teeth!” Tough defends. “We did so three days ago.”

“Well, what about that girl who came to us yesterday? She was holding her nose the whole time towards us so much, she was whisperin’!”

“Yeah… she also said we were stinky.”

Lanolin groans the loudest she’s ever groaned.

“And loud.”

“And annoying.”

“And obnoxious.”

“And…”

Integration Four

“I did encounter Rough and Tumble yesterday, yes.” Whisper nods her head.

“And were they doing anything suspicious?”

“Not really?” She said, “They tried to make a long conversation with me, but I couldn’t really stand to be close with them. I kept a watch on the two of them from a distance, mainly because they were stinky.”

“Yeah, don’t I know it,” Lanolin utters, flipping through her notes. “And did you notice them do anything out of the ordinary?”

“Again, not really. I eventually stopped watching over them because nothing was happening. I only started to watch over them because it seemed like they were stalking Belle. But if they were, they were too distracted by other things to do so. Not to mention, there are a lot of people here. And they seemed the most suspicious at the time, if there was someone else I was supposed to take account for, I would’ve missed them. I only began talking to them once it seemed they had lost her.”

“Yeah… that is true.” Lanolin writes down what the wolf says. “Now, not that I think that you did it, but for the sake of asking, did you ask for any money from the budget recently?”

“I… have.” Whisper looked down, ashamed. “But I hadn’t received it.”

The sheep sits herself up, “May I ask for what?”

“Well… I wanted to make a chilling space for the wisps. One where they could rest and play.”

Lanolin gasps, “Oh my chaos, that would be so great! Maggie would love that!”

“Right!?” Whisper sat up as her excitement grew.

“There could probably be small couches for them to sit on and small books they could read!”

“Maybe even a little TV for them to watch!”

 “Oh! I bet Tails could make something like that if we asked. That would be so cute!”

A knock is heard on the door. “Uh, Lanolin…” It was Yellowstone’s voice. “I hope you can come back to me about the broken printer…” she says nervously. “It’s acting really weird now.” She slides a paper inside. “It’s asking me to GET it burgers now, and I don’t think printers can eat that.”

Lanolin sighs, “Yellowstone, I already told you, I’ll get to it after I’m done with my current issue,” Lanolin says.

“O-Okay… I’ll come back later…” Her steps are heard from out the door as they grow more distant.

A small beat of silence is heard before Lanolin turns back to Whisper. “You know, I bet we could get that done without the Restoration budget.”

“Really?!” Whisper said excitedly.

“Yeah! It could be a little project for us!” Lanolin then gasps again, “We could probably make a big mouse house for them!”

“That would be so amazing!”

“Yeah, and we can-!”

Another knock comes at the door. “It kinda sounds like you're not talking about the stolen finances.” Says Yellowstone. “Maybe now we can…”

“I will get to it when I GET TO IT!” Lanolin yells.

Interrogation Five

“So, have you asked to use the Restoration budget?”

Tangle makes a confused expression. “…We had a Restoration budget?”

“Get out.”

“Wait, what? No!” Tangle says. “I’ve never been interrogated before. Keep asking me questions!”

“You're innocent; now get out.” Lanolin turns her attention toward her notebook and begins to write Tangle out of it.

“I didn’t kill him, officer! I didn’t even know he existed!”

Lanolin stopped writing and looked up. “Did you steal the restoration finance money?”

“…No,” the lemur said disappointedly.

The sheep turns her attention back to her notebook. “I believe you, now leave.” She says.

“…Fine.” Tangle begins to walk away sadly out the door. Before she walks out, her tail grabs onto the edge of the door. “But, like, are you sure I didn’t do it? You sure you don’t want to ask me where I was and such and such time?”

“Please shut the door on your way out,” Lanolin responds without looking up.

“…‘Kay.” Tangle closes the door.

Lanolin then looks back at Tangle, remembering something. “Actually, hold on!”

“YES!” The lemur rushes back to her chair so fast that it nearly falls over. “Fire away the questions, Lano!”

“Er…” Lanolin sighs. Why is she always like this? “For the sake of asking, do you have any involvement with the printer being weird.

Tangle looks back at her, shocked. “We have a printer?”

“Wha…” Lanolin’s hands slam the table. “What do you even do here?!”

“I hang out! And like show up when there’s a mission or something. I don’t really have a job like that…”

Lanolin inhales deeply through her nose and puffs it out, rolling her eyes. “You're dismissed.”

“Fine…” Tangle says, begrudgingly walking toward the door, hands in pockets. “Just know, I’m here all day. Waitin’ to be interrogated.”

“Cool.” She gives her a thumbs up, clearly not looking the lemur’s way, much to her disappointment.

Interrogation Six

“No, not me.” Gadget shakes his head. “I didn’t even really know we had a budget to be stolen.”

Lanolin lets out a drawn-out sigh. “Okay, you can leave.”

“Uh,” he pushes up his glasses awkwardly. “Could I help you look for the thief?"

“Thanks, but I’m good.” Lanolin drank a cup of the coffee she had served to her after the third interrogation. “I can figure this out on my own.” She says, looking down at the files.

“Well, uh, have you talked to the financial advisor yet?”

Lanolin’s eyes suddenly widen as she then blinks flutteringly and looks up at Gadget. “…What?”

“We have a financial advisor. We can ask her.”

“W-whuh…” Lanolin sputtered, and her hands then slammed the desk. “When the hell did we get a financial advisor?!”

“I don’t know!” Gadget waves his hands defensively. “I just found out today!”

She stuffs the papers close to her face, wrinkling them in an act of pure irritation. “Oh, my chaos!”

Gadget looks around awkwardly before clearing His throat. “I saw her earlier. I can get her for you.”

“Please do.”

Interrogation Seven

Soon, a purple cat sits down in her interrogation chair, legs crossed. She wore a brown blazer and skirt. As well, with a smile on her face. “Well, how do you do, Miss Lanolin?” She says.

“Just Lanolin is fine.” The sheep says. “No offense, but I didn’t even know you existed, Miss…”

“Ah, where are my manners? Nangia.” She softly chuckles, a southern voice is let out “But it seems I shouldn’t be too ashamed, seeing that you left yours at home.”

“Uh, in her defense,” Both women turned to a hand-raised Gadget who was still in the room, sitting in the corner. “I didn’t know you existed either.”

“I told you to leave.” Said Lanolin.

“I-I wanted to help!”

“Now, now. Try not to be too harsh on the boy." Nangia said. "I only have myself to blame for that. I try not to make a big impression on myself. I only have a small office to myself here. Oh, but I'm talkin’ too much about myself. I assume you came to ask me about stolen money?"

"...Yeah," Lanolin turns back to her notes, “I don’t really have any information on you, so I’m gonna have to have you fill in the blanks for me, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.” The cat sits up. “Whenever you're ready.”

“When did you join the restoration?”

“Mmm, I would say around… six months ago?” She scratches her chin before snapping her fingers. “Ah, yes! I joined around the time when that helicarrier crashed at the HQ.”

“Ah,” Lanolin clicks her tongue. “That would explain how I didn’t know about your appearance.”

“It does?” Gadget asked.

“Yeah. When that happened, loads of people joined the Restoration simply to rebuild the place. Volunteers and such, and a good 40% of them stayed with us to help full-time.”

“That’s not a big percentage.”

“True, but you were there! There were thousands of people helping us get the place up and running again.”

“True…”

The sheep turns her attention back to Nangia. “Though with that said, if you’ve been here for about six months, how come I’ve never heard of you until now?”

