Notes: Hey guys! Thanks for the fav's and reviews and follows I got for chapter one, I really appreciate it! Here's chapter two. I had a really fun time writing this one, so hopefully it's fun to read! How will our young heroes react to being trapped in the future? LET'S FIND OUT!

Chapter 2

The party ended soon after, and everyone wished the younger Sonic and Tails luck and headed off in their own separate directions. It was going to be getting dark soon, so it was time for the four heroes to get going anyway. The workshop where Sonic and Tails lived wasn't far from where they decided to have Sonic's birthday party- just on the other side of the Mystic Ruins. It wasn't a very long walk, or a chatty one at that. The "classic" versions of Mobius' dynamic duo were busy individually contemplating their fates; wondering how they would get back home, and picturing where their future selves would live. Meanwhile, the older fox and hedgehog were trying to communicate using nothing but facial expressions, discussing what they were going to do with the two kids they were suddenly left with. Their conversation didn't make much headway, which tends to be what happens with silent conversations.

Soon, the Mystic Ruins train station terminal, a wooden building several stories high, was in view. "We're almost there," the older of the two Sonics said, breaking the silence. His younger self merely nodded in response, not saying a word. The green-eyed hedgehog pouted. He hated to see a friend upset, especially when that friend was himself.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head. "Yo, little me, wanna race to the workshop?" he said, bouncing on his feet with excitement as he walked. He barely gave the twelve-year-old any time to respond before he shouted, "Great! Ready, set, GO!" He took off in the direction of the train station, leaving a cloud of dirt and dust in his wake. His younger self hesitated for a split second, his brain processing what was going on. That didn't take long, however, and he was soon running after the older hedgehog with only a vague idea of where the finish line was.

His feet pounded against the ground of the somehow familiar Mystic Ruins. Jumping high over rocks and swerving hard around trees, it only took him a few seconds before he was closing in on his future self. The other hedgehog noticed that he was quickly losing his head-start advantage, and he picked up the pace. He didn't go full speed- just fast enough to challenge his younger self.

'No way I'm going to lose to myself,' the preteen thought, his competitiveness starting to show. He slowed down for a half a second and revved himself up into a spin dash, hurdling ahead. He jumped out of his spin and continued running once he began to slow. He glanced left and right and noticed that the older hedgehog was actually behind him. He grinned. 'What now, Mr. Fastest Thing Alive?' he thought.

The next thing he knew, something whooshed past him at incredible speeds. The air displacement caused by the sudden passing was nearly enough to knock the young hedgehog sideways into the dirt. "Was that...!" He looked behind him. His older self was no longer there. Instead, he was far ahead of the youngster, running backwards with his tongue out. Mini-Sonic scowled. "SHOWOFF!" he shouted, although he doubted that his older self would be able to hear him. To his surprise, the other hedgehog winked in response before turning himself around again so that he was running forward. Determined not to throw in the towel, the younger pulled himself into a Super Peelout- his feet looked like nothing more that a blurry, red figure-eight, and he was barely touching the ground. He sped ahead, the maneuver allowing him to catch up with his future self with ease.

"Not too shabby!" the older hedgehog shouted over the wind rushing past them. "I almost forgot about the Super Peelout!"

"Is this all you've got?" the younger yelled back. His other self grinned.

"Not even close, pal!" he said. "What about you? Getting tired?"

"In your dreams! I could do this all day!"

"Well good, because so can I! Now, let's see who can- WHOA WHOA WAIT HOLD ON STOP STOP STOP STOP WE'RE HERE WE'RE HERE WE'RE HERE!" the older hedgehog yelped, screeching to a halt right at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the workshop. Mini-Sonic skidded to a stop about ten feet away. He was panting.

"Jeez, you trying to give me a heart attack or something? Thanks for the heads-up there," he said snarkily.

"Hah, I didn't think we'd get here this quick," the older Sonic said, bouncing on the balls of his feet to help cool down his legs. "Whew! That was fun!"

"Yeah, I guess it was," the twelve-year-old said with a smile.

"Aha! I knew a good run would be all it takes to cheer you up." His older persona gave him a pat on the back before starting up the stairs. "Come on, I might as well show you the outside of the place while we wait for Tails and Tails to catch up." Nodding, Mini-Sonic followed him up the stairs, intrigued.

