New Embrace

New Embrace - Chapter 3

His main objective right now was to make sure the pink hedgehog could focus on the task at hand, something he couldn't help doubt. It wasn't really his fault that he doubted Amy's focus however, he didn't see her when she was helping to lead the resistance and a lot of the time before that most of their interactions started with her looking for Sonic. He wouldn't dismiss her ability however, she did good today and that's what's important.

"We do need to work on your fighting style however, you are slow and sloppy." He added matter of factly.

Amy retracted her hammer to keep her hands free and she started to follow the black hedgehog. Chaos knows if Eggman had a secondary trap set as a backup. She wouldn't put it past him. One couldn't drop their guard for a minute when it came to Eggman.

Shadow had very high standards of others, even himself. But knowing that didn't stop Amy feeling annoyed with his criticism. "Slow and sloppy?" she quipped with offense in her tone. Then she crossed her arms and turned her head away as she often did to display displeasure, "Well I'm sorry that I wasn't gifted with high speed like you and Sonic. And I'll have you know I took classes and learned from professionals."

Shadow turned back to her as she made the excuse that she wasn't as fast as Shadow and Sonic, that was true, but she was also missing the point. "There is a difference between an unattainable gift and a skill that can be mastered and while you may not be as fast as I am that doesn't mean you aren't faster than most."

Shadow then approached her and grabbing her by her chin he turned the pink hedgehogs head back to face him, wanting to have her full attention. "I've seen you chase Sonic time and time again and every time you keep up with him, how fast you are isn't the issue, Rose, the issue is instead of focusing on actually hitting your opponent you simply swing your hammer as hard as you can and hoping it makes contact. That is a foolish way to fight, it can work against stationary enemies such as the badniks, but once you face an opponent who knows how to get out of the way, that won't work." His tone was steady and calculating, more like a stern coach then a friend giving advice.

Shadow grabbing her chin caught Amy by surprise. Her arms remained folded as he turned her head to face him. The intention may have been to get her full attention but it was inadvertently accomplishing the opposite. The touch brought a small blush to her face. Being this close to Shadow wasn't the norm. Neither was him touching her like this. Did he ever touch anyone like this? Heck, Sonic never did.

The black hedgehog's words faded in the background as Amy was forced to look him in the eyes. Red eyes were rare and usually were depicted as evil in media and ancient texts. But Amy felt no evil from Shadow. Instead her mind wandered... Yanno... I never realized what Shadow's eyes were actually like. Like yeah, they're red. I knew that. But... They're actually pretty.

It didn't take Shadow too long to realise that... Amy wasn't paying attention, he could see the far away look in her eye, the same one he'd see in her sometimes while she was looking at Sonic. Yet.. Sonic wasn't here by now, if he had shown up no doubt he would make his appearance known by now.

The ultimate life form didn't think much of it however, they needed to focus, this was important after all. With his other hand Shadow began snapping his fingers, his hand held up to the side of her ear so it would hopefully be loud enough for her to focus.

"Rose, pay attention." He ordered in a stern, yet calm voice.

"Ah!" Amy quickly shook her head once and snapped back to the present. A nervous smile drew on her face, "S-sorry. I spaced out there... Battles! We were talking about battles, right?"

Shadow let out a long sigh before letting go of Amy's chin and running a hand along his quills, he was going to need patience here, he had already accepted that, but now he was questioning if Amy could focus at all.