A/N: Ok so this chapter is long overdue and I apologize. School and work have been getting in my the way of my writing so I had to unfortunately take some time to dedicate myself to that but now that I have found some free time, I figured I'd give you another chapter. This one is going to be kickstarting a lot of things so keep your eyes open as I have left a few surprises in this chapter including a cameo (see if you can catch it, if you do PM me your answer). Anyways, here it is and I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 8:

Green Light Ride

"Oh, my god that was so cheesy. I love it. That doesn't seem like you Shadow, you alright? I'm surprised I didn't hear from you sooner." Shadow read aloud much to Rouge's delight.

"I told you it would work, there was nothing to worry about." Rouge smirked as Shadow just grumpily folded his arms and watched the bat as she handed the phone back to him. "Now I'm going to leave you to your own devices, message her back."

Shadow stared at the phone screen as he contemplated his next move, what should he respond with?

"Damn it Shadow, this is talking to a girl not a chess match!" The ebony hedgehog scolded himself as his fingers started typing up a simple message. Rouge just giggled at Shadow's frustration as he finally hit send and watched until the screen confirmed his message had been sent.

"What did you say?" Rouge snatched the phone from him and looked over what he had typed. "Yeah, it's just been a busy past couple of days. Sorry I didn't message you."

"That was good right?" Shadow asked as he looked at the bat who sighed in response.

"It could have been be-." Rouge was interrupted by the ping of Shadow's phone, indicating that there was a notification. Without a second's hesitation she clicked on it and a smile grew on her face.

"What? What is it?" Shadow rushed to her side curious as to what she was smiling about.

"You got a match!" Rouge exclaimed as she squealed with joy.

"Well, I'll go get the gasoline and light myself on fire if it means I can get out of this training." Shadow mumbled as Rouge nudged him.

"No doofus, I mean you got someone who likes you." Rouge explained as she turned the phone for Shadow to see. "She's pretty cute too."

Shadow looked at the profile and had to admit Rouge was right about that. There in the first picture was a beautiful chipmunk with long flowing brown hair and eyes that were the color of the ocean in a fiery red dress. She was sitting atop a rock in the middle of the forest smiling and she looked genuinely happy to be there. Shadow swiped through all of her other pictures fascinated by the chipmunk in the photographs. He backed out of the pictures so that he could read her profile, she seemed like a very typical girl judging by what she had put on there. The one thing that caught his attention was her name.

"Sally." He whispered to himself thinking, where had he heard that name before? She was a total stranger but seemed so familiar at the same time. Before he could dwell on it anymore, his phone chimed, indicating he had gotten a received a message from the app.

"Look at that, she messaged you." Rouge said as she watched over the hedgehog's shoulders to see how he would handle things. Shadow said nothing as he looked to see that she had messaged him first.

"Hey handsome." It read and there was even a winky face at the end. Shadow could feel his face slightly turn red as he looked to Rouge, he needed advice. He knew that in order to get with Amy he was going to need training but he was still unsure about all of this. There were so many things that could go wrong, and he sure as hell didn't want that to happen.

"What do I say?" Shadow asked, practically begging for any kind of knowledge that he could use to help him in this conversation.

"Remember what I said earlier." Was all the bat spoke as she watched Shadow nervously sweat, he really did need to get a grip on himself.

"Hello?" Shadow quickly received a smack to the side of the head from Rouge. He shot her an angry glare as he rubbed the spot where he got thumped. "What the hell was that for?"
"You're not Adele so I don't know why you are saying hello." Rouge remarked as Shadow quickly erased the word from the message.

"You're right. Can I type why hello there?" Just as soon as he got the words out of his mouth he once again got smacked upside the head by the bat. He growled in anger as he squinted his crimson eyes at her. He was getting real sick and tired of this.

"You're not Obi Wan Kenobi either. How about you use the tool I showed you earlier." Rouge enunciated the last sentence slowly, hoping that the ebony hedgehog would pick up on the art of context clues and thankfully he did. His eyes lit up and she could just imagine a light bulb going off over his head as the idea occurred to him.

"I have to use a pick up line don't I?" Shadow asked as Rouge simply nodded, he pulled up a tab on google and he did a quick search and found one that he liked.

