"We had been deceived."

"A champion of this era must be chosen."

"Lara."

"Young though you are, you have proven yourself in the previous world."

"To aid you take these shards of lives no longer lived."

"Lara."

"Use the experience they give to strengthen yourself and the friends you need."

"For together you will be stronger than the sum of your talents."

"Lara!"

"And that will carry you through the challenges to come."

"May the light of creation shine upon your path."

"Lara, wake up!"

Lara-Su groaned as she began opening her eyes, her vision was fuzzy, her ears were ringing, and she had a pounding headache. See could see a brown shape and blue shape facing her. "Sonia? Manik? Are you little guys ok?"

"Little guys?" she thought she heard Sonia say but it was hard to tell exactly. "You aren't that much older than us."

"Wait, did history get changed again? You're back to being teenagers?"

"Wow, Gleam must have hit you harder than I thought," came a voice that she could now tell was Manik's. "Just focus a little bit and blink a few times, if that doesn't clear it up than we better go see the nurse."

Lara did as she was asked, everything became settled. Sonia and Manik seemed to be in the middle of both expectations looking to be pre-teens, now she could clearly tell that they were in an elementary school classroom, but something was still off to her. Then it hit her; Sonia, Manik, the desks, everything meant to be child sized seemed bigger to her than it should be or rather she seemed smaller compared to what her head was telling her she should be. Getting up out of the desk she was sitting in she ran to a nearby window and caught her own reflection in it with a black eye, her pre-teen reflection.

"Aieeeeeee! I'm a kid again?! Just what is going on here?!"

Over at the front of the classroom a fat adult toad stirred from his sleep and muttered to himself as a bubble of mucus kept blowing in and out of his nose. "Lousy delinquents, get away from my cheese bugs…" He then went back to his snoring.

"Whew," Manik sighed. "Good thing Mr. Croaker is such a heavy sleeper. I swear the only good thing about today is that once it's over we can leave the fifth grade, go to middle school and say goodbye to this snotpill forever."

"What did you mean by again Lara?" asked Sonia. "We've always been kids, all of us."

Lara took a few deep breaths trying to calm down. "Ok, just think about it. The last thing I remember was that I was at Angel Island doing guardian things. Suddenly there was this huge light that washed over everything and the next thing I know I was floating around without a body in a cold, lightless, timeless void."

"Yeah, that's a pretty apt metaphor for detention," said Manik. "Still seems like one crazy dream."

"It wasn't a…wait a minute, detention?! I never got detention before in my life, any life!"

"Blame Gleam," pouted Sonia. "I swear she's a trouble magnet who pulls in everyone else who gets too close to her."

Lara for some reason felt like pummeling someone then shook it off. "Ok there's got to be some sort of clue or explanation to…" She then rushed over to a calendar by the door. "3258 P.X.E.? Alright at least me being this age makes a little more sense, I'm about eleven years younger but it's also about eleven years earlier, I think."

Sonia looked concerned. "Maybe we better ask Mr. Croaker if you should go back to the nurse after all."

Suddenly the P.A. system sounded. "Mr. Croaker, Ms. Peahen, please have the following students report to the principal's office. Sonia Acorn, Manik Acorn, Lara-Su of House Edmund, Dusk the Bat and Gleam the Hedgehog; their parents have just arrived."

"That's it," sighed Manik. "We're dead."

Mr. Croaker's bubble popped as he sprung awake. "W-w-what?!" He then got a mean looking smile on his face. "Oh yeah, you heard the announcement. March yourselves to Principal Hamlin's office and out of my life! Then I just have to make it retirement and I never have to deal with any of you little monsters again!"

"With pleasure you miserable old wart!" said Sonia. "You were a lousy teacher anyway!"

"OUT!"

The trio grabbed their backpacks and went down the hall with Lara taking the twins' lead. They had just turned a corner when they saw a hedgehog girl pink quills tipped in turquoise wearing a sky-blue dress spotted them and run towards their direction.

"Oh Manik! I didn't miss you after all!"

Manik started blushing. "Oh, uh, hey Aleena."

Aleena stopped short of the boy. "I just wanted to say thanks for sticking up for me earlier. Gleam was being such a heat sink but as much as I wanted to give her a piece of my mind, she can be scary sometimes. But the way you just stood up to her for me, it was worth everyone getting into trouble for. That wasn't just speed, it was turbo speed!"

Manik shuffled his feet nervously. "Think nothing of it…"

Aleena started blushing back. "No, I mean it. You're a cool guy and I was wondering if we could chat or hang out sometime?"

Manik seemed to get even redder. "Really!? As in boy/girl hang out!?"

"Yeah, let me show you!" Aleena got out a mobile device made of clear plastic and tapped it a few times. "There I just updated my Neighborhood account to list you as a 'next door' neighbor. I want everyone to know how speed you are! So, can you list me as 'next door'?"

"Sure, thanks Aleena! Wow, that's two good things that happened today!"

Aleena turned to the other two girls. "You two were awesome too, expect to know what's upper deck next before the rest of my neighbors!"

"Wow, thanks!" said Sonia.

"Yeah thanks," said Lara before leaning into Sonia's shoulder to whisper. "Should I know this girl?"

Sonia whispered back. "Look I know you've only been going to our school for the last six months, but everyone knows Aleena is great at keeping the pulse of the latest trends. Nobody knows more about what's upper deck than her, that can be vital going into middle school."

Lara didn't know what confused her more, what was going on or that she knew that upper deck meant popular and she wanted to have it.

"Aleena Rose!" Amy shouted as she came from the same corner Aleena did moments ago dressed in a red business suit. "What do you think you're doing young lady?! You're still in trouble!"

Aleena groaned. "Mom I was just thanking Manik! He stuck up for me!"

"I'm not sure I like what he considers, 'sticking up for someone' given what you ended up doing afterward. We're still going to talk with your father about your punishment, but I think he'd agree a good start will be taking away this for a while!"

Amy snatched the mobile device from Aleena's hands, the younger hedgehog looked panicked and even seemed to be shaking. "Aw come on Mom! I have hundreds of people on Neighborhood who follow me looking for what's trendy and upper deck! If I just vanish from the infonet they'll get really worried!"

Amy then began tapping the screen. "This should fix that. 'I was being stupid today, so Mom and Dad say I have to stay logged off for a week. Don't worry about me, I totally deserve and need this.' Send."

Aleena fumed. "You know you can really suck sometimes!"

"I'm your mother, it's my job to suck when you're acting like a brat! I swear getting you this phone wasn't the worst mistake your father and I made, but it's in the running. Now get in the car so we can go home, march!"

Aleena grumbled as they walked by but gave Manik a smile for a second.

Amy turned to the trio as she followed her daughter. "And you three better hurry if you don't want to get into even hotter water. Somehow I doubt your parents will be any happier than I am right now!"

