After a couple of hours on the road the bus pulled into a small parking lot, a lodge and a large, beautiful lake was nearby. Once the kids started getting off two echidnas in their 20's, a pink quilled woman and a red quilled man, stepped forward.

"Hello campers!" said the echidna girl cheerfully. "Welcome to Camp Great Oak! You can call me Rora and this is Jackie, you already met Kneecaps, Lexi and Eddie on the way over so let's get you all to orientation and the initiation ceremony!"

"Initiation ceremony?" asked Ajax. "This isn't some trick to get us to join an evil secret society or something is it?"

"No silly, just a fun way to assign your cabins and groups for team activities!"

"Any questions you have the camp director will answer them during orientation," said Jackie. "Grab your stuff and follow us to the bonfire circle."

As the kids began moving Rutan came close to Lara and started whispering to her. "I didn't think they'd be here; I've seen the adults back home whisper to each other when they don't think those two are looking."

"You're just imagining things," Lara whispered back." So, what if Enerjak and Aurora are named for a god and goddess, the fact that they use those nicknames most of the time just shows they want to be normal like most everybody else."

A minute later the kids were brought to a bonfire pit with a semi-circle of benches carved out of logs on one side and one the other a tree stump big enough to serve as a small stage where a buffalo in a forest ranger's uniform and hat was standing in front of a folding table with three boxes and several colored sashes resting on it.

"Alright campers if you would all get yourselves seated, we'll get started." Everyone took a seat while the five counselors stood to the side of the stage. Everyone who was recruited into the Future Freedom Fighters made sure to sit close together. "First let me welcome you all to the first ever Great Oak Freedom Fighter Summer Camp! Now you and the counselors have probably gotten to know each other already so let me introduce myself. I'm Will Bison and I'm the director of this camp, I'm also the cook, handyman, boathouse master, the local forest ranger and run the camp store so don't be surprised if you don't see me a lot, just means I'm probably doing important work somewhere around here because of all the hats I wear. For the next twenty-one days we'll be embarking on an exciting adventure together, an adventure like one the Freedom Fighters started when they were around your age. Many such groups were thrown together by chance and circumstance and your team will be determined in a similar fashion."

Sonia raised her hand. "We don't get a choice in who we do stuff with?"

"Only when it comes to scheduled camp wide activities, during free periods you can hang out with whoever you want, plus you'll take our various classes with anyone else who's signed up. You're going to need to pick at least two of those, but we'll do that tomorrow. Today we only have enough time after orientation here to give you a tour of the campgrounds, dinner and settling you into your cabins before lights out. But before any of that we must assign you your cabins, but this isn't just where you get rack time and keep your footlocker. You'll be bunking with the team you'll be doing all contests, Freedom Fighter classes and mock missions with. We have four boys' cabins and four girls' cabins; each can house four campers and is named for a wisp. When I call your name come up to the stage, Ace."

The swallow-hawk began to strut up. "Obviously, you let the best go first."

"No, you're just the first alphabetically," Director Bison motioned to Kneecaps after he and Alexis each picked up one of the boxes. "Reach in and pull out one of the balls."

The top of the box had a flap that kept Ace from looking into the box while still letting him reach inside. After feeling around for a second or two he pulled out an orange ball.

Will nodded and grabbed an orange sash. "That means you're now part of rocket cabin, wear this with pride. Let's give him a hand everyone." Will draped the sash around Ace before he went back as the everyone applauded.

As Ace went back Lara whispered to the others. "Since we won't get a lot of free time today our best chance to get Gasket and Alan alone is to get them to join us for one of us to get the same cabin as them."

"But it all goes to luck," said Jacques. "And since we 'ave to go alphabetically we have to hope Gasket gets the same one Belle does or the rest happen to get a match before their cabin gets three more campers."

"Ajax," the director said.

The orange echidna came up and plucked another orange ball from the box.

"Great," Ajax grumbled as he took the orange sash. "I have to bunk with that blowhard."

"Alan."

"This could be bad," said Sonia. "If he pulls another orange the guys'll have only one shot to get close to him."

Alan pulled out a yellow ball.

"Looks like you're in Drill cabin," Will said as he gave Alan a yellow sash.

"What's with the third box?" Alan asked.

"Oh, we'll get to that after everyone gets sorted out," said Will.

As Alan went back to his seat Manic whispered to the rest of the team. "Ok, us guys have to aim for yellow while we're up there."

"Aleena."

"First of the girls," Aleena said as she reached in the box. "Now we start filling up the FUN cabins!"

Aleena reached in and pulled out a pink ball.

"That puts you in Spike cabin," said Will as he handed Aleena a pink sash. "Argyle!"

"Ok, the Future Freedom Fighters are now going on their first mission. Come on yellow."

Argyle pulled out a red ball.

"Burst cabin, congratulations!"

After Argyle got his sash and the rest of the camp clapped Lara whispered as he sat back down. "It's ok, we still have a lot of chances and the most this will set us back by is a day."

"Astral."

"Prince Astral," the royal purple hedgehog said as he came on stage.

"Not here according to your parents. Same goes for your sister."

Sighing Astral reached in and pulled out a yellow ball.

"Drill cabin!"

"That's one slot we needed down," said Lara. "Now the boys only have two left, and we don't even know what the girls are even aiming for."

"Aura it's your turn!"

The pinkish blonde tenrec came up and pulled an ivory-colored ball out.

"Lightning cabin! Belle."

"Just hope ah pull the same color Gasket gets," Belle said as she came up on stage. Reaching into the box she pulled out a pink ball.

"Spike cabin! Brawn."

"Took 'em long enough."

The armadillo pulled out another orange ball. "Rocket cabin! Candy."

The little cat hopped up and plucked out a pink ball.

"Spike cabin!"

"I'm sorry I didn't get a different cabin to double our chances," Candy said as she came back. "But at least we have two Future Freedom Fighters in the same cabin to get more practice in together."

Belle put her mechanical hand on the back of her head. "Uh I hate to break it to ya hon but, you aren't part of the team."

"But my I thought you asked me to help because you wanted me to be part of your team?"

"Cocoa."

"It's nothing personal," said Argyle. "We just thought you were too little."