“As I said before, I try to keep attention to myself,” Nangia says. I’m not exactly a people person, exactly. Don’t worry, I’m not wearin’ for a panic attack or anything right now. I’m perfectly calm.”

Lanolin crosses her legs and folds her arms. “I find it a little weird that Jewel didn’t ask me to go to you or anything when she told me about the situation.”

“Well, that’s mainly because there’s not much I can do in this situation. I mean, you likely overheard me talking to her on the phone earlier today disccussin’ it. I can only advise her on how to use the budget savings. I can’t make it reappear like magic.” She says, wiggling her fingers a little as if trying to do a spell. 

“Okay… Do you know when it was stolen, a time frame, or anything?”

“Mmm…” The cat ponders for a moment, “Well, I don’t have the exact time, please forgive me, but I do know that the account was still normal at least before eleven o'clock last night.”

“Why that time in particular?”

“Because that’s around the time I believe my office was ransacked.”

“Wait… You have a whole office?” Lanolin asked completley gobsmacked.

“Of course. Chaos, you really haven’t noticed my presence here.” Nagnia said. Lanolin couldn’t help but feel like that was a taunt.

“Again, in her defence, I didn’t really notice it at first either.” Gadget added. “I think I only noticed the sign in the hallway this morning. But like, you said it was ransacked, was anything taken?”

“Gadget, I’ll be asking the questions,” Lanolin said, turning her head towards him.

“Oh, sorry.” He eyes dart to the ground awkwardly.

The sheep then turns her head to Nangia. “Anyway, what he said.”

“Well, as far as I could tell, nothing was taken, but I’m worried something could’ve been, but I kept a small little note on my shelf that kept the password that stored everything in the budget.”

“And that was taken?”

“Fortunately, no, but it was open, so someone most likely opened it, read the password, used it, and took all the damn moolah.”

 “Okay…” The sheep writes that down, “That’s something. Do you have any idea where it went? The money, I mean.”

“No, sorry, Lanolin. I can’t even think of the dastardly hooligan that took it.” She then snaps her fingers.  I do remember seeing Metal Sonic walking around with a clipboard in such. Walking around the whole HQ.”

“Do you know why he was doing that?”

“Not a clue.” Nangia shrugs. “You might have better luck asking him yourself.”

Lanolin sighs, “...Well, thank you for answering.”

Nangia looked over the sheep’s tired expression. “You seem a tinge stressed, darlin’.” She said. “Somethin’ the matter?”

“Oh, no, no.” Lanolin raises her hood, giving a small smile. “I’m good, it’s just kinda been a long day.”

“I can tell that just by lookin’ at ya,” Nangia said. Lanolin felt like that was an insult. “Someone like you must seem so tired carrying all this work on your shoulders.”

Lanolin’s eyelids lower, and she puts on a fake smile. “Well, thank you for the concern, but I assure you, I can handle this.” She says.

“Are you sure? This must be a lot to handle on your own. We could always just let the matter drop for now and…”

“That’s why I’m helping!” Gadget blurts out.

The sheep turns her head toward the wolf. “H-Huh?” 

“You are?” Nangia's eyebrow raised. “This might be a hard mystery for you to crack, little rookie.”

“I’m not a rookie!” Gadget burst out, before coughing awkwardly. “N-Not anymore at least…” He said. “And besides, it can’t be too hard to find a thief."

“It might be easier for you to fix that printer, mmh? Apparently, that has been going through some trouble.”

The sheep sighed. “As I said before, and to you!” She points at the closed door, “I know you're behind the door, I’ll get to it, when I get to it!”

“Aww…” said a voice that was akin to a whining dog.

“And Nangia, thank you for your time. If you may, I would like to be alone with Gadget here.”

“Why of course.” Nangia stands up from her chair and makes a slight bow. “Best of luck to you.” She says as she walks out the door.

“Alright.” Lanolin turns to the wolf, arms crossed. “What are you trying to do, Gadget?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m gonna help you out!”

“No, I heard you the first time. But what are you doing?”

“Well… I mean.” Gadget rolled his eyes away from the sheep bashfully. “I haven’t really been doing much for the Restoration. And I figure that it’s high time to start, y’know.”

“That’s nice, but you don’t have to prove yourself to us.” Lanolin sympathized,  “We're all well aware what you can do and what you’ve done for us already. And trust me, you don’t have to do so by helping me solve this kangaroo case.”

“But I want to!” Gadget’s eyes meet the sheep. “And as long as I know that I can, I have to!”

Lanolin looked at the determined wolf and sighed. She could see herself in him, at least in the way that she wants to help as much as she can. “Fine. You could help.”

Gadget sighed in relief. “Thank you, Lanolin! I won’t let you down!”

“Sure, Sure. We’ll see.” Lanolin picked up her clipboard. “Nangia wasn’t much help, but hopefully our next person will be.

“Ooh! Can I integrate them next?” Gadget said excitedly. “You can still be here, of course! I kinda just wanna take the lead.”

Lanolin shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

Interrogation Eight

“No.” Metal answered, arms crossed. “I didn’t steal the finance money.”

Gadget bangs the table standing up, “Now, how can we be sure of that!?” He barks.

“Gadget,” Lanolin pats the wolf’s shoulder. “Come with me for a second,” she says, pulling him into the corner of the room. “You're putting way too much energy into this. Calm down.”

“Sorry,” he says, back down, ashamed, “I’ve never really interrogated anyone before.”

“Neither have I, and you didn’t see me do that to you!” She quickly inhales through her nose and slowly exhales. “Why did you want to do this so badly if you haven’t even done it once?!”

“I wanted to prove myself! I thought it would just come to me!”

 What? Do you want practice or something?”

Gadget then eyes Lanolin nervously, “...Can I?”

Practice Interrogation

“But where were you at the time of the crime?!” Gadget provoked.

“I ain’t telling you nothin’!” Tangle rebutted. “There's nothin’ you can say that can prove me wrong!”

“I’ll make you crack sooner or later!” Gadget then flips the chair against the wall.

“There’s nothing you can say or do loudly that can make me talk!” the lemur said, lying back on her chair.

“Well, how about I-!”

“Gadget.” Lanolin, who has been sitting beside Gadget the whole time, silently drinking her third cup of coffee today, interrupts him. “Maybe you should listen to what the criminal said earlier.”

“Oh, alright.” The wolf then looks back on what Tangle said before, before then picking up his chair, folding it open again, sitting back down, picking up his pen, clicking it, and begins to tap it against the board a couple of times. “...So where were you at the time of the crime?” He says, his voice lowered.

“NO! LIBRARY VOICES! MY ONE WEAKNESS!” Tangle then dramatically falls to the ground. Playing dead.

Lanolin then stands from her seat, “Okay, that’s enough.” She says. “Tangle, you can go now.”

The lemur sits up quickly, “Aw, what!?” She says, disappointedly. “I didn’t even go into my backstory yet!”

“You're lucky I even tolerated this. Please get Metal back in here as you leave.”

“Urgh, fine!” She groaned as she then walked out the door.

“This seems like it will be easy.” Gadget remarked.

“Easy shouldn’t have to take half an hour,” Lanolin says, taking another sip of coffee.

“S-Sorry…”

Interrogation Eight: Part 2

“Now, Gadget. What is your first question?” Lanolin looks over at Gadget expectantly.

The wolf clears his throat and sits in his chair as neatly as he can. “So how can we be sure that you didn’t steal any of the finances?”

Lanolin pats his back, “Good job.” She whispers, before turning her attention back to the machine.

“For one, I had no idea that such a thing even existed for the Restoration.”

“The same goes for most people,” Lanolin remarked, annoyed.