The young hedgehog had never even considered having a house before. Well, he had thought about it, of course. It just never seemed like something that was within his grasp. Even if he was forced to grow up quickly, having lived on his own for almost his whole life, he never seriously thought about having a permanent place to stay. Once he took in Tails and started to look after him, the idea crossed his mind more and more often. However, due to his lack of funding and his young age, he was never really able to act on the notion. He honestly had no idea what to expect, walking up those stone steps.

They reached the top of the first flight of steps, coming to a plateau. The area was pretty empty, save for fencing around the edge of the cliff and another set of stairs, leading up to the workshop. From here, it was easier to see the house. From his vantage point, the twelve-year-old observed that the building looked small, and from the outside indeed seemed more like a place to work than a place to live. He and his older self ascended the next flight of stairs, approaching the building.

It was about two stories high, and made out of various materials- brick, steel, wood, and cinderblocks, to name a few. There was a small pool of water with a water wheel around the side, and a small tower protruding from the top of the roof. It wasn't a particularly big house, but then again, with only two people living there, it didn't need to be. There was a large stretch of land by the right side of the house that jutted out across the ocean. Palm trees lined this peninsula at even intervals, and there seemed to be a metal rail running down the center of it.

All in all, it was more of a house than Sonic had ever had before in his life.

The older Sonic bent down and picked something up off of the ground. It seemed to be a stone totem, or maybe some sort of key. "Man, I wish kids would just leave this thing where it belonged," he said. "I'll have to bring this back to WindyValley later, or else that wind tunnel's not going to open." He sat down on the front steps, placing the key on the ground next to him. He flashed a smile at his past self. "Nice place, eh?"

"I've never had an actual place of my own before," the smaller hedgehog said. "My brain is still in a bit of a shock."

"Well, it's not technically MY place. It is Tails' workshop, after all, and he brings in most of the income. But I do live here," the older Sonic said. "Hey, speaking of Tails, here they come!" He stood up and waved to the two approaching foxes. The two of them flew up to the top of the plateau and came in for a landing a few feet away from where the Sonics were standing.

"So, who won?" The older of the two foxes asked while the younger stared up in awe at the workshop.

"I actually think it was a tie," answered Sonic with a grin. He pulled a small house key out of his quills and twirled it around his finger. He inserted the key into the doorknob, turned, and bumped the front door open with his hip. "And now, Mini-Me and Lil' Tails, welcome to our humble abode."

"Humble?" If the smaller Sonic's brain was in shock after seeing the outside of the house, then his mind might have been fried a little once he saw the inside. The workshop seemed way bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. They entered into a comfortable living room, with a patched-up couch placed up against one wall, two armchairs against another, and a flat-screen TV hanging above the fireplace on the other side of the room. The cabinets on either side of the fireplace were stocked with video game consoles and games, DVDs and old videos, CDs, and even some vinyl records. There were speakers attached to the walls of the living room, providing full surround sound. There was a loft, allowing people on the second floor to look down into the living room, and giving the whole area an open feel. From the living room they could see the kitchen, which had a circular table with chairs, plenty of windows, and a fairly generic kitchen setup.

And all that could be seen from only one room of the house. Mini-Sonic had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that he hadn't even seen the rest of it yet.

"Whoa... this place is insane!"

"Pretty cool, huh?" the green-eyed hedgehog said. "Why don't you and Lil' T go explore, take a look around, make yourselves at home, while Tails and I work on setting up a place for you two to sleep?"

"Lil' T?" the younger Tails asked, turning away from the stereo that he had been fascinated by to face the elder Sonic.

"Well, I've gotta call you something, don't I? I can't just call you Tiny Tails, or the younger Tails, or something equally long the whole time you're here. That would get annoying, don't you think?"

"Haha, yeah," the fox kit giggled.

"Cool! Tails and I will be upstairs if you guys need us," Sonic said, rubbing the child's head and getting his fur all messy.

"Oh, and if you go into the hangar out back or the basement, be careful, okay?" the teenage fox added. "I know you two can handle yourselves, but there's a lot of stuff in there that you shouldn't be touching."

"Got it," Little Sonic said with a thumbs up. Meanwhile, in his head, he was thinking, 'There's a HANGAR in this place, too?! This is seeming more and more like a mansion and less than a workshop every minute.'

"C'mon, Sonic! Let's go check this place out! I wanna 'splore!" the six-year-old said, grabbing his big brother by the hand and dragging him towards the kitchen. The young hedgehog followed without hesitation, eager to see the rest of the workshop. The older incarnations of the two simply smiled at one another and went upstairs to figure out how they were going to provide sleeping arrangements for two more people.