"Right," sighed Sonia. "Back to the execution."

They turned the corner and found four angry parents waiting for them. But Lara was shocked by on in particular.

"Dad, your right eye it's not cybernetic anymore!"

"It never has been," grumbled Knuckles. "I don't know what you're playing at but telling stories isn't going to let you off the hook for picking fights."

"Picking fights?"

"That's what the principal said on the phone," said Julie. "And given what we've heard so far we're extremely disappointed."

Sonia and Manik approached their parents, Sally was wearing the uniform of a member of the Council of Acorn. Manik came up first. "Listen mom, dad, we can explain…"

"Explain what?" said Sally. "Why I had to postpone a very important vote on disaster relief because somehow you managed to get practically every third through fifth grade student thrown into detention?"

Sonia gulped. "There was a bit more to it than that…"

"It was the last day of school!" said Sonic. "How do you get into trouble on the last day?! At worst you do some review work, get some summer reading assigned or bring home a bad report card; but mostly it's a cakewalk! You talk with friends about what you're doing that summer, sign year books, have recess, heck your principal was cool enough to throw you kids a pizza party! What made you think 'yeah now's a good time to drive my parents insane'?!"

"Well…"

"Save it," said Knuckles. "First we're going to hear from the principal, THEN you three will have a chance to defend yourselves."

He opened the door to the office, looking inside Lara saw not only the pig but someone who'd made her quills rustle.

"King Shadow?! What's he doing here?!"

"What are you talking about?" said a white hedgehog girl sitting nearby him who had a black eye. "Dad's not a king, but he'd make a better one than all the fake royals you were all going on and on about."

"Gleam," Rouge said from next to the stoic hedgehog. "You two are in enough trouble as it is, so until an adult says otherwise stop digging this hole deeper and keep your mouth shut!"

As everyone took their seats Lara stared at both the girl and a black bat boy who seemed to be doing his best not to look Manik in the eye. Then something came right to mind about what was going on to Lara, she and Gleam hated each other with a passion.

"I'm sorry that I had to call you all here under these circumstances," said Hamlin before turning to Sally. "Especially you Counselor. Normally we'd just send them home with a slip after detention but given that after today they'll all be moving onto middle school, I thought we should settle this matter now."

"It's quite alright," said Sally. "No matter what we have to do our kids always come first, now why don't you start with a summary of what exactly happened?"

Hamlin nodded. "The student body of Nate Morgan Elementary had really impressed me this year," he turned to Knuckles. "Including the ones like Lara we took in from Angel Island after their school had to be rebuilt due to one of Robotnick's attacks."

"Shouldn't Robotnick be dead?" Lara thought to herself.

"So, I felt they deserved a little reward, I planned a party this afternoon for them to enjoy, but that was when the incident occurred. It seems like Gleam here got into an argument with Aleena Rose, then one thing led to another causing a scuffle that spread out into a food fight involving almost the entire student body and we're still cleaning up. I doubt the school board will let me do that again."

"Tell the truth Gleam," Shadow said succinctly. "Did you pick on this girl?"

Gleam crossed her arms. "She was bragging about her trip she took last spring to visit her cousin in Mercia, kept going on about how she learned staff fighting from the crown prince. I just gave my opinion that she wasn't a princess, that because King 'o Hedge like every monarch today left the making law stuff to an elected body they weren't real royalty anymore." Gleam then gave a nasty look at Manik. "Then blue boy here butted in."

"Manik," said Sonic. "Did you start this?"

"Gleam was being mean about it and making Aleena cry!" said Manik. "So, I did what you'd have done! I faced Gleam and told her to back off, then she started saying OUR family aren't really royalty!"

"Hey it's true." said Gleam. "Mrs. Acorn let her brother take the throne and he gave most of his power to the council, now they're just a bunch of figureheads, so you and your sister aren't real royalty either. Your dad runs a diner for crying out loud."

"That's not what I remember either," thought Lara.

"He's carrying on our great uncle Chuck's legacy!" said Sonia.

"So Manik and Gleam got into a fight?" said Rouge. "That's what started this?"

"Not quite," said Hamlin. "While the two of them started the conflict it was just shouting, neither of them threw the first punch." He then turned to the echidna family. "From what I gathered Lara-Su hit Gleam, Gleam hit back then Manik and Sonia here began throwing pizza at Gleam to help Lara and Dusk threw food at them before the whole thing descended into chaos."

"Why did you get yourself involved?" Knuckles asked. "Why did you punch her?"

Lara took one look at Gleam to come up with an answer only to get flushed with anger. "What can I say? Her face is just so punchable." Somewhere inside a voice was yelling "Why did I just say that?!"

"Lara-Su!" shouted Julie. "I don't care what she was doing that was unacceptable!"

"Gleam's a bully, Aleena was in trouble and I kept my knuckle spikes retracted the entire time! I thought the Chaotix and the Freedom Fighters were all about stopping bullies and helping people!" Lara snapped back but inwardly that part of her was yelling "Please just shut up!"

"There's a difference between teasing and attacking someone!" yelled Knuckles. "What Gleam was doing was wrong, but you should have known better, it wasn't any of your places to fight Aleena's battles for her! You keep telling me you want to be a guardian but right now you're acting like a puggle!"

"P-puggle?!"

Dusk started muttering. "Sure, when Aleena's in trouble you dash right in, but Gleam gets hurt and you totally ditch on your promise you backstabber…"

Manik groaned. "Gleam started it Dusk, that promise you, me and Skye made was about sticking up for our sisters, not helping them be total snotpills!"

"You know she's sensitive…!"

"Am not!" yelled Gleam.

"You seemed to forget about that promise when Grace decided to butt in and give me a cheese pizza shampoo!" shouted Sonia.

"Grace was backing me and Gleam up!" yelled Dusk. "Unlike you traitors!"

"Oh yeah, refuse to call your sister out when she's being a heat sink!" shouted Manik. "That'll really help her out in the long run!"

"Quiet!" grumbled Shadow. "All of you!"

"Manik, Sonia let it go and be the bigger person here," said Sonic.

"Ugh!" said Manik. "You're so uncool right now!"

"Hey, I'm the reason you kids use the word speed to mean cool! I invented cool, I'm way past cool!"

"Yeah," scoffed Sonia. "Past its expiration date."

"Don't you sass your father!" shouted Sally.

"ENOUGH!" Hamlin yelled. After a moment of silence, the pig took a deep breath. "Do you kids know why I decided to go into education?"

"Because you were a hundredth rate Freedom Fighter, and your political career was a flop?" snarked Dusk. Rouge then pulled on the younger bat's ear. "OW! OW! OW!"

"You're skating on enough thin ice already! Now all of you kids be quiet!"