“How could you not know about that?” Said Gadget, “I mean, to be fair, I had no idea until yesterday, but how else would you explain how we got so many tools and gear we had?”

“I wouldn’t know.” Said Metal. “Forgive me, but I am unaware of most things in life that some of you would deem common sense.” His eyes then fell to the ground, seemingly embarrassed. “I didn’t even know how cell phones or tablets properly worked until Amy Rose explained it to me.”

“How could you not know how a cellphone works?” Gadget exclaimed, “They’ve been a thing for like decades now!?”

“I’m not proud of that factoid either, wolf!”

Lanolin snaps her fingers, “Okay, okay, ring it in you two!” She says. This caused the two of them to back away from each other. “So, Metal, have you seen anything or anyone suspicious yesterday? We heard that you were surveying the HQ yesterday. Why’s that?”

“Well, yesterday Jewel had her day off. And she asked me personally to keep watch of the HQ while she was gone.”

“Really?” Gadget asked, causing Metal’s head to turn to the wolf, looking at him, seemingly insulted. “Sorry. Uh, no offence, of course. But why you and not Lanolin?”

“I was off on a mission yesterday with Tangle for most of the day. Which is the only reason why I don’t think the culprit was her.”

The door bursts open, revealing an eavesdropping Tangle. “Only reason?!”

“Why are you still here?!” Lanolin barked.

“I wanted to hear the interrogations I was missing! It seemed fun!” She then aggressively points at the sheep. “And for the record, I know I didn’t, but I still totally could’ve been the culprit if I wanted to! Have more faith in me!”

“Both of us went straight home after the mission!”

“It’s an online bank account, I could’ve done it at home!” Tangle then turns around and pushes someone back from behind her. “Hey, Yellowstone, wait your turn.”

“Both of you get out!” Lanolin ordered.

“Urgh! Fine.” Tangle groaned as she proceeded to walk out of the room, begrudgingly. “C’mon, Yellowstone, let’s bounce.”

“But the printer…!”

“You already told me, and I’m positive the printer wanting to ‘stretch his legs’ isn’t as important as this, dude.”

As Tangle shuts the door behind her, Lanolin regains the composure that she had lost just a moment before and calms herself. “So, you say you kept watch of the HQ.”

Metal nods, “That is what I just said forty seconds ago, yes. One mistake I admittedly made was neglecting to give each room a solid look-through before leaving at midnight. But at that point, everyone had already left. I was only looking through the halls. And I had only my threat scanner on, so if an ally was the culprit, there’s a chance I could have, metaphorically speaking, ‘dropped the ball.’” He said, using hand quotations.

“Did you notice anyone suspicious?” Gadget asked. “Like, someone wearing a ski mask while holding an empty bag with a dollar sign on it?”

The robot in front of them seemed as though it were processing what Gadget had asked earnestly, as it took him a second to actually respond. “Well, I didn’t see anything like that yesterday evening. I did see some individuals walk around the building suspiciously, later at night.” Said Metal, “I watched over them in secret so they wouldn’t notice, but they didn’t do anything as far as I’m aware.”

“Really? Who?”

Interrogation Nine

“...And nosy.”

“And disorganized.”

“And we don’t comb our hair…”

Lanolin banged her head on the table as she was forced to listen to Rough and Tumble go on and on again about their troubles.

“Excuse us a moment.” Gadget says, taking Lanolin to the corner whilst being ignored by the skunks who were still listing things. “Okay, so what do you wanna do?”

Lanolin sighs, “I know if I have to listen to those buttheads go on for another fifteen minutes telling me why they get no ‘chicks’, I will stab them in the eye.”

“Didn’t you interrogate them an hour ago? Shouldn’t they have stopped by now?”

“Apparently, they were sitting at the food court, still listing off very valid reasons.

“Well, okay.” Gadget slams his fist to his palm. “Before we start, we have to make them stop doing that.”

“Oh, wow, great idea,” Lanolin said sarcastically.

“What about after that? I think we should play good cop, bad cop.”

The sheep let out another sigh, “Sure, fine. But I’m the bad cop.”

“Aw, man! I wanted to be bad cop!”

“Do you hear them talking?” She points her thumb toward the two skunks as they begin to discuss one reason they don’t have girlfriends, being that they were too loud and talkative at the movies. “I’m not getting through this pretending to be nice.”

“Okay…” the wolf said disappointingly.

As he sat back down, Lanolin pulled out her bell wispon from her neck and began to ring like a bell. Loudly. Causing everyone else to cover their ears.

“Hey, what the hell, lady?!” Rough yelled.

“What were you two doing here yesterday?” She said with all the sternness she could muster, sending shivers through the two skunks. “And do not go on one of stupid, pointless rants of how no one wants to kiss you, or so help me Gaia,” She wields her wispon closer to them, causing the two to defensively back away. “I’m going to use this to destroy your damn eardrums!”

“...If you want to.” Gadget added awkwardly.

The two then attempt to lean back and bring back their composure casually. “Didn’t we already tell you what we were doing?” Tumble groaned. “Do we have to tell you what we ate for breakfast that day, too?!”

“It was eggs and waffles!” Rough rebutted.

“With syrup,” Tumble says as he high-fives the other skunk.

“Tell us exactly what you were doing yesterday!” Lanolin clarifies. “Hell, tell us why you were even here!?”

“Ain’t the Restoration open for everyone?” Retorted the shorter skunk, “Why are we suddenly the exceptions?” He then snaps his fingers. “Is it because we're loud, annoying, and obnoxious?”

“Jeez… Women, right?” Tumble scoffed as he raised his hand to high-five Rough once again, before it could even make contact. Lanolin rings her wispon again, making the two flinch and cover their ears in pain. “Augh! What the hell!?”

Lanolin then pats Gadget on the shoulder. “Tag in,” She uttered, through gritted teeth as she made her way to the chair in the corner.

“Uh, okay.” Gadget moves his way to the desk and sits down. “So… On what she said. What were you guys doing here?”

“Urgh. Why do we have to answer all of our questions to you people?” Rough groans.

“Well, mainly because all of our budget money was stolen, and it would really help us a lot if you would cooperate.”

“Heh, why would we do that?” Tumble says.

“Because if you didn’t take it, then you could prove your innocence, because, let’s be honest, a lot of us, including my partner here, think you did.”

“Highly suspect.” Lanolin corrects. “I highly suspect them.”

“Think of it this way, if you help us solve this case. You two could be considered heroes to the restoration.” Gadget said. Trying his best to sound convincing, but it didn't seem like it worked. Neither of the skunks was looking him in the eye.

“Y-You could possibly be given fame and become famous to everyone in the HQ!” 

Nothing. None of them was willing to budge. 

The wolf then sighs. He then rolls his eyes as he realizes what he has to say. Lanolin knew it as well, seeing that she was beginning to give him an obvious side eye. “If you help us…” He sighs again and pinches his nose. “…You’ll be able to get… ‘chicks’.”

As fast as lightning, two skunks sit up from their seats, attention entirely on Gadget. “Are you being for real, foureyes?” Tumble asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah, sure, man.” Gadget rolled his eyes. “I’m totally sure that you will get chicks.”

The skunk brothers look at each other, almost having a silent conversation, before snapping their attention back to Gadget. “We're gonna have a private, Rough and Tumble meeting if you don’t mind,” Tumble says.

“Sure, say what you gotta say.”

With permission, the two jump out of their chairs and move to their side of the wall as the two quickly huddle between one another, whispering to each other and looking over their shoulders every ten seconds.

Gadget then feels a sudden touch on his shoulder. Turning around to see his sheep partner. “Can we have a huddle meeting real quick?” Lanolin asked, it being clear from Gadget that a lecture was ready to go.

