Outskirts of Birchwood, Minnesota, 1:37pm, 27 minutes after the anomaly.

Amy woke with a start. Opening her eyes, she found herself surrounded on all sides by quaint houses lining a street of grey sidewalks and even greyer road.

"This isn't Egg Port Alpha." She muttered to herself, as she held her head, grimacing through the pain. She must have hit her head on the tarmac, she thought to herself, though of course she could not explain how.

"You're awake." Shadow noted as he leaned against a fence with his arms crossed.

"No thanks to you." She retorted, still sour at Shadow's reluctance to engage in any sort of teamwork.

"You weren't in any serious trouble." Shadow responded. We aren't in any danger here, nor are we likely to be."

"Where are we?" Amy asked. "And where's Eggman?

"Eggman's not here. When the emeralds, ruby and the topaz collided, we all got thrown into a spatial anomaly. Eggman and the others got thrown somewhere else. Nobody except us have come by here."

"Do you think we can make a way back?" Amy asked.

"Theoretically, we could, but neither of us have the brainpower to work that out, and I'll bet nobody else around here does either."

Amy scratched her head. "Surely there must be someone around here who can help?"

"Hmph. I won't be waiting for you." Shadow huffed, turning to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"Somewhere where I can think. Alone." Shadow replied, as he sped off to the horizon.

Amy looked forlornly at Shadow's trail of dust, wondering if any of the words he'd said were true. If he was right, they were well and truly stuck here, and there would be no way back, no friends to do tarot readings with, and worst of all, no Sonic. She wouldn't be able to accept that.

Amy turned round to face the town with a look of determination. "There's always hope. I'll find a way."

The first streets Amy walked through were strangely empty, toys and games were left sitting on the front lawns, and Amy spotted a stand in the distance, completely unmanned. It was an eerie sight to her, one that reminded her of the simulation that Eggman had put her, Tails and Sonic through, but as she turned the street corner, all her fears would be put to rest.

As it turned out, the kids had left to play a game of baseball. Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy, Frieda, Patty, Schroeder, Pig Pen and Shermy were all on the field practicing for their next game, whilst Sally and Rerun were sat on a park bench, spectating. Short of any better ideas, Amy walked over and sat on the bench beside them.

"Hi." Rerun waved at the pink hedgehog beside him, not sure what to make of her. "What's your name? Can you talk?"

"My name's Amy." She noticed Rerun looking at her innocently, and adjusted her tone as she realised she was speaking to a 5 year old. "What's your name?"

"I'm Rerun. And this is my brother's friend, Sally." He replied, gesturing towards Sally, who eyed Amy with suspicion.

"What ARE you… doing here?" Sally blurted. "You don't look like you're from around here."

"You're right. I'm not. I don't really know how I got here either, or whether I can get back home." Amy sighed sadly to herself.

"What happened?" Rerun asked.

"I dunno, but it sounds like she's lost." Sally interrupted.

"Do you remember anything?" Rerun continued.

"Well, before I wound up here, my friends and I were fighting this evil scientist named Dr Eggman and his giant robot, and I'm not sure what happened, but there was a flash of white and somehow I woke up here."

"Sounds like a load of science-y stuff to me." Sally scoffed. "I can't help you there."

"Linus can help! He's good at science." Rerun suggested.

"Marcie's good at that too, but she lives in the other neighbourhood." Sally added.

Before Amy could respond, it became apparent that her appearance was drawing the attention of the others, who had stopped their game to look at whatever was going on. Charlie Brown and Lucy began to approach them, with the rest of team following behind.

"Who are you? And what are you doing talking to my brother?" Lucy angrily pressed, before turning to Rerun. "Rerun, you know what Mom said about talking to strangers." She scolded.

"She's a good… uh, person?" Rerun attested, looking up at Amy uncertainly.

"Hedgehog." Amy clarified, causing Charlie Brown to roll his eyes, reminding himself of Snoopy and his eccentricities. Rerun then regaled what Amy had told him to the crowd of children gathered around the bench.

"Sounds to me like you've travelled from some alternate universe, or something." Linus guessed.

"As I suspected." Amy looked down.

"Don't worry." Rerun laid a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure we'll find a way to get you back home."

"I'll be counting on it." Lucy crossed her arms and smirked.

"In the meantime, you're welcome to stay at our house." Linus replied. "Well, as long as our parents are okay with it, I guess."

"Thank you." Amy got up and shook his hand. "You must be Linus."

"Yep. This is my sister Lucy, and you've already met Rerun. Come on, let's see if we can get Mom to let you stay."

Linus and the other Van Pelts led Amy back to their house and knocked on the door. The four of them were made to wait, as Amy heard the sound of a vacuum cleaner turning off.

Amy looked up at Mrs Van Pelt, who held the vacuum cleaner in one hand, and a feather duster in the other standing over the quartet with a forlorn expression.

"Hello?" Amy asked, keen to make a good impression.

"What in the… Who is this?" Mrs Van Pelt questioned her children, gesturing towards the hedgehog, who looked up at her innocently, arms folded behind her back.

"Her name's Amy." Linus began. "We were out playing baseball and uh…"

"Oh, boy." Lucy rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Rerun saw this hedgehog lady,"

"Amy." Rerun clarified.

"Yeah, and after a lot of conversation, the two of them have made friends. As it happens, she needs a place to stay, and in their infinite wisdom, the boys offered her our house to stay in."

"I'm sorry, could you slow down?" Mrs Van Pelt held her head. "I've had a headache all day."

"You should rest." Amy advised her. "I can do those chores for you, in the meantime." She offered.

"That would be very nice, thank you." Mrs Van Pelt graciously accepted the help, handing the duster to Amy who set about doing what she had promised.

