KrissyKat91: So, I just got the first volume of the Medabots manga from Amazon. That thing has the weirdest artwork I have ever seen in any manga (not that I've actually read that many). The plot seems pretty good so far, though.

Ch. 4: Into the Past

The next few days were strained, to say the least. Shadow went out of his way to avoid the Professor, speaking to the man only when necessary, and even then, only with frigid politeness.

Then, one day, everything changed.

May 12, 2259

Shadow was sitting on the front steps, watching the birds and marveling at how free they seemed, when his sharp audios picked up the sounds of footsteps coming up behind him.

"Shadow?"

Blue eyes narrowing, Shadow stood up and began to walk away.

"Shadow, wait, please!"

The black Medabot paused, turning slightly, letting the Professor know he was listening.

Rubbing the back of his neck, the Professor said, "I know you're angry with me; you have every right to be, and I won't blame you if you never speak to me again, but, well..." He hesitated, then rushed ahead. "You know the time machine, the one I used that day?"

Shadow nodded slowly, wondering where this was going.

"I finally finished recalibrating it and—"

Shadow turned to face him fully. "You can send me back."

It was a statement, not a question, but the Professor answered anyway.

"Yeah. I can't send you to the exact date, though. The closest I could send you would be about a year later."

The Stealth-type didn't even need to think about it. "It's close enough. If it will help me regain my memories, then I'll do it."

Professor Sayne frowned, then nodded. He had hoped Shadow would stay, but he understood the black Medabot's reasoning. If it had been he who had lost his memories, he'd want to do whatever it took to get them back.

"Right, then," he said. "Shall we?"

September 12, 2156

Ikki Tenryou shivered. Old Man Winter had come early to Riverview, Japan, and people like him, who'd thought it was still warmish out and dressed accordingly, were paying for it.

It didn't help that Metabee was laughing his head off at him.

"Oh man!" he cackled. "You should've seen the look on your face when you walked out the door! Priceless!"

"Can it, Metabee," Ikki grumbled. "It's not funny."

"He wouldn't be laughing if you had watched the weather report this morning," Erika Amazake told him, pulling her coat closer to her body.

"Since when are they ever right?" he snapped, then spied something that made him brighten a bit. "Hey, lets go in there," he said, pointing to a small shack by the river.

"Okay," Erika replied, "but only until you warm up enough to get home."

They were almost to the shack when a flash of brilliant light lit it up from the inside, followed by a shock wave that knocked them to the ground.

"What was that?!" Metabee shouted.

Reporter instincts flaring to life, Erika jumped up and said, "I don't know, but I'm gonna find out!" With that, she shot off.

"Erika! Wait! It could be dangerous! Erika!"

"Man, that girl's either brave, crazy, or both," Metabee muttered as he and Ikki took off after her.

Shadow sat up, groaning. The Professor had neglected to inform him of the state his fuel tank would be in after the trip. Granted, he hadn't asked, but still...

Shadow's head suddenly shot up as the sound of approaching footsteps caught his attention.

Scrambling to his feet, the Stealth-type shoved the nausea away and darted into a corner. Flicking his cloaking field on, he instantly became invisible to the naked eye and nearly all forms of radar.

As he watched, the door to the building he was in swung open, and two human children (a black-haired boy and a brown-haired girl), along with a white-and-gold KBT-type Medabot (a rather old model, at that) walked in.

"See, Erika? There's nothing in here but old crates," the boy said.

"Then what, pray tell, made that light, or that shock wave?" the girl, Erika, asked.

"Uh..."

"She's got you there, Ikki," the Hercules Beetle-type commented.

"You're supposed to be on my side, Metabee," the boy, Ikki, snapped. "We really shouldn't be in here. It could be dangerous."

Shadow mentally smiled. He liked that boy. He seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. The girl, however, seemed to nosy for her own good. As for the Medabot, Metabee, he didn't know what to think.

His sensors indicated that the radio waves broadcasting from the boy's comm. unit, a "Medawatch," he believed they were called, were transmitting to the KBT-type. Therefor, logic dictated that Ikki must be his commander, or "Medafighter," as they called themselves.

However, their body language and the way Metabee reacted to him suggested they were rivals, not partners. It made no sense, and made his processor ache.

An alarm suddenly went off in Shadow's head, drawing his attention away from the little group before him. A quick radar sweep showed that four humans, accompanied by about half a dozen battle ready Medabots, were approaching the building.

Shadow's blue eyes narrowed. Tactical programming he'd forgotten he had was telling him to ready himself for the first fight he'd been in since before he could remember.

Priming his weapon systems, he waited.

"Ikki."

Ikki turned at the sound of his name. "Yeah, Metabee?"

Metabee had a decidedly weirded out look in his green eyes. "I just felt someone do a radar sweep."

"So?"

"The sweep came from in this shack. I didn't do it, you and Erika can't do it, and Brass' body isn't here, so she couldn't do it." He gulped. "My sensors aren't picking anything up, but I'm positive." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Someone's in here with us!"

Ikki started to answer, then froze as a sourceless voice growled, "Get out of here."

That caught Erika's attention. "W-what was that?"

"Get out now," the voice snapped.

"Who's there? Where are you?" Metabee shouted.

For a moment there was silence, then the door was suddenly blown in by two very mean looking Ninja-types, a Samurai-type, and four Dragon-types.

And standing right behind them was the Rubberrobo Gang.