Cocoa pulled out a crimson ball. "Eagle cabin!"

"I'm the same age a lot of your moms and dads were when they got started!"

"It's not about age," said Lara. "Skye was as old as you were in that timeline, I just prioritized based on the team we had then. The only reason we need Gasket and Alan was because while Argyle was good enough at computers to do some light hacking that team didn't have a tech expert."

"Dusk."

"So other than that, we're sticking with the team you had then," said Manik.

Dusk pulled out a cyan ball.

"Laser cabin!"

"Whatever," Dusk said as he took his sash.

"Not exactly," said Lara. "Because of how that timeline was you and Sonia couldn't be part of it because well…you were both five while I was…twenty-one. But that's not a problem now."

"So, you only want me because I'm your friend?" said Sonia. "And you figured my brother and me were a were a package deal and that's why you wanted him?"

"Flare."

"No! Sonia, I know you can be an awesome Freedom Fighter! You're always staying cool under pressure and…"

"It's my speed, isn't it?" Melody interrupted.

Flare pulled out a crimson ball. "Eagle cabin!"

Lara turned to the Mongoose. "Excuse me?"

"If they were little then your team wouldn't have a speedster and that's why I was part of it wasn't it?"

"It was an emergency under pressure thing, but I think you have a lot to contribute."

"What did I do then?" asked Taffy. "On top of my flying that is since that's what Skye can do too."

"And me!" said Candy. "There must have been something I was good at!"

"Gale."

"Um actually, in that timeline Melody was Skye's big sister and…I'm not sure if either of you existed."

Candy began to slightly tear up. "I-I didn't?"

"It's ok Candy," said Argyle. "You're here now, I wouldn't have it any other way."

Taffy looked over at Lara. "If I wasn't there then why did you ask me to join?"

Gale pulled out a magenta ball. "Rhythm cabin!"

"Taffy I know you Mel and Skye are super tight; I didn't want them to think they had to shut you out. But you also got good instincts and with Pull's strength we'd be even better."

"So, you need me because you don't think my brother and my BFF would do it together otherwise."

"Genevieve."

"Pay attention everyone," said Argyle.

Everyone looked on as Gasket pulled out an ivory ball.

"Lightning cabin!"

"Too bad she didn't get spike," said Lara. "But now the rest of us know what to aim for."

"Gleam."

The white hedgehog scoffed as she pulled out a crimson ball.

"Eagle cabin!"

"That's assuming we still want to do this," said Melody.

Taffy turned to the mongoose. "Mel what are you saying?"

"Grace."

"Well Sonia and Manic both have super speed, if Lara can have her best friend cover that I'd might as well be a backup singer to them."

"Hey, I'm having my own second thoughts here," said Sonia.

"What?" said Manik.

The young vixen pulled out a magenta ball.

"Rhythm cabin!"

Grace put on the magenta sash. "Hey Gale, now we can be bandmates AND bunkmates!"

"Awesome!" said Gale.

"I thought this was about helping the world and getting us to be real Freedom Fighters," said Sonia. "But it looks like you're making this about YOU Lara."

"I'm just going with what I know," Lara said.

"Then let Melody have this, you have no real reason to have me, I might as well be a cheerleader."

"Ian."

"Sis what are you talking about?" said Manik. "This our chance to really show we can live up to our parents' image."

Sonia pouted. "Well, who said I wanted to be like Mom?"

Ian pulled out a yellow ball. "Drill cabin!"

"Guys," said Skye. "There's just one bunk left in Alan's cabin."

"Jacques."

The cyborg coyote pulled his mechanical arm. "Don't worry, I got zhiz."

Jacques came up on stage and pulled out a cyan ball.

"Laser cabin!"

"It's alright brother," said Belle as he came back. "Just some bad luck."

"Juanita."

The lavender chameleon was quick in pulling out an ivory ball.

"Lightning cabin! Lara."

"Now we all have only one shot left," Lara whispered to herself as she went on stage. "You can do this. Focus your chaos energy and visualize the result you need." She reached into the box. "Ivory, ivory, ivory."

She pulled out a crimson ball.

"And Eagle has become our first full cabin!"

Lara felt a chill go up her spine as she took the sash and started going back to her seat. "But if I'm there then that means I have to spend three weeks teaming up with…"

Gleam growled as Lara passed. "Worst summer ever."

"Manik."

As Lara sat down Manik proceeded to the stage. He reached into the box and pulled out a cyan ball.

"Laser cabin!"

"Oh, come on!" shouted Dusk. "Is it too late for me to trade bunks!?"

"Manik trade with one of us!" said Tide.

"That's the last cabin where we can bunk together!" said Soar.

"No substitutions," said Will as he gave Manik his sash. "We're trying to show how the Freedom Fighters forged their bonds through the fires of adversity. Melody."

Manik and Melody swapped places as the girl pulled out a magenta ball.

"Rhythm cabin!"

Melody took the sash and sat back down without a word.

"Salma."

"Hey don't sweat it," said Taffy. "There's only three girls left and two them are on the team so we'll…"

The violet chameleon pulled out an ivory ball.

"And lightning cabin is filled!"

"…have to hope Skye gets lucky."

Salma groaned as she got her sash. "Seriously?! Juanita and I had JUST gotten our own rooms back home and now I have to share with her again?!"

"Ah come on sis," said Juanita. "It'll be fun, I'll even let you invite Rutan in for some smooching!" the younger chameleon began making a kissy face.

"When did you get so annoying?!"

Juanita pouted. "When did you get to be such a drag?"

"Skye."

"This is it," the young fox muttered to himself. "But no pressure, we already have to wait for Gasket anyway so doing the same for Alan isn't too bad. What's the worst that can happen?"

Skye pulled out a cyan ball.

"And Laser is the first boys cabin to be filled!"

"You got to be kidding me!" shouted Dusk. "I have to bunk with these two!"

Skye growled as he went back to his seat. "Hey, you'd think this was awesome if you weren't being so stubborn about that fight last week!"

"Slim."

The thin purple cat pulled out an orange ball.

"Rocket cabin has been filled!"