Hamlin sighed. "I admit I had an inferiority complex, I felt everyone wrote me off as useless and that led me to being quite unpleasant. Then during the Phantom Ruby War Knuckles here had me watch a few of the younger children mostly so I'd stay out of the way, but it turned out I had a knack with kids. It felt good to find something I had actual talent at, so I decided to go into teaching and over the years it left me very fulfilled. I made it my own mission to help my students find their niche and that ultimately led me to becoming the principal of this school. You and many of your friends have their own… challenges we weren't prepared for; I hope you'll find something I said or the environment I fostered will let you find what you were meant to do. A good first step would be all of you apologizing to each other."

Gleam growled. "I'm not apologizing to Red or these…"

"Gleam Maria Hedgehog, Dusk Gerald Bat!" Shadow snarled. "You two will apologize to them and then we're going to stop by Aleena's house so you can apologize to her face-to-face! Do I make myself clear?!"

Suddenly Gleam and Dusk looked to ground nervously like a couple of kindergarteners. "Yes daddy," they both answered at once then turning to the other three kids. "We're sorry."

Lara had a memory of holding her own against Shadow but seeing what he was able to do with just words, she felt like she almost wet herself.

"Sonia, Manik, it's your turn," Sonic said.

"You too Lara," said Julie-Su.

Even though she knew she should the words were starting to feel like vomit in her mouth. "I'm…sorry."

"We're sorry too," said Sonia and Manik.

"Good," said Hamlin turning to the parents. "Now that's out of the way I'll leave the matter of discipline up to you. I'm sorry their time here at Nate Morgan Elementary had to end on such a sour note."

"It wasn't your fault Hamlin," said Sally. "You've proven to be quite capable when it comes to children."

"Although you really got to fire that Croaker guy," said Sonic. "He's way too harsh on the kids and from what I hear he's obnoxious to the other teachers too."

Hamlin rubbed his temples. "Believe me, I tried. But as long as his mother is on the school board my hands are tied."

"Well, I think grounding them for a week with no allowance should drill the message into their thick skulls," said Sally.

"The same goes for you Lara-Su," said Knuckles.

"And you can both forget about our trip to Mystic Kingdom amusement park this summer," said Rouge.

"But that's not fair!" said Dusk. "I pulled my grades up, I did all my chores, you never said this was part of the deal!"

"It didn't need to be said, you're supposed to stay out of trouble! Now after we stop by Amy and Lucian's place so Gleam can apologize to Aleena, I need to get Club Rouge ready to open tonight and you're both going to help by scrubbing the bathrooms."

The kids all grumbled as their parents lead them out of the office. Lara-Su was particularly miserable. "Great, I'm trapped in a little girl's body and being punished for something I don't remember doing! I'm not sure how the timeline got this messed up, but I better find out before things get even worse! I doubt I'll be able to figure out much today as mad as my parents are. Maybe a good night's sleep will help put things in perspective."

"Run Lara!" cried the voice of a small girl. "Run before he gets you too!"

She turned and saw a centipede like creature with three eyes, one of which was scared and ruined, before it reached out with a metal three-pronged claw to grab her.

"AHHHH!" She bolted awake and was breathing heavily.

"Quite the nightmare," came the voice of a young woman. "With your head like that no wonder those memoires got you so mixed up today."

Lara turned on a lamp and saw what looked like herself, or rather how she used to look, sitting next to the small vanity in the room.

"Who are you, how did you get in here, did you make me a kid again?!"

Lara quickly grabbed the nearest object, a chao plush, and threw it at the older doppelganger only for it to pass through her and hit the mirror with a cute squeak.

"Listen if you calm down, I'll answer you the best I can, or rather the best you can."

"How did…?!"

"It's because I'm not really here, I'm in your head. Look someone, I have no idea who, put in a bunch of memories of how your life did go before the timeline got changed a couple of times. It was all getting jumbled together, you weren't made a kid, you just also have the memoires of an adult. Luckily for you there was also something that was sent along with them to give you a way to organize all of that while keeping you sane, me. Think of me as an imaginary friend only you can see and hear who doubles as a filing cabinet for defunct timelines. Now it shouldn't feel like you did all of those things and clear your head on what this timeline is actually like."

Lara felt her head swimming. "Yeah, it's starting to come back. So, does this filing cabinet have a name?"

"We used an alias in one of those timelines, Jani-Ca, so just use that for my name."

"Ok Jani, now for the big question, what are these memories even doing in my head to begin with?"

"That's what we have to figure out. I don't think it was just random, so you are probably thinking that too."

"Yeah, there's got to be a reason. So how are these memories supposed to help me?"

"Well, you learned a lot of techniques over the years that made you one of the most powerful guardians ever, perhaps you need those powers."

Lara groaned. "Good luck with that, Dad refuses to give me guardian training."

"He was like that in both timelines that weren't dark, it's lucky then that you have no less than five 'uncles' in the Chaotix who are willing to teach you everything they know."

"Yeah, that'll help," Lara then fell back onto her pillow while she groaned. "Too bad that I can't ask since I've been grounded because of Gleam."

"Yeah, not sure what caused it, but she was definitely not part of the picture in any timeline I remember. Why do you two seem to hate each other so much?"

Lara got up to a shelf full of photographs, each one had her with different kids laughing and having fun. One whoever she kept face down on the frame, the back had a thin coat of dust. "I keep asking myself that whenever we get into an argument or fight. Gleam wasn't always this way…" She picked up the photo showing both her and Gleam at about five years old making silly faces at the camera. "…She used to be fun. Gleam used to be very timid, always curling up when she got scared but once she got to know you, she was a bright sunny girl who could be just as much of a goofball as her brother. At least she was before…"

Jani crossed her arms. "Before what?"

Lara put the photo back face down on the shelf. "I don't talk about it, not unless I have to, none of us kids do."

"Does it have something to do with that nightmare?"

"I said I DON'T talk about it."

"Alright, when and if you think we need to address it we will. For now, you should go back to bed, I'll try to keep the nightmares away."

Lara smiled as she slipped under the covers and went back to sleep.

The next day was mostly chores and being stuck in her room for Lara, but even with her access to the infonet cut off by her parents Lara's history schoolbooks proved to be quite useful.

"What about this, Eggman's genesis wave?"

Jani nodded. "Yeah, not familiar at all. No doubt about it, this is where the timeline started to diverge from history as we used to know it. Altering reality like that then nearly shattering it? I bet he succeeded at first and that's why despite Tails and Rotor's best efforts our timeline ultimately collapsed. Why me and everyone born after that ended up in that void, until something fixed it and now things are like this."

"The Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix do keep somethings secret from the public, if that got out could people be able to live normal lives?"

