Sorry this is taking a while. The Olympics are very distracting to me. In addition, a buddy is overlooking my errors in the stories so I went back and made those corrections. Important stuff. At the time of this being written, I have only completed the corrections up to Episode 7.

Anyhow, another idea from my helper is being slipped in here. It`s a small one but it is meaningful.
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The Sonic gang is walking to Amy`s house. They have finished walking the kids around Station Square for trick or treating and have already gathered their spare clothes for the slumber party at Amy`s house tonight. As usual, the kids are excited to spend so much time with the teens. It may happen often but they are still kids with kid dreams of hanging out with "the big kids."

Sonic is not only carrying his own clothes, but Tails` as well. He has everything folded inside of a backpack. Tails carries his Halloween candy in one hand and the blue hedgehog plush in the other. He skips along as he voices his plans of eating all of his Halloween candy. Vector has confiscated Charmy`s Halloween candy. He wants to make sure that Charmy doesn`t eat too much candy; he becomes hyperactive enough on his own without the aid of candy.

The night would have been more enjoyable for Sonic if it weren`t for Shadow. Throughout the night, Sonic has found himself looking at Shadow with disdain, mentally telling Shadow to leave the group and never come back. Although, such thoughts were much more cruelly worded than that. It surprises Sonic that he has such unkind thoughts about anyone. Even towards Eggman, his thoughts are less cruel. Then again, Eggman doesn`t hang out with Sonic a lot. They always fight whenever they are with one another so perhaps it`s easier for Sonic to dismiss Eggman, as opposed to Shadow. Shadow is quite dangerous. If he`s willing to shoot a bag of chips and go after the Babylonians, one after another, who knows what he could do to Sonic and his friends? The military are definitely interested in Shadow and they usually only show interest in people if they pose a threat. Can Shadow really be trusted? Probably not.

Sonic is happy about one thing. Amy adores Tails. Tails adores him. There is still a link. And, Amy still gets excited when she sees Sonic. Maybe he could convince her to see that Shadow is too dangerous and should leave? If she agrees that he is a danger, everyone else will follow suit on the idea.

He looks at Amy who is walking beside Tails, who walks beside Sonic. Shadow is walking beside Amy but not directly beside her, he is slightly behind her. Odd. Sonic slightly slows down his pace to get a little behind Amy as Shadow is. The skirt of Amy`s mini dress is naturally swishing about as she walks. Sonic`s eyes widen and he quickly looks at Shadow, glaring daggers at him. Shadow is paying no attention to Sonic. He just turns his head to Amy on occasion as she is explaining to everyone the plans for the slumber party.

They arrive at Amy`s house and she unlocks the door to let everyone in. The first room everyone enters is the living room. Everyone quickly moves on to select a spot to seat themselves, either on the couch, chairs or the floor. Sonic grabs the remote control and turns on the tv. He surfs through the guide to select a channel for everyone to watch. Shadow removes the black hedgehog ears and sets them on the coffee table. Amy goes into the kitchen and then comes back with several sodas for everyone. Now that a suitable channel on the tv has been selected, Sonic now directs himself to sorting through Tails` candy. He wants to be sure that the candy is safe before Tails ingests them.

Amy brings out all the blankets and pillows for everyone to have. It will be the first of November tomorrow which means the temperature will only get colder. But since everyone will be in the same room, the body heat will build up in the room so it won`t be so bad. It is going to be tight quarters in here despite Amy`s living room being the biggest in the group. Knuckles moves the coffee table off to the side to create more room on the floor for those who will be sleeping on the floor.

Rouge leaps onto the couch and lays claim that this is where she will sleep tonight. Mighty claims one of the chairs while Silver claims the remaining chair. Everyone else will have the floor. Like usual, Tails wants to be in between Sonic and Amy so he can be with both of his favourite people. Sonic sets up his sleeping spot on the floor and Amy helps Tails with his spot before she sets up her own. Once both her and Tails` spot are ready, she sits down on her blanket and removes her pink hedgehog ears and tail. Sonic removes his blue hedgehog ears and frisbee tosses them onto the coffee table in it`s new location. The blue ears tap into the pink ears.