Downstairs in the kitchen, those two people in question were busy scrounging for snacks. Sonic yanked open the fridge door, and after looking around for a moment or two, pulled out a can of Chaos Cola. He shut the door with his foot as he popped the top open. "I can't believe this is going to be our house someday," he said after taking a sip of the soda.

"Yeah! It's so cool!" Tails said, flying around the room. He insisted on looking in every cabinet and drawer, just to see what was inside. "I know we move around a lot and all, but I still think it would be cool to have a place to come back to every once in a while. Just to rest and play and stuff."

"I wouldn't mind that either, pal," Sonic said with a frown. "Unfortunately, I'm still too young; who would sell their house to a twelve-year-old, anyway? Even if I AM a 'national hero' or whatever." He put air-quotes around national hero. He sighed. "Not to mention, I don't have the cash. Getting a good place to live costs a lot of money. When we get home, though, I'll see what we can do. Deal?"

"Deal!" the fox kit cheered. Sonic took another sip of his soda. 'If we get home at all, that is...' he thought. He shook his head. No, he shouldn't be thinking that way. He was going to get his little brother home safe and sound, or his name wasn't Sonic the Hedgehog. He drank the rest of his soda in one gulp and set the empty can on the counter.

"Come on kiddo, I know you wanna check out the hangar," he said, motioning for Tails to follow him. The flying fox nodded eagerly and flew ahead of his brother, barreling through the door that led to the hangar.

The hangar wasn't too big, but there was still enough room for several planes- one of which Sonic and Tails easily recognized as their own bi-plane, the Tornado, although it appeared to have had several upgrades and a slightly updated paint job. Also in the hangar was a worktable with tools scattered about, and an area for spare parts to be stored. There were various diagrams plastered across the walls; some were diagrams of different planes and engines, others were maps, others showed cross-sections of cockpits and control panels. Sonic peeked out the window of the garage door to find that it lead out to the peninsula that jut out over the ocean. 'That must be some sort of runway, then,' he thought.

"Wooooooow!" Tails gasped, racing around the room to get a look at everything. "This place is so cool!"

"Way past," the hedgehog breathed. He walked over to the Tornado and rubbed his gloved hand across its metallic body. "Man, this thing looks like it's still new. Good to know it's been taken care of."

"Sonic! Older-me said not to touch anything!" said Tails, pouting and crossing his arms at his older brother.

"I think he just meant the tools and the controls for the planes and stuff," Sonic explained. "And besides, this plane was technically ours first!" he said with a wink.

"Haha, yeah," Tails agreed. "Why do you think future-us need so many airplanes, anyways?"

"That's a good question, Tails. I don't know." Sonic looked around at all the planes in the hangar. There were three in all, but there was space for a fourth as well. "Maybe they all do different things? Or maybe the future-you has a hobby. We'll have to ask later." He took a step back from the Tornado and grinned. "Hey, what do you say you and me go check out those video games we saw in the living room?"

"Ooohhhhh," the fox said, his face lighting up. "Do you think future-us have Super Mega Blasteroids 9? I love that game!" Sonic shrugged.

"Not sure. I like that game too, but I guess it's technically over eight years older now. Let's go check and see!" The two kids excitedly raced back to the living room and opened up the cabinet next to the fireplace. The shelves were lined with video games, which the two time-travelers gaped at in awe; loads of strange-looking consoles, controllers with tons of buttons, and plenty of sequels to games they had never even heard of before piqued their interests. Sonic looked at the game cases, reading about the games on the back and looking at the pictures.

"Please, this isn't even a picture of actual gameplay. It's just a photo of some dude in the forest with a sword," he said, looking at the back of a game called Skyrim.

"Sonic! I found it! It's here!" Tails cheered. Sonic looked up to find him clutching the cartridge of Super Mega Blasteroids 9 in his hands. The hedgehog's eyes lit up, and he immediately put away the game he was holding.

"Awesome! Now, where's that console..." he said, his eyes quickly scanning the shelves for the correct console. "I just saw it here a minute ago, where is it- aha!" He pulled the old gaming device off of the bottom shelf and blew the dust off of it. It apparently hadn't been moved in a while. He handed it over to Tails, who was better with cords and electronics than he was. He figured out where all the cords plugged into relatively easily. Sonic then blew into the cartridge to get the dust out (force of habit), inserted it into the console, and pressed the power button.

The game came to life on the big screen TV, with its catchy opening title song theme blasting through the speakers. Each of the players picked up a controller and grinned.

"Ready to blast some robots?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded.