"In any case I bet whoever did fix everything gave you those memoires, they want you to do something with them. We just have to figure out what."

"Lara!" Julie-Su called. "Come down and help set the table for dinner, your aunt, uncle and cousin are going to be here soon!"

"Coming!" Lara shouted.

"Well at least you and Aunt Lien-Da aren't enemies this time around and she can be with her son."

Lara pouted as she made for the door. "Well, it would be better if Rutan didn't get into trouble so much and dragging Salma into it. Salma's a good friend of mine but she's been more of a troublemaker ever since she and Rutan had been hanging out more with Gleam."

Soon enough the family was sitting around the dinner table enjoying their evening meal.

"Gotta hand it to ya Aunt Julie," said a red echidna boy with white bands around his quills after he swallowed a bite. "Your ant colony casserole is incredible."

"Thank you Rutan," said Julie-Su. "I had to burn quite a few of them over the years to get the recipe right."

"Who'd have thought either of us would have ended up here?" said Lein-Da. "The two of us with our families sitting down to share a meal, a couple of happy homemakers."

"Hey, I'm still teaching self-defense classes and what about your work to get severe injury victims used to their cybernetics? We're not just housewives."

"True but being a mother has been the most rewarding part to me," she then gave a frustrated look at her son. "Even if my son can't seem to behave himself."

Rutan groaned. "Lara was the one who started it mom."

"Hey don't blame me!" said Lara-Su. "You were the one who shouted, 'food fight!' to the whole cafeteria!"

"She's right son," said Finitivus. "You have to take responsibility for your own actions."

The boy groaned again. "Please not the 'we used to be big time villains so we should know' speech again!"

"We wouldn't have to keep repeating it if you'd just exercise more discipline and self-control."

"Actually," said Knuckles. "I wanted to talk to both of you kids about that."

"Dad," said Lara. "I'm sorry I hit Gleam, I was just so angry and confused yesterday but that doesn't excuse anything I said or did."

"You're a good kid and I'm glad to see you realized your mistake. But this is something we've been thinking about for a while, not just the four of us but the parents of a lot of your friends. We were worried that we might have spoiled you all, not made you as tough as we were at your age, but the world was different then it was one of worst times for a kid to grow up in, what was normal for us wasn't normal for any generation before. We wanted to give you all the 'normal' childhood a lot of us never received and except for…that incident, you all did. Fact is though we think you could benefit from similar experiences we went through and Sonic got in touch with a few parents suggesting this."

Knuckles got out a couple of pamphlets and gave one to each of the kids.

Lara began reading hers out loud. "Great Oak Lodge and Campground proudly presents Freedom Fighter Summer Camp? Send your child on an unforgettable adventure like the ones the Freedom Fighters had thirty years ago. They will experience activities like recon scouting, secret message decoding, and mission exercises in a fun, safe, natural environment. Specialized classes and camp staples like nature hikes, canoeing and campfire sing-a-longs included. All activities build up confidence, teamwork skills and self-reliance while your child forms friendships and memories that will last a lifetime."

"It starts in a week," said Julie. "The campground is the same one your uncle Kneecaps went to summer camp at when he was your age and he had a blast, so much so that he's going to be working there as a camp counselor this year. So, what do you think? Sounds like something you'd be interested in?"

"It does seem cool, but I was actually kind of hoping to do some Guardian training this summer?"

"That actually covers quite a bit of what the initial training does," said Knuckles. "Wilderness survival, physical endurance and good decision making to name a few. Not only that you can prove that you can handle responsibility, while there will be counselors for the most part it's going to be three weeks where you'll be taking care of yourself most of the time. If you do well and find that you really enjoyed yourself… we can do some more guardian training to see if that's what you really want to do when you grow up."

Lara practically leapt out of her chair and gave Knuckles a big hug. "Oh, thank you daddy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You're welcome," Knuckles said as he and Julie returned the hug. "Our little camper."

"What about you Rutan?" said Finitivus. "Think you're up for it?"

The boy had a small smile. "Yeah, I guess it'd be fun and if Lara is getting Guardian training out of it, I'm guessing if I rock out at camp, I can have my first cybernetic implant?"

Both Rutan's parents gave him a hard stare and a flat answer. "No."

"Oh, come on! I promise I'll be great at Freedom Fighting stuff! I can do the whole responsibility thing too!"

"That's not the issue Rutan," said Lien-Da. "You're just too young for one, now your father and I are willing to talk about it once you turn sixteen…"

"That's totally not fair! You helped the D'coolette twins get used to new cybernetic limbs and they're the same age I am!"

"The D'coolette twins also have a disease that makes their immune system attack their nerves and can lead to organ failure," said Finitivus. "Replacing those limbs is one of the few reliable ways to halt the progress of NIDS. Even during their exile when they had no oversight except for memory neutralizing chips the Dark Legion only gave cybernetics to children to fix birth defects or severe injuries, you're perfectly healthy."

"This isn't something you can take back," said Lien-Da. "Suppose you decide you want to be an athlete like your friend Ajax, those enhancements could disqualify you from being able to compete and that's just one example."

"So, it's only a problem with you if somebody WANTS to get an upgrade," sulked Rutan.

Lien-Da sighed. "True I attempted to legionize others to seize power so I could preserve a way of life, at least that was how I justified it. I won't deny what I've done, I've had to live with those choices. But we want you to make your own choices on if you want to follow my family traditions, I honestly would be happy if you did, but it's a choice that needs to take a lot of thoughtfulness and maturity, something we never considered a ten-year old to have enough of."

"Again," said Finitivus. "If you're still as adamant about this when you're sixteen…"

"And you agree to follow a thorough maintenance and hygiene regimen."

"…we will probably let you if you think it'll help you with what you want to do with the rest of your life. Figure the rest out first then you'll have a better idea if it's right for you."

Rutan sighed. "Ok, I guess camp will just be fun on its own."

Lien-Da had a sly sultry smile. "Particularly since Espio is letting Juanita and Salma go."

Rutan sat up with a jolt. "Salma's gonna be there?!" he then tried to play it cool. "I mean her little sister can be really annoying, I better go so Salma can keep her in line."

Julie-Su chuckled. "Alright you two still have to finish your punishments, but now you got something to look forward to when it's over. Now finish your dinner then wash up."

After the table was cleared and relatives left for home Lara came back to her room. A big smile came across her face. "I'm going to be a guardian!"

"And you got a full six-year head start compared to what I remember."

"Yeah, I'm going to even cooler than the me that was a guardian before!"

"Still, Rutan was never that interested in cybernetics before this timeline."

"That's his business. Does this camp have merit badges? If so, then I'm going to get so many that Dad'll see I'm ready for the super advanced stuff. I'm telling you everything is now coming up…"

A strange sound later something had hit Lara in the head sending her to the floor.