Sonic begins to relax when Amy suddenly shouts,"PILLOW FIGHT!!"

She beams Sonic quickly in the face with her pillow, not allowing him time to react to her declaration. Sonic falls back onto his own pillow as he feels the full strength of Amy. He is thankful that it was a pillow and not her usual piko-piko hammer that she normally swings around. But his reflexes kick in and he grabs his pillow and hits Amy back with it. Soon, everyone is in on the mass pillow fight.

That is, everyone except Espio and Shadow. Espio and Shadow have both reclined against the side of the wall to be out of everyone`s way, preferring to not join in such silliness. Both hold a serious look on their faces as they watch the pillow war unfold before their eyes.

For a while, Shadow actually enjoys having someone else being just as serious as he is and Espio`s feelings are mutual. A few of the others try to get the two serious guys to join in but to no avail. Finally, Charmy charges up to Shadow and Espio. He jumps up to overcome Espio`s tall height and swings his pillow at Espio. The pillow makes direct contact to the side of Espio`s head. Charmy quickly scampers away to get back into the mass pillow fight. Espio gives chase, angry at first but soon after joining in the pillow fight, Epsio drops his anger and begins to have fun in the mock battle. Shadow becomes a little disappointed in loosing his temporary spectator buddy but doesn`t hold a grudge against the young ninja for it.

Shadow continues to quietly watch everyone still engaged with their pillow war. Each one carries a smile as they hit each other and receive hits with pillows. It certainly seems like a lot of fun. But it`s total silliness. Right? Shadow turns his head to the side to display his famous disinterested look.

It is several more minutes before the pillow fight slows down. Everyone who has participated in the mock battle are a little tired from their exercise, but they had fun. One by one, each participant return to their sleeping spot with their now beaten pillow. Amy sits down on her blanket and hugs her beaten pillow to her chest. She giggles,"That was a lot of fun!"

Tails plops his pillow behind him on the top portion of his blanket,"Yeah, it sure was! Oh!"

A thought hits Tails. He turns over to the side where Sonic is and digs through the backpack Sonic brought along. He finds a black hedgehog plush and sits back down on his blanket. He looks to Shadow who is sitting himself on a blanket next to the other side of Amy,"I meant to give this to you, Shadow."

Tails gets up again and leans over Amy`s legs and outstretches his arm towards Shadow with the black hedgehog plush in hand. Amy watches Tails give Shadow his gift with a smile. Shadow at first seems surprised at this. Very few people have ever given him any kind of gift, he never expects such a thing. After a short pause, Shadow takes the plush from Tails. Tails sits back down as Shadow holds the plush in both of his hands and seems to be looking at the plush with awe. Receiving so few gifts, he`s not really sure what he should do, other than quietly saying,"Thank you."

Tails smiles, pleased that Shadow accepted his gift,"You`re welcome!"

Amy turns to Tails,"Aw, Tails, that was really nice of you."

"He helped me get the blue one. I thought a black one would fit him best."

Sonic suddenly cuts in,"Hey guys, check this out!"

Sonic turns up the volume as everyone`s conversations begin to die down and they all turn to the tv. There is a news reporter on the tv standing in front of some trees. The reporter is giving a report on the White Jungle area. According to the report being made on the tv by this reporter, White Jungle is closed off. There is a battle going on in White Jungle between GUN and Eggman. The tv shows a short image on one of Eggman`s giant robots fighting against several GUN soldiers, albeit the camera man is obviously a great distance from the battle scene.

Sonic is the first among the group to say something,"So that must be what Eggman has been up to all this time. Picking a fight with the military."

Knuckles responds thoughtfully,"That doesn`t sound like Eggman to just start a fight."

Rouge lifts her index finger,"Right, either he is distracting them from something or he was doing something in White Jungle and GUN stepped in to stop him."

Sonic leans back on his arms,"Either way, looks like GUN is doing a good enough job to hold him at bay. Probably nothing to worry about."

