Shadows fell across the ruins of the Elite Tutelage Home for Girls. Except for a stray combot that happened to pass through, the premises were silent and empty.

Beneath a pile of stone, Amy Rose opened her eyes.

She stared up at the bricks inches above her head and caught her breath. Her hammer lay propped above her, like a bar. It had somehow wedged into the rocks and held them up so that they formed a cavity around her. It had saved her life.

Light flashed in her vision. The shooting stars struck the ground. The world was consumed in fire and she was blinded by the smoke…

Amy's eyes widened.

She was alone.

Amy had been shifting and drifting in and out of consciousness for the last two days, but this was the first time she was truly herself. As if someone had flipped a switch, she was awake and it was time.

Amy Rose's hands fell with a clap against the hammer handle. Her golden bangles burned against her wrists.

Amy Rose's face contorted in concentration. She bunched up, her head spikes unsheathing, bent in disarray.

Energy shot through the bangles—the hammer budged, then flipped free, she was on her feet, the bricks flying as she smashed them down into bits.

"Sonic!" She screamed. "Bunnie! Rotor!" She screamed louder, breaking free.

She stood panting in a ring of crushed rock. Blood caked her brow and ran down her arms and through her gloves. Her skirt was torn. Her eyes flashed and she heaved for breath.

Her scream still echoed around her, in the dead emptiness.

It was flat. And black. Smoke rose in the distance. The trees were gone. The buildings were gone. The people were gone.

All that was left was the moonlight and the shadows.

Amy Rose stood, hammer still clasped in both hands. She stared with her jaw dropped.

"Sonic?" she choked out.

She began to quiver.

"No!"

Her green eyes started burning.

"No, no, no!" Amy Rose swung her hammer like a club, smashing it into a nearby pillar of rock. It cracked and toppled as she dropped to her knees.

"I'll find you!" she swore. "I'll find you, Sonic! I'll find you, even if it's to your grave, I'll find you!"

Crème, Rotor, Bunnie, her schoolmates—her teachers, Tails, Sally—

Everything was gone.

She leapt to her feet and began to run, hammer in hand. She ran over the flat, ashen ground, she scrambled over toppled stone, past the combots who turned to follow her. She ran as if they weren't even there. She headed to the forest and towards the only and the worst place Sonic could be at—

Robotropolis.