"…OW!"

"Lara are you ok?!" she heard her mother say from down the hall.

Lara looked up and saw a dented red and white device about a foot long with a blinking blue light. "Uh…I stubbed my toe! Ow, don't worry I'll be fine!"

"Well get ready for bed, I don't want you staying up too late."

The echidna came closer to the strange device. "Ok, where did you come from?"

She touched the light and suddenly it projected a hologram of a humanoid robot that began flickering in and out. "This…warning…year 3438 P.X.E. …capsule…vital information…Freedom Fighters…can't…wrong hands… fate of the galaxy…"

The hologram then sputtered out. "Jani, I think we found why I got those memories in my head."

"3438 P.X.E.? That's a hundred and eighty years from now, a good way after those memories end. Giving this to the Freedom Fighters is probably step one."

"And tell them what? It just popped into my room while I'm grounded?" Lara touched the light again and the message repeated with the same breaks. "Well, wherever this came from looks like something took a bat to it on the way here. Yeah, we have to get this fixed first before anyone will take me seriously."

"Good thing your family knows a good number of scientific types."

"But between me being grounded and going to camp right after it'll be a month till…" Lara then had a look of realization. "Wait this camp was Sonic's idea so that means he'd pitch it to the Freedom Fighters for their kids."

"Something I should know?"

Lara smiled. "Gasket and Alan, Rotor's daughter and Nicole's son. They're a year behind me in school but Sonia and Manik keep telling me that by teaming up they've won the science fair every year. I mean this year they made a model rocket with an onboard computer that was able to send a Flicky into low orbit and then return it home safely! If I bring this with me to camp, they might be able to fix it there."

"Impressive, even my old team didn't have mechanical knowhow like that."

"Team?"

"We called ourselves the Future Freedom Fighters because we were the next generation. Jacque, Belle, Skye, Melody and Argyle, together there was nothing we couldn't do."

"A-argyle?" Julie said blushing. "I-I know he has a bit of a crush on me but I'm…not a hundred percent on how I feel about him."

"Trust me," Jani said with a wink. "He'll treat you right."

Lara sighed as she hid the capsule under her bed. "Still, it'd have been nice if Sonia was there too."

"The only reason she wasn't was because circumstances caused her and Manik to be born much later than you then, nothing like that stopping us now."

"Yeah, we'll get the Future Freedom Fighters together and add Sonia, Manik, Gasket and Alan. But if we're getting Melody and Skye into this together, they'll both want to bring Taffy along."

"Ok I guess I better ask, who's Taffy?"

"Uh Melody's best friend, Skye's twin sister."

"Ok that's a weird one. To me Melody was Skye's older sister, I take it Tails and Mina are each married to somebody else now?"

"Yeah, Melody's dad is Ash Mongoose, member and manager of the Forget-Me-Knots, Skye and Taffy's mom is Cream the Rabbit, she runs a chao sanctuary. But Melody and Taffy got to being such close friends and with Skye getting just as close to Melody because of his sister a lot of us joke that they're actually three siblings with four parents."

Jani smiled. "Well, the important thing is that Melody and Skye were still allowed to be born, but can Taffy handle a fight? Because there's going to be a strong chance of one breaking out if a guardian is needed."

"Well, she can be a bit of a ditz sometimes, but she's got good instincts. She helped Skye get his tails under control even though she flies in a completely different way. Not only that but her pet chao Pull is surprisingly strong for such a little thing."

"That's good to hear, because if this is about not just Mobius but the galaxy, we could have one heck of a fight on our hands."

Lara hopped into bed and slipped under the covers. "Whatever's coming we're going to be crazy prepared; camp is going to rock!"

A week later Knuckles and Julie-Su brought Lara-Su to the parking lot of Nate Morgan Elementary where an old school bus was parked that was painted forest green with "Camp Great Oak" written on it in big white letters. She noticed several other sets of parents and children beginning to come together.

"Wow," said Julie as the family approached Sonic. "Looks like a lot of the old gang's signed their kids up. You sure were persuasive."

"Hey, the guy setting it up let us use the place for our wedding back in the day," said Sonic. "When he came to me for an endorsement of his new program, I figured it'd be a good way to give the kids a taste of what it was like for us in the old days."

"Hey Sonic," Tails said as he and Cream came up with a boy who looked a lot like he did in his younger days wearing blue shoes and a rabbit girl with curly brown hair wearing a sunflower yellow dress. A chao wearing a green bandana around its neck accompanied the girl as a white "angel" chao with a little red bow tie flew by Cream's shoulder.

"Tails, it's good to see you," said Sally. "But weren't Rotor and Nicole's families supposed to coming with you?"

Tails blushed as he rubbed his head. "They were helping me with my latest project at Prowertech this morning when there was a minor explosion. No one was hurt just some property damage, but they stayed back to get it under control. Don't worry they messaged me that they're on their way and should be here just before the bus leaves."

Lara inwardly groaned. "Great I wanted to talk to everyone I want on the team before we got on the bus, ok just have to get who I can now and bring Alan and Gasket on later."

As she saw Antione, Bunnie, Vector and Honey arrive they bought a coyote boy with a metallic left arm and right leg, a rabbit girl with a metallic right arm with left leg, a croc boy with glasses on his snout and headphones and a cat girl of about eight with yellow fur and short black hair done in two little buns.

"Hey guys, can we talk for a bit?"

"Oui," said Jacques. "So, what's up?"

"Um," Lara lowered her voice to a whisper. "I really don't want our folks listening in on this, Candy can you distract them for a bit?"

"Anything to help big brother, what kind of distraction?" said the cat.

"Use this," said Manik. "Every time this is brought up in the dinner things grind to a halt."

Manik whispered something into Candy's ear, the third grader then nodded and went over to Sonic.

"Mr. Sonic I really like your chili dogs whenever we visit Freedom City, they're one of my favorite sandwiches."

Sonic gave a small smile. "That's really nice Candy, but a chili dog isn't a sandwich."

"Sonic that's not right," said Tails. "Hot dogs, and chili dogs by extension, are sandwiches."

"Tails' they're their own special thing."

"A filling between two slices of bread or on a split roll?" said Cream. "A hot dog sounds like the later example to me."

"Hold up," said Sally. "A sandwich needs two slices of bread this roll thing is not right."

"But that would count out meatball subs," said Vector. "And those are the best sandwiches."

"Oui," said Antione. "As the head chef of a five-star restaurant I'd know, as long as there is some sort of bread holding a kind of filling it iz a sandwich."

"And what about open-faced sandwiches?" asked Bunnie. "You only need one slice of bread for those."

"By that definition, a pizza or a slice of buttered toast is a sandwich," said Knuckles.

"Not to mention tacos," said Julie.

