Chapter 1 "Catch him if you can"

“Sonic! Wait up!” shouted a pink hedgehog running after a distant cloud of dust that was moving off with an incredible speed.
“Sonic, please!” she shouted in vain. After a minute or two of fast sprint she got tired and stopped.
Amy admitted that she was getting better at running, but it seemed that she still wasn’t ready to catch up with her beloved.
“I have to try harder” she thought “I know I can”
Amy walked all the way home thinking of the new plan of capturing Sonic. All the plans she implemented in the past never succeeded, but she had no intention to give up yet.
“I have to become faster, stronger for him. Then Sonic will have to take me seriously” she reassured herself.
Amy opened the front door and walked into a small living room of her house. Every typical busy day of Amy Rose started like this.
“I’ll catch you, Sonic, I’ll catch you at all costs” she frowned and proceeded thinking “I’ve been training hard to run faster. Ok, that’s not working, is it? I’m too slow. Let’s face it - nobody in the whole world is as fast as you are. Not even Shadow… Ok, if I can’t run faster, maybe I can slow you down? Hmm, I don’t want to harm you. That’s not an option. But…”
Amy’s face brightened and she screamed “Eureka! How come I never thought of this earlier?!”
Amy rushed to the phone, which was situated on the table near the couch.
“Where is her number? Where is it?” she thought while looking through her own telephone directory. “Ah! Found it!”
Her hands trembled a bit while she was dialing the number. Amy pressed her ear close to the receiver. She waited for 10 or 11 ringing tones. Nobody was there, on the other end. But at last she heard a sleepy voice answering “Hello?”
“Hello, Rouge! I'm so glad you’re there!” Amy screamed in the receiver.
“Oh, it’s you, Amy. How many times do I have to repeat myself? Don’t call me in the morning unless it’s an emergency! You woke me up, again!”
“Sorry, Rouge, I didn’t mean to, but it is kind of an emergency. And by the way, you’re never home in the evening, so stop complaining!”
“Ok, you’re right. What is that? ” answered the worn out bat more friendly “Did Sonic finally come to his senses?”
“No, not that, unfortunately. But I’ve come up with a excellent plan how to make him! And I need your help.”
“Really? How may I help you?”
“Do you know how to contact Shadow?”
There was a moment of silence. And Rouge answered in a more awakened, even worried tone:
“Amy, I don’t think this is a good idea. What do you need him for?”
“I can’t tell you yet." Amy continued in a sly tone" So I assume you know how to contact him. Please tell me. Please! Please, Rouge, tell me!”
“No way, no. I won't. Amy, why don’t you just think of some other plan that doesn’t involve Shadow?”
“I already tried everything I could think of! This is my last chance. Rouge, pleeease. Why won't you help me?"
There was a moment of silence.
“Ah, Amy.” Rouge yawned “You have a talent to convince.
I can't tell you his location or anything."
“I’ll keep it a secret. Just tell me, please”
"Amy, no"
"Why?"
"He has importaint stuff to do, besides I doubt that he will ever help you"
"How can you be so sure about that? You have a crush on him or something?"
"How dare you! No!"
"Well, why then won't you tell me?"
Rouge sighed and hung up the receiver.
Amy redialed the number again. And again. And again.
On the 7th time Rouge finally answered "What do you want?"
"Rouge please, tell me how to contact him, please"
"Luckily for you I can't switch this phone off" darkly remarked the bat.
"Rouge please, you're my only hope!"
“Ok, listen. I'll give you his cell phone number just leave me in peace, will you?”
Amy noted down the number, Rouge pronunced as rapidly as she could.
"Now can you leave me to rest? And don’t call me in the morning again, you’ve heard me?!”
“Thank you Rouge! Thank you very much! I promise I won’t do that again. Bye!” and Amy hung up the receiver.
Somewhere in Night Babylon in her club Rouge heaved a deep sigh. “I don’t like this. At all” she murmured and made her way upstairs to a perch she was used to cling to during her sleep.

In the meantime Amy went to her kitchen to drink some tea. She felt nervous about the talk she was about to give. They weren’t in touch with Shadow for about a year since the Black Comet accident. “At all costs…” she repeated.
The pink hedgehog emptied her cup and returned to the phone. “Well, here goes nothing” she cheered herself up and dialed the number.
3 ringing tones. And silence.
“Hello?” called Amy cautiously.
“Hello” answered a cold and emotionless male voice “Who’s speaking?”
“Erm, Shadow, is that you?”
“I would like to hear the answer to my question first”, demanded the voice in an imperious tone.
“It’s Amy Rose speaking” vacillatingly mumbled she.
There was a moment of silence.
“Amy Rose?” asked rather surprised Shadow slowly “To what do I owe this honor to hear you? Does the blue faker need my assistance again?”
“No it’s not Sonic. It’s me who needs your assistance” replied Amy trying to match the formal tone of the conversation.
“You? Not much of a difference though. Did someone get lost?”
Amy could have sworn she heard a faint scoffing tone in his voice.
“No.”
“Then what do you need me for?”
“Well, I was chasing after Sonic this morning…”
“How original…”
“…and I realized that I’m not fast enough to catch up with him…”
“What was abundantly clear right from the start…”
“What?”
“Ah, nothing. Go on.”
“So I thought if I can’t be as fast as he is, maybe I can slow him down somehow?”
“So you want me to break his legs for you?” suggested Shadow in a bored tone.
“No. Of course not!”
“Then get to the point!” he cut her short.
“I want you to teach me how to use Chaos Control” she babbled quickly.
“Come again, you want me to do... What? Whom do you take me for? A private tutor?”
Amy almost envisioned how Shadow drew his ears to his head.
“You’re the only person in the whole world that can help me!”
“That doesn’t mean I will”
“Shadow, please, I’ll do whatever it takes”
“Amy, why won’t you try something else? I don’t have time for your childish games!”
“I have already tried everything there is: delusions, traps, blackmail, even water! Nothing helped! I trained hard running, I mastered all the fighting techniques with hammer… everything…”
“I’m starting to like your attitude.”
“Does that mean you’ll teach me?”
“No, it doesn’t. Even if you were capable of operating with Chaos energy, in what I have certain doubts, I would never waste my time on something like that.”
“Shadow, maybe I can pay for your time?”
Amy heard quiet chuckling on the other end, then laughter.
"Shadow the hedgehog, tutor paid by the hour... this is who I am...ridiculous!"
Amy waited patiently. Then Shadow said:
“I’m not interested in money, you see. I work for GUN now and they pay quite enough.”
“Is there anything I can do to get you to help me?”
“Anything, you say?”
“I won’t harm Sonic!”
“Oh, please, if I wanted to kill or harm the faker I would certainly do it myself.”
“What then?”
“I’ll think about this, alright? And I’ll call you back soon.”
“When?”
“As soon as possible”
“Ok. Bye, I guess?”
“Bye, Amy”