Disclaimer is most definitely likely the same.

Chapter 20: Sheri and Shadow

"You, Shadow the Hedgehog, as in the Ultimate life form, got a date... With a girl?"

"You make it seem like the world is ending, Faker."

"Yeah, but you got a date, I can't believe it! Who would want to go out with you? After all, you are the most grumpiest, shallowest, quietest, moodiest..."

"Shut up Sonic, before I rip your throat out!"

"Whoa, cool it Moody, I was just trying to make a point that..."

"That's besides the point. Look, are you going to help me or not?"

"Of course buddy, but you know we need more than just the fastest thing alive help." Sonic threw one arm over Shadow's shoulder and began leading him away.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Heh heh, you'll see."

"Sonic, I swear that if you do something I won't like, then I will have to strangle you."


"I can't believe Sheri finally got a date!"

"Wonder, it's not that big of deal..."

"It totally is, no question about it! So how is the night going to go?"

"Um well, Shadow would not tell me anything. He said he wanted to surprise me."

"Doesn't that sound romantic Zeena!?"

"Um, sure it does Wonder. What are you going to wear tonight, Sheri?"

"Well, I'm not sure. I was just going to go see him just like I how I normally see him in school."

"No no no no no no! Sheri, bad idea; you need help! Zeena and I are going to help you!"

"Actually Wonder, I have to be somewhere in a bit..."

"Nonsense Zeena, I'm sure it can wait." Wonder used both her hands to grip one of Zeena's hands and one of Sheri's hands and began dragging them somewhere. "Let's go!"

"Like we have a choice," Zeena muttered.


"Oh my gosh! Shadow has a date tonight!"

"Sonic, you are so dead if this turns out for the worst."

"Heh heh, you worry too much pal."

"We are not pals, faker."

"Whatever floats your boat Shadow. Are you sure you got this Amy?"

"No problem, my darling Sonic!"

"I am not your boyfriend, Amy!"

"Whatever floats your boat, faker."

"Be quiet Shadow, and try not to screw this up!" Sonic waved his goodbye to the two before he left them at sonic speed and in the dust.

"What a show off."

"I know, isn't he amazing?" Amy asked dreamily.

"Um Amy... Are you going to help me or not?"

"Huh? What? Oh yeah, come on Shadow; it's time for a make over!" Amy grabbed his hand tightly and began dragging him somewhere.

"A make over! I do not want a make over, you witch," Shadow screamed, trying to pull away from her.

"Oh it won't be that bad. I promise." Shadow could have sworn he saw the tiniest smirk form around her mouth.


"What about this one Sheri? It has a look of "I'm a pretty girl, but do not mess with me or I will bite!"

"Um no thanks, that doesn't seem right with me."

"Yeah Wonder, she isn't trying to intimidate the guy."

"Well sorry for trying," she pouted, sticking her tongue out at the both of them. She fished in her closet for another dress until a knock was heard on her door.

"Yo cuz, you in there?" The voice was a bit gruff, but the three of them did not have to wait long to find out who it was as Zeena opened the door.

"Roy, what do you want?" Asked the annoyed Wonder.

"I'm about to go downstairs with Larry and torment Junior with him!"

"And why do I care?"

"Because I know you have a bunch of questions to ask this girl Yoshi he was hanging out with during fourth block today!"

"What really? Junior, was with another girl? This demands many questions!" She was about to go until she just remembered she had more important affairs to take of. "Um sorry Roy, but I have to help Sheri."

"That's okay Wonder, you go ahead," Sheri offered.

"Yeah, I'll take care of Sheri for you," Zeena added.

"Really? Thank you Sheri and Zeena, I promise to be as quick as I can!" Wonder nearly bolted out the room along with Roy and you could hear them speaking aloud.

"So what does she look like?"

"She is red and tall. She has black stripes on her left cheek, I think. And one dark blue..." The two girls could not hear the rest of Roy's sentence.

"So Zeena, what do you have in mind for me to wear?"

"Something simple and not too overbearing; I have just the thing."


"Amy... I don't think this suits me." Shadow grumbled as he took another look at his attire. He was wearing a black tuxedo (He wouldn't have it any other color), complete with a white, long sleeve shirt - ironed to the crisp, his shoes were very formal – and they were shined to perfection, not even to blind someone but enough to make it look like the God himself had made these just for him, his socks were just as ironed and as black as his magnificent tuxedo, he epically sported a red tie – where the redness never looked so good before, and to top it all off, what good tuxedo would be complete without a red rose clipped on his suit just so perfectly? Only Shadow's rose was actually pink (Even though he does not favor the color one bit – but he will tolerate it for the night), and even though he strongly objected to it, he knew pink was Sheri's favorite color.