Shadow keeps his eyes on the vision on the tv. GUN being occupied by Eggman must be the reason they are being patient with him, Shadow begins to wonder.

Sonic turns off the tv with the remote control causing Shadow to become slightly annoyed. Amy attempts to lighten the mood of everyone,"Why don`t we all just get some rest for tomorrow?"

Sonic looks at Amy,"What are we doing tomorrow?"

"We`re going to Emerald Coast for a swim."

Rouge gives Amy a strange look,"Amy, it`s going to be the first of November tomorrow. It`s going to be too cold for a swim."

"It won`t be too cold. I checked the weather forecast this morning. Tonight will be cold but tomorrow will be a nice 73 degrees."

Rouge perks up,"Oh, that`s not bad at all."

Sonic puts a hand behind his head,"Maybe I should just-"

His thoughts are quickly interrupted. At first, Sonic is about to say how he is going to go check on Eggman since he is probably up to no good. It is also because Sonic can`t swim so he avoids watery situations whenever he can help it. But then he realizes something. Amy would go with or without him. If Amy is planning on swimming or being at the beach, she is going to be in a bikini. And...Shadow will be there. Sonic bites his tongue and decides to voice that he will join with everyone, in which such a statement shocks everyone. They are all used to Sonic running away when they go to swimming trips or to places where there will be a lot of water. Everyone shows their support of Sonic deciding to join everyone this time. Amy is especially happy about this. She is the one who has tried the hardest to get Sonic to go to the beach. Now he is finally doing it.

As it is pretty late now, everyone starts to get themselves comfortable in their sleeping spots. The lights are all turned off and the house falls quiet. One by one, each member of the Sonic gang is falling asleep. It is so quiet now in the house that all the sounds Shadow can hear are the sounds of the gentle wind outside and Sonic`s snoring.

Shadow is laying on his back next to Amy. His insomnia keeps him awake. He emotionlessly looks up at the swirly ceiling of Amy`s living room. His fingers run over the fake fur of the black hedgehog plush, seeming to be deep in thought. Now his eyes shift around the room. All those who come into view are all asleep. Beside him, Amy is laying on her back with her head tilted towards him. She`s sleeping soundly.

Then, Shadow notices something about Amy. She is shivering. Not a whole lot but her shivering is enough to be noticed by Shadow`s red eyes. He also notices that Amy has given herself the thinnest blanket out of everyone else. His eyes soften up on this realization. She has put everyone else`s needs ahead of her own, caring about her friends...like Maria...Shadow sits up from his laying down position. His hand grabs the blanket that`s over him and twists his body towards Amy. He throws up the blanket and allows the blanket to fall down on top of Amy.

The blanket has a small section that manages to fall on Tails. This wakes him up and his eyes flutter open. He is laying on his side so Amy is the first one he sees. His eyes open just in time to see the blanket fall over top of Amy. Once the blanket settles down on her, Shadow comes into view. Shadow is looking down at Amy with his red eyes clearly visible in the dark to Tails. He has a very dark look on his face as he watches Amy`s shivering beginning to stop. Tails lays still, hoping to not catch Shadow`s attention.

When Amy`s shivering finally stops, Shadow`s eyes flicker a sign of relief momentarily. He begins to lower himself back down onto his spot on his side next to Amy. Tails` eyes follow Shadow down. Shadow pauses before he lays completely down. He looks at Amy and his eyes seem to become a little more deep. He slowly leans over and kisses Amy softly on her exposed forehead. Then he pulls his head back and looks at Amy for another moment.

Shadow`s head shifts from Amy and he looks at Tails from over top of Amy`s body. Tails jerks a little upon seeing Shadow look at him. He feels a little scared about catching Shadow in an unusual situation. He begins to scoot back and bumps into Sonic. Sonic suddenly wakes up and swiftly sits up, looking around to see if they are in danger. He looks over in time to see Shadow turn away from Tails and lay back down in his spot. Sonic looks at Shadow for a moment and notices that his blanket is now over top of Amy.

She reminds me of Maria so much...

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