"You're already learning darling." Rouge commented as Shadow typed it in and turned to Rouge for approval. "Let me ask you something. Did it hurt, when you fell from heaven?"

"I think she will love it." That was enough for Shadow to hit send and wait a moment before she responded again. He opened the phone to look at what she had replied with.

"Not as much as when I fell for you." Shadow read her response aloud to Rouge and he could feel his face flush crimson as the bat squealed in excitement.

"You got her hook, line, and sinker! You have to ask her out now!"

"Already? So soon?" Shadow looked at the bat quizzically, not sure if this is how things were supposed to work.

"Yeah! I mean she already likes you, and judging by that response she clearly wants to go out." Rouge explained as Shadow's fingers hovered over the keypad, he decided to take a leap of faith and trust Rouge's advice and ask her out. But what would they do? He had no idea what he was supposed to do on a date.

"What should we do for a date? I'm kind of lost there." Shadow admitted, not really sure what the game plan was now.

"Hmmmm…" Rouge thought for a moment before an idea popped into her head. "How about "Zona collinare verde"? They have really good italian food from what I hear."

Shadow liked the sound of that. "Sounds like a plan." He quickly typed up a message asking her if she'd be interested in going out to eat at the restaurant that Rouge had mentioned and sent it.

"Ok, so now what are we going to do? You suckered me in on this date so you better help me get through this, I have 3 weeks before your party and I need to be able to woo Amy by then."

"Relax, don't worry. We're going to need to do a few things first though before you go out on this date." Rouge replied as the ebony hedgehog swiftly pulled his phone out to the sound of his phone chiming a couple of times. He looked at the notifications, one was a message from Amy, the other was a message from Sally.

"I'll message Amy later." He mumbled to himself as he opened the message from Sally and read it aloud. "Ooooh, straight to the point. I love it. Does 5 work for you?"

"We can definitely do that, it's only twelve-thirty right now. That should give us plenty of time to do what we need to do to get you ready." Rouge walked over to Shadow's room and started going through his closet in an attempt to find something for Shadow to wear. After Shadow had agreed to the time and to pick her up Sally had messaged the hedgehog her address and he put his phone away and walked to his room and stopped in the doorway with his jaw agape.

"Rouge, it literally looks like a tornado went through here."

"I know! I can't believe you don't have a single good looking piece of clothing in here. You just seem to have nothing but the whole hot topic catalogue in there. We definitely need to get you something new." With that she dragged Shadow out of the room and to the door.

"Where are we going?!" Shadow demanded where he was being dragged against his will, he didn't like where this was headed.

"TO THE MALL!" Rouge screamed happily as the ebony hedgehog groaned and continued to be dragged out of his apartment. This was going to be one hell of a day.

So after being dragged around by Rouge for a few hours, the two had managed to get quite a lot of things to prepare for Shadow's date/training. Rouge had opted to buy everything so she spent no expense. She bought the ebony hedgehog some new cologne named Puissant le tatou, which she thought smelled rather good unlike Shadow who thought it smelled an awful lot like charcoal. Then they went and bought Shadow a black dress shirt and pants as well as a crimson tie. Then after getting Shadow the appropriate shoes he needed to complete his attire, Rouge made Shadow get some hair gel and she helped him (much to his resistance) with parting his quills to the side. Needless to say whenever they had gotten back to Shadow's apartment, Rouge wanted him to go and try on everything and put on the cologne.

"I don't think this is necessary, why do I have to model this stuff for you? We already know that it looks fine." Shadow complained as Rouge handed him the bags with the clothes in it.

"We have an hour left so I want to at least make sure everything looks as good as it should." She replied as Shadow grabbed the bags and marched to the bathroom. Rouge found her way to the couch and sat down as she patiently waited for Shadow to come out. A few minutes later, the ebony hedgehog came out and Rouge was stunned. He looked incredibly handsome, but he also looked badass with his quills to the side and the black and the red of his attire complimenting his fur. Rouge playfully purred as she gave Shadow a quick up and down, earning an eye roll from the hedgehog.

"Does it look good or not?" Shadow demanded as he folded his arms, he just wanted to go and get this over with. "I literally look like a copy and paste of emo Peter from Spiderman 3."

