[Kline, Sol Dimension]

Johnny lands on the deck of Captain Whisker's ship to find the crew idly passing the time. "Your captain was just destroyed, and all you can do is sit around and do nothing‽" he barks, immediately getting the attention of the entire crew.

"We be wantin' to do somethin', but we be havin' no orders," Swash explains.

"Then you'll be getting your orders from me!" Johnny asserts. "What did you do with the Dark Arms?"

"We tossed 'em overboard, as Captain Whisker ordered," Buckle answers.

"Get them back this instant!" Johnny orders. "We'll need them if we're going to lure Eclipse out of hiding!"

As the crew scrambles to retrieve the discarded Dark Arms, Johnny positions himself at the helm. Once the Dark Arms are safely on board, I'll send the crew to hunt Eclipse on Sky Babylon. Meanwhile, I'll see Eclipse safely aboard, and we'll abandon the entire crew. And when we get to Blizzard Peaks, we'll eliminate those Metal clones, destroy Blaze and her annoying friend, and take the Sol Emeralds for ourselves.

As soon as the Ocean Tornado II is docked at Southern Island, Blaze is down the boarding ramp, intent on finding the Sol Emerald as soon as possible.

Marine sprints down the ramp after her. "Blaze, you galah! Wait for us!"

"I'm not leaving Amy alone in Nega's hands any longer than strictly necessary," Blaze asserts, refusing to slow down.

Marine pushes herself hard to catch up with her friend, the three Avalicians barely managing to keep pace with both Kline natives. "Blaze, I know you're worried; we all are. But you're being a total drongo about this! Amy can handle herself!"

It's true that Amy's leadership helped me against Captain Metal… Blaze slows down a little to allow the others to catch up. "Sorry, it's just‑"

"I know," Marine replies, finally catching up and setting into rhythm alongside her friend. "We'll save her, and we'll stop Nega for good this time!"

Ten minutes later, Blaze slides to a halt outside a familiar building. "Marine!"

"Um… yes?" Marine answers nervously.

"Why are we outside your house‽" Blaze demands.

"Well… Y'see, I uh… I didn't say this before, but‑"

"You had a Sol Emerald in there all this time, and never bothered to tell me‽"

Marine blushes. "Um… yes?"

"What on Kline‑‽" Blaze takes a few deep breaths. "…just get the Emerald."

"I‑"

"Now."

Silently, Marine enters the house, emerging a couple of minutes later with the purple Sol Emerald. And she's emerged a lot more assertive. "While I was getting this for you, you know what I realised? That you should have known all along I had this. You can detect these things. So, what I want to know is, why didn't you?"

"Just give me the Emerald," Blaze demands.

"Not until you apologise for being a mean drongo to me!" Marine snaps.

"Marine‑"

"Apologise!"

Blaze takes a deep breath. "My apologies: I allowed by emotions to cloud my judgement. I promise it won't happen again."

Marine's mood changes in an instant. "That wasn't hard, was it?" she grins, handing the Emerald to Blaze. "Now come on: we're gonna save Amy!"

Marine marches confidently away from the house, leaving Blaze to see the inhabitants of the village all staring at her disapprovingly, causing her to blush intensely out of embarrassment. "Heh… I uh… I gotta go."

Blaze hurries after Marine, avoiding eye contact with the villagers as much as possible, leaving the Avalicians alone. Thankfully, the villagers all decide to return to their own activities.

"Well… that happened," Sally comments.

"Guess we're going back to the ship," Danny concludes.

"I'm starting to worry we're going to fall apart as a team before we can save Amy and stop Nega," Neera thinks aloud.

"Tā yǒngyuǎn bù huì gǎibiàn, shì ma?" Sally comments in slightly broken Mùyǔ to Danny, who stifles a chuckle.

"Tā néng lǐjiě nǐ," Neera replies in perfect Mùyǔ, surprising Danny and Sally. "And you're wrong: I can change."

"I‑" Sally begins.

"We'll discuss it later," Neera interrupts. "Right now, we need to stay focussed on the mission."

"Yes, of course, sorry," Sally apologises. "Mission. Focus."

Neera shakes her head in disapproval, then begins the walk back to the ship.

"…I just put my foot in it, didn't I?" Sally asks.

"Probably," Danny agrees. "Come on, let's get back to the ship."

As the group returns to the Ocean Tornado II, Johnny dispatches Whisker's crew to hunt Eclipse down on Sky Babylon. However, just as he's about to fly up directly, he hears an unexpected voice.

"I'm going to assume ordering them to hunt me down is part of the plan," Eclipse growls.

Johnny turns to see the Darkling is already aboard. "I wasn't expecting you to have come down already."

"Where are my Dark Arms?"

"Safely housed below deck."

Without another word, Eclipse descends below deck to be greeted by enthusiastic chirping from the Dark Arms. Breathing a long sigh of relief, Eclipse joins his charges, allowing them to swarm around him and nuzzle him affectionately. "I'm so sorry for leaving you alone with those asinine robots," he apologises. "I promise, I will never leave you in such peril ever again. And with three Sol Emeralds already, it won't be long until we have all seven. Then we will conquer this pathetic planet and consume it. But we won't stop there: with the Genesis Reactor, we will consume Mobius, and whatever odious little planet those other three are from. Once we've consumed all three worlds, we will resurrect the Black Arms and usher in a new era of conquest, not just of the Chaos Dimension, but of all dimensions!"