"That's speed," said Slim. "It actually reminds of a story. Mom and Dad wanted to get fireworks to celebrate Restoration Day, but Froggy Sr. had a cold so we couldn't ride him to town. So, we went on a walk and…"

"Ok son back to your seat," Once Slim left the director turned to the kids. "Since we have one bunk left in the four remaining cabins will Soar, Tide, Sonia and Taffy please come up together?"

The four kids came up, as the boxes were offered to Soar and Sonia. Soar sighed as he reached in and pulled out a red ball.

"You're in burst cabin so that leaves…"

Tide reached in and pulled out a yellow ball with a groan.

"Drill cabin."

"Hey if you want to share a cabin, I'd gladly trade with ya Tide!" shouted Argyle.

"Again, no substitutions," said Will.

Sonia reached in Alexis' box and pulled out a pink ball.

"Spike cabin so that finally leaves Taffy to get…"

Taffy pulled out a magenta ball.

"Rhythm cabin!"

"Hey Mel, we'll be bunking together!" said Taffy. "We can work on our rock band just before bed!"

"Ok kids," said the director. "Now that you've been assigned to your cabins, we'll go over some basic rules. When one of the counselors or I tell you to do something you better do it. Not only that if you have questions, or need help go to one of the counselors first and quickly. Even here at camp you're going to have to do chores to keep your cabin and the campgrounds neat and tidy, there will be inspections so note when they are but always be prepared for a surprise inspection. Lights outs is at 1930 hours on the dot, and your wakeup call will occur at 0630, that should give you the right amount of sleep kids your age need so I suggest you get used to it.

"The camp is surrounded by a fence past which is most of the local forest, going past that fence without an adult is off limits, usually you'll only go that far on a nature hike or other activity. Never go into the inbounds wilderness area or the lake alone, we use the buddy system here so always have a friend come with you. Speaking of the lake even during free period swimming is not permitted without an adult present and no picking and eating any nuts, berries or mushrooms from the woods. We'll have activities for swimming, canoeing and foraging where you can do these under tight supervision. More specific rules will be posted near where they apply."

Director Bison then picked up the third box. "Lastly if you brought any electronics, personal valuables or anything you don't want to lose I have to ask you put it in here for safe keeping. Your parents should have told you not to bring anything like that, but I ran enough camps to know one or two of you didn't listen to them and separating you kids from your phones these days is next to impossible."

As Lara took her phone out of her backpack, Will noticed the capsule. "What's that?"

"Uh Mr. Bison, I found this earlier was and wondering what it is, maybe get someone to fix it..."

Will took the capsule and Lara's phone. "This is odd and is a little out of the league of the nearest repair shop, but don't worry. I'll hold onto this until I hand all of these back to your parents."

"Wait our parents?!" gasped Dusk.

"Why can't you give our stuff back to us once camp is over!?" asked Lara.

"There's a very good reason for that," said the director. "Which I am not allowed to tell you as it involves an incident where litigation is still pending. Alright, I have to put these away and get started cooking for everyone so our counselors will give you the tour of the campgrounds then bring you to the lodge for your first meal here. Hope you like burgers!"

"Ok," said Eddie. "While Jackie does cleanup, we'll get started. Group up with your cabin and form a line behind me. If you want to mingle it'll have to wait until chow time."

As the kids started to move about Gasket passed by Lara.

"I heard you guys talking about us," she said. "Alan's going to sit next to me at dinner so you can tell us about that device there."

Lara nodded as the campers began to go on their tour.

Later in the lodge the kids lined to get a hot diner before heading to one of the large tables to sit down and enjoy their meal.

Lara sat over with Gasket and Alan and the rest of her team followed.

"Ok," asked Alan. "Why were you guys so interested in talking to us that it seemed to like that was your main concern when it came to bunks?"

"I'll be frank," said Lara. "I found something I need you two to fix, some sort of capsule that had a hologram that said it was sent from almost two hundred years in the future."

"And why don't you think this is some kind of prank?" said Alan. "Holograms are easy with today's technology."

"You may want to swallow your food and drink first; this is going to be crust."

After hearing the explanation Alan sighed. "That… is pretty out there."

"But I saw the device at orientation," said Gasket. "I'd love to get a closer look at it, just to see what it might be."

"Too bad the director swiped it," said Argyle.

"Yeah," said Lara. "Now I have to explain it to my parents and either they won't believe me, punish me for sneaking out to get this thing while grounded or they take me seriously bring it to some lab and lock us all out of this. I know these memories came to me for a reason, I think this team is going to play a big part in what's coming, but I doubt our parents would let us help, especially after…what happened five years ago."

Everyone at the table shuddered. "I still get nightmares about that," said Alan.

The three-eyed monster with a metal claw flashed in Lara's mind. "Yeah, me too." She tightened her fist. "But we can't let that control us forever. We still have three weeks here if we all put our heads together, we should find a way to get the capsule back."

"Well count us in then," said Gasket. "If you say you need tech support then we'll be happy to help."

"Gasket and I should be able to figure out how to get into the computer room and machine shop when classes aren't being held," said Alan. "Then we should have all the tools we need to crack this thing."

Sonia smiled. "Yeah, I bet we'll also figure out why our parents got everyone involved in that 'thing' back then together here."

"You and Melody zure you're ok with why Lara picked you two?" asked Jacques.

"It's fine now Jaquces," said Melody. "Just needed to cool off for a bit, me and Taff got to speaking with our cabinmates and they want to form a band too."

"Well, we all have to be sure to spend some of our free time training," said Lara. "Being able to sneak in here to get that capsule back is a goal we have to start working on tomorrow."

After dinner Lara entered the eagle cabin. It wasn't much, just a single room with two bunk beds, a few windows that had window screen material instead of glass and a single overhead lightbulb.

"I still can't believe I have to live in this filthy hovel for nigh on a month!" whined Flare. "I hate getting dirty! Why can't we have nice cabins like the counselors do!? They even have indoor plumbing!"

"Dibs on top bunk!" called Cocoa.

"I'd be fine with whatever bed is farthest from Red," said Gleam.

Lara tucked her things into a footlocker under the bottom bunk under Cocoa. "Feeling's mutual," she grumbled.

Suddenly the slow strain of Taps came from outdoor loudspeakers.

"You heard the director's tune!" shouted Jackie as the other counselors filed into a cozy looking log cabin. "Lights out!"

