For The Love of Speed

Chapter 46: Not-so Friendly Competition

POV: 3rd Person

The three hedgehogs walk into the arcade, the blue one practically beaming with excitement at the plethora of games in front of them. Shadow goes up to the counter and buys them all coins for the games. He distributes them out, keeping more for himself, after all he is the one who paid. They go their separate ways, Amy heading to the wack-a-mole, Shadow heads to one of the shooting simulator games, and Sonic goes to a Just Dance pad. Amy absolutely crushes the game, getting a high score and adds her name to the leader board with a smile. Sonic gets a high score on his game as well, adding his name to the list with a victory air fist. Shadow doesn't even have to try at his game, which makes it not so fun for him. He gets a perfect score and goes to type his name to add to the list. He gets in 'SHADO' before it cuts off. Apparently it has a 5 letter limit. "Damn it." He curses to himself. He looks around to make sure no one he knows is near before he hits the backspace and changing it to say 'SHADS' he presses enter and huffs, walking away to find a different game. Shadow ends up playing every shooting game in the arcade, getting a perfect score on every one. He has to keep typing in 'SHADS' since every game has a limit of 5 letters for some reason. He walks around the corner, only to run into Amy. She is looking the other way when they run into each other and she quickly apologizes before looking up at who she ran in to "Sorry, didn't see you th- oh hey Shadow, having fun?" Shadow just crosses his arms "They're all too easy." Amy chuckles in response "Well. Maybe try a game you don't know you'll beat. Let me guess, you played the shooting games?" He huffs at her, annoyed that she predicted him so easily, before sighing "I don't know what else to play." The pink hedgehog smiles "Well, why don't you try one of the classic arcade games? Like PacMan, DigDug, Tetris, or Galaxian?" Shadow shrugs and turns around, waving to Amy with a bored "Thanks, I will" before heading off to find one of those games.

Amy frowns at his slightly rude behavior and continues towards where she was going, Just Dance. As she walks up, she sees a very familiar blue hedgie finishing up another dance and adding his name to the board. "Hey Sonic, want to do a song with me?" He turns around to face Amy and gives her a smile "Sure. I'll do one." Amy gives him a warm smile and hops up "Good! Then I'm picking the song." The blue hedgehog shrugs his shoulders and puts the coins in the slots stepping back to let her choose. She scrolls through for a bit until she finds a song that catches her eye. 'Taylor Swift: Anti-Hero' "Ooh I love this song!" She stands on the dance pad after selecting it and gets ready. The two dance flawlessly for a minute, Amy singing along to the song. As they get to the end, the scores pop up. Sonic didn't get the high score, but he scored 3 more points than Amy, making him the victor. "Yes! I won!" Amy chuckles "Yeah. By three points." "Fine then, let's have a rema-" their convo comes to a halt when the hear a familiar frustrated growl coming from a game just around the corner. Sonic looks back to Amy with a worried face and says "On second thought, hold that thought. I'll be right back."  Amy sighs and puts her hands on her hips 'No you won't, like usual' she turns back to her game. Sonic walks over to the noise and sees Shadow balling up his fists and angrily playing a game. He gets closer and can see the name displayed on top of the machine 'PacMan' he laughs quietly and pops up next to Shadow, making him jump slightly and nearly punch the blue hedgehog out of instinct. "Woah Shads, calm down. Got a little stuck?" Shadow watches as the little yellow ball spins yet again with the noise signaling he lost. He growls and turns to Sonic with rage in his eyes. "I can't get past this God damn level. It's stupid and rigged." Sonic just chuckles "Ok, get it to the level and I'll show you what to do when you get there. I'm a pro when it comes to video games." Shadow rolls his eyes and grumpily plays the game again. Once he gets to the level he growls "This is it." Sonic smirks and squeezes in front of the grumpy male, placing his hands on top of Shadow's on the controls. "See, you just got to go over here, go through the portal, go up this way, then down, then over here, go though the portal again, and then over here and BAM. Level cleared." He chuckles and turns back to look at Shadow, noticing a faint blush now on the taller males face. Shadow huffs and says "You didn't have to hold my hand the hole time Faker. You could have just shown me." Sonic chuckles again "I know, but you weren't complaining. I think it's funny to catch you off guard, especially when you're grumpy. It seems to get rid of your foul mood. Now you try. When you die it'll be my turn." Sonic squeezes back out from between him and the machine, standing back with a smirk and his hands on his hips.