"Nonsense Shadow, you look great! She will just swoon all over you with this!"

"But...this is so unlike me..."

"Mr. Shadow," Cream started. "This is a date with someone you love. You have to make it special today." Cheese, Cream's Chao and best friend, said his typical 'Chao' phrase in agreement with her.

"But..."

"No buts mister! I already called Rouge and Knuckles to set up a romantic evening at the park for you two, so you better go and thank us later." Amy had to literally push Shadow out of her house just to get him moving.

"Here Cream," Amy tossed her cell phone to her. "Call Wonder and ask if she's ready."

"Got it," she acknowledged, crunching numbers on Amy's cell phone.

Somewhere else...

"So Junior, on a scale of 1 – 10, how pretty is she?" Wonder teased.

"I don't know, why are you asking me a stupid question?" The flustered Koopling countered.

"Cool it bro," Roy snickered. "She just wants to talk, is all."

"Well, stop asking me such stupid questions!"

"Do you see his face? He is blushing," Larry implied.

"Because you keep asking me stupid questions about this Yoshi girl! I hate girls!"

"Then why were you hanging around here then?" Wonder questioned suspiciously; however, her purse began to rumble and Bowser Junior took the opportunity to run away.

"Wait Junior, we are not done teas... I mean, asking you questions," Larry shouted, giving chase.

"No, leave me alone!"

Wonder fished out her rumbling phone and took the call. "Hello," she said, nobody could have picked out the slight irritation in her voice.

"Hello Ms. Wonder," Cream's voice could be heard from the other line, "Amy wants to know if she's ready." Wonder almost smacked herself in the head for almost forgetting about Sheri. Quickly, she ran up the flight of stairs and nearly rammed her door open. "Oh my gosh, Sheri are you..." She did not have to say another word as she gazed at what Sheri was wearing. She had a pink dress – for it was her favorite color. It seemed to glisten when the moon shone down upon it, toward the bottom were exactly eight rubies, carved to the finest degree of refinement – you could not find any others like those, she wore patented gloves that rose well past her wrists, garnished by the color of pale peachy-ness that you know it would be perfect with the dress.

"Simple yet not too overbearing, I like it. Cream, we are on our way to the spot. We'll meet you there."


"I'm beginning to have second thoughts about this," Shadow confessed.

"You, the Ultimate Life Form, scared?" Rouge asked shockingly.

"I can take fake hedgehogs, destroy prototypes, stop the world from blowing up, run from here to there in the matter of seconds, and I can put up with annoying budd... Acquaintances..."

"But Shadow the Hedgehog has yet to overcome one thing," Amy smiled. "And that is love!" Shadow was going to open his mouth and say something, but he stopped to consider what Amy had said.

"Maybe it is true," Shadow thought. Shadow has dealt with all kinds of emotion from anger to depression to even happiness, surprisingly. But the only he ever felt truly happy in his life was when Maria was still alive; after her death by G.U.N, that all changed and... Well, you know the rest. But Sheri, this half tiger, half scorpion creature, made him feel happy again. The first time he ever saw her and greeted her, before the incident at Peach's Castle, something sparked inside him... And it felt good. For some reason, it only happened when he saw her and he liked the feeling; he knew he had to keep seeing her to feel... Happy again. But this was the first time Shadow also dealt with this feeling before, he never felt this way not even with Maria. It was powerful and he tried to resist it trying to consume him, but all his hard work shattered whenever he saw her, Sheri. He would never admit it to nobody that he kind of liked the feeling – a feeling beyond happiness. But then again, he did not have to because people could read him like a book – it was that obvious.

Shadow took a deep breath and snapped back to reality... Only to find that Knuckles, Rouge, Amy, and Cream were gone. He was about to curse them all out mentally until he looked at what was before him. The setting was close to the end of twilight, there was a small little picnic set out over the grass, a lit candle sat in the middle, and a rather elegant picnic basket sat gently close to the edge of the picnic blanket.

"It is very simple, yet calming. Hopefully Sheri will like this; otherwise, I have to go and put a couple of people in comas." And he stood there, waiting nervously for you-know-who.