All the kids' cabins turned out their lights as curtains were drawn in the counselors' cabin.

Lara settled under the covers and closed her eyes. "Everything starts to take shape tomorrow. I will be a guardian."

Suddenly there was a voice coming from the darkness.

"This actually reminds me of a story…"

"GO TO SLEEP SLIM!" shouted every other kid.

"Hopefully, that's the worst it gets."

Lara gave a sigh as she looked at Silver. "It was all downhill from there, not just for me, not just for my team, but for every kid at Camp Great Oak."

"Ok," Lara said to her team. "I figured for our first training session we use whatever abilities we have to set a baseline then we can measure…"

"Lara wait!"

She turned to see that Sonia and Manic were coming in looking all swollen, red and puffy. "What happened to you two?!"

"Turns out we didn't just inherit our Dad's speed," said Manik.

"We also got his bad poison sumac allergy," finished Sonia.

Melody picked up a microphone on the stage in the lodge. "I'm so pumped that you two had the same idea of forming a band as we did."

"So, are we rocking or what?" Grace said as she plugged an electric guitar into an amp.

"Of course, this is just the beginning of the road for 'Melody and the Notes'."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" said Gale from behind a drum set. "I thought the band name was going to be about all of us, not just you!"

"They have a point," Taffy said as she tuned up her bass guitar. "I thought we were going to be called 'The Forget-Me-Knots 2'."

"That sounds like the name of a cash grab sequel to a kid's movie," said Grace. "Rock's all about sticking it to the man, that's why 'Fuzzy Rebels' is the perfect name."

"Not all of us have fur Grace," said Gale. "How about 'Situation Acceleration'?"

"Terrible," said Melody. "There's got to be a good way to figure out a name we can all agree on."

"So, what do you suggest?" said Grace. "We each say something we like, and our name is whatever word salad comes up?"

"Chao, chao," said Pull.

"Great idea Pull," said Taffy. "Our name should reflect our music."

"So we gotta find our sound first," said Melody. "Let's just have a jam session and see where it takes us."

"Sounds good," said Gale before she started banging a pair of drumsticks together. "One, two, one-two-three!"

A big cacophony of mish-mashed genres caused the Eddie to come bursting in. "What's going on?! I thought I heard a screaming chainsaw!"

"I don't our band to be called 'Screaming Chainsaw'!" cried Taffy.

"It can't be, it's already the name of a song," said Grace. "A pretty good one too, unfortunately my Mom and Dad hate it."

All the cabins were paddling large canoes around buoys in the lake. "Move it muscles!" yelled Ace. "I want our cabin to win this race!"

"Then paddle with the rest of us!" yelled Brawn. "You're rowing out of sync, that's why we're lagging behind!"

"Hey, I can keep up with you, fisherboy and beanpole!"

The sparrow hawk began paddling slower to match the others and while they caught up with the pack up the canoe also began going at a sharp angle.

"What are you doing?!" yelled Ajax. "Move your paddle to the other side! We're turning too much we're gonna hit…!"

The canoe struck lightning cabin's boat causing it to hit the canoe of burst cabin and so on until all the boats were taking on water.

On the shore Director Bison sighed as he looked through binoculars. "Did those kids just sink all my canoes?"

Rora sighed as she watched the other counselors in a pair of small motorboats begin to fish the kids out. "It's fine, we'll all laugh about this later."

"I think I'll cry, all the way to boat store."

The kids were all around a campfire as Jackie spread his arms out while most were drawn into the edge of their seats.

"…having fallen so completely into Sally and Sonic's trap the roboticzed mutate was dragged down, down, down into the deepest depths of the lake where they hoped it would stay forever. But years later folks in the area claimed to have seen the beast again; now rusted from all that time underwater they began calling him 'Ole Rusty', well those who lived to tell the tale. Even the Bem's deroboticzation immunity had no effect because the monster's original DNA was so twisted and malformed to begin with. They say Ole Rusty's still out there, emerging from the lake at night hoping to catch some unsuspecting campers off guard to devour and if you listen carefully, you can hear the creaking squeek of his rusty, blood caked claws…"

A sudden creaking could be heard from the nearby bushes. A lot of the kids, especially the younger ones and Ian gasped.

"…he's here. Hopefully if we stay still and quiet, Ole Rusty might only snatch away one of us into the dark."

Ian closed his eyes. "I control my fear, it doesn't control me."

After hearing some rustling in the bushes, the young cat realized what was coming.

"Ragh!" a rusty looking mutate robot burst into the firelight.

"I'm not afraid of…!"

Ian stood to face the creature only to get drenched as he was hit in the back with about a half dozen water balloons.

The creature stood stunned as Soar and Tide stared nervously, as a skunkette approached her dripping wet brother.

"Uh," went Soar.

"Oh," moaned Tide.

"Those were meant for me, weren't they?" Kneecaps said as he took off the head of his monster costume.

"Way to crash it jokers!" yelled Cocoa. "I told Ian the monster was a big coward if you stood up to him, he was supposed to find his courage, not catch a cold!"

"We didn't know that!" said Tide. "Soar thought he was the only one who found out about the Ole Rusty suit, it was supposed to be an awesome prank!"

"Everyone knew they had a monster suit!" hissed Ian. "Cocoa you found out about the suit in that shed the Director keeps forgetting to lock from Flare, but she learned it from Astral and I was with him when he found it. I thought it'd make you happy if I played along with it, I didn't expect to need a hair dryer!"

Jackie grumbled. "And here I was expecting kids would come to scary story night to actually get scared."

"Ok Girls," said Eddie. "Now that we've gotten this far out let's do some recon on that old mine."

"Right Cousin Eddie," said Sonia as she took up a pair of bionoculars. "Candy since it's too cloudy to see the sun can you check the compass? I need to be sure that's the southern entrance the exercise needs us to scout."

"Sure thing" said Candy as she went through her backpack. "Uh oh."

Everyone looked in Candy's direction. "What do y'all mean by 'uh oh'?" said Belle.

"I think I left the compass on the picnic table back at camp."

"So, we could be lost?!"