“Y-Yeah, that’s fine.” He said, albeit nervously, as both of them walked to the opposite wall. “What’s up?” He asked, before quickly getting a hard flick from Lanolin’s finger to his forehead. “Ow!”

“They’ll get ‘Chicks?’ What the hell were you even thinking?!” She whispered so loud that Gadget was almost confident it shouldn’t even be considered one. “We can’t just… give out dates! Especially to those schmunks!”

“We don’t have to do that.” Gadget retorts. “We just need them to cooperate. Besides, it’s not like we promised them girlfriends. So if they don’t get any, then it’s not our fault.”

The sheep exhaled through her nose, “Fine. I’ll… trust your word.” She says, “Good intuition, Gadget.” She compliments. Causing the wolf’s tail to wag in newfound pride.

The sound of chairs being roughly moved brought the two’s attention back to the two skunks. Both are trying to look as serious as they can.

“So… we thought long and hard on what you said,” Rough said.

“That was you two barely talking for a minute.” Lanolin snarked.

“And we decided that we’ll go along with your plan. If it means we can get girlfriends.”

“Cool, awesome.” She pats Gadget's shoulders as a sign to tag herself in, and he sits back in the integration table. “That plan being, telling us what you were doing here yesterday, correct? Just so we're on the same page.”

“That’s right.” Tumble nodded before both skunks began to nod to each other. “You ask for help in an act of humble–”

“Then let’s rest to us–”

“Rough and Tum–”

Lanolin rings her wispon once again, stopping the skunk's motto as they both groan and cover their ears.

“What the hell, lady!?” Tumble growled. “We worked on that one for a whole minute!”

“Don’t care.” Lanolin bluntly says, “What. Were you two. Doing here?” she demanded, slamming her fist on the table with every word.

“We was given a mission!” Rough says. “We were told to come here yesterday to stop someone from stealing the restoration money!”

“Wait, yesterday?” Gadget said, “This was a planned thing?”

“It had to have been,” Lanolin added. “No way someone did all of this, and it wasn’t planned. What I wanna know is why you two.”

“Because we're great!” Tumble exclaimed.

“Because we're awesome!” Rough exclaimed.

“And also because-!”

They then stand up on their chairs to do a ‘cool pose.’ “They couldn’t think of anyone else!” They both say at the same time.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Lanolin deadpanned. “Well, obviously, you didn’t stop them. And this does make Whisper’s account check out. But do you have an idea of who could have done it?”

“Girl, we’ve been knowing who it is,” Rough said, attempting to be suave.

“What?!”

“Seriously?!” Gadget blurted.

“Why the hell didn’t you say anything before?!”

“Maybe if you bothered to ask if we knew, we would’ve.” Tumble humphed.

“You…” Lanolin groans through her hands before quickly using them to bang on the table aggressively. Making everyone in the room go still with caution. She slowly inhales and slowly exhales. “...Who?” She angrily seethed.

Interrogation Ten

Belle nervously tapped her fingers together as she tried to keep both of her eyes on both Gadget and Lanolin in front of her. Both of them were walking in circles around her while she was still seated.

“Uh, is there a reason for this?” She asked. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, I think you know what’s going on.” Gadget said, sounding serious.

“I… really don’t think I do. Could you please explain?” She asked nervously.

“Could you please tell us what you were doing here yesterday?”

“Uh…” Belle darts her eyes away. “I… wasn’t here yesterday. I was at home.”

“You say that, but fact detests otherwise,” Lanolin replies. “You claim you weren’t here yesterday, even Mend himself said that you called him and said you wouldn’t be. And yet, yesterday, Whisper made the claim that you were here. Why’s that?”

“Uh, I…” The marionette begins to tap her foot. “I mean… like… I was here. I just… I had just forgotten something. But I went back immediately afterwards.

“And yet, you just conveniently remembered that?” Gadget badgered, “Just now? When, not even thirty seconds ago, you claimed you weren’t here at all?”

“I mean…” Belle crosses her legs nervously, eyes still not meeting the two’s. “I mean, yeah… But like, I wasn’t here for that long, so like… I had forgotten my toolbox, so I… just quickly got it and left, get in and get out, you know? Barely even ten minutes.”

“That’s funny, you say that,” Lanolin says as she and Gadget go to sit in their seats. “Because we just had a testimony that disproves that.”

Gadget sits up and places his folded hands on the table, trying his best to match the Sheep’s energy. “You can go on and on blabbering and mumble, but you won’t beat the alibis of Rough and Tumble.” He says. It took only a second for Gadget to cringe inwardly and for Lanolin to side-eye him in disappointment. “That was completely unintentional.” He muttered as his eyes were wide shut.

After a quick exhale through her nose, Lanolin continues. “They claim that you were scrounging around the HQ by yourself. Definitely longer than fifteen minutes, especially longer just to find a toolbox.”

“Wha- Huh?! Rough and Tumble were watching me?!” Belle exclaimed.

“Yes, and at one point, they had lost track of you. And based on your flimsy alibi so far, there could be a reason that you went into Nangia's office.”

“W-Why would I do that?” Belle sputtered. “I would never steal money, I swear I wouldn’t! I don’t have a lying feature in my body! Like, seriously, I-I can’t lie. Don’t ask me to cover for surprise birthday parties.”

“Mm,” Gadget leans slightly closer to lanolin. “Notice how she already knew who Nagia was and the fact that the money from the restoration budget was stolen. Something based on your notes, most people didn’t even know about.”

“That’s true, Gadget.” Lanolin said, “And like, Belle said just a second ago, she doesn’t have a lying function in her body. But seeing that she just tried to lie to us about her alibi over a minute ago must mean that that was also a lie.”

“I… I didn’t do anything.” Belle fretted.

“Then how about you prove it?” Lanolin leaned forward, and noticing what she was doing, Gadget followed suit, attempting to make the same serious expression she was. What were you doing here yesterday?”

“I… Someone…” Belle sputtered; it almost seemed as though there was some embarrassment on her face. “Someone hacked me yesterday!” She blurted, before quickly sinking back to her seat, “..Kinda.”

“Wait, what?” Gadget’s eyebrow raised. “Like someone took control of your body or something.”

“No, but someone anonymous sent me a message through my systems, saying that someone was going to steal all the money from the Restoration budget.” I wasn’t sure what to really make of that, but I knew I couldn’t just take it lightly. I had already had the day off, but I went to the HQ anyway just to make sure. I was… looking around the place, looking for anyone suspicious or something. Like, a guy with anempty money bag wearing a ski mask.”

“Oh, I thought that too!” Gadget agreed.

“Right! But then I remembered that all the money was digital, so I decided to look inside Nangia's room. I only really knew where it was in the HQ because that same anonymous person told me where, but like…” Belle groans. “You're not gonna believe me.”

“The room was already run through, yeah?” Lanolin asked. “We already heard about that.”

“What, no! I mean… Maybe? I-It was completely empty! There was nothing in there, almost as if nothing ever was there!”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait…” Lanolin’s fingers rubbed her temple. “So, her office was already empty? Like… Completely?!”

“Yes! So… I thought I was just pranked, so… I left. This was like at 10:30 last night.”

“Rough and Tumble said they left ten minutes later.” Gadget added, looking through his own notes. “Whisper around the same time, and Metal left at eleven.”

“Hmm…” Lanolin thinks over for a moment. Before standing up. “Let’s go on a quick detour, if that’s okay.”

“That’s fine with me.” Belle nodded.