"Well with that attitude it doesn't, and no you do not. You're real eye candy till you start talking Shadow, I hope you've realized that." She scolded as Shadow mumbled something underneath his breathe, she didn't care though, she felt proud that she had succeeded in making the ebony hedgehog as handsome as possible and now she had one final thing to do before he went out.

"Here take this." She handed him a small earpiece and revealed another one for herself, she quickly put it on so that Shadow could do the same. "It's to help us communicate, I'm going to try and help you out the best you can."

"Since when did you have these?" Shadow asked as he made sure his earpiece was in and secured.

"Since you went to go and take a leak, I thought that after I made reservations at the restaurant for you I'd buy these so that I could help you with your training."

"I just feel like the damn secret service now, hopefully I don't mess this up." Shadow turned and began walking to the door with Rouge in tow.

"You won't mess this up, I got your back Shadow." She said reassuringly, giving the ebony hedgehog a pat on the back. "Besides, I got a little surprise for you." She rushed past him and he shut the door to his apartment before he followed her.

"What is it?" He asked as he trailed her to the elevator and she gave him a smirk.

"Well if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise anymore now would it?"

After a couple minutes of walking out of the apartment complex and to the parking lot Shadow was eager to know just what Rouge had up her sleeve. She's done a lot for me today there is no disputing that and I'm thankful for it, but what else could she have gotten for me? Shadow thought to himself, as he continued to follow Rouge to a particular parking spot and his eyes grew wide in astonishment as he realized what the surprise was. In the parking spot was a jet black Honda Shadow Phantom motorcycle, the newest model that they just put out.

"It's all yours for the night." Rouge tossed the helmet hanging on one of the handlebars to Shadow who caught it. "Just don't get a scratch on it or Knuckles will pound your face to a pulp." The ebony hedgehog gulped nervously, he'd seen the echidna in combat before and he definitely didn't want to fall victim to the unrelenting fury those fists were capable of.

"I promise you it'll return to you the way it was." Shadow promised as he grabbed the keys from Rouge and started it up. He revved the bike a couple of times, enjoying the roar he got from the engine before backing up.

"Tonight, your training begins Shadow. Let's see how you do." Shadow simply just nodded and put the helmet on. As soon as it was fastened, he took off, leaving Rouge behind to walk back up to Shadow's apartment, and wait for Shadow to take his date to the restaurant.

Shadow zoomed through the city, having a blast at the speed he was getting from the bike. He could run faster obviously, but he loved the rush he would get from just going at a normal speed for a change. Every time he saw the yellow light he would rev the engine and speed on through and he would weave in and out between vehicles on the highway whenever he got the chance. He had to head to Emerald Town which was only a twenty minute drive from his apartment which wasn't too bad. Shadow couldn't help but think to himself that this was a bad idea. Sure he wanted to impress Amy, but was he going about it all the wrong way? He felt like if everything went wrong he would end up like Mordecai from that episode of Regular Show where Margaret broke up with him. He didn't want to end up a sorry, sad sap all because of a girl. He wanted to have something special with her, and nothing was going to get in his way. He shook off his negative thoughts and focused on the task at hand which was picking up Sally. The ebony hedgehog pulled off of the highway and towards the traffic light leading into Emerald Town. Shadow stopped at the red light and couldn't help but look over to the sound of rock music being played out of an Escalade beside him.

In the vehicle, a man with spiky black hair was writing something in a notebook while the driver, an older asian guy with long flowing grey hair was tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to the rhythm of the song. Shadow watched the two as they didn't appear to have noticed him, and they seemed to be lost in their own little world.

"I like the beat and feel of the song, it's just I can't think of a name of the song or any lyrics! We have to have this done by the end of the week!" The man with the spiked up black hair groaned as he scratched what he had down off with his pencil and sighed in frustration.

"Johnny, it's okay. I know that we will think of something. Life has a way of providing inspiration at the strangest of times." The asian man spoke to the one named Johnny, who had his head down looking at the notebook hoping for some stroke of inspiration.

"I hope you're right Jun." Johnny said as he continued to listen to the music and nod his head to the beat. At this point the light had been green for a few moments and Shadow hadn't been paying attention. He heard a car honk behind him, signaling for him to go.