"Not a problem Belle," said Eddie as he reached into his backpack. "There's a GPS app on my phone, hold onto it for we'll check the trees by here for moss on the northside and then use the GPS to double check, I'll have to dock you some points though."

Aleena came up as Belle looked for the app. "If the GPS on that works you think I could log into Neighborhood long enough to see if my page is still trending?"

Belle glared at the pink hedgehog. "Girl I think you have your priorities mixed up. Try spending time with us in the real world for a while."

Aleena's fingers twitched. "One minute, that's all I ask."

"I thought your parents wanted you offline this whole trip?" said Sonia.

The pink hedgehog huffed. "Well, I thought I'd be spending more time Manik but you two and Lara seem to drag him away every chance you get! He keeps saying that what you're doing is important but won't tell me anything! I thought he LIKED me!"

"Aleena it's… complicated. We're trying to develop our skills and…"

"I got skills! Look!" Aleena held out her hand and red and yellow staff appeared in it. "Turns out I got some of Mom's magical power, so my uncle King Rob and cousin Prince John gave me lessons on how to use it watch!"

Aleena began swing the staff around in a flashy manner. One swing came near enough to Candy that she had to duck.

"Eep!"

"Stop it before you hit somebody you idgit!" shouted Belle.

"Just one more, watch…whoops!"

The staff flew from Aleena's hands a flew through the branch of an old dead tree. The branch fell along with the hornet's nest attached to it; the nest broke on impact releasing a very angry swarm.

"Abort mission!" shouted Eddie. "Run!"

The girls then followed the prince screaming into the woods as the hornets gave chase.

Lara parted a peeked over a ridge, up above Alexis was dressed up as a swatbot and carried a gun that shot paint covered foam balls as she stood next to a flag in small a wooden fort. The Echidna's attention was then drawn to a nearby grated pipe.

"Ok, with Cocoa acting as lookout for the other counselor swatbots patrolling the area, we should be able to get that flag and win this mission. Flare you're smallest of us, crawl though and open that pipe then the flag is ours."

"Absolutely not!" Flare pouted. "If I do that my carefully groomed fur will get covered in mud!"

In one quick motion Gleam knelt, picked up a handful of mud and smeared it over Flare. "There, you're already muddy, now you have no excuse."

The white cat girl caught fire for a moment, the mud on her had dried and hardened. "How DARE YOU! Do you know how much work it is to get myself this pretty each morning?!"

"Intimately, you spend almost as long in the bathroom as my mom, and you don't even wear makeup!"

"Please for someone who wanted to be thought of as tough you brought a lot of eyeliner and nail polish!

"Can it both of you!" yelled Lara. "That's an order!"

Gleam pushed back against Lara. "Nobody put you in charge Red!"

"Well, I seem to be the only one who wants be in charge of anything other than herself!"

"But do you have to be so bossy about it?!" said Flare. "We're not part of that little clique you made when you got here so don't treat us like we are!"

"It's not a clique and I value everyone's opinion there equally!"

"Uh girls," Cocoa said as she came up to them.

"WHAT?!" all three yelled.

"Alexis isn't at the flag anymore."

In short order Alexis fired paint covered foam balls at the four marking them. "Sorry ladies," the young squirrel said. "But looks like the campers haven't won capture the flag this year."

"How can we all have lost?!" said Gleam. "We had you guys out numbered over six to one!"

"Traps we set and careful strategy. But that only worked because this was designed so that a least two teams needed to work together to win and it looks like none of the teams reached out because they were too busy fighting amongst themselves, like you were just now. I honestly expected better from you kids."

Skye jabbed a waffle with a fork as he sighed in relief. "Finally, we get a full day as a free period until tonight's Bonfire Sing Along Jamboree and tomorrow our parents will take us all home."

"It wasn't that bad," said Argyle. "Sure, there were a lot of things that went wrong but we learned cool stuff and had a good amount of fun right guys?"

Lara laid down on the table glumly. "This whole trip was cursed. We barely improved on the strength or control of our powers, every attempt to get the capsule back ended up with one of us getting punished by holding up water filled buckets for up to an hour; stupid thing wasn't even kept in his office; and once Dad hears about how abysmal our mission performance was he'll NEVER let me be a guardian!"

Argyle rubbed Lara's shoulder. "Come on, so it turns out your body hasn't developed enough yet to manage the stuff the other you learned from the rest of the Chaotix, you'll get there eventually."

Lara gave an angry glare at the croc. "You think THAT'S what got me upset?! This team has been falling apart since day one! Melody and Taffy went from having their attention split between the band and team to wanting leave both! My best friend is hardly speaking to me since she went back to the Director's office because of her conspiracy theory even though we KNEW by that point the fact that we all were part of…that thing we don't talk about, was just a big coincidence!"

"Hey, Argyle's just trying to help," said Gasket.

"You gotta stay whelm," said Manik.

"Whelm?!" growled Lara. "Look around you, every friendship here has been strained to the breaking point, even the counselors are getting depressed! The future could be ruined all because I made a big mistake in putting this team together, something I didn't realize because I so blinded with how powerful and cool that other me was!" Lara then sighed. "But for all I had going for me there was one thing I wasn't. I'm no leader, not even then, your father was."

Alan put a bit of waffle in his mouth. "So, you're just not going to get into the Director's office to grab the capsule tonight."

"How can someone so smart be so dumb? It was never in there!"

"Yeah, but it will be tonight. These big ears aren't just for show, I overhead Aura gossiping yesterday. It seems like Dusk has been really desperate to get his cell phone back, he figured out the director kept all the contraband in his own cabin. Guy's been trying to break in for weeks but while he was never caught, he couldn't get in either. But the Director has to move all of that into his office before our folks get here tomorrow, something to do with that lawsuit and logging an inventory in the morning or something. Point is tonight's the best night to snag the capsule, everyone's going to be at the Jamboree so if we're quick and quiet we can grab it and you can tell our parents you found it the woods or something."

"So, we get one last mission?" said Skye.

Lara sat up. "Not we, I'm doing this alone. If too many of us are absent they'll know something's up, besides I…put you through too much already."