"And what about ice cream sandwiches?" said Honey. "They use a kind of cookie but those are sandwiches."

Manik smiled to himself. "Ok, that should keep them distracted for a while. So, Lara what's up?"

Lara took out the device from her backpack how would you guys like to be Freedom Fighters for real?"

Lara explained everything that happened to her a week ago.

"At the risk of you slugging me, I have to say this is crust," said Argyle. "An older version of you is living in your head and needs us to save the future in some way that involves this, whatever it is."

"Ok, it sounds unbelievable but trust me we're going to be an unbeatable team." Lara then gave Argyle a cute eyed look. "Please, for me?"

The croc blushed. "Ah, I guess it wouldn't hurt if it turns out to be nothing, and a shot to be up there with Dad, Knuckles and Sonic? Why not?"

"Sounds speed," said Melody. "Taffy and I were already going to try to form a band with the music classes they're going to have, imagine how popular we'll be if were heroes on top of that."

"You said it Mel!" said Taffy. "Who knows? If this is legit and we smash it maybe my mom will ease up on me doing all this lady stuff."

"Yeah, this could be our chance to get out of our dads' shadows Manik," said Skye.

Manik high fived the two tailed fox. "Yeah, we end up saving the world and they won't just think of us as the diet versions of two of Mobius' best heroes."

"Hey Jacques," said Belle flexing her mechanical arm. "You reckon we pull this off Ma and Pa will let us get more than the basic package for our cybernetics? I mean we haven't fallen over ourselves or knocked anything over for months, pull this off and they see we're mature enough for jet boosters and a plasma cannon."

"My sword arm can be an actual sword arm!" Jacques said as he thrusted with an imaginary blade. "Ok, count us in!"

"What about you Sonia?" asked Lara. "I mean I'd understand if you want out, but it'd mean a lot to have my best friend with me there."

"Yeah, I'm in, but I think there's something else going on here."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think my Mom and Dad set this up just because they'd think it'd be a fun way for us to get out of our parents' hair for a few weeks. Have you noticed anything about the kids who are going?"

Lara looked around and noticed a few of the other families starting to gather.

Aleena had gotten out of a car as Amy and Lucian followed her. "Now Aleena we know you're excited about being on your own for awhile but don't think this is going to be easy either." Lucian looked his younger daughter square in the eye. "We're not going to have to tell them to take your phone away will we?"

"Dad I know the reception is going to be bad," said Aleena. "But I can catch up with all the trends once I get back. Plus everyone there already knows who I am, building a team with them should be easy."

Amy sighed. "Aleena there's a difference between being popular and having actual friends. Usually, the former doesn't matter as much as people make it out to be, we just want you to connect with someone for some reason other than you're trendy."

"Don't worry mom, I already know at least one guy there who likes me past my blog."

"And don't go too fast on that either!" said Lucian. "I know you're in prime crush territory but you're still too young for a boyfriend!"

Aleena rolled her eyes. "Yes dad."

"Now just remember girls, consider this an extension of your training." Espio said to two chameleon children.

"Yes father," said a ten-year old violet one with bright purple scales and a black crest on her head.

"And Salma," said Liza. "Try to get along with Juanita."

Salma glared at the eight-year-old with lavender colored scales that was grinning at her. "But she won't stop pestering me and I already have to make sure she keeps up with our shinobi training!"

"Considering you're the one falling behind when it comes to schoolwork you have no right to complain about that."

Salma groaned while Juanita giggled.

"We're serious," said Espio. "You two have great potential, but only if you're both diligent and cooperate with each other. Salma you have to take responsibility and Juanita try to control your impulses." Espio then took a folded paper fan and pointed it at his daughters. "Understood?"

Both girls made a bow. "Hai sensei!"

Nearby Charmy and Saffron were fuzzing over a blond-haired eight-year-old boy with a bomber jacket. "Remember Mellow to listen to the counselors," said Saffron. "Oh, and watch out for poison ivy, and predator mobini, if you go swimming wear sunblock, don't shrink down in the water or a fish might eat you, wear a lifejacket if you go canoeing and be sure to dry your wings before attempting to fly…"

"Mom I think I can handle it." said Mellow. "I'm going to summer camp, not an expedition into the Soumercan jungle."

"We just want you to be safe," said Charmy. "We named you for a dear friend we already lost, but after…we just don't want to lose a Mellow who's even more important to us."

"I understand, but I can't be afraid forever. I gotta prove I'm one of the big kids."

Mighty placed his hand on the shoulder of a yellow shelled armadillo boy of about nine. "Now Brawn while in camp you need to keep your temper in check, you're stronger than most kids your age and we don't want you doing something you'll regret later."

"I know," Brawn said looking at his feet. "I tried not to get angry, and it works for a while but then I lose it and it seems so much worse."

"Well bottling it up like that isn't healthy," said Fiona. "Even if you don't blow up it'll eat away at you. You have to release it in a way that doesn't hurt others or yourself at a time that's appropriate."

"Like Aunt Tilly yelling at Uncle Stu when she was having her babies last week?"

"That's a bit of a special case," Mighty said with a blush. "You're an athletic boy, I think holding it until you let it out by exercising will work best for you."

Fiona turned to a fox girl of ten wearing a blue top. "Grace, make sure you help your brother, and follow the rules, and listen to the camp counselors, and aren't you sure you don't want to wear your…"

"I get it mom!" Grace snapped. "Geeze, why do you have to be so strict all the time?!"

"And I want you to stay away from Gleam from now on. That girl is a bad influence on you."

"You're just saying that because you and her mom don't like each other! Same with Gale, just because her parents used to be crooks doesn't mean we're going to start stealing bubble gum or something! Let me pick my own friends!"

"Grace," Mighty sighed. "Your mother is just worried about you."

"If you want to stop worrying then just trust me ok?! Stop treating me like a criminal!"

Fiona looked hurt as Grace turned her back on her parents. "Sweetie…"

"Hey Brawn!" shouted a tangerine furred flying squirrel Brawn's age as he came running in with a grey furred raccoon of the same age both carrying backpacks.

Brawn smiled widely as his family looked on. "Soar! Tide! I didn't know you two were coming to camp!"

"Oh yeah!" said Tide. "This summer's going to be epic!"

"Hold it!" Ray said as he and Marine walked up. "You're not getting on that bus until you mother and I inspect your bags!"

"It's ok Dad," said Soar. "We got everything we need…"

"Oh, we're not checking for that," said Marine. "Since your little slippery slime stunt the other day caused your father and I to fall overboard we're going to approve anything you may possibly use for a practical joke."

The two boys slumped. "Yes Mom."

The adult squirrel and raccoon opened the backpacks and began rifling through them. "Whoopie cushion, plastic glass with holes, joy buzzer, snapping gum, fake vomit…"

"See," said Soar. "Just our usual…"

"Ah ha!" Marine took out a few small red objects. "Cherry bombs! Planning to blow up a toilet?!"

