"So Ames, are you ready to be harshly judged by Shadow over here?" Sonic joked, pointing his thumb at Shadow while keeping his eyes on her.

As much as she loved Sonic, Amy couldn’t deny the blue hero’s immaturity. Having him next to Shadow seemed to make that immaturity even more glaring. But Amy tried to don a positive attitude nonetheless. She held up her index finger as she spoke, “Actually, we have a deal. He’s going to help me improve my combat skills while I help him with his social skills.”

If she could make it sound like it was a mutual deal, Amy hoped to get Sonic to start second guessing his views about Shadow. Yes, the dark one was quite gruff and rough around the edges, but there was a strange sense of “there’s a softness beneath that tough exterior.” Shadow wouldn’t bother with helping her if he didn’t give a crap about her, right? He certainly showed no interest in helping Sonic despite the numerous times he’s put Sonic down for screwing things up.

Sonic's eyes widened slightly as Amy explained what she had in mind, she wanted to teach Shadow... To be nice? Well that was certainly another shocker, but not out of the realm of possibility for what Amy might do. "Really? My my, you're taking on quite the challenge Ames." Sonic chuckled, his classic grin on his lips. "So Shadow, finally realised having some friends might help with your social life?" Sonic teased, turning his head to face Shadow.

That's when the ultimate life form stopped however and turned to face both hedgehogs. "This area will do, we will begin now." He stated, ignoring Sonics question, they were now in a clearing in the trees, almost as if they were in a circular arena where the earth himself formed the walls. "Now then, there's something we must go over first, that being your underestimation of your own speed, if do not believe you can keep up, you will never keep up." He stated, his tone was stern and steady, a voice that commanded respect and attention.

Amy frowned at Sonic’s teasing. She should’ve known he was going to try poking the bear with Shadow. What was it that made Sonic think teasing was such a good idea? It was like watching someone look at a sign warning of hot lava and proceeding forward anyway. She was about to chastise her hero for picking on Shadow but the older hedgehog had suddenly changed the topic.

She stopped when he did and expected him to turn around and deliver a verbal smack down in return, but didn’t. Instead, he first spoke about Amy’s speed. The pink hedgehog crossed her arms and spotted a small frown. “I mean, sure I’m faster than the citizens but…”

She couldn’t help but continue to compare herself to the famous speedsters. Sonic, Shadow… Even Metal Sonic was able to break the sound barrier should it want. If she was all that fast as Shadow persisted, then couldn’t she catch Sonic whenever he ran from her?

Then again, this was Shadow. The haughtiest of the haughty. If he was saying something positive about someone, then it wasn’t a lie. Amy dropped her arms to her sides as she began to second guess her views. Maybe she was quicker than she gave herself credit for?

Shadow could tell that once again Amy was doubting herself, he couldn't necessarily blame her however, as far as she was concerned she was probably doing everything right, yet things were still not working out. "Let me make something clear, your issue is not that you're slow, your issue is that you focus on hitting as hard as you can, not actually hitting your opponent. For example, Sonic."

Sonic wasn't really paying attention until his name was mentioned, he let out a quiet "huh?" before seeing the ultimate life form charging at him, he pulled his arm back before throwing an incredibly hard strike, Sonic however simply side stepped it. "Heh Heh, wanna try again Shadow?" Sonic smirked before Shadow swung around and delivered a hard axe kick, which Sonic once again side stepped.

Shadow then stopped and turned his head to face Amy. "This, this is what you do, you try to hit as hard as you can hoping to beat your opponent, but that doesn't work on a moving target." Shadow then dashed towards Sonic again and quickly began delivering a flury of punches, Sonic dodged the first few but then had to resort to blocking. Sonic was fast of course and he was skilled, but Shadow was built for combat and his technique was on another level. So very quickly the blue blur was overwhelmed and sent to the ground, Shadow holding him in an arm bar. "If you work on hitting fast, you can take an opponent down, even if they are faster than you." With that he let go of Sonic before pushing him to the ground. "For now on your hammer will be your finishing blow, not your main form of offense, understand?" He ordered, back to professionalism.

