"This place looks like one of them really weird paintings." Charmy said as he wandered about. The bee had found himself in some sort of narrow tube full of rings. Instinctively Charmy had been grabbing them. He never fully understood why, but whenever he saw rings he always grabbed them. It was something he'd seen others doing, and even though it always felt a little weird to grab them, he found it kind of enjoyable.

The twisty ground carried on as far as young trainee detective could see. It went all around, looping and spiralling in all directions, but always as one continuous tube, never splitting up. Charmy couldn't tell if there was anything underneath, but the sky itself was weird, full of vividly bright colours constantly changing, almost rhythmically. Charmy had never seen anything like it, but he could remember a time he had been somewhere similar, when he had been chasing chao through a glass tube full of balloons.

But unlike then, this place made Charmy feel uncomfortable. The colours were too bright, the tube was too disorientating, and the way the rings moved made them look almost as if they were melting. Yet none of this was as bad as the noise in this place. A dull but piercing, grinding scream that made Charmy want to leave.

Charmy had been flying through the tube looking for an exit. He felt incredibly bad in this place, not scared, but really unnerved, and being here alone was distressing the child. "Is anyone here?" the bee asked futilely. "Vector? Espio? Anyone?"

He heard no answer, just more painful sounding screams. Curious the bee flew up above the sloped edges, and looked over the top of the half pipe he was stuck in. There was nothing else. Just the half pipe, twisting round over itself, and a mass of patterned colours surrounding it, an incomprehensible distance away. The structure was floating in the void, with no support or need for it.

Charmy tried to piece together what had happened. He'd not worked for the detective agency for long, but he had picked up a thing or two from watching Vector and Espio. He began to remember "We were in the casino," he told himself, "and I was looking around, and then I saw in the cupboard this big blue swirling thing, and then I ended up here. So to get out," Charmy reasoned, "I have to find the blue thing." With that logic in mind, Charmy set about searching.

Then the ground rumbled underfoot. Instinctively Charmy jumped up and flew. He couldn't get knocked down if he was in flight. But he could see the whole place shaking. He watched for several seconds as the tube he was just standing in began to contort and break apart. It twisted and snapped; knocking rings lose as the howling got worse. Charmy panicked and began to fly as fast as he could. The bee didn't have any sense of direction to aim for, merely flying away from any immediate danger. The entire place was collapsing, and Charmy simply knew if he didn't want to be stuck in an empty void forever, he needed to find the exit fast.

Rings and bombs shot at him, along with chunks of the half pipe, as the entire place crumbled away. The screaming noises were now in agony and even the sky itself somehow looked as if it was suffering. Charmy didn't want to look at it. He just flew, missing everything as it went past. This was too much for the young bee; he was shaking badly, and really just wanted to see a familiar face.

Unfortunately, the familiar face he saw first was Dr Robotnik's. Charmy ducked quickly around a corner. He didn't want to be seen, not by Robotnik, but at the same time Charmy could see that Robotnik wasn't alone. He was accompanied by a smaller red robot, and was surrounded by several vague shapes cloaked in red mist. He kept watch, seeing the gasses come together, and for them to make a shimmering object appear. It was a blue swirly thing, Charmy thought, and his ticket out of here. But he couldn't go for it, not with Robotnik there, could he?

Of course Charmy wasn't known for thinking too hard, and went for it. He hated this place and feared being stuck here more than he feared Robotnik. Leaping out of cover he darted straight for the blue thing, only for his movement to be cut off.

"What the?" Robotnik exclaimed? "The Chaotix?"

"It's the server," the entire place seemed to shout out, "He must not be allowed to leave!"

Charmy could see Robotnik was clearly surprised at his sudden appearance, but moved as fast as he could for the swirly thing. He was then surrounded by red mist, all of it, Charmy thought, visible angry with him. Charmy looked nervously as it crept closer.

"Don't harm him." Robotnik yelled.

"But we can end him now," the voices replied.

"Yes," the scientist said, smirking, "or we could keep him alive as a prisoner."

"What?"

"The legends said the souls of the servers are reincarnated, is that not correct? If you kill this little bee, you'll find another server is created elsewhere and you'll have to find that one? Whereas, if we keep this one alive, but unable to do anything, he can't join with the others at all. Plus, alive, the bee can serve as a bargaining chip that could come in very handy."

The mist seemed to relent, and grabbed hold of the bee. Charmy struggled against this restraint, but to no avail.

"Now tell us," Robotnik asked, "where are your cohorts?"

Charmy looked blankly. "My what?"

"Your friends: the alligator and the ninja?" Robotnik asked again.

Charmy looked down, "I don't know..."

Robotnik turned away from Charmy. With a gesture to the air, the scientist commanded "Take him with us, he's my prisoner now."

Dutifully, the red robot took hold of the bee, and the mist dissipated. Charmy was held tightly by the robot, still struggling to no avail to get free. He squirmed and yelled for freedom as he was dragged through the portal. A blinding white flash filled his vision, and for a moment Charmy thought he might end up back in the casino, before he saw the metallic walls, and the unmistakable Robotnik face smiling smugly on the wall of wherever he had ended up.

"Toss him in a cell," Robotnik commanded, "It is so good to be home."