"I found firecrackers in Tide's bag," said Ray. "Somebody could get seriously hurt with this stuff, that's it we're taking it all."

"Ah dad!" Tide whined. "Those are just for scaring people during ghost stories, weren't going to blow anything up with them."

"And you still aren't," Marine said. "Now I pulled my share of pranks back when I was younger but you two don't seem to know when to quit. I don't want the camp calling back to hear you two got someone hurt, so keep your noses clean understood? Captain Mom's orders."

Both boys begrudgingly nodded. "Aye, aye ma'am."

"IAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?!" Everyone turned to see Hershey fearfully yelling at a pair of ten-year-old children, a male tuxedo cat and a female skunk, who had climbed on top of the bus.

"COCOA YOU AND YOUR BROTHTER BETTER GET DOWN THIS INSTANT!" shouted Geoffrey.

"Ok," said Cocoa. "Here I come!"

The skunk girl then jumped off the bus to everyone's shock.

"I got her!" yelled a red Echidna in his twenties as he moved in and grabbed the girl.

As the skunk was put down Hershey nodded to the echidna. "Thank you Knecapeon." She then glared at her daughter. "What possessed you two to do that?!"

"Well Dad hoped this trip would toughen Ian up a little, so I thought this'd be a nice head start."

"There's a fine line between courage and recklessness young lady," said Geoffrey. "But you always insist on tapdancing on it!" He then turned to the bus. "Ian your turn, climb down carefully or let Kneecaps here catch you!"

Ian trembled and he clutched the roof tightly. "I-I CAN'T! I'M GONNA FALL!"

"It's ok Ian," said a young squirrel with brown hair as she approached. "Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, get your heartbeat down. Then come to my direction slowly and carefully let yourself down. I'll be right here to catch you."

Ian followed the girl's instruction and slowly slid down the slide of the bus and into her arms before running to his parents. "Mom! Dad! I'm so sorry! I wish I wasn't such a scaredy cat!"

"Ian," said Hershey. "You don't have to prove anything to anyone except yourself, being scared isn't wrong as long as you don't let it come between you and what's right." She then turned to the squirrel. "Thank you, princess."

"Hey just call me Lexi!" said Alexis. "I'm not in line for the throne and I just want to be treated like everybody else."

In the present Lara suddenly got incredibly quiet.

"Something wrong?" asked Silver.

"It's just, are you sure you want to know everything? I mean there's some stuff I'm going to keep private out of respect, but other things might affect my friends just by you knowing it."

"I can suppress memories with my powers," said Gold. "As long as we keep the number of people in on it under control, I can easily keep a lid on what we learn until after you get back home."

Lara took a deep breath. "Ok, but you three might want to sit down."

A limo pulled up and stopped a moment later a Blaze who had a more ample chest and Silver stepped out. Blaze turned back to the car. "Astral, Flare, we're here. Get out and be ready to get on the bus."

A cat girl of around nine with white fur and a bushy tail came out pouting. "But mother I don't want to go to camp! There's things in the woods like dirt, mud and…bugs, that'll mess up my silky soft fur."

"Quit being a baby Flare," said a nine-year Hedgehog boy with royal purple quills. "This our chance to show that were not a spoiled prince or princess but the fully capable heirs of the Sol Kingdom who deserve the respect and adoration we are owed."

"We tried our best to keep them from turning out like this," grumbled Silver. "We really did."

Blaze shook her head. "Flare while I agree appearance is particularly important as a princess, you're also going to be Guardian of the Flame and the Jeweled Scepter someday and that means getting your hands dirty every now and then. If you can't handle a little soot how can you expect to really be one with your inner fire?"

Silver kneeled and looked his son in the eye. "Astral the first step is getting respect is giving respect, same as making friends which I think you'll find is more important."

"He's just worried that people would be afraid of him being royalty Uncle Silver," said a nine-year tenrec girl with quills the color of rose gold. "I heard rumors about my cousin, so I read his mind to see if they were true."

Gold came up to the Tenrec girl. "Aura, what did I tell you about using your telepathy for gossip?"

"But mom I just confirm what I hear to stop false rumors that hurt people from spreading."

"Aura the best way to stop rumors from spreading is to not listen to them. I get it you were born with this power and want to use it, but it's not polite to read someone's mind just to get a juicy story."

"Hey if you wanted a good story sis, I have one," said what looked like a younger and much thinner version of Big as said cat came up with him.

"Oh great," moaned Astral as he glared at Aura. "Now you got Slim started."

"You see Dad and I were taking Froggy Jr. for a walk, well since he hops more than he walks it would be better to call it a hop, we were taking him for a hop when he jumped on a rock, then he jumped on another rock, then jumped on a log…"

"Ugh," groaned Flare. "He always gets onto these boring stories and he NEVER shuts up!"

"Slim," Big interrupted. "Remember about listening more and talking less?"

"Oh," said Slim. "I forgot, sorry."

Manic shook his head. "I don't quite get it. Sure, we might not be super close to everyone here but since these are all kids of Freedom Fighters we've been seeing each other at reunions and birthday parties for as long as I can remember."

"Manik," said Sonia. "Every kid here, including Gasket and Alan, was part of…" Sonia looked away scared. "That thing our parents made us promise never to talk about."

Lara got a brief flash of the metal claw. "No, no it's just a coincidence. Not every kid who was part of that is here, there's still Ajax, the Babylon Duo and after what happened at school there's no way Dusk and Gleam are going to be here."

Lara continued to watch as Rutan got out of a car along with a somewhat taller orange echidna boy who was covering his face with a purple bandana and a black ballcap over his eyes. "Thanks for agreeing to take me after that my parents had that emergency miss Ama-Ra," said Rutan.

"Please call me Mrs. Shade," the former Nocturnus soldier turned to the other boy from the driver seat. "Ajax you don't need to wear a disguise, all the girls that are going know you."

"That's kind of the problem mom," Ajax said. "At least half of them are crushing on me, I wish we'd just be cool like before this stupid growth spurt."

"That getup isn't going to last a day, but don't worry once you and the other kids start hitting the big P I'm sure they'll ease up once they find their own tastes and who knows you might find a girl you might crush on yourself."

"If you say so, but right now I'd rather just stop tripping over myself on the soccer field."

"Yoink!" Ajax's hat was taken off his head by a nine-year old hawk-sparrow hybrid with purple tipped green feathers, a swallow tail and a hawk's beak. "Well, you're not going to make the middle school team with reflexes like that! Right Gale?"

A heavyset albatross-raven hybrid the same age as the other one with black tipped grey feathers and a raven's beak laughed. "Sure thing Ace!" said Gale. "But he's still cute, don't know why he'd want to hide it."