Amy was about to protest the guys fighting each other but it didn’t take long to click what was going on. Shadow wasn’t fighting Sonic for his typical reasons. He was using Sonic to help demonstrate his point. Now Amy understood why Shadow was ok with Sonic coming along.

Who knew the frequently battling hedgehogs could actually put a habit of theirs to good use?

Shadow then instructed Amy that her hammer wasn’t to be her main means of offense anymore, but rather her ace. Amy’s pink ears folded back and she tried to keep from making a nervous sound. “But…I need my hammer. I can’t battle without it.”

Not even Amy was able to understand what the deal was, but that hammer did seem to be vital for providing her high strength points.

Then her eyes widened. Hold up. Shadow wasn’t talking about strength earlier with Sonic. He talked about speed. Amy’s hands balled into fists. It was true. She could move quicker without wielding it. There was just one problem…

“I uh….. I’m so used to using my hammer that I…..don’t know how to fight without it,” sporting a nervous smile, she put her hand on the back of her head, “I forgot to mention that my formal training was with my hammer. Ah haha…”

Shadow gave a nod. "As I said before, as far as I'm concerned you know nothing about fighting and so that is how I'm training you as someone who knows absolutely nothing." He explained to her before stepping forward and grabbing one of her arms before holding it up. "Most people would struggle carrying your hammer, let alone swing it around with ease, you have strength, you have speed, now I'm simply asking you to combine those two." He explained to her.

"Trust me Ames, you got this." Sonic said enthusiastically, giving a thumbs up, though then he approached and moved Shadow's arm away so he was no longer holding Amy. "You are more capable than you give yourself credit for, I've seen it, all you need to do is try, you ready?" He asked, giving her a kind smile.

There was a big reason Sonic wanted to watch this time around, Shadow was rough and he could be very brutal, the last thing he wanted was for him to hurt her with his words or his fists. Once he was certain everything was ok then he would trust Shadow to look after her.

Well, if Sonic believed in her abilities, too, then surely she could do it. Amy balled both hands into fists with enthusiasm and a smile drew on her face. Right! She could do this. Between a highly skilled teacher and encouragement from a friend, this should be no problem.

“Ok! I’m ready! What’s my first step?”

Shadow gave a nod before he walked around Amy, now standing directly behind her. "First I will be teaching you the basics of fighting, which we will be starting with boxing."

Shadow grabbed the pink hedgehogs two arms and brought them up to the guard position. "Arms up." He began, his mouth now close to her ear given their... Position. He then gently used once foot to bring one of her legs back to keep the stance. "Stance similar to how you would position when you are wielding your hammer, understood?" He explained to her, making sure she understood.

The pose was similar to when she got ready to join a fight with her hammer in hand, but the arm position was different. Usually she held her hammer close to how a baseball player held their bat. At least the foot position was something she was familiar with. It was going to be weird using her fists. Usually that was a Knuckles thing.

There was something kind of strange about this. When the heck did Shadow ever get close like this to someone and it wasn’t during a fight? Usually he kept a distance from anyone and often issued threats about anyone touching him. And something else…

Shadow always had a deep voice that was pleasant to the ears. Unless you were someone that cheesed him off then he sounded scary. Right now it seemed extra smooth. It sent a shiver up Amy’s spine. Weird. Oh but it had to be just because he was in close proximity, right? Yeah that was probably it.

Once Amy was in the correct position Shadow let her go and walked around her in order to stand in front of her. "Now, obviously I am not going to be able to make you into a fighting genius in a short period of time, that would take years for you to get to. So instead we are going to focus on the strengths that you do have, for one you are very smart and for two you are able to keep up the fight for a long period of time, but first let's test what you can do right here and now, I want you to try and hit me, purely focus on speed, not punching as hard as you can."

The ultimate life form explained to her, he took a step back and crossed her arms, he wanted to see what she can do, to see if she could adapt well to a change in combat.

