New Embrace

New Embrace - Chapter 5

"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.