6:15am, Camp Campbell, 19 days after the anomaly.

Space Kid stared at the portal, transfixed at the swirling starry mess that lay inside. As much as Tangle and Whisper had said not to use it until they needed to, he had an innate curiosity as to what lay on the other side. Travelling through dimensions was as close to flying over the cosmos in his mind, so the prospect of simply walking into the portal to explore was incredibly tempting.

Space Kid was also slightly wary of it too. Despite Tangle and Belle's confidence that it worked, they hadn't come back yet and Space Kid did not have any way to prove in his mind that the portal was safe to use. Slowly working up the courage within himself, he got up and ambled towards the portal and was about to stick his hand through when Neil appeared from his tent.

"Space Kid?" Neil called his name out sternly, like a concerned mother.

"What? I wanted to test out if it worked." Space Kid argued.

"It works. Look, I'll show you. Just wait a minute." Neil got dressed and then joined Space Kid at the portal. "Now Watch." Neil asked Space Kid to look at him, as he walked through the portal.

Neil didn't know what to expect on the other side, but took a moment to observe the sunrise that glistened over the ruins that morning, before heading back through.

"See?" Neil gestured at himself, demonstrating the fact he made it through the portal and back again, returning unharmed.

"Cool!" Space Kid remarked, pushing past Neil and walking towards the portal himself. "I wanna see!"

"Space Kid, No!" Neil admonished, as the little astronaut ran full pelt at the portal with reckless abandon, disappearing through the other side.

"Get back here!" Neil groaned in frustration, following him and disappearing as well. Neil looked around in a panic, but was relieved to find Space Kid was standing absorbed in the beauty of the horizon, slowly clambering over a chunk of rubble to get a better view. Neil caught up to him and put his arms around him, carrying him off the block of concrete he was standing on.

"Hey!" Space Kid complained.

"Space Kid, we should really be getting back, it's not safe here. We wouldn't want David to worry about us getting lost now, would we? We get in enough trouble as it is."

"I guess..." Space Kid drawled out reluctantly, as Neil plonked him down on the ground. Neil led him back towards the portal, keeping an eye on him as he listened to the whirring of the portal growing louder and louder.

Hold on. Wait. That wasn't the portal. Neil twigged, looking to his left to see a cohort of 5 robots barrelling towards them at an alarming rate.

"Run!" Neil urged Space Kid as he took off, dragging him along as they made a desperate bid to make it to the portal. Taking another look at the advancing robots, it became clear that they would catch up to him and Space Kid before they made it, so Neil decided to pick him up.

"Yaagh!" Neil shouted as he yanked Space Kid forward and into the portal, just before the first robot came and blocked his exit. The robot stared down at Neil, and he watched fearfully as the robot considered how it should deal with this intruder.

"You won't hurt me, right?" Neil pleaded weakly.

Space Kid landed back in Camp Campbell with a thump, oof-ing and ow-ing as he rolled to a stop on the dirt. Max poked his head out wearily, having been woken up by the commotion.

"Yo Space Kid, where's Neil?"

"Um, I went into the portal to look at the sunrise and then Neil came in after me and tried to take me back but then some robots came and attacked us and he threw me out here and now he's stuck and it's all my fault, and..." Space Kid anxiously garbled out in a hurry, on the verge of tears.

"No shit it's your fault you idiot. They fucking told you not to and you ignored them! Now I gotta go get him cos I'm not losing any of my friends to that smarmy eggfucker they got in their world. Happy Now?" Max rebuked harshly, as he retreated back to his tent and hastily got dressed into his usual clothes.

"No, not really." Space Kid looked down at the ground in shame, eyes welling up. "You want me to help you fix it?"

"No! Just stay put, and don't do anything stupid. If we're lucky we'll be back before David notices we're gone. Max left his tent and scurried to the portal.

"Wait for me!" Nikki ran out of her tent, having heard the commotion. "Don't even think about going in there on your own!" She tossed a long stick for Max to use as a weapon.

"Thanks for having my back, Nikki!" Max caught the stick and ran into the portal, as did Nikki. The pair emerged out the other side surrounded by the 5 robots.

"Alright, where the fuck is Neil?" Max spoke threateningly.

"Did they kidnap him?" Nikki asked.

"HUMAN LIFEFORM, PLEASE MOVE ASIDE. YOUR PRESENCE IS AN OBSTACLE TO THE MISSION DIRECTIVE."

"Mission Directive?" Nikki asked, looking confusedly up at the robot.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Max pressed.

"MISSION DIRECTIVE: RETRIEVE THE CHAOS EMERALDS FROM THE PORTAL STRUCTURE."

"The Chaos Emeralds?" Max looked back at the portal and then back at the robots several times as he did the maths in his head.

"Uh, No. Not happening." Max answered defiantly.

"IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY WE WILL DISPOSE OF YOU LIKE WE DID WITH THE OTHER HUMAN."

"WHERE DID YOU PUT HIM!?" Max shouted at the robot in a fit of rage.

"Down here." A small voice cracked weakly on the ground behind them. Neil looked wrecked, and felt it too, having been thrown across the ground like a ragdoll, stopped by a large block of concrete. Neil was convinced he had broken a few vertebrae, though clearly, he wasn't paralysed, since his arms and legs still hurt a lot.

Neil's words briefly drew the robots' attention back to him, leaving them open to attack. Max, incensed at seeing his friend in such strife, took a run up at one of them, yelling a guttural roar as he planted his stick on the ground and sprung himself up, kicking the robot in the head. The attack did little damage to the Egg Fighter, but nonetheless caught the robot off guard.

Nikki fashioned a mace using a rock and some rope she had left in her pocket and attached it to her stick, and started swinging it around. This was more effective at denting the robot's armour, but still, none of the robots looked like going down. Before long, Max and Nikki had their backs to each other while being stared down by the 5 robots.

"Max, I don't think we can beat these guys." Nikki called out with a concerned tone, as she knocked back another robot with a swing of her mace.

"No shit." Max huffed angrily. "I know that, we just have to hold them off for long enough so we can grab Neil and get out of here. Unfortunately, these shiny bastards want to take the chaos emeralds, or whatever, and if we let them. We're stuck here, at their mercy."

"How long can we hold them off?" Nikki asked.

"I don't know, I've already lost half of this stick trying to jam this thing into their throats. Keep swinging." Max sounded desperate.

Nikki swung her mace more wildly in desperation, the extra adrenaline causing her to whack one robot very hard in the head with it, causing it to topple over and short circuit itself as it was crushed by the weight of its own body.

"Okay, that's one." Max caught his breath. "Just four more." he uttered, as the pair stared uneasily at the robots above them.