Chapter ? - Pretty Red Buttons are Painted Green

Tails led Dana, Komodo, and Mel into the garage. All three girls were still wearing their pajamas and rubbing their eyes sleepily. Dana even had a stuffed fox tucked under one arm.

"What exactly did you drag us out here for?" Mel asked.

"Well… I've been working on this time machine and Liz came in and-" Tails stopped mid-sentence as the machine began to spark. He turned and saw the three girls pressing the buttons on the panel and giggling madly, "-was doing exactly what you are." he finished with a glare.

The three stopped and stepped away shamefully, "Well you shouldn't have made the buttons so pretty and red…" Komodo whined, "They make us want to push them to see what happens."

"Yeah, why couldn't you make them green? Then we wouldn't press them." Dana added.

"Whatever… Liz messed with the time machine and sent them all somewhere!" Tails shouted, "I need your help to get them back!"

"How can we help?" Mel asked.

"Well I have to fix the time machine. You three have to work on a tracking device I can hook up to it so we can locate them in whatever year they might be in." Tails said.

"How do you expect us to do that? She doesn't even know how to wire a bomb." Komodo said pointing at Dana.

"Lay off! Those wires were confusing!"

"Find directions on the internet or something. I don't care just get it done!" Tails screamed.

About twenty years later…

Sonic opened his eyes and sat up. He glanced around the field he was sitting in. Where the hell am I? He thought.

The field he sat in was tinted black with smoldering ash and debris. It looked like there had been a battle raged there only hours earlier.

He stood and brushed the ash off his legs. Glancing around he saw nothing but black smoke for miles. Then out of the smoke a small figure emerged sprinting towards him.

He watched as it came into focus and realized it was an orange fox running towards him. As the fox caught sight of Sonic he froze just staring at him.

Sonic just stared right back. This fox seemed familiar. He took a few steps toward Sonic with awe shimmering in his eyes, "S-Sonic?" he asked.

"Uh… yeah…" Sonic mumbled, "Who are you?"

The fox cried out in excitement and threw his arms around Sonic, "I can't believe it's you!" he shouted.

"Whoa! What's going on?" Sonic demanded pushing the fox off him.

"It's me: Tails!" he said with a smile.

Sonic blinked twice in confusion, "What…?" he asked, "That's impossible. You're too old!"

"Sonic… You were just sent to the future because my time machine malfunctioned. The last thing you saw was Liz pressing lots of buttons on my machine… right?" he asked.

"Yeah…" Sonic mumbled, "How… wait what year is this?"

"It's been twenty years since that day." Tails said, "You won't believe what's been going on around here."

Then they heard laser fire somewhere in the smoke. "Get down!" Tails whispered urgently.

"What's going on?" Sonic asked.

"Shhh!"

The two looked into the smoke and saw two robots emerge from the haze. They scanned the area and moved on.

"Were those Eggman's robots?" Sonic asked.

"No, worse! They're Liz's."

This took a moment to sink in. "What?" Sonic demanded.

"I'll explain everything once we get back to the base. Follow me!" Tails stood and headed off into the gloom. Sonic stared after him and decided it was in his best interest to follow.

Back to the present…

Tails had pried up the top of the control panel and, after repainting all the buttons green, had began his work on whatever it was Liz had destroyed.

Komodo, Dana, and Mel ran into the garage with smiles, "Tails! We did it!" Dana shouted.

"Already?" Tails asked, "Let me see!"

"It won't be here for three to four more business days." Mel explained.

Tails groaned and went back to his work.

1963…

Shadow woke up and blinked in confusion. Some girl was lying next to him snuggling up to his chest. He cried out and scrambled away, "Who the hell are you?" he demanded.

"Whoa… like, chill out man." she said with a smile, "I didn't mean to harsh your vibes. You're just really fuzzy and soft."

Shadow glared at her. He wasn't used to being called fuzzy and soft, "Where am I?" he demanded. As he said this he glanced around. They were in a field near a roadway. Many vans were parked in the grass and many people were wandering around the field or lying there looking wasted. They all had one thing in common though: their clothes were all old and they looked like they hadn't bathed for weeks.

Shadow looked down again and saw the girl lying on her stomach in front of him and poking his shoe, "Sweet clogs, man." she said, "Where'd you get 'em?"

Shadow pulled his foot out of her reach, "Didn't you hear me? I asked where I am." he said sharply.

"Take a chill pill dude. You're in our little community. We're a few miles out from D.C." she said, "We're heading into the city later this week. You should so totally come, man."

Shadow raised an eyebrow, "Wait… what year is this?" he asked.

The girl responded with a burst of laughter. When she finally stopped she smiled up at him, "Whoa man, you must be, like, totally tripping. It's 1963!" she said.

Shadow paused in thought for a moment then groaned, "Oh you've gotta be fucking with me…" he mumbled angrily.

"Hey man, we don't use that word. Here it's called making love." she said.

Shadow glanced around at the gathering in disgust. Liz had obviously done something to Tails' machine, which he had realized by now was a time machine. However Tails had escaped from the garage so he'd probably figure out what happened and rescue him.

"I need a place to stay for a few days." he said reluctantly.

"Oh!" the girl cried standing up, "Then you are so totally in the right place my friend. We're all family here!"

Shadow smiled weakly. This was going to be difficult for him to withstand.