The three had found themselves in Nangia’s office, and much to the marionette’s surprise, not only was everything still there, but it seemed as though a tornado had happened. Furniture was on the ground; picture frames and antiques were either on the ground and/or broken; the air vent door was on the ground, leaving it wide open; and nearly every drawer on the main desk had been slid off the floor, with every drawer we left wide open.

“N-No! No! I swear it was all empty! I swear it was all empty when I came in here!” Belle pleaded.

Gadget peers deeper inside, taking in the room's chaos. “Jeez… I know she said her room was ransacked, but… chaos.”

“I swear, I didn’t do anything! I swear I didn’t!” Belle went toward Lanolin’s direction. “You have to believe me, I didn’t do this!”

The sheep takes a deep breath. “Belle, could you wait outside for a moment?”

“Uh, a-alright.” The marionette cautiously walks out the door, leaving the sheep to pace around the room, lost in thought.

“Where are we at, Lanolin?” Gadget asked.

“Just thinking…” Lanolin mutters, “Let’s assume what Belle said is the truth. Where does that leave us?”

“Well, Nangia said her room was left ransacked by eleven. If Belle left at 10:30, then it was just… reappeared? And was then thrashed?” The wolf sighed. “But I don’t know who it could be at that point. Rough and Tumble had already left a little later. And Whisper and Metal were watching them, so they would’ve noticed if they went inside.”

“But Metal said, his threatening scanners were on, which would only classify things that were threats to him. And he and Belle are close, if she did do it. He likely could’ve batted an eye.”

“Yeah, but…” Gadget exhaled. “I don’t know. Is it weird that I kinda trust her word? Like… I don’t know. It just feels like we're missing something.”

“What else is there to miss, though?! She said the room was empty when she got here, but it seems filled with stuff. There’s no way someone could have put all this stuff in here secretly.”

“Well, there’s no way Belle could’ve thrashed the room with no one noticing, when there were at max, four people whose eyes were always close to her.”

“But- She-! Argh!” Frustrated, Lanolin kicks over a nearby shelf that had fallen down. “Dammit! Dammit! This should’ve have been solved by now! What the hell is even going on!” She grips her hair in an act of vexation.

“Uh, Lanolin! Calm down!”

“It doesn’t make any damn sense! This should’t have even been this hard, but is this so complicated!?” She yelled. She holds her forehead as she walks over to Nangia’s desk and sits down in her chair. “...Sorry, I just… It’s been a long day.”

Gadget picks up a fallen chair, sets it down in front of her, and sits. “It’s okay. I get it. It’s been a long day.”

“Not for you it hasn’t.” She grumbled before another groan left her. “Sorry! I know you're just trying to help.”

“It’s fine, I get it.” Gadget then awkwardly plays with his hands. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by the sheep.

“You have a question, say it.” She says.

“W-Well… it kinda seems like you're just upset about something. Not the case, more like… Something else.”

Lanolin’s back falls deeper in the chair as she spins herself a bit in on it. She looks at the table in front of her to see a picture of Nangia. 

“Lanolin?”

“It’s what Nangia said,” Lanolin replied. “Well, more just her attitude towards me, I guess.” She crosses her arms and averts her eyes from Gadget. “Like, I’m not cocky, and I don’t think I’m insecure. But… I’m good at what I’m good at, you know? And when it comes to The Restoration, I help by doing what I’m good at. I’m good at this. I’m good at leading, I’m good at organizing, and I’m good at solving problems. I don’t care if I’m not good at other things, I couldn’t give less of a shit over whether or not I’m strongest or the fastest or… whatever!”

“Okay…” Gadget nodded.

“But… I get pissed at people who doubt what I’m good at. It’s hard not to, for me. I don’t care if she doesn’t know me well, but I’m not a damn rookie. I know how to get things done. I don’t need to ‘sit this out’ when I can figure this out! I’m not piddling against the wind! I. Can do. This!”

She sighs, then stares up at the ceiling. “And I guess, if I’m being honest with myself, I am irritated that Jewel didn’t volunteer me to look after the HQ.”

“Lanolin…” Gadget says.

“Like, I know I was on a mission that day, so I wasn’t here. But I would’ve dropped it to help out! I don’t mind taking charge. It just feels like I’m not even taken seriously sometimes.”

“I kinda get that.” Gadget nods his head, looking away from Lanolin, before quickly looking back at her. “I-I mean, I don’t understand. But, I get the feeling of being misunderstood. It sucks.”

“...Yeah, it does.”

“If it’s any consolation. I think you're really cool! You're the most headstrong person I’ve ever met.”

“Thanks, but honestly, that doesn’t help.”

“Well, you know what would?” Gadget stands from his seat. “Solving this case! There’s no better copium than proving other people wrong!”

The sheep was surprised by the wolf's sudden enthusiasm, then smirked. “Alright, I’ll play your strategy. But, I’m gonna be honest, I’m still really lost.”

“Well, there has to be something here!” He snaps his fingers. “The passcode! Find that so if it’s still there!”

Lanolin begins to open the shelves, looking for any scraps of paper, as Gadget looks over the room more thoroughly.

“Hmm,” Gadget thinks. “I know Nangia said the room was ransacked, but it honestly kinda looks like a fight broke out.”

“Maybe a sign of struggle somewhere.”

“I don’t think so. And like, wouldn’t someone have been injured?”

“Good point… Damn.” Lanolin closes all the shelves. “I can find the passcode anywhere. She said it was still here, right?”

“She did, yeah.”

“Well, it’s not here.” Lanolin goes over to the desktop computer to turn it on. After a few seconds, it turns on, though what it shows confuses her. “Set up account?”

“What’s it look like?” Gadget asked, moving close to Lanolin to get a good look at the computer.

“It says it wants me to set up a new account, but shouldn’t there be like a login or something?”

“That is weird. It only really does that if there wasn’t an account to begin with.”

Lanolin looks over to the corner and sees a red bag. “Is that Nangia’s?” she asks.

“I don’t think so.” Gadget walks over to the bag and picks it up. “Should I look inside?”

“It’s not really nice to look in other people’s bags, so I don’t think you sho-”

“Holy crap!” Gadget gasped as he pulled out a cartoon-sized and shaped bomb from the bag.

“What the hell?!” Lanolin yells. Before she could get an extra look, the bomb immediately flashed alive as the sparking fuse began to go off. “Out the window! Out the window!” She orders.

The wolf quickly dashes to the window behind Lanolin, opens it with quick speed, and chucks it outside. And after half a minute, it explodes. Thankfully, big enough to destroy anything, but loud enough to spur some attention.

“...What the hell?!” Gadget blurts.

“Why was that in her bag?!” Lanolin says.

“I don’t know…” The wolf then cautiously walks back to the bag and picks it up again.

“Don’t pull out another bomb!” Lanolin yells.

“I’m not! It’s just that there’s something else here!”

Gadget looks deep inside the bag, as his eyebrow then raises suspiciously, he then begins to pull out something big, something so big that it’s a condadrum that it was even in the bag. After a second of pulling, Lanolin’s jaw drops to the ground, and he pulls out an empty shelf. Gadget was too confused even to speak.

“...What?!” Lanolin yells after a minute of silence.

 Before they could question it further, the door bursts open, revealing an extremely stressed Mobian golden retriever, and Belle, who was still standing outside, peeks inside. “Lanolin!” She bemoaned.

Lanolin groaned, “Yellowstone, we're still not done with thi-!”

“I don’t care!” Yellowstone exasperates. “The printer has been weird all day, and I don’t have a CLUE on how to fix it! It’s been asking me favors over and over, and over, and I don’t know what to do, and I feel like I’m going insane! I need help with it now, or I feel like I’m going to explode!!!” She pants, tears welling on her face, wiping sweat from her brow. “Which is also something it said it wants to do.”

