Chapter 1

It started just like any other day. I woke up from a good night's sleep and sat up in my bed. I stretched out my arms and legs, scrunching my nose as I did, and emitted an enormous yawn. Life was about the same as it had always been. It would be peaceful for a while, then the "great and powerful" Eggman would try to take over the world, and of course we would be there to stop him.

Although all of us played our part in saving the world, Sonic was the one who shined the most out of the group. His dazzling charm, wit, courage, and of course speed was what seperated Sonic from "Sonic Team". Of course, none of us minded that he was the popular one. In the end, all that mattered that the world was safe from Egghead.

After sitting in bed trying to comprehend the fact that I was now awake, I slid my legs off of the edge of the bed and made a first attempt to get up on my feet. Of course, I was still half asleep, so I stumbled back to sitting on the edge of the bed again. Now determined to get up on my feet, I put all my force into a rocking motion. With that momentum, I was able to get up on my feet.

I made my way over to my white antique vanity set, sitting down on the little padded stool and looking into the mirror. What I saw in the mirror made me jump. My pink quills were in what appeared to be a state of fashion denial. They were all tangled and twisted, and my fur was ruffled up from all the tossing and turning I did in my sleep. It was time to get to work.

First I grabbed my quill brush, and got to work on the birds nest I called my quills. At first, each stroke with the brush hurt since it was so tangled up there. Once all the tangles and mats were out though, the brush strokes became soothing and calming to me. After I was done brushing my quills, I then grabbed a brush made with fine hairs. I used this as my fur brush, since it was soft, but able to flatten down my fur.

First I smoothed out my shoulders and arms. Then I smoothed out my legs, making them silky smooth and shiny again. Usually I ignored the areas that clothes would be covering, but today I felt like treating myself to a full body brush. Once I was done, I felt like a new hedgehog. I saw some makeup on my on the top of my vanity that Rouge had bought for me. For a moment I considered it, but makeup was still a rather new concept to me.

I never really needed makeup, since my complexion has always been clean and soft. I didn't want to cover up my natural look. However, I decided to use just a little bit. I took some mascara and applied some to my eyelashes. That was all I needed, really.

After getting myself cleaned up, I finally picked out some clothes to wear for the day. It was pretty warm out, so I decided to go for my cream colored tank top along with some jean shorts and sneakers that matched my top. Then for the finishing touch, I pulled my chest length pink quills back into a ponytail. I was now ready for the day.

I decided to start my day by heading over to the smoothie shop. It was a Saturday, and that was my routine on Saturday mornings. Rouge and I always had morning smoothies at the end of the week. I jogged over to the smoothie shop that was ten blocks away from my house, observing the world around me as I did.

It was a nice and warm spring morning. Birds were chirping and the streets were still quiet for the most part. I took a deep breath through my nose, taking in the scents of spring. It had rained the night before, so the air still smelled of rain and dew was still lingering on the grass along the sidewalks.

As I jogged, I passed by all of my friends houses. We all lived in the same neighborhood, "Hero's Village". It was the city's way of showing us how much they appreciated our services to the world. The made a neighborhood just for us! And it was really quite lovely. Cherry trees lined the cobblestone streets, and each house was designed specifically to our own personal likings.

After my nice soothing jog to the smoothie shop in our neighborhood, I took a moment to catch my breath at the door before entering. Just like clockwork, Rouge was inside waiting for me. She had her smoothie and also mine. We always got the same thing, so it wasn't hard for her to figure out what I wanted.

"Amy! Over here hun!" she called to me as she waved for me to come and sit. I waved back at her with a smile before walking over and sitting down across from her. I took my smoothie that she ordered for me and began sipping from the straw. Strawberry Ras with whip cream. My favorite!

"Hi Rouge. Sorry I'm late. My quills were just a mess this morning."

"Oh don't even apologise. I'd be more mad if you came looking like a mess!"

I laughed at her response. She wasn't joking though. Rouge really would throw a fit if I came looking like I'd just wrestled a bear.

"Yeah I know. I had a strange dream last night though. It made me toss and turn a lot I guess," I explained, continuing to sip on my smoothie.

"A weird dream huh?" Rouge looked me up and down, as if trying to read me. "It wasn't about Sonic, was it?"

I rolled my eyes at this. I could see why she'd think that, but I gave up chasing Sonic years ago. The way I see it now, life is too short to always follow someone else instead of making your own path.

"No, it wasn't about Sonic. It was actually about… Shadow?"

This made Rouge's ears perk towards me in interest. She rose a brow at me and had a confused look. I don't blame her. It confused me too.

"Shadow, huh? What was the dream about?" she prodded at me.

I set my smoothie down, and held my hands together in my lap as I proceeded to explain.

"Um, well. It's kind of fuzzy to be perfectly honest, but I remember that I had a Chaos Emerald. Then Shadow was there, and… he was spouting commands at me. Almost as if he was instructing me on what to do with it."

Rouge was now listening to me intently, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. She then smiled and said, "Oh really? So he was teaching you how to use it?"

"Yeah… it was weird. I mean I know how a Chaos Emerald works. So it was odd to me."

Rouge nodded her head but raised a brow at me with a smug look. "Well have you ever used one before?"

"Well. No. But that doesn't mean I don't know how to use one! I've seen Sonic, Shadow, Silver, and Knuckles use them for Chaos Control!"

Rouge snorted a bit and then let out a small little cackle of a laugh. "Oh Amy! Observing and actually doing are two different things!"