"Shadow?" And it was at that moment, time seemed to stop. Shadow was almost too stunned to acknowledge her presence – she was beautiful in his eyes.


Slightly away from Sheri and Shadow...

"How do you think this will work out," Wonder whispered.

"By the end, they will be together," Amy confirmed. "I am so sure of it."

"Wasn't Cream and her pet Chao with you a while ago?"

"Yeah, but her mom told her to go back home since it's getting late... Didn't you come with someone else?"

Wonder looked around. "Yeah... I think she disappeared again though."

"That's okay, we can handle this ourselves!"

"Yeah... What are we doing?"

"Silly you, we are going to make sure this remains the perfect night for those two."

"Alright!"


"Sheri, you look... You look..." Shadow was at a complete and utter loss of words. In his mind, Shadow felt like an idiot; Sheri on the other hand took it the other way. She took his loss as a sign of pure bliss. She blushed and thanked Shadow softly. "You look ravishing yourself."

"Uh thanks," was all his reply came to be. "Stupid," he told himself mentally. "Say something nice to her!"

Sheri sighed. "Not exactly what I wanted to hear," she told herself mentally. "Maybe I came on too strong of a compliment."

"You look pretty yourself," Shadow suddenly blurted out, surprising pretty much everybody. "Uh sorry." To his relief, Sheri was smiling and laughing.

"There's always something about you Shadow," she said with a smile. Even Shadow has a very tiny smile etch across his face.

"Now let's say we eat."


"That was a close one," Wonder breathed.

"I know," Amy agreed, "I thought Shadow was going to blow it for a second."

"Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh what?"

"That bird in the tree right above Sheri! And it looks like it has to do number two!"

"Oh my gosh Wonder, what do we do now? If that bird does 'that' to Sheri, this date would be automatically ruined!" Amy and Wonder began to frantically think, before spotting a pile of rocks nearby.


Shadow and Sheri surprisingly did not speak so much as they would like to each other, but they took silence as a warm welcome. They really only needed to have each others company to be really happy.

Shadow and Sheri took a seat upon the comfortable blanket – not paying attention to the small ruffles that could be heard from the tree - as Shadow took a peek at what the contents of the basket held. "Please don't be something stupid," he muttered to himself as he lifted a huge plate of delicious, sizzling spaghetti, topped with red, saucy tomato goodness, sprinkled with the finest kind of Parmesan Cheese that could only be found in its native land, and a hint of oregano and parsley leaves that would make your mouth water waterfalls. Also in the basket were two, finely crafted glasses that could have only been made masters and a large case of the fizziest root beer you could ever hope to have.

Author's note: You didn't expect me to use wine, did you? No, Sheri is not at that age yet. ;P

"This is stupid," Shadow told himself.

"Wow Shadow," Sheri complimented. "It looks delicious, you must be a good cook."

"Um yeah," he lied, through his blushing. "I pulled everything I had into this."

"May I have a taste please?" Both still unaware of the rocks flying into the tree, Shadow fished the basket for a fork, grabbed it, and handed it to Sheri who took it lightly – both their fingers lightly brushing the others fingers. Sheri spun her fork into the spaghetti and took some into her mouth, savoring all the flavors the spaghetti had to offer for her taste buds. "It's wonderful Shadow!"

Shadow blushed and rubbed his head sheepishly. "Dang," he thought to himself. "Now I got to learn how to cook!"

"Oh, that's a nice bird," Sheri commented as she observed a bird fly away from the tree above her.


"That was too close," Wonder sighed.

"Way too close," Amy added, before her eyes nearly bulged from her sockets. "Oh no, someone is coming! We have to stop her!" Wonder and Amy stealthily weaved around the two love-struck animals and tackled the oncoming girl from interfering with the romantic evening.

"Huh, what was that?" Sheri questioned, looking behind her but ended up only looking at open plain fields.

"Probably just the wind," Shadow said, taking a bite of the spaghetti with is own fork. He took a peek at Sheri from his side and instantly became mesmerized by the way the sunset seemed to glow from her eyes.

"What's wrong Shadow?"

"Nothing," he blurted and turned away, a red crimson forming on his cheeks. She only smiled happily because despite him trying to hide it, it was clear as if the day was still young.


"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Amy growled as she held down the mysterious girl.