"Think about how Sonic fights, light on his feet, fast, constantly moving, take those steps and make it your own." He explained to her, Sonic too wasn't the most skilled fighter, he knew some martial arts, though his style was primarily self made rather than school thought, Amy would need to be rather similar.

It was almost like The Twilight Zone hearing Shadow suggesting Sonic’s way of doing things. The older hedgehog hadn’t been taken over by aliens, right? Ah geez, now she’s thinking like Sticks. Though the badger would have a field day with this.

Ok, focus on speed like he said. Eh… This was going to feel weird though. Amy always used her hammer. Not using it made her feel naked. Well, here goes.

Starting off, Amy went with just using her arms to at least get used to that. She threw out a right jab.

Shadow watched as Amy got herself comfortable and ready, he knew this was going to be weird for her, she was so convinced that she knew how to fight not realising that all she knew was how to throw her hammer around. So realising everything she knew was wrong would take long to process.

As she threw her right jab Shadow caught it before swiftly delivering a strike, but he stopped right before making contact with her face, once he let go of her he took a step back. "Faster and don't be so predictable with your strikes, it shouldn't be obvious where you are going to strike me." He critiqued before crossing his arms once more.

"Try again." He ordered, his expression never changing.

Out of reflex, Amy closed her eyes as the fist came for her. When it didn’t hit her, she opened one eye. What was annoying was that she knew Shadow wouldn’t actually beat her yet she couldn’t stop the instinctual reflexes the body does. Ugh, she probably looked weak to Shadow because of that. Wasn’t true though; Amy did have her strengths and had been in many battles.

Don’t be predictable? “How do I not be predictable?” Amy asked. If it was her hammer, she’d know what to do but this was something else.

The ultimate life form could tell she was practically lost, if seemed that he was even more accurate than he thought he was with considering Amy as a beginner. She knew... Nothing and at this rate she wouldn't be able to throw a single punch before Metal Sonic charges through her, she would be even more helpless than she was swinging around that giant hammer of hers.

Shadow ran a hand through his quills as he thought for a moment. "This is why I advised you to follow how Sonic fights." The black hedgehog then suddenly turned around and fired a chaos spear at the blue hedgehog, who narrowly avoided it and then the fight began. Sonic knew the point Shadow wanted to push across, most punches and kicks he threw were misdirection, before throwing the attack that was actually intended.

The two ended up charging at each other, ready to clash before suddenly Sonic skidded under him, kicking Shadow hard in the gut and sending him up in the air.

After that point the two straightened themselves and relaxed once more before Sonic spoke. "Think about it Ames, the faster you move the less obvious your punches will be." He said, bouncing on his feet slightly before throwing out a few lightning fast jabs at the air. "The only one that should know what you're going to do is you." Sonic explained, he was far more cheerful than Shadow was, though that wasn't a surprise of course.

Sometimes it was hard to follow those two when they battled each other. They would just turn into black and blue blurs, bouncing around across the landscape. Amy had tried hard to train her eyes to follow Sonic but it would be naive to think she could always follow. No one knew the limit to Sonic’s speed. He had said he often held back because him bursting into certain speeds can actually cause the people in the surrounding area to get blasted and hurt. It was said Shadow had the same speed as Sonic and it hasn’t been revealed what his speed limit was either.

Nonetheless, Amy tried to follow them as best as she could. Thankfully they weren’t moving around as much as they normally did. At least they were being mindful of what she needed.

When Sonic went into his explanation, it was easier for Amy to understand. She could follow Shadowese most of the time but he had such a formal way of speaking it did sometimes didn’t always come out clear. Amy was going to need to spend more time with Shadow to increase her exposure to his mannerism to understand it more, as if learning a foreign language.

“Hmm, ok, so I should first focus on speed…”

Thinking to when she watched Knuckles practice his punches, Amy got into a stance again. This time she wasn’t aiming at anyone nor was she standing close to them. Using both fists in succession, one at a time, Amy went back and forth with jabs. She didn’t worry about strength and was trying to go for speed. It was a slow start as she first needed to acquaint herself with the unfamiliar motions. After getting more comfortable with doing punches, the momentum started to pick up but only a bit. Hey, a step forward was a step forward.