That right after sunset Lara told Rora she wasn't feeling well and had to lie down in the cabin. As soon as everyone left for the Jamboree Lara snuck off to the lodge. Using a loudspeaker pole and a tree she made her way to the roof to the one reliable entrance that wouldn't be locked, a bathroom window whose latch never worked quite right. After checking the hallway for the director, she found someone else altogether trying to open the office door.

"Is getting your phone back that important Dusk?" Lara said as she came up.

The bat growled at her. "What's a goody two shoes like you doing here, shouldn't you be joining in on the kumbaya's right about now?"

"Look, there's something I need in there that's more important than you checking out your Neighborhood status or whatever…"

"You have no idea what this is all about."

"Point is we have a common goal, so we work together this one time and I'll won't narc on you."

"Fine, just let me open the door."

Dusk took out a key and turned it in the lock.

"Where did you even get that?"

"Gleam's not the only one who got special training. After…well you know, Mom saw I needed cheering up after Dad and Gleam left for a while, so she taught me a lot of the tricks she knew from her time as a thief and a spy. She made me promise not to use them without a good reason, I just disagree on what a good reason is. For example, I needed to get in here so I took a stole the key from Jackie while he and Rora were having a mutual tonsil examination if you catch my drift."

"Ok, more than I needed to know."

"Thing is usually Kneecaps and Alexis used that spot for canoodling…"

"Not listening!"

Dusk got the door open, the box from the initiation was on the desk. Lara rushed over and got the capsule out of the box.

"What the heck is that?" asked Dusk.

"None of your business," said Lara.

"Fine keep your secrets," said Dusk as he fiddled with his phone. "I just have to get into the photo album and…"

"Hold it," said Lara as Dusk stopped on one picture. "Is that you? Giving a flower to Grace? Athair's beads, you totally have a crush on her!"

"Yeah, and I'd appreciate you keeping your mouth shut while I delete it."

"Delete it? Did she…?"

"NO! Look, Grace is turbo speed, she laughs at all my jokes no matter how corny they are, and her smile is so wonderful. I don't wanna get rid of this but," Dusk sighed. "Our moms are still carrying on this old feud they had. If either one finds out, they won't let us hang out anymore. You wouldn't understand, me going to all this trouble to do this one stupid thing is like…"

"Manik standing up to Gleam because he really likes Aleena?"

Dusk became wide eyed. "Manik was crushing on Aleena? That's why he acted like that to my Sis?"

Lara groaned. "Boys, why do you have to be so thick headed!? It was obvious to everybody he liked her. Look lets reverse things a bit, suppose Sonia was teasing Grace, what would you have done in Manik's position?"

Dusk fell to his knees. "I'm a total snotpill."

"Look you can still apologize to Manik and Skye, but more than that you have to talk about what that promise means because soon big changes are going happen to our bodies and our lives."

Dusk turned the phone off and put it back in the box. "Ok, I'm going to tell Mom about how I feel about Grace and how her and Mrs. Fox's dumb rivalry can go jump in a lake for all we care."

Lara slipped the capsule into her jacket. "Ok, we better head to the Jamboree. I'll just say I started feeling better then…"

A floorboard creaked from the hallway outside, Lara and Dusk hid under the desk.

"I thought everybody was going to be at the sing along!" said Dusk.

"Maybe Director Bison wanted to get things sorted out early?"

Soon a hedgehog covered head to toe in black armor came into the office and began looking around.

Dusk peeked at the figure. "Who's this guy and why is he dressed like he should be at a biker rally-slash-sci-fi convention?"

"Keep quiet!" whispered Lara. "If we're lucky he'll leave before he notices us!"

The hedgehog then lifted his hand before the desk was covered in a blue aura before floating to the ceiling. The next moment the aura covered the kids before they were pulled towards him.

"Even you kept your mouths shut my suit would have picked up your heartbeats," said the rectifier. Suddenly his visor flashed a bit of static. "Or at least it did, what's up with these malfunctions? Looks like I'll have to bring you along for interrogation."

"I don't know who you are freak," said Dusk. "But my sister's going to notice when I haven't snuck back to the others in time, then you'll really regret it."

"Oh, don't worry, we're going to interrogate all your little friends too."

The rectifier levitated and all three floated out of the room.

Over at the bonfire Aurora was playing an acoustic guitar while she and the other counselors sang. The kids followed along but halfheartedly.

"Camp Great Oak where we laugh and play underneath the shining sun.

Whether we hike, or swim or sing, we're always having fun!

But the best thing in Camp Great Oak are my friends and memories.

That even when I'm all grown up…"

"Will make me want to heave!" Gale ad-libbed getting a chuckle from a few campers.

Aurora stopped playing then turned to Gale with an uncharacteristic snarl. "IT'S 'WILL ALWAYS BE DEAR TO ME'! NOW GET IT RIGHT OR PAY THE PRICE!"

For a few seconds there was only the cackling of the bonfire until Aurora sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap. It's just this was my favorite memory of my time here when I was your age, the grand finale of me and Jackie's own camping experience and I wanted to have it again. It's not fair for me to expect you to be as excited as I was because camp wasn't as good a time for you. So, what say we take from the top and maybe just for a little bit we can pretend everyone had fun here."

After a quick strum everyone began singing again.

"Deep in the Great Forest, nestled among mighty trees

By shores of Lake Valor, is the best place to be.

Camp Great Oak where we laugh and play underneath the shining sun.

Whether we hike, or swim or sing, we're always having…"

Suddenly a female hedgehog rectifier stepped into the firelight bringing everything to a halt.

Enerjak stepped up to the woman. "Excuse me but this is private proper…"

In a single movement the rectifier sent the young man flat on his back.

"Jackie!" yelled Aurora.

"Stay where you are," said the rectifier. "Cooperate and this will be over with quickly. I'm looking for a device, a metal cylinder about yea big. Hand it over if you have it, if you don't then just stay out of our way until we find it and we should be out of here in a half hour at most."

"Rrgh!"

Gleam leapt at the rectifier who moved like water sidestepping her spin attack before pinning her to the ground.

"You have spunk, I'll give you that. But it'll take a lot more discipline before you can reach my level."

The psychic hedgehog came in levitating Lara and Dusk. "Beta one, I found two more."

Two other rectifiers, a male echidna and a female mongoose came up. "We swept the area," said the mongoose. "No sign of the capsule visually, our armor's sensor suite doesn't appear to be working however."

