"There is one thing you must realise," Robotnik said, still not quite sure how these creatures expected him to do what they asked of him. "I'm currently trapped under the ocean in an airship that is barely functioning. How do you expect me to do anything from here?"

"Why is being there an issue for you?" The voices responded, "We can send you anywhere in the world."

"How?"

"Enter our realm, and we can use your body as a nexus point to another part of your world."

"Then help me get a portal big enough to get there." Robotnik snapped.

"We are." The Monsters of Chaos replied. "We have already sent one of our own into your world. He has been scavenging the parts you need."

"Will he be bringing me a Chaos Emerald then?"

The Monster's chuckled. "They're in our realm for now. But he will be there soon, with parts for the portal. Ready all you need for transport and tell us where to-" The message cut off with a loud shrieking scream. Robotnik looked into the monitor closely. He'd never seen a ball of gas in agony before, but he'd guess this is what it looked like.

"A server is here!" the group screamed, before the signal cut out. The image went dead and Robotnik was taken aback. All he could do was wait.

He returned to his lab. At the very least now, knowing his portal worked he could start work on a larger one. At the very least he had all the basic components; metals, wiring, circuit boards. All he needed to wait for was the energy source, and he could cannibalise the smaller prototype for the frequency modulator.

It was two hours later when the alarms blared for an unauthorised entry.

"Dr Robotnik," cried one of the security robots through a speaker, "we have a hull breach on deck four."

Robotnik was tense. "Who is it?" the human needed to know if it was friend or foe.

"Unknown sir. What are your orders?"

Robotnik weighed it up. On the one hand he had been told help was on its way, on the other he couldn't assume it wasn't somehow Sonic coming to wreck things further. "Take it prisoner. Under no circumstances are you to try and kill whoever this is. I want to speak with the creature capable of boarding a ship this deep underwater."

Troops of Badniks ran to approach the unwanted intruder. Cluster of Egg Pawns ran down the corridors acting as scouting parties, buzzers flew about searching through the larger rooms, while Orbinauts and Crabmeats took defensive positions. A defensive perimeter was set up around Robotnik's lab, and slowly but surely the ship was scoured for the intruder.

Unfortunately, the intruder was technically one of Robotnik's own creations. A red metal echidna, based loosely off the guardian of the master emeralds was now skulking through the ship. It wandered through, swimming through flooded areas, looking for Robotnik. It had been on this ship once before, while it was still an airship, and had a vague idea of how to get to the lab.

It walked past the wreckage before turning a corner and coming across a couple of Spineys hanging on a wall. These robots were much more basic than the robot echidna was, designed to shoot at almost anything. The red robot dodged a couple of pot shots, before firing his fists forwards and smashing the robots.

"We have confirmation," came a cry through the radio to Robotnik, "It's the metal Knuckles prototype."

Robotnik grabbed the microphone. "Stand down. That is an order. Let our guest through."

The robot guest watched as a pair of Caterkillers went from attacking to casually slinking off. The echidna based machine also stopped, and lowered his guard before being escorted by one of the Egg Pawns.

"Ah welcome," Robotnik said as the newly arrived robot walked into the derelict lab, "So glad you could make it." The human said, trying to sound as sincere as possible.

The robot didn't say anything. It didn't do anything. It merely stood there, as if waiting for a signal to do something.

"I must ask," the human said, trying to start some form of conversation, "But are you one of the delightful Monsters of Chaos?"

The machine simply nodded.

"And did you bring me something I could use?"

With that the robot opened up a chest cavity. Inside was a small, slightly scratched up engine. The robot handed it over to Eggman who snatched it eagerly.

"What is this?"

"It is an engine. It was taken from the bi-plane of a young fox. Co-incidentally, he was with the Prime Server at the time, hence my delay. I would've taken him, but then a second server showed up." The machine replied.

"Hmm," Robotnik said eyeing up the device, "So this is Tails' handiwork eh? I must admit, it's not bad. I see it has a feedback resonance inducer, that's quite ingenious. Not something I hadn't already thought of myself, but I'm still impressed with the work." The scientist began to fiddle with the device, carefully unscrewing components to get a better look at how it was made.

"Ah, this is useful, I can use this to run the portal generator and get me... us out of here in now time," the scientist grinned.

"Not yet. We cannot go yet." The robot replied.

"Why not? It's relatively simple. The prototype gave us all the core components. I've up scaled the gate to fit through. All that needs to happen is for the power source to be fitted, and then we go. Shouldn't take more than ten minutes."

"We have to wait. We cannot enter until the other is out of our realm."

"Huh?" Robotnik was confused. "What other?"

"One of the servers is in the realm. Until his consciousness leaves, we cannot enter."

"Then just kill him."

"We are trying," the robot responded.

"Who's in there? And how did they get in there."

"You really don't remember anything about it do you?"

"Why would I remember?" Robotnik asked confused.

"Fine, I'll explain. The realm is our prison, and until recently we could not interact with anything in it. The realm is also the temporary home of the Chaos Emeralds when they aren't deemed to be needed. The servers can enter the realm, as can Chao, and they can bring others, but once a portal closes, another cannot be opened until the realm is devoid of those who have already entered."

"So because one of the servers is in we have to wait?" the human said fiddling with his machines.

"Yes."

"And if they collect the Chaos emerald?" "Robotnik asked as he turned the last screw.

"Then that realm closes, and whichever Monster was held there stops being able to interact with the others."

"It all sounds very complicated and arbitrary," Robotnik said, "But there'll be time later for further explanation, for now my machine is saying we can open the portal."

With the click of the button, the portal screeched open, a howling noise emanating from within.