"What a minute," Wonder thought to herself as she took a closer inspection at the girl. "You look familiar... ML?" The girl Amy had pounced to the ground finally kicked the pink hedgehog off her.

"Yeah, it's me," she shouted. "And what's the..." Both Wonder and Amy, cupped her hands over her mouth, and spot checked Sheri and Shadow to make sure they did not hear her; fortunately they did not.

"You have to keep it down ML," Wonder whispered. "We're trying to make this the perfect night for them."

"Geez," ML huffed. "Then that is all you had to say that to me instead of pouncing me as if I was a sandbag or something!"

"We couldn't shout it to you, our cover would have been blown! How else were we supposed to stop you?" Amy retorted; ML had nothing to counter that as she stood and dusted herself off.

"Anyway, shouldn't you two give them some privacy?"

"We are," Wonder defended. "You know, as long as we stay hidden they won't know we are here so technically, we aren't." Amy smiled sheepishly in agreement.

ML looked at them suspiciously.


What surprised Shadow the most was not because as they were talking, he realized they had more things in common than not, but the fact that just his closeness to her was very satisfying to him. It was almost scary to him, feeling this way to this girl but yet at the same time, there was comfort. He watched as she sipped on her glass of root beer, he could not help but look at her. He did not understand why he feeling this way toward her. What made her so special that the ultimate life form falls head-over-heels? Was it because of what she was wearing tonight that made her look extravagant? No, he always thought she looked pretty without the dress. He really could not understand why, so he just took another fork-full of spaghetti into his mouth and began chewing; though one spaghetti strand was longer than the rest. Unconsciously, he kept chewing that same piece while looking the other way to organize his thoughts, his face being slightly pulled by another opposite force from the other end of the spaghetti strand. Shadow did not realize until the last second what was happening because his whole face seemed to turn at the last second all by itself – and he was a lot closer to Sheri's face then before. It just so happened that Sheri also had the same strand of spaghetti in her mouth and the two of them met in the middle.

With a peck on the lips.

At once both pulled away instantly and looked the opposite direction. They were both blushing mad red and did not know what to do but keep looking in the same direction. Neither of them spoke, just thinking about what just happened between the two; although, it wasn't that bad – it might have been good, maybe even better.

Amy and Wonder had tears in their eyes, the moment they witnessed was too romantic for words – it was as if it came from a movie or something.

"And that did come from a movie,"Marioliza confirmed, nodding. "Yep, I definitely remember now." Amy and Wonder were too much into their self tears that they couldn't string a sentence together. "Come on you two," Marioliza said, grabbing then dragging them both, "Leave the two to their privacy now."


"Um Sheri..."

"Yeah?"

"Um sorry... For uh... You know..."

"You don't have to apologize Shadow! It was nice!"

Shadow at once spun around, a bit surprised. He thought she would shun him for what he did – even though it was completely unintentional. He gazed upon her and she gazed upon him, almost in a trance of just staring into each others eyes. It was as if they could see the others soul just by looking.

In silence, the two of them stared; time seemed to slow to a stop, the gentle wind just breezing through the tips of their fur.

And then they realized, they were a lot closer to each other. Sheri looked down, their hands were touching. "Um Shadow..." She never finished her sentence or thought, she only focused only on him – nothing else mattered at the moment.

And then their faces inched closer and closer still, Sheri and Shadow closed their eyes and still inched closer, so close that they started feeling the warmth coming from the other. And they moved closer and closer and yet again still closer...

That was when the unfortunate event of Sheri getting forcibly pulled back by a very strong force.

"What the heck?" Shadow exclaimed quickly after realizing Sheri was not in front of him.

"It has been too long..."

"That voice," she murmured, "It can't be!"

"That's right punk! Gyrados is back and he wants his revenge now!" The blue, worm-like Pokemon began to squeeze the life out of Sheri; but he forgot to consider that Shadow was not one to be messed with, and Gyrados was pretty ticked when he failed to quickly comprehend how fast Shadow teleported in front of his face and delivered a powerful kick that sent him staggering back while he lost his grip on Sheri. Shadow took a quick peek behind him to spot check if Sheri was okay; she had her eyes closed but she was still breathing. Content, Shadow turned back to his enemy for the night.

"You have some nerve picking a fight with me," Gyrados roared. "You obviously have no idea who you are dealing with hedgehog!"

"I don't need to," Shadow said in a really cool way. "All I know is that you interrupted something very important and you will pay for it."