"I think that's a yes?" Linus asked his sister.

"It will be once she sees how clean this place is. And we'll get it done quicker if we all help. Who's with me?" Rerun and Linus raised their hands meekly. "Let's get going!" Lucy commanded, handing the boys a broom each, as the three siblings pitched in to help.

Egg Port Factory Alpha, Mobius, 14:00, 1 hour after the Anomaly

Rouge waited patiently for a response as she sat in her hotel room. She'd done the recon for the mission that Sonic and the others undertook, with her playing a backseat role. It shouldn't have been difficult, Eggman only had 5 Chaos Emeralds after all. It had been a whole hour since they were scheduled to begin, however, and Rouge had still not heard anything back from them. Picking her headset up, she began to speak.

"Shadow, do you copy? Shadow? Can you hear me? Shadow, Are you there?"

No response. Rouge's mind scrambled through a range of possible scenarios. Something was definitely wrong, she thought, as they should have been finished long ago.

"I should check it out." Rouge steadied herself mentally, hanging the headset up and heading outside to investigate. The hotel she was staying in was situated around 20 minutes from the base, so it took a bit of flying, but eventually she arrived.

What lay before her was as bleak a picture as she could have possibly imagined. The base had been absolutely levelled to the ground, chunks of rubble scattering surface as other larger pieces lay submerged in the harbour below. Pretty much the only thing left intact was the ground on which she stood.

She had expected the place to be in ruins, of course. That was part of the plan, but that base itself should have been somewhat recognisable instead of resembling a flooded quarry. The only sign that Eggman had ever even been there was an icon of his face embedded into the concrete harbourfront that remained.

As barren as the base now looked, it didn't answer the burning question of what happened to Sonic and the others. Flying over the wreckage, Rouge looked hard for answers, but received none. Rouge felt somewhat relieved, in a way. Any evidence of their presence would confirm her greatest fears. Visions of loss plagued Rouge's mind further. She was not going to go through that again. Not after what happened to Shadow (and most of the others, too) last time things got that bad. She picked through the rubble further, fruitlessly examining it for any sign the others had been here.

"Rouge, is that you?" a small voice called out from behind her. Rouge turned round to see Jewel the Beetle, leader of the Restoration, approaching with a clipboard in hand. She looked totally empty inside, like any and all emotion had been thrown out, and replaced with a void that emanated in her tone of voice.

"Jewel?" Rouge looked towards her. "What are you doing here?"

"We received reports of a large explosion around an hour ago from multiple people in the surrounding villages. That matches with the time of day they were fighting Dr Eggman." She explained, sounding as forlorn as she looked.

"Do you have any confirmation on what happened to Shadow and the others?" Rouge asked.

"No. that's what I'm here to find out. I need to investigate what caused the explosion and what likelihood they had of escaping and surviving. For the time being I've marked the seven of them plus Eggman as missing, for now. You find anything yet?"

"Nothing." Rouge answered solemnly. "Not even a trace."

"I'll count that as a good thing." Jewel replied.

"How so?" Rouge asked, confused.

"Some of the eyewitness reports I received mentioned streaks of coloured light scattering in different directions."

"The chaos emeralds!" Rouge realised.

"Precisely. And based on the knowledge that Sonic got thrown into another dimension by the warp topaz when he and Silver went super, and of Eggman's 'Test Chamber' dimensions that Sonic, Tails and Amy ran through, there remains a possibility that Sonic and co were thrown out themselves into a different dimension or universe."

"That's the assumption we're working on?"

"Hell of a lot better than them being dead." Jewel stated, matter-of-factly. "I might as well start digging for clues."

"You want me to help with that?" Rouge asked.

"No, but I do have something that needs doing if you're up for it. With Sonic gone, a lot of the other villains we know might try to make a move. With so many heroes out of action, that leaves us in a vulnerable position."

"So you want me to catch everyone up who can help so that we can keep things in order? Got it. I'll make some calls." Rouge finished, fluttering off and leaving Jewel to get on with her work.

Back in the hotel room, Rouge twirled her finger around the phone cord as she dialled the first of her contacts.

"Hello?"

"Knuckles. This is Rouge."

"Yeah, I know who you are. What's going on? You sound more serious than usual. I take it the mission went poorly?"

"You could say that. Jewel mentioned an explosion of some kind, or some similar reaction involving the chaos emeralds, but whatever happened, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Shadow and the other three are officially MIA, as is Eggman. With so few people, Jewel says we should be on our guard in case anyone else thinks of attacking."

"Thanks for the heads up. Don't count on my help down there though. If what you're saying is true, then the Master Emerald will likely be an easy target. I can't leave it unguarded. If you need my help, it better be worth it."

"I figured you would say that." Rouge responded "But thanks anyway." She hung up before dialling the next contact on her list.

"Rouge! What the hell is going on out there?!" came the irate voice of a cranky crocodile. "I've had three calls already about some big kaboom at Eggman's base. What gives?"

"I'm sorry, Vector." Rouge apologised exhaustively. "Could I speak to Espio?"

"Sure thing." Vector replied. "Espio, she's asking for you specifically." Rouge heard him holler. A small pause followed, until Espio took control of the phone.

"Chaotix Detective Agency. Espio speaking." Rouge then explained the situation to him the same way she had done with Knuckles. After Espio confirmed he would keep an eye out, she hung up and called Vanilla, informing her and Gemerl of the news (while keeping it a secret from Cream). Satisfied her work was done, Rouge retreated to her bed and began to think about her favourite hobby: treasure hunting.

Come to think of it, the Chaos Emeralds had all been scattered. Jogging her mind, she began planning the various ways she could try to acquire them. "If I play this right." Rouge muttered to herself. "Jewel might even approve it for me."