"WHAT!?" Yelled Sonic and Xelphene at the same time.
"I said," Said Nicole in a slightly aggravated tone, "that you, Sonic, and Xelphene have almost the same DNA."
"That’s impossible." Said Rotor, looking from one of the hedgehogs to the other.
"Not exactly." Said Nicole. "Possibilities are as follows: one, Xelphene is Sonic’s long-lost twin sister, though probability is very small."
Sonic shook his head. "I don’t have any sisters, long-lost twin or otherwise. Nuh-uh."
"Two, Xelphene is an ‘imperfect’ clone of Sonic. Either possibility would explain similar DNA."
"I have another theory," said Sally, "but I’ll need to analyze Aris’ saliva to see if I’m right."
Aris was slumped outside of Rotor’s hut, wondering what to do next. The problem was, she was limited in her actions by the Dimention Travelers Association, therefore cutting her off from the things she would most like to do, such as leveling Robotropolis or giving away the secret of Derobotisization.
She sighed, and decided that she had only one thing to do. She had to file a plea-bargain with the DTA to separate this dimension from the normal continuum. Then she could do whatever she wanted.
She was broken off from her pondering by the door of the hut sliding noisily open. Princess Sally came out, carrying a small first-aid kit. Interested, Aris thought about calling her over when Sally caught sight of her and sighed her relief. Having done that, Sally quickly rushed up to the dragon’s head.
"Aris," said Sally, "I need to take a sample of your saliva. I have a theory about Xelphene - you know, she has amnesia and looks a lot like Sonic, and I think I might know why. But I have to see how your saliva deroboticizes people first, so I can run a few tests, and-,"
"Woah, woah, woah." Aris held up a long blue claw to stop Sally’s frantic run-on sentence. "Start over, and go slow."
As Sally related the incidents of the past ten or so minutes, Aris realized that she had a bigger problem than she had thought. If she didn’t get a separation order from the DTA before anything else happened, she would be in deep trouble, and would probably be indirected from this dimension for all time.
Meanwhile, Sally was reaching the end of her monologue. "So you see why I have to run the tests. I think I know why Xelphene looks like Sonic, but I want to make sure, and the only way to do that is-"
Aris shook her head abruptly. "I can’t help you, Sally."
Sally broke off in surprise. "What?"
Aris started to rise to her feet. "In fact, I need to leave. As soon as I can."
"Wait a second here. You can’t just go!"
"Look, Sal," said Aris, lowering her head to the ground and still being at eye-to-eye level with the squirrel, "I’ve got some major responsibilities, and helping you any more would be tantamount to high betrayal."
"What do you mean?"
"Well," said Aris carefully, "You know that I’m a dimension traveler."
"Well, yes, I’d gathered such."
"But you don’t realize what that means. I got a membership with an organization called the DTA, allowing me to travel the dimensions."
"I don’t see…"
"According to the restrictions of that agreement, I can’t do anything to disrupt the dimensional continuum in any way, shape, or form. Meaning I can’t do anything totally weird that would throw this dimension out of whack of anything nearby. The roboticizer got off, barely. Giving it away, no."
Sally sighed. "So you can’t really help us at all."
"Not exactly." Sally brightened a bit. "I can’t help you right now, but if I can get a separation order from the DTA, I can take this dimension out of the normal continuum, making it possible to do whatever I want."
"Oh." Sally considered. How long will that take?"
"Maximum? Oh, about two weeks, your time."
"Great." Sally stepped back. "You’d better be going now then."
"I might as well," said Aris, and she teleported away.