"What's the matter?" said Gleam. "Worried that your toys might be broken?"

"You little BRAT!" Beta one moved to punch Gleam only to pull back at the last second. "The limbic regulator, this is more serious than I thought. Ok then, we're going to have to do this a little differently. You're all coming with us, once we deal with a few minor technical problems you can be interrogated properly." Beta one pushed Gleam towards the other kids then tapped her forearm. "Marking subjects for transmat, returning to base."

In a flash everyone vanished from around the bonfire.

Director Bison came up. "Sorry I took so long in the outhouse; I know Sonic's chili dogs are iconic but they don't make me smell like roses…" He stopped and noticed the distinct lack of anyone else.

Up above a large black flying machine began moving towards the mountains.

"I am so losing my job over this."

Lara and the rest of the camp found themselves in a large bare room with slick metallic walls.

Mellow tried to open the one visible door with no luck. "What are we going to do?! We don't have this capsule they want, and I don't think they're going to keep their word!"

"Ok, just stay calm everyone," said Kneecaps. "Best thing to do is cooperate with them, if they see we don't have this capsule thing and still not let us go I'm sure my big brother and your parents will be by to rescue us."

"When?!" said Rutan. "It took them a month to find us the last time we were kidnapped, and we all know how THAT turned out!"

The monster with a metal claw flashed in Lara's mind.

"I wanna go home!" cried Juanita. "I want my mom and dad!"

"Keep it together!" said Salma. "Remember your training, deep breaths, that capsule isn't here so there's no use in worrying over something we can't control."

"No," said Lara. "They can't have it."

Sonia came up to Lara. "Wait, you actually managed to get it back?"

"Lara what are you talking about?" asked Aleena.

Lara-Su reached into her jacket and pulled out the capsule. "It just popped into my room a month ago, no clue as to why."

"Alright," said Ace. "Then once those guys come back you can just give it to them and they'll let us go."

Lara pulled the capsule away. "They can't have it, just listen to this and you'll see why."

Lara pushed the flashing blue button causing the hologram of Red Knight to appear again. "This…warning…year 3438 P.X.E. …capsule…vital information…Freedom Fighters…can't…wrong hands… fate of the galaxy…"

"3438?" asked Eddie. "So, these guys are from the future?"

"It's a safe bet, but either way the message mentioned the 'wrong hands', those creeps sure don't look like the right ones."

"Well then," said Gleam. "Better make sure they don't get it."

The white hedgehog grabbed the capsule, Lara-Su pulled back. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Gleam tugged at the capsule. "Smashing this thing before they come back!"

Lara tugged harder. "But it mentioned the Freedom Fighters! We should give it to them!"

Gleam began regaining control. "You don't know that!"

The tug of war shifted again. "Which is why I wanted Gasket and Alan to fix it first!"

"Too late for that! Give it to me!"

"No!"

"I said give it!"

Suddenly it seemed like the room listed to one side as the door opened. Lara and Gleem lost their balance as they fell through the open door knocking Sonia, Manic and Dusk through with them. No sooner then they fell through then the everything righted itself again and the door slid shut again.

"Cousin Lexi!" shouted Sonia. "Cousin Eddie!"

"Don't worry about us!" Alexis said from the other side of the door. "Try to find a way out of here, let them know what happened, bring back help!"

Lara tossed the capsule to Manik. "Here, once we find a way off you can get it to somebody faster than me. Dusk you've shown me you're really sneaky we'll follow your lead."

"I'm not sneaking around!" said Gleam. "And I can find my own way out!"

"Sis this isn't the time or the place!" said Dusk.

"I'm not following orders from Red and there's nothing you can say to change my mind!"

Gleam began marching down the hall.

Dusk cleared his throat. "Dear Diary, today Ms. Peahen gave us a lesson about puberty in science class." Gleam stopped dead in her tracks. "Honestly, it kind of scares me, I think would just die if I became as busty as Mom."

Gleam turned around as Sonia, Manik and Lara-Su began snickering. "You have got to be the first girl who wishes she DIDN'T have your mom's body!" Lara laughed.

"No please," laughed Manik. "Anything would be better than being sexy!"

"Shut it!" shouted Gleam as her face resembled Lara's colors more than her own. "I-I'm just worried about it throwing off my center of gravity, I worked too hard to nail my spin attack to start over!" she then turned to her brother. "How did you even know I HAD a dairy?! I hid it too well!"

"Dad gave you your lessons, Mom gave me mine. By the way if you didn't want me reading it you should have remembered we share a birthday when setting the combination. So, are you going to help us out or do I tell everyone about this guy you have a crush on and how you just GUSHED about him on page one-thirty-four?"

"OMG!" laughed Sonia. "I never thought Gleam would crush on anybody!"

The white hedgehog went up to the black bat's face and gave a death glare at him. "Brother or not I will KILL YOU if you breath so much as a word of page one-thirty-four!"

Dusk shrugged. "Eh if those guys catch us, I'm dead anyway, might as well get some entertainment value before I go. Dear…"

"Alright you win!" Gleam turned to Lara. "But you better pray that you don't screw this up for us!"

Lara-Su gave a confident smile. "Ok as I was saying Dusk you take point and help us sneak around, everybody else is counting on us!

Dusk led them down the corridor until they began hearing voices. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T DIVE INTO THE SYSTEM!" They came close to a doorway and peeked in to see a female chipmunk rectifier yelling a male lynx comrade sitting at a computer terminal.

"Another malfunction to add to the list of the ones we've been having since we left Imperium Center," said the lynx. "Armor sensor systems, the surveillance cameras, external sensor suite, the limbic regulators and now the new Omni Drive. We're just lucky all personnel were on board when it happened and we ended up at our next destination before Epsilon one shut the drive off, we can still accomplish our primary mission."

"Holding those kids for that long is a big risk. If something goes wrong, I swear…!" the chipmunk took a deep breath. "Just how long until you can get the limbic regulators working again? It's been an awfully long time since any of us couldn't use them to control our emotions as much we're supposed to."

"First I have to find whatever is affecting our systems. I narrowed it down to a software problem, but since I can't dive in to find it we'll have to set the base down while I run a diagnostic. Given there's a few hundred million lines of code to comb over it should be done in about forty-eight hours."

