6:30am, Van Pelt Residence, Birchwood, Minnesota, 19 days after the anomaly.
Tangle, Whisper and Belle, not wanting to burden anyone further than they already had, elected to camp out in Linus's back garden for the night. Given that it was the middle of summer, that meant they were up nice and early, as the sun beamed down on them from the cloudless azure sky.
Amy and the Trio has already said their goodbyes the previous night, so they were free to leave at any point without the awkward social interactions which usually preceded such a departure. Amy was well aware that Tangle especially wanted to get back home as soon as possible, so she made sure she was ready early, ambling down the stairs as quietly as she could, before opening the front door and leaving the Van Pelt household for the last time. Tangle, Belle and Whisper were patiently waiting by the portal.
"You ready to go?" Tangle asked.
"Yep!" Amy replied. "I've got everything."
"Good. Now all we have to do is wait for Shadow." Belle replied.
"I wouldn't count on that." Amy responded. "Shadow hasn't come back here once since he took off. Who knows what he's up to." She shrugged. "He'll come back eventually, but we shouldn't stick around here to wait for him, not when Eggman could be attacking at any minute."
"Okay, then it's settled. If that's everything, then we should go." Tangle concluded.
"Agreed." Amy replied, to which Belle and Whisper nodded, before they all followed Tangle into the portal.
The four of them were surprised to find themselves emerging back at Camp Campbell, but what was more surprising was the crowd of concerned faces that greeted them. All of the campers bar Max, Nikki and Neil were now huddled around the portal with David and Gwen, who inevitably had found out about Max and co's disappearance.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Tangle asked, trying to lift the mood up. Everyone turned to Space Kid, who was looking at the ground remorsefully.
"I uh, went into the portal. Neil dragged me back, but then some robots came and attacked us, and they trapped him on the other side. Max and Nikki went in after that, and none of them have come back yet." Space Kid uttered sombrely.
"So the portal went to our world?" Belle asked.
"Did it not send you to your world the first time?" Gwen asked.
"No, we got sent somewhere else, but nevermind that. You said there were robots there?" Tangle raised an important point.
"Yeah." Space Kid nodded grimly. "They were pretty big, too." Any positivity the four heroes had had drained from their faces as they realised whose robots they were and the scale of the task ahead of them.
"We'll get them back." Tangle gave a serious look of determination as she turned to face the portal. "Come on, girls, let's go." Tangle led Amy, Whisper and Belle through.
True to Space Kid's word, the portal indeed led them back to their world, and immediately, they saw the robots locked in battle with Max and Nikki.
"Hey, you!" Amy shouted out, whipping out her hammer as she grabbed the robots' attention.
"Tangle, Whisper! Oh thank God!" Max exclaimed as he saw them.
"Need help?" Tangle asked, readying a fighting stance.
"Fuckin' yeah, we do!" Max responded, exasperated.
"I'll take that one." Amy was the first to act, running at one of the robots and slamming her hammer into it with as much force as she could muster. Tangle, whose tail was still a bit sore from the previous day's fall, set about using it to fight another one while Belle and Whisper took aim at the other two. Amy managed to do a lot of damage very quickly, knocking it back and over onto some rubble, before she sprung herself into the air and somersaulted onto it, smashing the robot's face with her hammer and destroying it. Tangle managed to trap one of the other robots in place with her tail, allowing Whisper to shoot it down with her Wispon, before all four of them rounded on the remaining two, who were quickly dispatched by both Amy and Whisper's continued attacks.
As the dust settled and the robots lay motionless on the ground, Belle took charge of the situation and turned to face Max and Nikki.
"You guys okay?" Belle asked.
"Do we look it?" Nikki replied wearily, sporting a few bruises.
Belle hesitated. "Where's Neil?"
"He Needs help." Nikki pointed him out. "The robots beat him up pretty bad. We were about to help, but we were preoccupied by the robots.
"I can see that." Belle responded, rushing over to him. Neil, uh, can I get a read on how badly you got hit? Where are you hurt most?"
"My back! Everything hurts, but I think my back is broken." Neil creaked.
"Okay." Belle took the information onboard. "Max, Nikki, fetch us a gurney, we need to get him to a hospital." she commanded.
"What's a gurney?" Nikki asked.
"The flat things with the poles either side? For when the doctors carry you in the ambulance?" Tangle explained.
"Oh yeah. I've been in one of those. That was fun." Nikki reminisced, as she and Max headed back through the portal. Belle turned her attention back to Neil, who was still not in a position to get up anytime soon.
"Can you move your foot?" Belle asked him. Neil gave his foot a wiggle, and Belle looked relieved to see it.
"Good, you're not paralysed. We're gonna get you back, and in a hospital, and you're gonna be okay, I promise."
"Thanks, Belle." Neil replied. "I owe you one."
"No, you don't. We already owe you everything for the portal you made. You've done enough." she responded.
"Then I guess we're even." Neil replied.
Max and Nikki reappeared in Camp Campbell to the stunned faces of the other campers, who stared in shock at the scrapes and bruises they had received.
"Max, Nikki, are you okay?!" David ran over to them in a hurry, looking incredibly concerned.
"We're fine, David!" Max refused the hug David had offered and immediately turned to face Gwen.
"What's up?" Gwen asked, noticing something was off about the way Max was acting.
"Neil's in bad shape. Do we have a gurney somewhere we could use?" Max asked.
"We should have one from our 'Second Aid' kit. I'll go get it from the counsellors' cabin. You stay there." Gwen told them, as she ran off to fetch it. Gwen came running back with the makeshift gurney tucked under her arm, Baywatch style, and handed it to Max.
"Is this what you need?" Gwen presented the gurney, which was literally just a long, thick, rectangular sheet of cloth attached to two wooden poles either side.
"It's not much, but it'll work. Go get an ambulance. We'll have Neil back before they get here." Max replied.
"On it." Gwen took out her phone and began to dial 911. Max and Nikki ran back into the portal and joined back up with Amy, Tangle and co, who were waiting to help carry Neil back to camp.
"We got one!" Nikki announced, laying it down in front of them.
"Good." Belle remarked. "Now everybody, when we carry Neil onto the gurney, we have to lift him at the same time and lay him down gently onto it, we don't want to exacerbate any injury Neil might have to his back, got it?"
"Got it." Tangle confirmed. Everyone took hold of Neil and gently lifted him off the concrete and laid him down onto the gurney, before carrying him carefully through the portal and back to Camp Campbell.
Laying him down in front of the rest of the campers, Gwen was the first to assess the situation.
"How bad is it?" Gwen asked Belle.
"He's in a lot of pain, but he'll recover. I don't know whether his back is broken or not, but he can still move his legs, so that's good." Belle replied. Ered then got up and directed Tangle's attention to the portal.
"If the paramedics are coming, you should probably make yourselves scarce before they ask questions."
"We know." Tangle replied. "We need to deal with Eggman, anyway. Can you hide this thing from view, somehow?" She asked, gesturing at the portal.
"Yeah, leave that to us, you go after that Eggy bastard and give him what for." Gwen encouraged.
"Yes Ma'am!" Tangle responded enthusiastically, as she led Whisper, Amy and Belle Back through the portal.