Heavy Hitter (One-Shot)

A/N:  I love the headcannon that Amy's hammer weights a fucking ridiculous amount, like a few-tons ridiculous.

3rd POV

"There's no way it's actually that heavy."

Shadow hears the bickering as he makes his way up to the group. They fought some of Eggman's bots earlier that day, and had planned to rejoin afterwards. He'd only been gone a short while, having stayed behind to inspect the machinery, and from what he could see they were already up to something. Rouge stands next to Amy, Cream, and Tails, as Knuckles and Sonic were, from what he could see, yelling at one another in front of Amy's piko-piko hammer that rests afront them.

"You're just being weak, let me try." He hears Knuckles prod, and as he finally rejoins the group, Shadow stands next to the girls as he watches Knuckles grab onto the hammer's hilt, and try to lift.

"What is he doing?" Shadow asks aloud, but before he gets a response, he's surprised to see the echidna struggling to even budge the hammer from where it's perched. Knuckles yells, arms shaking as he visibly weakens. He loses his grip, then his footing and steps away agitatedly.

"What the- What did you do to it??" Knuckles points his hand at Amy accusingly, then to her hammer. Shadow could practically see the steam seeping out his nose.

Beside him, Amy laughs lightly. "I didn't do anything!"

Sonic shakes his head, stepping up to the hammer and patting the hilt with is palm, "Ames, I couldn't even move it!"

That catches Shadow's attention, considering Knuckles and Sonic are amongst the stronger teammates in their group. This whole ordeal is a bit surprising to Shadow frankly, since he's never really questioned the work and wear of Amy's weapon of choice. Even though he'd just watched Knuckles, who is almost entirely brute strength, fail to move the hammer, Shadow finds himself still in disbelief.

Amy walks up to Sonic and Knuckles while the two continue to bicker, and grabs the hilt, swiftly swinging the hammer up to rest upon her shoulder. Shadow's eyes go wide, because her movement was effortless. The rest of them verbally complain, and Knuckles throws his hands into the air indignantly.

"It's a magic hammer! There's gotta be something special with it that only ties to you!"

Sonic nods, clearly in shock as well, "You have to summon it, maybe it responds to your hands?"

Amy outstretches her arm, and gives the hammer a few swirls around her wrist. Shadow huffs briefly. She's clearly showing off.

"Anyone can carry it, it's not just me. Sonic, you've literally used my hammer before." Amy gestures the hammer towards the blue hedgehog, and Sonic backs away as if it might burn him. He waves his hands in font of him.

"That was years ago!"

Amy's expression falters uncertain, and Shadow wonders what's confusing her. She holds the hammer with both hands and looks down at it thoughtfully, "Is it actually that heavy? People have used my hammer before, so I guess I just never really questioned it's weight. And this is the first time anyone beside myself has tried to handle it in a while."

"It's really heavy." Knuckles grunts.

The two look so defeated, and it's almost amusing. Shadow looks over to Rouge who's been silent, and she shrugs.

"Let me try." Shadow finds himself saying, and the three whip their attention towards him. Amy's expression brightens and she drops the hammer to the ground again.

"There's no way you're going to be able to pick it up! The two of us barely managed to move it dude." Shadow quirks a brow in disregard to the comment, but also in slight interest. He's built differently than them, quite literally, so he's curious to see how his strength fares in regards to Amy's piko.

He stands in front of the hammer, which is much larger in size than he'd been expecting. It's different up close, and he wonders if it's also grown in size over the years to match it's user. He ignores the eyes on him as he takes his hands and grips the hilt. Shadow starts to lift, testing the waters, and feels his arms go taught with the lack of movement. He can hear Sonic's snickers, and can't hide the expression of surprise as he begins to actually put his strength into picking up the weapon.

He feels the hammer rise off the ground, the weight fully drops into his grasp, and he's able to lift it up onto his hands in a similar fashion to how Amy was prior. Sonic and Knuckles step up to him in outrage and he can't help but stare down at the hammer.

It's heavy.

Much heavier than he honestly thought it'd be.

Shadow's still managing to lift it just fine, but, to his complete and utter bafflement, he has a sneaking suspicion that when carried for a prolonged period of time, his arms will tire of wear. This is new; a limit he has yet to exceed. Amy and her hammer have just now become much more intriguing than they previously were, and he finds he likes the flutter of challenge that resides in his chest.

"How are you doing that??" "That's not fair- this has to be a prank!" The two yell, and Shadow directs his attention to Amy who's smiling brightly at him.

"It's not a prank." Shadow interrupts, and adjusts the hammer to rest on his shoulder with a huff, "This weighs an exceptional amount, Rose."

He notices Cream and Tails have edged closer to them.

"I don't understand how you're able to hold that." Sonic says, eyes wide.

"Im the ultimate life form. I was made to be able to carry exceptionally heavy things." He jokes, but despite that, he's still shocked the hammer can weigh as much as it does. She said there's not necessarily any magic tied to it, which means it's just an ordinary hammer.

The flutter in his chest, as he's come to identify, is admiration. The thought, and probable fact, that if Amy were to hit him with her hammer, assuming she's using all her strength, would be a damaging hit. Enough to make him stagger, or even yet, incapacitate him briefly. He finds he truly enjoys this new challenge. Her strength alone may even par to his.

Shadow blinks, and finally makes eye contact with Amy, "Im genuinely impressed, Rose. You're outstandingly strong to be able to carry this around like it's nothing. Even though I can carry this, I don't think I'd be able to do so all day like you can without feeling a bit of drain."

Amy's cheeks redden to the compliment, and she averts her gaze away from his while the others gawk in disbelief.

"Bench press me." Knuckles pleads almost desperately, and hurriedly walks over to her. "Im a bulky dude, and if you can pick that thing up then you can definitely carry me- no wait! Better yet, just straight up throw me across the field."

Amy laughs, and shakes her head modestly, "Im not throwing you, Knuckles."

"She could bench press all of us with how much that hammer weighs." Sonic chuckles, and joins Knuckles in asking to be thrown.

Shadow wonders how a spar between Amy and Sonic would result. Without knowing about the hammer's weight and her unbelievable strength, he still would've placed his bet towards her winning. Now it's a guaranteed.

"We have got to do so many strength competitions!" Tails chimes in, as if he'd heard Shadow's initial thoughts, "Or tests in general! Who would win in an arm-wrestling match? How fast is your pitch? How much damage can you inflict with your hammer? OH! I want to weigh the hammer too by itself! Compared to your average physique, it's almost deceiving how strong you are, Amy! How strong are your punches by themselves? To the hammer-"

"Ah geez, we got Tails to go on another one of his rants." Sonic snickers, and Shadow watches as Amy's cheeks flush from the attention.

Good. She deserves it.

Shadow wonders if, he too, will eventually get his match with her and her hammer.