"Let's do it to it!" he cheered. The game commenced.

Meanwhile, upstairs in Tails' bedroom, the older versions of Sonic and Tails were busy reconstructing Tails' old bunk bed. Ever since the fox took the storage room on the second floor and converted it into a separate bedroom for Sonic, he had removed the bottom bed, replacing it with a desk that fit snugly under the top bunk. They both figured that their younger incarnations could take the bunk bed in Tails' room, and Tails could take Sonic's bed, seeing as the hedgehog usually ended up sleeping on the roof anyways.

"Sonic, could you hand me that socket wrench?" Tails asked, holding out his hand. Sonic dug through the toolbox lying on the floor next to him, managed to find the wrench, and dropped it into his brother's outstretched hand. The hedgehog picked up the instructions for putting the bed together and squinted at them, trying to make sense of the diagrams. He turned it on his side, trying to see if holding it at a 90 degree angle made it make any more sense. It didn't.

"Jeez, how is anyone supposed to figure this stuff out?" he said in frustration. He was now holding the instructions upside down. They still made no sense to him. "It's like its written in gibberish or something!"

"Are you looking at the side that's in French?" Tails asked, without looking up from the bed. Sonic studied the directions further before turning it around to the backside.

"Not anymore," he said with a pout. He crossed his legs and leaned back, his hands on the floor behind him to make sure he didn't fall over. "Sooo. You need me to help with that, or..."

"Actually, I think I'm almost done. Just gotta tighten some stuff up, make sure everything's safe, and we're ready for business," Tails said. Sonic nodded.

"Cool. You got that done pretty quick. Then again, that's not all that surprising, seeing as you're our resident Mr. Geniuspants."

"Please. Nine times out of ten, whenever I have to put a piece of furniture together, I always end up with, like, seventy-thousand extra screws, and it wobbles like you wouldn't believe. I am seriously not kidding, I have had to personally doctor almost all of the furniture in this house so that it's not horribly unsafe," Tails said with a laugh. "This one only went together easy because it's been assembled before."

"Leave it to discount furniture to put a kid like you to shame," Sonic chuckled. "Oh man, I just had the funniest thought. Just picture Eggman, struggling to put together a coffee table or something. That would be hilarious."

Tails snickered. "You're right, that would be pretty funny." He placed his wrench down on the ground next to him and exhaled. "There, that should do it. Do you want to do the honors?"

"Don't have to ask me twice!" Sonic said, standing up. The two of them lifted up the spare mattress off of the ground and slowly lowered it onto the bed. Tails stepped away from the bed and grinned. "It's all yours," he said, motioning towards the newly completed and (hopefully!) functional bed.

Sonic took a step backward and cracked his neck. He smiled. "Geronimo!" he shouted, taking a running leap towards the bed. He landed belly-first on the mattress, causing him to bounce about a foot in the air and making the bed shake. It did not, however, fall over on top of the hedgehog, which was a definite good sign. He gave Tails a thumbs up. "I'd say this thing checks out."

"Cool," the fox nodded. "Now, since I did most of the actual WORK, you can make the bed. There should be some extra sheets in the closet." Sonic groaned.

"Aaawww, come on! Do I have to?" he protested.

"One," Tails started to count in an almost threatening tone- like a parent when their child disobeys them. Sonic got up off the bed and sighed.

"Not gonna work this time, Tails," he said, placing his hands on his hips.

"Twoooo," the fox said, drawing the word out for emphasis.

"Fine, fine, you win." Sonic raised his hands up in the air, admitting defeat. He slumped out of the bedroom to go get sheets and an extra pillow from the hall closet. "How does that work?" he muttered to himself, digging through the closet's contents. Tails smirked. His older brother could be a huge pushover sometimes.

"I'll be downstairs, checking on the littles," the vulpine said, leaving his bedroom and going downstairs. Sonic grunted in response.

Tails got to the bottom of the stairs and walked into the living room. Their backs to him, the younger versions of himself and Sonic were sitting cross-legged on the floor, pounding away on video game controllers.

"Tails, get that power-up!" Sonic said, holding his controller up sideways near his face. He was mashing on the B button, his on-screen space ship shooting out a constant stream of pixilated laser blasts.

"Got it!" the young fox next to him shouted, swerving his space ship to the left to pick up a weapon upgrade. On-screen, the two ships were destroying aliens and asteroids left and right. It was quite the sight to behold.

"Oh man, is that Super Mega Blasteroids 9? It's been forever since I've played that one," the older Tails said, walking up behind them. He sat down on the couch to watch their game. They were already on Level 8.