Lanolin, who was staring wide-eyed at the golden retriever’s burst of pleas, quickly stands up. “Okay, I hear you.” She blurted. “Gadget, let’s put this on pause for a second, and help Yellowstone for a minute.”

“O-Okay!” He says, as the two very quickly pace their way out of the office, with Belle following them.

“So, what exactly am I looking at?” Lanolin asked. All four of them stood in the longue room, looking at an all-things-considered, regular printer. 

Yellowstone walks over to the machine. “So, as I showed you before, it kept printing weird stuff like putting certain restaurants in the cafeteria, etcetera, etcetera. But, at a certain point, it just started doing bizarre things that a printer shouldn’t do!”

“What? Like drawing portraits?” Gadget joked.

The printer then began to shake around, startling everyone in the room. And only a few seconds later, it prints out a piece of paper, before quickly starting to draw again. Lanolin pulls out the first paper, looks it over, and makes a very puzzled face. She then turns it around to the others, showing them a crude, poorly drawn image of Yellowstone. One that looked as though she had gigantic eyes and was crying, and snot was running down her nose.

“See?!” Yellowstone points at the drawing. “Why would a printer do that?! Why would a printer know how to do that?!”

“Yeah… This is definitely weird.” Belle comments.

“Ow, Ow! You're gonna rip our arms off!” Before anyone could inspect the printer any further, they all turned around to see Metal tightly gripping the wrists of Rough and Tumble, not significantly caring about their pain, as he looked inside the longue and storms inside.

“There you are!” He says, as he walks over to Belle, still gripping the skunk's wrists, much to their dismay. “These imbicelles just made the claim that you are responsible for The Restoration’s missing funds. Tell these morons that they are foolishly wrong!”

“I didn’t! I swear I didn’t!” Belle protests.

“Yeah, right!” Rough objects. “We totally saw you walking around here trying to be all sneaky and crap! We saw it with our own ey- AH!” Both of the skunks flinch in pain as Metal tightens his grip. “Good Gaia Below, dude. Could you let us go already!?”

Metal makes his head turn completely around by moving his body to look at the two skunks. “I am no ‘dude,’ and I will cease when you two diminish your false accusations! Belle could never do something like that! She wouldn’t nearly have the skills to complete such a task; she does not even have a single stealth code in her system!”

“Well, you don’t have to go that far…” Belle muttered.

“Not to mention the fact that she would never do something like this to begin with! She’s more kind-hearted than both of you imbiceles combined multiplied by a thousand!”

“Okay, that’s better,” Belle nods.

“If she’s so innocent as you say she is, then why was she here last night scooping the place like a thief?” Tumble rebutted, before being met with another tight squeeze.

“I’m sure she had her reasons! She wouldn’t do such a thing for no reason.” Metal says.

“Well… There is some truth to that.” Belle says, twirling her fingers awkwardly.

Metal turns his head back to the marionette. “What?!”

Before another response could be made, the room was met with more visitors. This time, it is both Tangle and Whisper. 

“Whoa, hang on!” Tangle says, “What’s all the commotion about?”

“Okay, alright,” Lanolin says, trying to but in. “We really don’t need everybody here for-”

“These brainless fools are accusing Belle of the theft of The Restoration’s fund money!” Metal says, interrupting Lanolin while pointing rudely to the skunks.

“Well, yeah. Cause I did it.” Tangle shrugs.

Everyone in the room quickly looked at her in a state of confusion, being met by the lemur’s chuckle. “Okay, I’m not, but don’t tell me that for a second you didn’t think I did.”

“No.” Said almost everyone in the room in unison, shaking their heads.

“I kinda thought you were.” Gadget says, raising his hand.

“Ah, thank you, Gadget!” Tangle points at him with a bright smile on her face. “Finally, someone here believes in me.”

Jewel is then seen entering the lounge, then closing the door behind her. “You guys are being incredibly loud in here!” She whispered. 

“Is everyone in the HQ just gonna show up now!?” Lanolin whinged.

“I think Mend went home for the day, so I don’t think so,” Jewel says. “Anyway, did you figure out who did it?”

“Well…”

“Yeah! We did!” Rough says, as both he and Tumble point at themselves with their one free hand. The shorter skunk then looks over to Gadget. “Hey, four eyes. You promised us girlfriends if we helped! So fetch 'em.”

“A) I didn’t promise you anything, I just said you could.” Gadget said, starting to get annoyed himself. “And B) I’m not going to ‘fetch’ you a girlfriend.”

“That’s fine! We can get ‘em our own.” Tumble says, turning his direction straight to Whisper behind him. “Are you single whisperin’ lady?” He says. In his best attempt to sound suave.

“I am EXTREMELY gay.” Whisper answers.

“Damn!” Tumble stomps his foot like an upset toddler.

“What about ‘chu, tail girl?” Rough, says, pointing his direction towards Tangle.

“Sorry, same story, dude,” Tangle says.

“Sorry?” Whisper asked.

The lemur shrugs, “They seem like nice guys.”

“Puppet girl, you interested?” Rough said, almost puckering his lips.

Belle widens her eyes and blinks in disbelief. “You just accused me of theft, like a minute ago!”

“I’m willing let go of any grudge to get a date with a woman.”

“What about you, robot?” Tumble says, immediately getting a on what can be assumed bewildered look from Metal. “You said you're not a dude, so what’s your relationship status?” He says, fluttering his eyes. “You got a deep voice on ya, but I kinda rock with it-! AUGH!” Metal grips his wrists tightly again. “...That wasn’t an answer.”

“We’re ignoring the printer again, and I really don’t think we should!” Yellowstone bemoans, picking up another paper the printer printed out. This one shows another crude drawing: Lanolin, holding her forehead and giving a shocked, jaw-dropping expression. “Please pay attention to the printer again!”

“I’m not trusting any of your words,” Jewel says, ignoring the ensuing argument as she then turns her direction to the sheep. “Have you figured out what happened?”

“Kinda?” Lanolin sighs. “I’m not sure, we went to Nangia’s office a while ago, and we did find a lot of interesting stuff, but-”

“Wait, wait, hold on. Who’s Nangia?” Jewel asked.

“I- what?” The sheep sputtered. “Your financial advisor?”

“I don’t have a financial advisor. I am my own financial advisor and boss, and seventy percent of the things that keep this building afloat. Why do you think I’m always stressed?!”

“But… What?”

“Okay, everyone, please calm down!” Gadget says, voice aloud. But everyone else was still talking to one another. “Guys! Come on!” He yells, but no one pays him any attention. He angrily scoffs, pulls out his wispon and uses it to hit the printer, getting everyone’s attention. “HEY!” He shouted.

“OWWWW?!”

Everyone is immediately silenced by the sudden noise that came from inside the printer. They all look at it in awe, perplexed about what even happened.

“Uh, I mean…” Faintly, the noise of a phone texting is heard, before suddenly stopping. “Whirring, Whirring, Whirring…” The voice repeats the exact words over and over again.

“Oh, chaos.” Lanolin rolls her eyes as she walks over to the printer. “There’s someone in here!”

“No, there isn’t! The voice rebutts. “I mean, Whirring, Whirring, Whirring…”

She puts her hands on the side of the printer, and with a great effort, she rips it off and puts it to the side, revealing who was inside.

Someone that she didn’t know. “Who?”

Inside the printer was a green duck, squished in a very uncomfortable position. On his lap was a pen and blank pieces of paper.