"Just, try to fix what you can in the meantime."

"Compli…Wait a minute I just got internal sensors back online and I'm picking up the data capsule."

"Good, which one of those little munchkins has it?"

"Strange, I'm not picking it up in the cargo bay…It's coming from outside this room!"

"Run!" Lara shouted.

As the kids ran off the chipmunk tapped the side of her helmet as she and the lynx gave chase. "Security alert!" she said as her words came out through the loudspeakers in the halls along with an alarm. "We have five escaped prisoners heading towards the bow on the portside corridor of deck three! All hands in the vicinity apprehend the escapees, use of force authorized up to level two!"

"This way!" said Dusk as he turned into a doorway to his left.

They after Lara came in Dusk hit a button slamming a heavy shutter behind her. "It's a dead end!"

"Just the opposite Lara," Sonia said as she got into a seat and began lowering a restraint over her head. "It's an escape pod!"

After everyone strapped in Gleam slammed her fist on a big red button.

"Escape pod ejected!" a computerized voice said just as the occupants were subjected to the expected g-forces.

The pod then made a crash landing in the woods, moments later the kids began getting out. "Everybody, split up!" said Lara. "Try to get help, Manik hide that thing somewhere you'll remember! They'll start coming after us again at any moment!"

The five children then ran off into the Great Forest.

"You pretty much know the rest," said Lara. "If I did a better job of getting my friends to be a team we could have stood up to The Rectifiers, then they and everyone else wouldn't be prisoners of them and we all wouldn't have been stranded in the past with no way home!"

"There was nothing you could have done," said Gold. "The Rectifiers are most elite of the elite forces in the Mobius Imperium. If it didn't risk their timeline, they probably wouldn't have hesitated to kill you."

Gleam clenched her fists. "I just wish I was strong enough for round two."

"Silver," said Blaze. "It will be four months until we can get a time stone from Little Planet. Is there any other way we can send them back home?"

"I do know a form of Chronos Control that should work," said Silver. "But we're going to need two Chaos Emeralds and two people who are capable of using Chaos Control, with Sonic going on his honeymoon and more importantly with how hard it is to find a super warp ring it's not a sure-fire option."

"I got one of the Sol Emeralds back recently, would that help?"

"It should, we might be able to use one emerald of each kind so that just leaves one more and a chaos control user."

"Wait Shadow found another super warp ring last month," said Gold. "He won the emerald and sent it to a United Federation energy lab for research purposes. If we can get the Federation's help, we'd only need to rescue the hostages then we'll be all set."

"What about this dohickey?" asked Dusk.

"We'll have to discuss that with the Freedom Fighters," said Silver. "But between Rotor, Tails and Nicole we should be able to get this thing working. They'll probably say it's a broken downstream framistat regurgitator chip or some other nonsense like that."

"We'll worry about the rescue mission," said Blaze. "For now, you kids just stay put until we figure things out with the others."

Lara stood up. "No way! You're going to need someone whose been inside the rectifier ship, you have to take one of us with you!"

"And that someone is me!" said Gleam. "I can actually add firepower to this mission!"

"You can all come us to CONSULT everybody on the layout of that mobile base," said Gold. "I don't doubt your ability, but this is a job for the grown-ups. Head to the reception with us and stay off to the side and out of sight until Sonic and Sally leave for their honeymoon, understood?"

Lara looked to the side where she saw Jani-Ca give her a silent nod. "Fine, we'll do it your way."

Moments later the group went into a tent with a dance floor and several tables set up. Sonic and Sally were currently standing in front of a table where a large wedding cake stood.

"Ok girls!" said the princess as she held up a bouquet of white roses. "Now's the moment you've all been waiting for!"

Blaze and Gold stepped away from Silver and into a crowd where Nicole, Marine, Fiona, Honey, Liza, Saffron, Hope and several other young women were gathering.

"I'm sorry Gold," said Blaze. "You're my friend, but for right now that means nothing to me as a woman."

Cream looked to her mother who gave her an approving nod, the younger rabbit gained the same determined face as the other women as she joined the crowd.

"No need to apologize," said Gold. "As a woman I don't have to be a telepath to know right now we're all thinking the same thing…"

Sally turned her back to crowd as she took a deep breath then threw the white roses backwards over her head.

The crowd of women then yelled as one as the prize flew through the air. "THAT BOUQUET IS MINE!"

Cream and Saffron tried to fly to catch it only get in each other's way the rest reached up, but it seemed to head to Fiona's hand.

"I got it!"

The vixen's fingers brushed the stems as the bouquet flew past her and another figure swept past and grasped the flowers with her gloved hand as she landed.

"Just like the old days," said Rouge. "The object of your desires slips through your fingers and into mine."

Fiona growled. "No fair! You said you weren't coming you dingbat!"

"Mom?" Dusk said from the kids' hiding place.

Shadow and Omega came onto the dancefloor. "So you decided to come after all," said Sonic. "I've heard of being fashionably late, but this is a little much don't you think?"

Shadow gave a small huff. "On the contrary, I've arrived just in time."

Suddenly Shadow punched Sonic in the face, the blue hedgehog was sent crashing into the wedding cake to the gasp of the crowd.

"Dad!" Sonia and Manik yelled before Lara and Gleam pulled them back. Their outburst thankfully went unnoticed by the crowd.

"Shadow stop it!" screamed Sally. "I don't know what your beef with Sonic this time is, but you have no right to do this!"

"Just the opposite princess," said Rouge. "He has every right," Omega then held out a document to Sally in his clawed hand. "And this little piece of paper gives it to him."

Sally snatched the document from Omega. As she read it her expression changed from incensed to fearful.

"Sally girl!" asked Bunnie. "What's wrong?!"

"Th-this," Sally stammered. "This is a warrant!"

"A warrant?!" yelled Tails.

"Exactly," said Shadow.

The black hedgehog towered over the blue one as he started to stir and wipe cake off his uniform. The children stayed hidden as they watched in shock along everyone in the reception. Shadow now held a pair of handcuffs.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, by the authority of the Mobian Accords and Guardian Units of Nations I hereby place you under arrest!"