The next morning, at the usual time of somewhere around 9am, everyone began turning up to Sonic and Tails' humble abode for more training. It was a beautiful day for it, the sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze in the air. Tails was busy making some adjustments on the Tornado while Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles and Rouge were doing some casual battle techniques together.

'Did you check on her last night?' Sonic whispered as he walked over to Rouge.

'I tried but she wouldn't even talk let alone answer the door. To be honest, I'll be surprised if she shows up today.' Rouge replied, still annoyed.

'Hey everyone!' Cosmo exclaimed as her and Cream walked towards the gang having just arrived.

'Hey girls, how's it goin'? Ready for today?' Tails said as he slid out from under the ship and walked towards the gang.

'Sure!' Cream giggled and Cheese made his usual noises.

'Uh, is Amy here yet?' Cosmo questioned as she looked around for her pink friend.

'Nope. Haven't heard from her since her outburst yesterday, she'll turn up eventually.' Knuckles said brushing her off. Suddenly Sonic remembered something…

'Rouge, when you went to check on her, was the door locked?' Sonic asked.

'You went to check on her?' Shadow grunted.

'Sonic asked me to and I don't know, why?' Rouge replied.

'Why did you ask Rouge to check on her?' Tails asked.

'That doesn't matter!' Sonic exclaimed before directing his attention back to the ivory bat. 'Amy always locks her doors and such when she leaves home. When she gets home she unlocks it all until she leaves again. If I go over there and it's still locked then she never came home last night!' Sonic snapped in a panic.

'How the hell do you know all of this?' Knuckles questioned.

'She told me once and for some reason it stuck. I have to go!'

With that, Sonic sped off into the distance towards the pink hedgehog's home. The rest of the gang watched the trail of blue disappear behind him as he left, wondering why he suddenly became so nervous. Was he being overprotective again? Was it something else?

'Well, that was strange?' Cream said quietly.

In a matter of seconds, the blue hero had arrived at Amy's front door step. He twisted the handle to discover it was locked. He felt a pang of nerves rise up from his stomach to his chest as he began to sweat and breathe heavily in worry.

'Amy? Amy, are you there?' He yelled out.

…

'Amy! Open up! It's me, Sonic! I'm sorry, ok? Just open up!'

…

'Screw it.' He said to himself before bashing down Amy's from door. She'd probably be pretty pissed about that when she saw it but it kind of wasn't the point right now. He looked around her living room, kitchen, bathroom, before making his way upstairs to her bedroom. Her room was tidy, organized and lovely, just like her. He noticed one of her new outfits lying on her bed and make up on her dresser. He'd be lying if he said she didn't think she was beautiful. Actually, even that was a lie. Sonic secretly thought that she put beauty to shame, but like hell he was going to admit that to anyone.
He then stumbled across a photo on her window sill, an old photo of him and her. A photo from when they were back on Chris' planet, on the cruise ship after Sonic was finally able to relax. Amy was wearing her short quills out and her girly, red dress and giving him one of her signature death grip hugs. He couldn't help but laugh as he traced the photo with his fingertips.
There was no sign of Amy Rose. Her house was so dark and gloomy without her in it. His anxiety continued to grow as the seconds went on. Where was she? Where did she go last night? What happened after she left? He has to find her… now.

While Sonic ran around Amy's house multiple times again in order to be sure, the gang remained back with Tails at their home. They tried to do some training but it just wasn't the same without Sonic and Amy, especially since they couldn't even guarantee where Amy was right now.

'Do you think Amy is ok?' Cream said, breaking the silence between them all.

'I'm sure she's fine Cream. Besides, even if she's not, Sonic won't let her be unsafe for long.' Cosmo reassured her with a comforting smile.

The gang continued to sit in silence out the front of the house until a familiar, childish giggle was heard in the distance. Rouge knew it better than anyone, having blackmailed the moron more times than ever. Everyone looked around to see where the flying pest was, until he jumped out from behind a tree and startled Cream and Cosmo.

'Haha! Gotcha!' Bocoon exclaimed as his shoulder bag swung around.

'Great, what does he want?' Shadow huffed, leaning against a tree trunk and rolling his eyes.

'I have a name y'know! I'm only here to deliver a message, anyways!' The small creature exclaimed as he pulled out a small TV from his shoulder bag.

Everyone jumped and screeched when they saw the contraption and ducked for cover. If experience had taught them anything, it was not to trust Bocoon bringing an Eggman Message because nine out of ten times it would blow someone or something up.

'That wasn't a very pleasant welcome, if you don't mind me sayin' so! Now here, watch!' Bocoon said as he pressed the power button on the TV.

Eggman's hideous, sweaty face came up on the screen and began to speak…

Greetings, pests! Long time, no see! How have you all been? Not that I care. I'm sure you're all dying to know where I've been so I decided to send you this sweet little orientation to explain my absence. The screen suddenly changed from Eggman to a recording of his new beast before he began talking again.
Thanks to your incompetency, I now possess all seven chaos emeralds which make up the energy to power my newest creation! The Chaos-Creation 6000! As you can guess, it has a great deal of potential, so I suggest you don't try and cross it!

The screen then changed to something awful… it was Amy. Only now she also fashioned not only her red dress, but a large, red, fur cape and a small jeweled tiara. She was crying, not hysterically but tears were sliding down her cheeks uncontrollably. She was watching over production and improvements by Eggman's robots on the new metallic beast.

'AMY!' Cream and Cosmo exclaimed before Cream began to cry.

'How could she do this to us?!' Knuckles added.

Also, it seems as though Miss Rose has found a new home with myself and my team. She is a strong fighter, thank you for training her for me! When the Eggman Empire is complete, I will be the ultimate Emperor and will now have a beautiful, young Empress to rule alongside me. OH HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!
Before the screen switched off, Amy looked straight into the camera, as if she finally noticed it was there. She began to cry more, it was as if she knew the gang could see this and she was ashamed. She mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' before turning around and storming through a set of double doors.

'Whelp, that's all for today! B-Bye!' Bocoon exclaimed as he handed Knuckles the TV and flew into the air with the same childish giggle.

*KA-BOOM!*

The small message contraption made a small explosion in Knuckles' face, leaving gas and smoke residue all over his muzzle. The gang stepped back a pace as they watched the steam shoot out of his ears.

'YOU LITTLE SHIT! GET BACK HERE!' Knuckles exclaimed as he thrust his fist in the air.

'Calm down, Knuckie…' Rouge coaxed with undeniable nerves…