“Aw, bones.” He says as he slides out of the printer like slime, then pops back up like a jack-in-the-box. “¡Hola, civiles!” 

“What… Who is this?!” Yellowstone sputtered.

“That’s Bean the dynamite.” Metal says, finally letting go of the skunk’s wrists. “From what my data has summarized, he’s a nuisance.”

“Oh, hey!” Bean snaps his fingers and points at the clone. “Metal Sonic! I heard you had a redemption arc! I give you a handshake if I wanted to care!” Metal gives him an unearnest thumbs-up, and Bean takes out a piece of paper from the printer. “I just got done drawing you and everything, guess it’s gonna go to waste.” He then holds it out for him. “But you can still check it out! UwU!”

“Ooo woo?” Metal questions as he takes the piece of paper from Bean’s hand, showing a crude drawing of himself, him being small, and red pupils big, but also, and more significantly, his nose was so long it was close to a mosquito’s. 

He stares at Bean’s drawing of him with rage and, for the first time in his existence, disgust. “You are my least favorite person.” He says, staring him dead in the eyes, with Bean bashing his eyes bashfully in response. “And I just had the dismay of meeting those two brainless morons. And I’ve met Sonic.” He points to Rough and Tumble behind him.

“Hey, we're at least better than Sonic!” Rough argued, still rubbing his wrist.

“Hey, here’s a better question.” Gadget says, then turns to the duck. “Bean was it?”

“That’s my name! Feel free to wear it out, but know it’s not washing machine compatible.” Bean winks.

“Cool beans,” Gadget claps his hands, “Why were you in our printer?!” He yells.

“Uhh………..” Bean seemed to have spaced out, seemingly lost in thought, trying to remember. After a whole minute, he wipes the drool from his mouth. “What are we talking about?”

“For the love of chaos…” Lanolin walks over to Bean, and then pulls out her wispon. On instinct, the two skunks cover their ears. “Okay, Bean. We’re gonna play a game called Good cop, Nice cop. I’ll be both!”

“OOH!” Bean raises his hand like a child needing to use the bathroom. “Can I be bad cop? I always wanted to play this game!”

A concentrated sonic boom let out near inches to Bean’s face, startling the duck immediately.

“Ah, sorry. That was Nice cop.” Lanolin says, sardonically.

“Why nice cop?” Bean asked.

“Good cop, doesn’t miss.”

“Écoutez, les moutons!” Bean waves his hands in front of her. “There’s nothing you can say to me to make me blab on what I was doing in here! I’ve been stuck in there since last night!”

Both Lanolin and Gadget’s heads rise as a realization comes to them both.

“Oh, boy, I hope I didn’t give a person an epiphany,” Bean says. “Hate it when that happens.”

“Did you figure out what I just figured out?” Lanolin asked, pointing to Gadget.

“I think I did!” He nods his head.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Belle asked.

Lanolin and Gadget walk over to the center. “It took a while for us to figure it all out, but I think we uncovered the truth,” Lanolin says.

“That’s right.” Gadget nods, pushing up his glasses for a distinct shing. “Allow us to uncover the truth of this case!”

A silence fills the room as Bean sighs in disappointment, “Man, I wish I had some coloring stuff on me, I could make a killer comic right now.” He says.

Lanolin steps forward. “It all started last night, when Belle received an anonymous message through her personal network that the Restoration budget money was all going to be stolen. Even though she had already told Mend earlier she wasn’t going to show up that day, she showed up at the HQ to look for a possible culprit.”

Gadget steps by the sheep's side. “What she didn’t know was that both Rough and Tumble received an anonymous message of their own during the same time, telling them the same thing. Only they were told that the thief would be Belle. So all three of them appeared at the HQ to stop their potential thieves. With Belle unaware of the two watching over her as she looked. But when she herself appeared at the office where the crime would be done, all she found was an empty room. Assuming that this was nothing but a prank, she went home.”

“But that wasn’t the purpose of the thief’s plan, which was not only to cause a distraction, but to frame either Belle and/or Rough and Tumble,” Lanolin says. “Because while Belle was on her wild goose chase, Rough and Tumble were being watched by both Metal and Whisper. Who were too busy putting all their attention on them, to notice the true culprits make their move.”

“W-Who?” Yellowstone asked.

“Heh…” Gadget snickers, “Bean the Dyanmite!” He declares, pointing at him.

“Huh, wha…?” Bean looks over back at the two, being too busy drawing a comic with just a pen to pay attention.

“And Nangia the Cat!” Lanolin says. “Who, chances are… Is nobody but Fang the Sniper in disguise!”

Everyone gasps, including Bean, who was now stuffing himself with popcorn that was suddenly in his hand.

“Soon after midnight, after Metal had already left for the night. The two came inside through the vent inside the office, the two entered inside, and began filling the room with furniture to make the room seem filled in.” Lanolin explained.

“Wait, how?” Belle asked. “I saw the room, it was filled with stuff, how did no one notice that they put it in there?”

“That would be thanks to this!” Gadget pulls out the red bag, “This bag can hold anything inside without ever becoming heavy.” 

“Ooh! That’s mine! Gimme gimme!” Bean says, reaching out his hands.

Gadget tosses him the bag. “You're really not disproving our theory, man.”

“Wait, what? Shoot, was I supposed to?”

“You're not very cooperative, are you?”

“I am sometimes. When the mood calls for it.” 

“And it is that very reason why you were stuffed in the printer!” Lanolin declares. “While I’m unsure how it started. The two of you got into a fight, possibly because you argued over the share of the profit, or maybe you had a change of heart, or maybe something stupid altogether.”

“Eh, however the reader interprets it.” Bean shrugs.

“Whether led up to it, after the two of you set up the room, the two of you fought. Messing up the room until it seemed as though an earthquake had happened. And eventually, Fang would come out on top.”

“Or, I let him win!” Bean interrupts.

“Afterwards, he would stuff you into the printer so you wouldn’t interrupt his plans.”

“His actual plan was to form the Nangia persona, a financial advisor who appeared shortly after the clean sweepstakes incident.” Gadget says. “A disguise and voice were already made, but due to the earlier fight, the room was left a mess. But this only allowed him to make the perfect alibi, which could’ve happened. Someone went into the room last night and stole all the money. Making Belle in particular look guilty.”

“The one thing I still don’t get is how they took the money,” Lanolin ponders. “It was all in an online account so that it couldn’t be stolen by physical means, so how could they have done that?”

“Blimey,”  Bean says, now with a bushy mustache and a British mustache. “Perhaps the individual who stole all the money was someone who had convenient hacking skills that were, as regular speakers say, t’he bomb! ‘ That allowed him to hack into the account  to steal all the money without anyone ever noticing.”  Bean then takes off the bushy mustache and looks behind him before looking back at the others, pointing his thumb behind him. “Whoa, gang, whoever that guy was was probably really smart.”

“...What are you?” Jewel questioned, bewildered.

“Just a little guy. XD” 

“See, how-! How did he do that?!”

“Once all those things were set up, all Fang had to do was call Jewel about what happened last night without giving away his identity. And appear the next day to pin the story on Belle!” Lanolin says.

“But your scheme has fallen apart once we were the ones to look over this case! It was doomed to fail!” Gadget adds.

“Because we were the only ones crack the mystery!

Both of them then point at Bean dynamically. “This is the truth of this case!” both of them say in unison.

Bean was picking his nose when he then noticed the two pointing at him. “Oh, do you guys want me to react or something?” He says.

“Y-Yeah, that would make this a whole lot less awkward.” Gadget.

“Alright.” Bean clears his throat, as he then makes noise like an enemy in a video game taking damage. “G-Gaia, F-Frick! How could you two figure me out?!”