"GET YOUR ASS MOVING!" He heard someone yell out from behind him. Without waiting any longer, Shadow revved the engine and flew down the road leaving the two men in the Escalade behind in awe. They started to drive and that is when Johnny started putting the pencil to paper and began jotting down some lyrics.

"Johnny, what are you writing down?" Jun asked as he glanced over to see him feverishly writing words down.

"Start the song over, I think we'll have this song done by the end of the night. We have the music, and now we got a title and some really powerful lyrics to back it up." Johnny spoke confidently, earning a questioning look from Jun.

"What is the name of the song?"

"Green light ride."

Shadow eventually made it to the address and pulled up to the driveway. He parked the bike, took off his helmet, and made his way up to the small but nice looking house. He rang the doorbell and patiently waited a moment before the door opened. Revealing Sally in a tight black dress and heels. She flashed him a smile, causing his heart to flutter for a second.

"Hey Shadow, ready to head out?" She asked flirtatiously leaving Shadow speechless for a moment before he regained his composure, earning a laugh from the chipmunk. Oh god, I'm already failing, Shadow thought.

"I am. Are you ready?" He mentally facepalmed at his question, why would he ask that if she was ready to head out. It was going to be a long night that was for sure.

"Well then, shall we head to the restaurant?" Sally closed the door behind her, and with a nod from Shadow and followed him towards the driveway. He grabbed his helmet from the handlebar and put it on and started the bike up, Sally climbed on and slipped her arms around him.

"Nice bike, I really love it." She complimented as Shadow revved the engine and pulled out of her driveway.

"Thanks, you'll love her even more once we really get going." Shadow said as he flew down the road towards the highway, it would be about a half an hour before he got to the restaurant but he didn't mind. He was going to enjoy the ride while it lasted.

After finding parking, the two began the walk to the restaurant, Sally was making some small talk and Shadow was responding a little more confidently but he knew that he was going to need Rouge's help once they got inside. Shadow held the door open for Sally and the two made their way inside the restaurant. Shadow took in the scenery and noticed the giant glass chandelier that hung from the ceiling. It was a remarkable looking place, it looked like something straight out of a Hollywood movie. He turned to Sally who really enjoyed what she was seeing as well.

"Hopefully their food is just as good." She remarked, earning a chuckle from Shadow.

"I hope so too." He responded as they approached the front counter. "Table for two please, Shadow the Hedgehog." Shadow said as the person at the front desk looked at them.

"Ah yes, Mr. Shadow. Right this way." They followed the guy from the front desk to a nearby table seated next to the window. "Your waiter will be with you shortly." With that he headed out, leaving the two to be seated.

"So is this your first date in a while?" Sally asked as Shadow fidgeted nervously with his sleeves.

"Yes actually, how did you know?" Shadow was genuinely curious as to how she knew something so embarrassing.

"Well I could just tell by your mannerisms. Also you just seem extremely nervous. It's okay, I don't bite." She joked as Shadow gave her a smile.
"Well I would hope not, I'd hate for you to be some kind of vampire." Shadow remarked, earning a laugh from the chipmunk. The ebony hedgehog began to feel better and more sure about himself. Maybe this was going to be a lot more fun than he thought after all. Just then, they both noticed a figure standing by their table, they had been so wrapped up in their own little conversation that hadn't noticed anyone next to them.

"Hello I'm Sonic and I'll be your server today." The figure spoke, causing Shadow's heart to stop. Jesus Christ, I didn't hear what I just think I did, did I? Shadow cautiously glanced over and sure enough, it was the blue idiot himself, standing there waiting to take their order.

"Not you!" Shadow exclaimed, causing Sonic to put down his pen and paper to look at the two guests before him.

"Shadow….and Sally?!" Sonic said surprised at the two sitting down at the table before him.

"Sonic?!" Sally cried out as the three all began looking at one another, confused by just what was going on….

A/N: And that is going to do it for this chapter. This one was kind of hard for me to write and it may seem choppy in places but I do hope that you all enjoyed it. Next chapter we will see some more interesting developments that's for sure. Until next time, leave me a review! See ya!