Meanwhile, in a giant room at the palace's center, the Master Emerald glittered atop its new pedestal. Looming over it was a massive, multicolored dragon with an odd, glowing necklace on its neck. It looked upon its prize lovingly.

"Finally, it is mine. The greatest of all the gems in the cosmos…"

Suddenly, a knocking sound reverberated from behind the closed doors. In a flash, the dragon magically disappeared, replaced by the form of a simple beetle girl, and the necklace morphed into a tiara. She sighed. This would have to wait.

"Come in."

A young ant anthro burst through the entrance, clearly panicked.

"He's… He's come. The echidna's somehow made it to this dimension!"

A vein pulsed on her forehead, with the tiara seeming to follow suit but she managed to control herself with a breath. A smirk made its way across her lips.

"Let him come then. We'll give him a warm welcome."

"Um…"

"What, Binbin?"

"There's this other girl here, too. A bat."

"Interesting. I trust you'll be able to create the necessary inventions to stop them…brother."

Binbin didn't look up at her.

She walked up and grabbed the boy by his turtleneck. "Am I clear?"

The girl's look was practically crazed. The ant boy winced and squirmed.

"Yes, F-Flit…"

The beetle gritted her teeth and hissed like a serpent. "What did I tell you to call me…?"

"Queen of G-Gems?"

She finally dropped him with a glare. "Better. Now go."

The frightened boy wasted no time leaving the room.

In another part of the castle entirely, footsteps pounded along the floor. Knuckles didn't exactly know how long he'd been running, not where he was. The corridor he'd been going through never seemed to end. The lack of notable landmarks in this place was disorienting, to say the least.

After what seemed like forever, he stopped, with his bat companion following suit. Rouge turned to him, still somewhat smug in spite of her obvious exhaustion.

"I was wondering when you'd stop wasting your energy and realize that apparently someone doesn't want us getting any further. You finally through being stubborn, Red?"

This wasn't what the echidna wanted to hear, and his hot temper was getting the better of him. "Shut up! What the heck is this place, anyway?! There's been nothing around for…for…"

"Forever? It's like I just said, and I'm always right, there's someone that wants us to stay put, isn't that right?"

That last line was seemingly directed at empty air, but she actually got an answer.

"That's right! You're not going anywhere I don't want you to!"

"See? What'd I tell you?" Rouge elbowed the other teenager playfully before once again calling out to their unknown adversary. "Come out, come out wherever you are…"

As if in response to her challenge, a portal immediately opened up, revealing something unexpected.

Instead of some form of Eggman clone from this dimension or something like that, they got something that made the bat fall to the floor convulsing with laughter.

Knuckles tilted his head in confusion. "A kid in a turtleneck?"

That attempt at menace apparently came from this little ant boy who had to be around Tails' age. The jetpack he was using didn't exactly scare either of them, either. Charmy Bee was more intimidating, if only because that kid had a stinger on his bottom to do damage with.

"Neat power and all kid, but we're looking for a big, glowing green gemstone by the name of the Master Emerald. Have you seen it? Just point us to it and you can go off and do whatever you want."

The boy's eyes sparkled with joy. "Really?!" He seemed to realize something that caused his smile to fade away. "I'm sorry… I mean I really, really want to, but I can't do that. Fli— er, I mean, the 'Queen of Gems' requires your extermination."

Rouge, for her part, had finally settled down.

"Extermination? Who's gonna handle that? You? Look, kid. Why don't you take us to this 'Queen' of yours so we fan have a little audience with her?"

He wasn't listening to her, though. Instead, he was conjuring up a portal… right under them both!

"What the…?!" Knuckles was cut off when reality warped and changed around himself and Rouge, sending them elsewhere.