Sonic seemed to be pretty happy with Amy's improvements, was it perfect? No of course not, far from it, however he was happy to see Amy putting in the effort to improve, even if it took Shadow to be the one to motivate him.

"Hey, there we go!" Sonic cheered before clapping his hands together excitement coming into his voice as he watched Amy get better.

Shadow gave an approving nod as he approached. "Yes, however there is still more that we need to do, there is no point in knowing how to punch if you don't know how to.. **Dodge!**" Shadow threw a back hand towards Amy, there wasn't much force behind it, however it was fast, his hand stopping right before it made contact with Amy before he lowered his hand.

Battle experience helped here. Without having to think about it, Amy raised her shoulder and arm, using her upper arm to serve as a shield from the hit. She lowered her arm when the strike didn’t make contact. The pink hedgehog couldn’t help but stare at Shadow.

He has so much control of himself. Once her hammer started swinging, there was no stopping it. Granted it was larger and heavier than a hand but still. Hmmm, maybe that would be valuable to learn, too. If she’s supposed to throw out fake strikes then learning to do this with her hammer would help, too.

“Hey, how do you do that?”

Shadow paused for a moment, he hadn't expected Amy to actually block it, Sonic's expression showed actual genuine surprise however, before a pleased grin formed on his features, Shadow didn't let any such feelings show outwardly however.

Perhaps now Amy could actually be assured that she is fast.

But then gave the question of exactly how did he do what he just did, a sign of confusion came to Shadow's features at that however, not sure to what Amy was referring to. Then it seemed to click and he regained focus.

"Simple, it's by understanding distance and extension, when you understand the art of combat you can measure mid fight exactly how far your opponent is and if you can reach them, if you didn't know if your hammer could reach someone in their current position for example, you probably wouldn't swing your hammer, you swing it because you know it will reach them. However that logic can be used further."

Shadow reached a hand out in the form of a fist, his hand brushing Amy's cheek. "I know at this distance at full extension I can hit you and so." Shadow pulled his hand back before punching fast and hard, yet he did not fully extend, his hand missing her face. "So I know that punching like this will result in you blocking an attack that won't make contact and so while your hands are protecting your face." Suddenly Shadow turned on his heel, rotating around her before he was beside her, at that point he swung an arm back, stopping right before he hit the back of her head.

"Combat is about control, not just controlling yourself, but having your opponent move in the way you want them to, understood?"

Amy jerked as Shadow suddenly moved. Logically she knew he wasn’t posing a threat right now and had no intentions of harming her. But instinctually she knew how dangerous he was.

Damn body reacting on its own.

She nodded when Shadow concluded his explanation, “Control… Ok, I think I get it. For now, it sounds like I have some practicing to do.”

Shadow gave a nod before turning to Sonic. "Are you satisfied now?" Shadow questioned, his expression unchanging.

Sonic seemed a bit confused at first, not sure why Shadow was now directing his attention to him. "Well yeah she's doing gre-"

"Not that, are you satisfied that my training methods are safe for Rose or do you need to keep monitoring her as though she's a child." Shadow explained, his arms crossed with his whole attention now on Sonic.

Sonic blinked once as he processed what Shadow was saying, that being that Shadow wanted him to leave." Heheh, yeah I guess so, alright Shadow I'll leave the rest to you. See you later Ames!" With that, Sonic dashed off.

"Now then...allow the real training to begin." Was all Shadow said after that.

The rest of the training session was much more difficult than just learning by observation, it was sprints, push ups until failure, punching hard rocks, climbing up large trees and of course some sparring practice, which Shadow went easy on her in... Somewhat.

“Bye, Sonic~!” Amy said cheerfully, waving to the blue hero with a big smile on her face. Her voice even heightened in pitch as it often did when she spoke to him. “Thanks for coming along!”