"Hey, give that back before somebody notices!" Ajax growled as he chased the hybrid birds.

Shade got out of the car as a squirrel in a trench coat, fedora, and sunglasses grabbed the ballcap. "What are you two doing here by yourselves?" asked Shade. "Where are the Babylon Rouges?"

"Our folks had a race to be at, so they flew the airship by and let us fly down on our own," said Ace. "Camp sounds cool but Gale and I would still rather compete in the junior division."

"Well given your lack of respect for this boy's privacy they probably want you to learn a little more about sportsmanship and respect before they think you're ready to take on the big leagues," said the squirrel. "I'll be watching you two at camp."

"So, you both better shape up," said Shade.

"Fine," Ace grumbled. "Lousy rules saying can't bring our extreme gear to camp."

"At least Grace is going to be…" Gale then sighed. "Oh, wait can't hang out yet her mom's still watching."

Ajax took the cap back from the squirrel. "Thanks."

"Hey, I know the feeling," the squirrel removed his sunglasses and lifted the hat off his head to show it was full of red hair.

Rutan went wide-eyed. "Prince Edward!? You're going to camp too!?"

"Shhhhh!" the prince put the hat and shades back on. "I'm the most eligible bachelor in the Republic right now, I'm constantly being hounded by wannabe princesses at college and around here, I mostly took this summer job so I could have some peace and quiet at a place where there are only two girls old enough for me, one already has a boyfriend and the other is my sister."

Lara took a deep breath. "Ok you might be onto something, but why do you think anything more to it that what your dad said?"

Sonia took a deep breath. "Ok last night I was…trying out Mom's old ring blades without her knowing." The chipmunk shot an angry glare at her brother. "She hadn't used them in years and Manik here dared me. I heard both her and Dad coming in, so I hid. I overheard them talking on the phone with Mr. Prower and Mrs. D'coolette about how this camp was supposed to 'prepare us for what's coming next'. I think, more happened to us than we could have understood back then."

Lara shook out the image those three eyes out of her head. "Well, if something is going on we'll find it but finding out what message is in this thing has to come first. Besides it might have just been your imagination I mean the two who were there we want to see the least haven't…"

"Hey losers," Gleam said as she and Dusk came over from where Shadow and Rouge arrived. "What's going on here? Choosing the design for some stupid lanyard you're all going to make identical copies of to show how big of a weenie you are?"

"We're forming our own team of Freedom Fighters!" Taffy blurted out before covering her mouth.

"So much for it being secret," groaned Argyle.

"I'm sorry! I was just so excited, and I thought we were just keeping it secret from the adults!"

"Manic, Skye," Dusk grumbled. "I see you didn't think to invite me, not that I would join you backstabbers."

"They didn't leave you out Dusk," said Lara. "I'm the one putting this team together."

Gleam scoffed. "What being princess of Angel Island not good enough for you?"

"I'm no princess!"

"Could have fooled me the way everyone there seems to treat you."

"My grandmother, my namesake, wanted being a guardian to be a choice. My father earned their respect because of what he did as a guardian and I'm choosing to follow in his footsteps because I KNOW I will be great one!"

"And you think that's so hot?! Our father is the ultimate lifeform, the blood of the Black Arms courses through our veins. He personally trained me to control the power I have, and I will prove to everyone the power I have inherited is unequal."

"Funny," said Manik. "I think at one point your dad said ours was the REAL ultimate lifeform."

Gleam came right up to Manik's face. "If that's true you're even more lame than I thought. At least Red here WANTS to step up to our parents' example but you? You two, and most of these losers, may have inherited their power but aren't even trying to live up to it."

"Just what is your problem?!" said Sonia. "First you get on Aleena because none of the royal families are absolute monarchs anymore, now you're getting mad at us for not being as strong as our parents?!"

"It's all wasted potential! If you can improve yourself but don't then what's the point of even having those gifts at all?!"

"So you're what?" asked Skye. "Teasing us so we'd toughen up or something? If you think improving yourself is so important why don't you show us how you have instead of just acting like a jerk."

Gleam looked at her hand as she clenched it. "You have no idea what you're asking for dweeb."

"Is there a problem here?" Mina asked as she came towards the group of kids.

"No Mom," said Melody. "We were just having a friendly chat, weren't we guys?"

"Uh yeah," said Dusk. "Just going over our summer plans." He then began muttering under his breath. "That don't involve going to Mystic Kingdom because you went back on your promise."

"Well, it's almost time to get on the bus and it looks like the last two kids have just arrived. Line up according to the counselors' instructions."

As the kids started to group together a heavy-set girl walrus girl with a seal's muzzle turned to Rotor and Sealia. "I-I'll do my best, I'll make new friends, try to lose weight…"

"Genevieve," said Sealia. "We're happy that you want to improve yourself mi petite angel and we want you to be healthy, but you won't get a good self-image by unless you like yourself on the inside."

"You're half seal and half walrus, blubber comes naturally to us," said Rotor. "But you're a brilliant girl when it comes to machines, you should be proud of that nickname you got Gasket."

Gasket sniffled. "Thanks, I still want to make more friends, but I'll try to do it be being me."

Shard knelt in front of a grey lynx with black markings with a pair of goggles on his forehead. "You sure you're all packed up Alan? Not missing anything?"

"I made a checklist and confirmed it all this morning Dad. With my intellect I should be able to handle all non-physical activities with ease, the physical ones too with Gasket's help."

A Nicole, who had a particularly large stomach, ruffled Alan's fur. "Now if only they had classes on humility…OH!" Nicole doubled over as Shard grabbed her. "It's ok, Cassie is just using my kidneys to practice either soccer or kickboxing."

"Are you sure about me going Mom?" Alan asked. "I know you're not due for a couple of months but if something happens and Cassie's premature…"

"It's ok Champ," said Shard. "Between Dr. Fox, all the moms we know and having gone through this once we'll be ready for whenever your little sister decides to have her birthday."

"Alright kids!" Kneecaps yelled. "Everybody line up for the bus! First in head for the back and sit down, that's going to be your seat until we get there!"

Lara and the others found themselves in the back of the bus while Alan and Gasket were up front. "Looks like we'll have to wait till we get there to talk," said Argyle.

"It'll just be an hour or so," said Lara. "Relax, once we can get them to fix this the rest is going to be cake."

Back in the present the kids slumped down on the table.

"Little did we know we were in for the three of the most frustrating and bitter weeks of our lives," said Lara as tears came to her eyes. "And the biggest failure of any life I lived."

"Do you need a break?" asked Blaze. "We could go to the reception a bit and come back if you some time to…"

"No, this is actually helping a bit. Anyway things began going downhill once we got to Camp Great Oak…"