"Oh, hey," the lighter-blue hedgehog said, not looking away from the TV. "How go things upstairs?"

"We're all done. We set up the old bunk bed for you two, so you can just crash upstairs until we can get you back to your own time."

"Awesome! Bro, watch out for that asteroid!" Sonic said, helping blast apart a huge space rock. "By the way, I call top bunk."

"Ugh, fine," little Tails pouted. He was too preoccupied with the game to fight. "Ooh! Shield! Get it get it get it!"

They continued playing like this for several more minutes, the two of them shouting over the volume of the game, until they reached the Level 10 Boss fight. It was pretty menacing looking, considering the age of the game and the limitations of the graphics at the time. A giant space monsters with three eyes, lots of teeth, and tentacles that tried to whip your ship and do damage. It also shot lasers from its eyes and mouth on occasion. All in all, it was a tough boss.

"Aw man, this guy again!" Sonic cried. He brought his controller close to his chest and glared at the screen, completely focused. "C'mon, Tails, we got him this time. We're going to beat this guy's sorry tentacle butt!" The six-year-old fox nodded, not saying a word. They were both in the zone, and they had a good chance at winning the fight- both had managed to grab some power-ups before the Boss Battle started, and neither started off the fight with low health. Unfortunately, that didn't last long.

"Dude, you've gotta aim for the eyes! Aim for the eyes!"

"I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain!"

"Oh man oh man oh man I'm running low on health and I'm starting to run out of repair kits. We aren't doing as well as I'd hoped- YES WE GOT ONE OF HIS EYES, WAY TO GO BRO!"

The older Tails was watching from his seat on the sofa with amusement. He and his Sonic had never been able to get past this particular boss when they were little, which caused them to put down the game until the hedgehog was around fifteen and better understood video game strategy. At that point, the fight was a piece of cake. They had even discovered a glitch in the game which let players damage the monster before the fight began, making the battle even easier. But of course, Tails couldn't just tell this to the two time-travelling kids. That wouldn't be any fun at all. They would just have to find out the trick for themselves.

"Sonic, I'm taking damage!"

"No! We're so close! Go for the eye on the right, it's the weakest! I managed to hit that one a bunch earlier. No, no, nonononnonononono oh no! Tails I died! How could I die, we were so close!"

"Noo! Without the two of us this is going to be impossib- I GOT THE SECOND EYE, YES YES YES!"

"Holy crap, keep going, Tails! You can do it, kiddo! You can do it! You've got this in the bag! Only one eye left to shoot out and he's gone!"

It was all up to Lil' T at that point. He stared intently at the screen, tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. His fingers danced nimbly around the controller, mashing buttons left and right. He narrowly dodged lasers and meteors, all while at dangerously low health.

'They're not going to be able to do it,' the older Tails thought. 'After all, they're just the past versions of Sonic and I, and we only just beat this level a few years ago.'

Another massive laser blast shot out of the boss' eye and flew across the screen. This one nailed the fox's ship, hitting it dead-on.

"NOOOOO," Sonic shouted in disdain, curling up into a ball. The older fox exhaled and leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head. He knew it was just too good to be true.

But... something was off. The game-over music wasn't playing yet.

In everyone's astonishment, the space ship had somehow survived the blast, with only 1 hit point remaining. Everyone cheered in extreme excitement, not able to believe that Lil' T had actually survived. The kid took a moment to realize this, and almost crashed into a stray asteroid because of it. Luckily, he recovered from his initial shock just in time to swerve out of the way. The three people in the room quickly went from loud and rambunctious to dead silent, the only noises coming from the television and Lil' T's mad button-mashing skills. The kid needed to concentrate. He was playing on the defensive now; he had gotten lucky by surviving, and he was determined not to get hit again. He steered clear of any meteors, laser blasts, and tentacle whips that were coming his way, sticking mainly to flying in the bottom-left corner of the screen. He snuck in a shot whenever he could, being careful not to fly directly in front of the boss' eye to avoid more energy blasts.

Everyone was holding their breath. After a barrage of laser-fire, Tails spotted his opening. With one final shot of his laser cannons, the small fox hit the space monster's final eye right in the pupil. It exploded in a burst of red and yellow, causing the boss to roar. Its mouth was wide open. Not wasting his chance, Tails unleashed everything he had into the belly of the beast. After devouring ten or so photon torpedoes, the monster couldn't take any more. It coughed up a large cloud of smoke before exploding. It left a purple gem in its wake, which was automatically collected.