"Hmm, you seem to be very obnoxious! Who are you anyway?"

Shadow crossed his arms. "I'm Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog. You will do well to remember that."

The blue Gyrados took a second to take it in, "Shadow huh? As cool as that name sounds, you are still going to feel my rage upon your fur and bones!" The Gyrados gave a loud roar and made a dash for the black hedgehog.

But Shadow was calm; he stood there with his arms crossed as he watched the Gyrados swim through the air madly toward him. "We will see about that," was all he said as he teleported at the last second before the Gyrados collided with him. He appeared right on top of him and delivered another kick that sent Gyrados down hard on to the ground. Shadow landed on the ground as well, but did not expect the Gyrados to retaliate so quickly – Shadow was slammed hard against the tail of the worm-like Pokemon.

"I must be dealing with a psychic type," Gyrados said to himself. "And judging by his personality, he must be a dark type as well." Gyrados flew through the air just as Shadow was picking himself up; he used his thrash attack to score several blows on the unsuspecting hedgehog and it worked. Shadow skidded across the ground but stopped himself short, he grunted a little with the lingering pain in his body but he dismissed it and threw his chaos spears at him. The Gyrados did not evade quickly enough to avoid damage; however after a quick stun, he shook it off and sent off huge amounts of pressurized water through his mouth – Shadow teleported away from the hydro pump just in time.

Gyrados smirked for he knew what was coming next, he opened his mouth just as Shadow appeared right in front of him and used his strong bite attack to hurt Shadow critically. Gyrados threw Shadow down to the ground with incredible force, and now Shadow could definitely feel the pain now.

"You aren't so tough when you're figured out," Gyrados smirked. "Now die so I can get back to..."

"Surprise!" A puff of smoke suddenly appeared in front of Gyrados' face, when it vanished Sheri was all that was left.

"You," Gyrados cried.

"Yep," Sheri smiled and swatted Gyrados with her tail. He stumbled backward and felt poison pain lurking within him. "You are going to be sorry that you messed up my date, Gyrados!"

"A date," Gyrados spat. "Who on earth would want to date your ugly self?" He winced as he felt the poison in him take an effect on him.

"A very special person," Sheri said angrily, grabbing the tail of Gyrados. "And you are not invited back, you hear me?"

"Bah, I will not rest until I have bested you!"

"Well have it your way!" Sheri used her ninja skills of hidden power to lift Gyrados with ease and start swinging him in a circle. Once she picked up enough speed, she threw him over the horizon.

"I will get you one day girl," Gyrados yelled as he continued to fly until Sheri could no longer see him. Satisfied, Sheri did not waste another second to rush over to where Shadow lied.

"Shadow, are you alright?" She asked weakly, as if choking on her words.

"This is nothing," he said with a small smile as he observed a bruise on his right arm.

"I am so sorry," Sheri started, but was instantly stopped by Shadow's words.

"Don't be sorry about things that you have no control over, Sheri. We can't control for what fate throws at us." Sheri could only stifle a broad smile, she found comfort in his words.

"But if that Gyrados ever shows his face again, I won't lose to him. I only..." Shadow was cut off and he was shocked, so shocked it took him about almost a minute to comprehend what happened.

Sheri kissed him, and not one of those cheek kisses or pecks, but one of those on-the-lips type kisses. And despite everything you know about Shadow, despite how much you know about Shadow, and despite how much you think Shadow should behave, he found himself returning Sheri the favor.

And you know what? He was just fine with that; not caring for what anyone else might say or think.


It was close to nighttime now, and you could see the two walking together, hand-in-hand, all the way home.

"Isn't that cute Zeena," I smiled.

"Yes it is Christopher."

"One day, I hope I could walk with a girl like that." I should have just kept my mouth shut. "So anyway," I quickly changed the subject, "Uh... Can't wait to see what Professor E. Gadd is going to show us tomorrow."

Zeena nodded. "I also heard his granddaughter will be going there as well. It must be something big."

"Yeah," I agreed, "And then Sheri's sleepover followed by a party at Peach's castle after that (I just hope that party does not go wrong!). This month is going to be good!"

"Yes it will."

"Anyway, you want to get back to our study da..."

I think Zeena looked at me in surprise. "Were you going to say..."

"Let's just get back to the studying please," I mumbled, blushing a visible shade of purple.

I think she smiled. "He was going to say date," she told herself mentally.