The Dark Arms continue affectionately nuzzling their protector, simply happy to be reunited.

In the ice cave in the heart of Blizzard Peaks, Amy is starting to feel the cold. I seriously need to start wearing leggings under this dress… Focus: you need to get out of these ropes before you freeze. Slowly, Amy starts to work at her bonds, trying to find any sign of looseness in the expertly tied ropes. At first, she makes no progress: the ropes refuse to budge. However, after several minutes of effort, the first signs of hope arrive as she finally feels the rope around her wrists start to slacken. It's not much, but it's something at last. Now, to keep working at it…

[Mobius, Chaos Dimension]

"How are the readings, Nicole?" Knuckles asks.

"Nominal," Nicole reports, watching the data stream past on her handheld. Not that she needs to: the data is also streaming directly into her mind. That doesn't stop her finding satisfaction in watching the data stream past through her eyes as an organic Mobian would though. "We'll be able to keep Eclipse from detecting the activation of the Master Emerald, making it safe to tap its immense power."

"Excellent." Knuckles flexes his muscles. "Hopefully, the Master Emerald will be rather more co‑operative now."

[Avalice, Elemental Dimension]

"…and that's the last repair!" Ernie declares triumphantly.

"Are you sure you have now addressed all the faults?" the Magister asks, understandably wary.

"I will admit, I'd prefer if Sally was here to double‑check, but it's our fault she's trapped on Mobius," Ernie answers. "And while I can't speak for Eric, I'd never forgive myself if we didn't try everything we could to get her safely back."

"I hope your confidence is not misplaced," the Magister replies.

"Me too, Your Excellency," Ernie agrees. "Eric?"

"Inputting the co‑ordinates," Eric replies as Ernie moves a safe distance from the portal generator. "Activating in three… two… one… now!"

After a few false starts, the portal generator bursts into life, a green maelstrom circled by blue lightning appearing in the generator ring.

"Portal is stable," Eric informs. "Power consumption is well within limits."

"Can you contact them?" the Magister asks.

"Not yet," Eric answers. "The radio needs time to get signal lock. Shouldn't take more than a minute though."

The Magister remains silent, waiting.

[Mobius, Chaos Dimension]

"Hold on!" Nicole interrupts just as Knuckles is about to place his hands on the Master Emerald.

"Is something wrong?" Sally asks, concerned.

"I'm detecting an unusual energy reading‑" Nicole begins, only to be interrupted by the appearance of a blue‑rimmed circular maelstrom of green at the base of the shrine.

++Do not worry,++ Omega assures. ++I will fill anything that comes through it with holes.++

"Please don't," Sally requests. "Nicole, is that what I think it is?"

"It's an Avalician Portal, yes," Nicole confirms.

Sally lets out an exasperated sigh. Of all the times… "I'd better go see what they want."

I will go with you, Omega volunteers.

"No, you won't," Sally asserts. "Rouge?"

"Sure," Rouge agrees, following Sally through the portal.

[Avalice, Elemental Dimension]

Eric, Ernie, and the Magister are surprised by the sudden emergence of Sally Acorn and Rouge from the portal. "Oh, uh… Hi," Ernie greets, finding his eyes involuntarily drawn to Rouge's tightly‑clothed curvaceous figure.

"Hello again," Sally replies. "I'll make this quick: we're currently in the middle of trying to find our lost friend and bring her safely home, and we'd prefer not to be interrupted, or risk anything interfering with our search. Therefore, we kindly request that you close this portal once we've returned through it."

"My apologies, but I am afraid I cannot allow that to happen," the Magister asserts kindly. "We too are searching for missing persons, who unfortunately were accidentally stranded on your world. I promise that as soon as we locate them and bring them safely home, we will close the portal."

"I'm sure we can arrange to allow you to reopen the portal in GUN HQ," Rouge offers. "I'll contact Commander Tower immediately."

"Hold that thought," Sally instructs. "You say someone was stranded on Mobius?"

"Danny Brock, Sally Flynn, and Neera Li," the Magister confirms. "Also, please forgive my manners: we have not been properly introduced. I am the Royal Magister, ruler of the Kingdom of Shang Tu."

"Princess Sally Acorn of the Kingdom of Acorn, commander of the Knothole Freedom Fighters," Sally replies. "And this is Rouge, who works for GUN as one of their agents as a member of Team Dark. You say three Avalicians were stranded on Mobius?"

"That is correct, Princess," the Magister confirms. "They were stranded there yesterday."

"Please, just call me Sally," Sally insists kindly before activating her in‑ear communicator. "Nicole?"

"Yes, Sal?" Nicole replies.

"Have any other portals appeared on Mobius within the last few days?" Sally asks.

"Only this one and the one Amy disappeared through," Nicole confirms. "Why?"

"We're not the only ones looking for missing people," Sally explains. "And I think I know who those three strangers are that upset Amy," she adds, her expression making it clear to the Magister that she is not happy.