Sonic jumped up into the air and cheered. "Holy sweet mother of Chaos! Tails, that was flipping AWESOME! I can't believe you did it!" He lifted his little brother up in the air and spun him around while laughing. The young fox was smiling so big, it looked like his face was going to break. "Yeah, I did it!" he exclaimed, waving his hands in the air.

On the sidelines, the older Tails clapped in congratulations. However, he had a slightly more pressing, yet related matter on his mind.

'How were they able to beat that boss? They're us. We weren't able to do it until we five years OLDER than they are now. This doesn't make any sense! Our past is their future- our timelines should match up.' He sighed and looked back at the two kids. His younger self was taking a flying victory-lap around the room, while Lil' Sonic was doing a touchdown dance and making up his own funky dance beat to go with it. Tails shook his head. 'I'm probably over-thinking things. I mean, it's just a level in a video game. It's not that big a deal if they beat it before they're supposed to, right? If anything, I'll talk to Sonic about it later.'

Speak of the devil, the dark blue hedgehog sauntered down the stairs right at that second. "Hey, what's going on in here?" he asked, taking note of the celebration.

"Dude, you totally missed it! Tails took out the Level 10 boss of Super Mega Blasteroids 9 and it was fracking sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!" his younger self shouted with a huge smile on his face. The green-eyed hedgehog laughed.

"No foolin'? Way to go, kiddo!" he said, giving the small flying fox a double high-five. "I didn't even know we still HAD this game. I haven't played it in years!"

"Yeah, well you'll have to wait your turn old man, Tails and I are on a roll!" The smaller Sonic stuck his tongue out and picked up his controller again, getting ready to continue playing. His little brother was quick to join him, and the two quickly resumed destroying the terrors of outer space (after using a cheat code they had memorized to grab some extra lives, of course).

"I told you, I'm not old," Sonic muttered, folding his arms. He plopped himself down on the couch next to Tails, resting his feet on the coffee table. "Man, I'm beat. Whaddaya say we just order take-out tonight?"

"Are you sure? I mean, it's your birthday. I could probably whip something up real quick for dinner," Tails offered, standing up.

"No, no, no, it's fine, man! Sit back down. I already had cake and chili dogs today, that's all the birthday grub I need. Let's order from that new Holoskan place that just opened up in Station Square, sound good?" he said, motioning for Tails to sit back down as he reached for the cordless phone on the end table next to the sofa. "Yo, guys! Holoskan sound good for dinner?"

"Dunno. Never had it," Sonic's younger self replied, refusing to peel his eyes away from the TV screen.

"It's good. You'll like it. Trust me on this," the elder hedgehog said with a wink. "Tails? Lil' T? Thoughts?"

"Sure, why not?" the little fox replied after taking out a wave of alien ships.

His future-self nodded. "I'm up for it," he said.

"Cool. Be right back," the older Sonic said. He got up to go to the kitchen to search for the menu he had picked up from the restaurant a few days before. It took him a few minutes to remember where he put it. It took significantly longer to get down what everyone wanted- mainly because the two kids were still intensely focused on their game. Even placing the order itself took longer than it should have, seeing how Sonic had to convince the restaurant owner to send a guy out to the Mystic Ruins to deliver the food. He almost didn't until he realized it was Sonic the Hedgehog he was talking to. Sonic normally hated using his hero-status to receive special treatment, but he wasn't in the mood to take the train all the way to the city. The events that transpired in the empty white dimension where he had fought the Time Eater were catching up to him, and he suddenly felt as if he hadn't slept in days (which, for all he knew, very well could have been the case).

Because of all of this, the food didn't arrive until around 8 p.m., and all of the inhabitants of the workshop were starving by then. They didn't even bother to move to the kitchen to eat; the four of them were content enough to sit on the floor in the living room around the coffee table, stuffing their faces with take-out while watching a re-run of some old family game show on TV. As the younger incarnation of Sonic looked around at the cozy setting, he couldn't help but grin. 'Maybe being stuck here won't be so bad, after all.'

Notes: So ends another chapter. Stay tuned for next week's! The story's going to take a short break from Sonic & co. and focus on one of the two other main characters who haven't been introduced yet. By the way, today's my seventeenth birthday, so if you'd like to leave me a review as a birthday present... wink wink nudge nudge say no more say no more. ;) Also, brownie points to anyone who can figure out what Super Mega Blasteroids 9 is a reference to! See you guys next week!