I blushed a bit in embarrassment at that. Of course she's right. I know the elements of using one, but if I was actually handed one and told to use a Chaos Control, I'd probably have no idea where to even begin. After Rouge's laughter finally died down she let out a deep sigh and looked to me curiously.

"You're psychic, right?" she asked. I was a little shaken by that comment. Nobody's brought up my spiritual abilities to me in a long time. I'd almost forgotten about them myself to be perfectly honest.

"Y-yes… but what does that have to do with anything?"

She took a moment to finish off her smoothie before setting it off to the side and continuing her thought.

"Well, maybe this is a sign for you to learn how to use a Chaos Emerald. I mean, you're 19 now! You should at least know how, right?"

Rouge made a very valid point here. Maybe it was a sign that something crazy was going to happen. Without knowledge of how to use an emerald this time, I wouldn't be much help.

"You know Rouge, I think you're right. There's only two things wrong with this though."

"Oh? And what's that?"

I lifted my hand up and held out one finger, "One. Where am I going to get a Chaos Emerald?" I then lifted up a second finger, " Two. Who's going to teach me. Sonic can't sit still to do a lesson, Knuckles is busy guarding the Master Emerald, and Shadow… well I don't think he'd be interested in teaching me."

Rouge rose a brow to me and tapped her finger on the table. "Is that what you actually think? Or are you just chicken to ask?"

I let out a small groan, dropping my head on the table, causing a loud thump and the table to shake. Rouge quickly grabbed my smoothie before it toppled over onto my head and set it next to her empty one.

"What if I asked him for you? I could probably convince him to do it," she chuckled as she patted my head. I shot my head up and held my hands out in front of me.

"No! I mean! I don't know! I just-" I sighed and hung my head a bit, "What if he sees me mess up and laughs at me."

"Amy, this is Shadow we're talking about. Shadow doesn't laugh. He'd probably just…" she looked up in thought and chuckled, "Well he'd probably just glare in disappointment."

I flashed a glare up at her and growled, "Rouge you're not helping right now."

"Alright I'm sorry," she rolled her eyes and smiled at me, " But I wouldn't be too quick to make conclusions about Shadow, Amy. He can be surprising."

I gave myself a minute to consider what Rouge was saying. Besides, what if this dream didn't actually mean anything? What if it was just a strange dream and that's all it was? Then again, having chaos manipulation under my belt would definitely make me a better asset to the team. Sometimes my piko hammer just isn't enough.

Finally I took a deep breath and let it out in a long exhale before lifting my eyes to Rouge again and nodding, "Ok. Go ahead and ask him for me if you want."

Rouge's wings did a small little flap as her eyes lit up and she quickly pulled out her phone and started typing away on the touch screen keypad. She was typing for a minute before she finally set the phone down and had a proud expression on her face.

"Done and sent! Now we just wait for a response!"

We stayed in the smoothie shop for a little longer, talking about other things in our life while we waited for a response. Rouge told me about how hers and Knuckles relationship was going. Nobody was surprised they ended up together. They were always flirting way back when.

I told her about my week, as boring as it was. Since it's been pretty quiet from eggman lately, I mostly spent my days either reading, gardening, or going for jogs in the morning and before dark. It was pretty run of the mill. I wish that I'd had more to tell her though. She always had wonderful stories about a date that she'd been on with Knuckles, or a country she visited due to a mission from G.U.N. She had an awesome life. I had to admit, I was really jealous.

As Rouge was telling me about her mission in Yurashia, her phone finally buzzed from an incoming text. I looked down at her phone and felt my body get hot from nervousness. Was it Shadow? What was he going to say? Rouge grabbed her phone and opened the message, reading it out loud to me.

"Ok, he said, 'Normally I would say no because I have much more important things to do than teach little pink fangirls how to use one of the most powerful gems in the universe. That being said though, Eggman's been quiet and I have nothing better to do nowadays. Tell her I'll do one lesson, and one lesson only. That should be enough to get her started. She can meet me at Emerald Park tonight and I'll bring my emerald with me. 8:00 pm sharp. And she better not be late.'"

After she finished reading the message, Rouge glanced up at me and had a questioning look in her eyes.

"So. You gonna go?" she pried. I began to fidget, feeling slightly uncomfortable, but also a little relieved. I was glad he agreed to do it, but also nervous because he didn't sound too thrilled about helping me. Not that I was expecting an excited response from him, but still. I nodded and smiled up at Rouge, trying to not show my worry.

"Y-yeah. He was nice enough to agree, so I'm gonna go. Besides, this is what I wanted anyways, right?"

Rouge seemed skeptical for a moment, but soon shrugged it off and lifted herself up onto her feet.

"I suppose so. Well, anywho, I gotta get going. I've got some big plans today. Have a great day, Amy," she said as she started to make her way to the front door of the shop. She then looked over her shoulder to me before she left and smiled smugly, "Don't worry about tonight, Amy. You're gonna be great." She then left the shop and took off flying away to wherever she was going.

I stayed in my seat for a little while longer, processing what had happened. I had a lesson with Shadow tonight over Chaos Emeralds. This was so weird. When was the last time I even spent any time with Shadow alone? Space Colony is the last I can remember quite frankly… This was going to be weird. I grabbed my empty plastic smoothie cup and as I was leaving the store, I threw it into the trash.

I stopped as I exited the shop, and stared up at the now bright blue sunny day. It was peaceful and quiet. A perfect day. What have I gotten myself into.