“Because I had Lanolin by my side.” Gadget says.

“And because I had Gadget by mine,” Lanolin responds. “And also because you made it very obvious.”

“So, do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Bean takes a cartoonishly long inhale and then lets out an extrudlingly long, loud exhale as he hunches over. He clicks his tongue before he begins to walk out the door. “Fang, come out! They caught us!” He says.

“What…” Lanolin says, turning around to watch Bean move among everyone else in the room, walking the room. “What the hell?” She says as she walks out the door, and everyone else follows suit.

“Fang! Come out! They got us red-handed!” The duck yells out, his hands close to his mouth to make his voice cover more distance. 

“Is… Is he just gonna take us to him?” Tangle question.

“I don’t even know with this man,” Whisper answered.

Bean then snaps his fingers, “Oh, he’s probably outside. Bark’s probably here now.”

“B-Bark?” Yellowstone questioned.

“Their polar bear companion.” Metal says.

“Oh, thank you, I’m so confused.”

Bean opens the front doors that lead to the outside, and from there, everyone saw Fang, still in the outfit he was in all day, and Bark. Both inside the marvelous queen. With the two of them, in surprise and confusion about what’s happening.

“Dogs, they found us out! I can’t even believe this. We’re going to jail.” Bean says, hopping into his empty seat on the ship, hands behind his neck and legs kicked up, much to the two’s shock.

“What are you talking about!?” Fang screams. His voice no longer has a Southern accent; it is now non-rhotic. 

“What do you mean, bro? They figured us out. They cracked your idea, bro. Can you believe this, bro?”

“What… You…” Fang screams in frustration, air-fisting the air. “Did yous blab your mouth again?!”

“Man, I dunno what you're talking about, those guys are just really smart.” Bean shrugs.

“Are you kiddin’... For the love of chaos! This is why! This is why we can’t do any damn infiltration jobs because you always blab your damn mouth!”

 Bean sighs, “Like always, bossman, I don’t even know what you're talking about.”

“I’ve been sayin’ this for years! I’ve been sayin’ this to you for years! I’ve been sayin’ this to bark, and he agrees.”

Bark responds with a neutral, leaning toward a no, sound.

Fang’s thumb points at the polar bear. “See? He gets my point.” He says, much to the latter’s confusion.

“He did NOT say that!” Bean rebuttals!

“What would you know?”

“Him?!” 

“Hey, hi.” Jewel interrupts. Flying above the three. “I know you guys are in the middle of an argument, but it would mean a lot to all of us here if you returned what you stole from us.”

“Heh, sorry, miss,” Fang says. “But there’s no being on Gaia’s blue and green earth that’s gonna make us-!”

Kay, that’s fair.” Bean says, pulling out his phone. “What’s your MoneyFriend username?”

Fang begins to laugh manically, “Of course… Hahaha! Of course! What did I friggin’ expect!?”

“Oh, uh!” Jewel pulls out her phone. “I don’t use MoneyFriend, I have Coinapp if that’s cool.”

“Oh, that’s valid. Yeah, I got that too.”

After a minute of exchanging, Bean completed his transaction with Jewel, returning all the stolen money to her account.

“I freakin’ can’t with you, Bean.” Fang scorned.

Bean gasped. “W-What… What did I do wrong, Fang-Sama?”

The sniper then grabs the duck and begins to shake him aggressively. “You know what you did, you dimwitted nincompoop!” He yelled. “I did not put myself in thigh-high socks, in uncomfortable heels, put cantalopes on my chest! So that you can blow the whole thing for us sky high!”

“I don’t know, not for nothing, but you do rock those heels, Fangy Wangy,” Bean says, Bark nodding in response.

“I know I do, but that’s not the point!”

“He does look kinda hot,” Rough says.

“Why are you two still here?” Gadget asked, frustrated.

“Well, since all that’s all done and settled. You three can now deal with the consequences.” Lanolin says.

Bean gags, “Consequences, I don’t wanna deal with that! I’m deadly allergic to that! Right next to pineapples.”

Bark makes a contradicting noise.

“I can eat it whenever I feel like it, Bark. You know this, pal.”

“Well, you should’ve thought of that before you stole from us.” The sheep says as she, Gadget, Metal, Whisper, and Tangle begin to walk closer threateningly.

“Aw, nuts. This is bad! How are we gonna get out of this one-! OH MY GOSH, THERE’S A BOMB BEHIND YOU!” Bean screams at the top of his lungs, pointing behind, making everyone look.

What they didn’t find was a bomb; they saw nothing behind them. “Oh my gosh, did we really fall for tha-!” As Tangle comments that she looks back in front of them, the only thing left was a dust cloud that made the shape of the Marvelous Queen. “Huh… I didn’t know dust clouds were still in these da-!”

Before the sentence even finishes, the dust cloud clears up and reveals a cartoon bomb nearly ready to blow. Everyone begins to panic and scream. Except for Metal, who charges toward the bomb and throws it as far as he can. Leading to far into the sky, as it explodes when it begins to fall.

Everyone stared at the small explosive mushroom in the sky in stunned silence, at a complete loss for words.

“I know it’s not exactly the brightest of words to say here, but, like, damn,” Tangle says. “That just happened!” Everyone else agrees, nodding in unison.

Later, Gadget and Lanolin sat outside the HQ, drinking coffee and watching the setting sun. “You know, all things considered, ignoring the fact that Bean made it pretty easy for us. We solved a whole case on our own.”

“Yeah,” Lanolin says, taking another sip of her drink. “You and I make a pretty good duo.”

“Oh, uh. I dunno about that.” Gadget says bashfully. “You did all the work, I kinda just showed it to you.”

“Maybe, but I did enjoy working with all in all.”

“Thanks, Lanolin.” Gadget smiles. “I guess we just have a lot in common.”

“Hm?”

“We’re both misunderstood, and we both want to prove those idiots wrong. We just want vindication, right?”

Lanolin chuckles, “Yup. You're accurate about that.”

“I mainly just wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of helping others with this sort of thing, glad I proved myself wrong!”

“True…” Lanolin pats Gadget on the back. “But honestly, I could’ve told you that.”

“O-Oh… Thank you!” Gadget nods, unable to hide the blush on his face.

Lanolin receives a text on her phone, puts her coffee down on the table, and reads it. “Aw, dang. Jewel feels bad over Rough and Tumble getting nothing, seeing that they ‘Technically did the right thing.’ And is trying to pay them a little money. And there being picky.” She stands up and sighs, “I’ll be right back.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I got it!” Gadget says, standing up quickly.

“Are you sure? Those two are super annoying.”

“Yeah, but you’ve dealt with them longer today, I think I should share that pain, you know?”

The sheep's eyes widen for a second before she snickers, “Alright, your funeral, Gadget.” She says, sitting back down.

“Although, if you want to help, you can always come with.” He jokes.

“Oh no… My butt is now glued to this seat until the end of time…” She teased. “It can only become unstuck unless you do the whole thing by yourself.”

“Haha… Okay. I’ll see what I can do, be right back.” Gadget runs inside.

Lanolin exhales through her nose with a smile on her face. She reaches for her coffee cup until she realizes that it has vanished. “What… Where did it go?

“Mwee, hee, hee!” A voice is heard above; the sheep looks up and sees Tangle, hanging her tail from a hook, levitating upside down in midair, her other hand holding her cup. “Because I stole it!” She taunts with a smug smile on her face.

Lanolin stares at Tangle, eyes half lidded as a long beat passes.

“Can you give it back?”

“Yeah, okay.”