The remainder of the training…was rough. It was almost the hardest Amy had ever worked, only bested by battles with Eggman where the man actually tried. It caught her by surprise by how tough things got when Sonic left. The beginning of the training had Amy thinking Shadow was going to be gentle.

Yeah no.

Bruised and sore, not to mention exhausted, Amy flopped on the ground on her back, much like Sonic sometimes did (though for him it was usually a boredom gesture). She panted with her eyes closed. Again she found herself asking how does Sonic have the energy that he does. Add Shadow to that question.

“Are we done?” she asked in a ragged voice. What she wouldn’t give for a bath right now…

Shadow on the other hand was perfectly fine, training like this was normal for someone like him after all, it was one of the perks of being an agent for GUN, you were tasked to deal with more issues then simply Eggman and so being ready at all times was necessary.

He watched as Amy flopped onto her back to catch her breath, Shadow looked down at her, she was clearly exhausted from all of this, not that he blamed her.

"Yes, you have done well." Shadow began as he approached her and gently took one of her hands in his own, yet as he pulled her to her feet he surprisingly picked her up in the bridal position. "You have done enough for today, I will escort you home." He explained as he began to walk back to the village.

Amy’s eyes widened as he pulled her up then into a carrying position. Escort? Looked like they were doing something else. Escort suggested she’d be walking herself. No complaints, though. Amy was too tired to walk. Her legs felt like jello.

She was so tired from today’s work, and the gentle motions from Shadow carrying her that she just…fell asleep in his arms along the way. Amy’s head tilted to the side towards his shoulder and downwards.

Shadow watched Amy as she began to drift off, she wasn't like many of the others, she always felt more innocent in a way, while everyone else wore combat ready gear, even if that meant only wearing shoes that would support their top speed, Amy's skirt always appeared so much more casual, like she was going to go shopping rather than fight Eggman.

Yet that wasn't all, she seemed to have an innocence about her, more so than even Tails and well he was younger than her.

As he made it to the door Shadow carefully reached a hand into the pocket of Amy's skirt, being careful to not wake her as he got it out, leaning her body closer to his chest so he could free one hand to unlock and open the door.

Amy’s body rolled to wherever Shadow angled her with her head draped over his shoulder. Her left ear flicked in her sleep. There was a soft sound but she didn’t wake.

When Shadow opened the door, the smell of roses enveloped him. It was hard to tell if it was some air freshener being used or if it was Amy’s natural scent.

Like most others in the village, Amy’s hut was set up to resemble a studio apartment in size as well as having only the bathroom in a separate room. The bed, the couch and kitchen were altogether in the same sight. There was a fireplace though this time of year it wasn’t needed. There were framed photos of Amy’s friends atop it, with one of her and Sonic together in the centre. Cream, Rouge, Silver, Blaze, Tails, heck even Knuckles appeared here.

But there wasn’t one of Shadow. He was always absent during get togethers.

Shadow carefully shifted his hand under Amy so he could hold her from underneath as he entered the home, he tried not to think about the fact that his hand was on her ass right now, it was simply the easiest way to hold someone when carrying them with one hand. Once he was inside he placed his other hand on her back for extra support before pushing the door closed with his foot, turning around to lock it before placing the key on a nearby counter, his hand then returning to her back.

Now that everything was sorted he took the a moment to look around the pink hedgehogs home, noticing the pictures she had with everyone, get togethers he didn't go to, either from being busy, or he didn't want to. Amy had a sort of energy about her that brought others together, which was apparently so strong that she had finally dragged him into her gravitational pull. In truth the only pictures that there were of Shadow were owned by the president, GUN and of course Rouge, who never allowed the ultimate life form to say no to a group selfie.

Shadow walked to Amy's bed before sitting down on the edge of it, careful removing her from his body as he placed her down and pulled the covers over her, he didn't really know how to tuck someone in and so simply placed the covers over her, unsure if he should leave or not. After all there was only one key, if he left he would leave Amy's door unlocked, which he didn't feel safe doing, what was the best course of action...

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