"What do you mean she can't attend?" Fox snapped out, slamming his hands down hard on the desk.
The admissions officer on the other side - a young mole - flinched back, definitely regretting his life choices at this point. Getting on the wrong side of a system-wide hero? Always a bad move. Getting on his bad side involving the child he was known to be protective of? Even worse. Doing so after it's discovered he now had lightning magic driven by his rage, among other things? He was beginning to think he should have stayed in the family mine like his parents wanted. "I-I'm sorry sir," he apologized sincerely. "It's out of my hands in this case. Regulations and all that."
"What regulation exactly is keeping Sunset from attending the Academy?" Fox demanded coldly. "It certainly can't be academic, I've seen her test results-"
"That actually is a problem in this case," the admissions officer apologized worriedly. "She's tested out of just about all the courses the Academy offers except electives and the flight courses that require Ar-Wing certification. In situations like this, standard procedure is to get certification cleared through and then slot them either directly to military career or whatever field they choose...in Sunset's case, probably being part of your Team."
"But she wants to attend the Academy so she can learn alongside students her own age and make friends!" Fox snapped. "How is this supposed to help her?"
The young mole swallowed nervously. "Well...all fraternity and sorority events to the contrary, the Academy isn't supposed to be a social club. It's supposed to focus on learning."
"Well, what about the physical courses for military training?" Fox demanded irritably. "Surely she-"
"Rates in the top ten percent in terms of physical fitness and already has three black belts," the officer pointed out nervously. "She already outclasses the majority of her peers in every reasonable category."
"What about the accelerated programs for the specialists?" Fox pressed. "Can't she be placed in those?"
"While that's normally an option...things have gotten political there..."
Fox stared at the young mole flat-eyed. "Political," he repeated calmly. "How, exactly, is it political?"
"She's an honorary member of every tribe on Dinosaur Planet because of her significance in their mythology and role in saving them recently," the young man explained carefully. "Officially, she has ambassadorial status and diplomatic immunity...and there are restrictions regarding those with that status taking the accelerated programs..."
Fox closed his eyes and took a few calming breaths. "I'm not specifically angry with you," he explained in as rational a tone as he could manage. "You're just doing your job, going by the book, just like you're supposed to. As you said, this sort of thing is out of your hands."
The admissions officer let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you for understanding sir-"
Before he could get another word out, Fox was on the desk and had the young man pinned to the wall by his collar, lightning dancing around him. "But if you don't tell me whose hands it is in, that will be your choice...and then I will be angry with you," he growled.
"Only the headmaster can approve exceptions to regulations!" he gasped in response. "And he needs approval from military and civil authority as well as the planetary government involved in order to do so for those involving political matters!"
Fox calmly released him and brushed him off. "Thank you. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to talk to General Pepper and the rulers of Dinosaur Planet about getting this fixed, and finding out why I wasn't informed this would be an issue in the first place. My apologies for losing my temper." With that, he turned to go, taking a few calming breaths. Krystal had a point, the lightning inside him had affected his self-control, especially when it came to his anger. He lost his cool much quicker and with far less warning now. He'd need to look into keeping that in check before Sunset started dating. She'd never forgive him if he scared off all the suitors by roasting one.
"We're working our way through the red tape, Fox," General Pepper said calmly. "I admit, this is on me. I'd only talked about streamlining Sunset's application for standard courses and testing into her level with the Academy headmaster. I hadn't realized Sunset had gotten so advanced she'd need to go into the accelerated programs in order to be with her peers." He frowned, stroking his chin. "It's proving especially difficult as, with the exception of actual Ar-Wing certification, she'll need to be placed in all the accelerated programs to be at her level...which is going to be difficult since most of them take place at the same time for focused learning. I don't suppose she's picked any specialties she's particularly interested in? I'd rather not find out if she can time travel with magic to meet all her classes."
"Agreed," Krystal spoke up rapidly. "That's just asking for trouble...especially since Sunset would probably want to find out what would actually happen if she encountered herself."
"Ar-Wing Piloting, Cultural Interchange, Extra-steller Astro-Navigation, Mixed Martial Combat, and Field Medicine," ROB spoke up before Fox could respond. "These are the areas of Academy courses that Sunset has shown the most interest in while studying, and has the easiest time adapting her magic to. I believe if she were forced to choose specialties for her first Academy lessons, these would be them."
"And as luck would have it, their schedules don't conflict because they work well together as skill sets for those wanting to get into the Diplomatic Corps," General Pepper observed calmly as he read the sheet. "If we can put that down as her long-term goal, her diplomatic status should actually open doors for getting the application through all the proper hoops."
"I'll see if that's what she'd like to do, but I'm pretty sure it is," Fox concluded thoughtfully. "She's definitely determined to set her own path to somewhere..."