One-Shot # 11: Gloves

With his teeth gritted together and fury pulsing through his blood, Shadow threw a chaos spear at the blue blur. "Faster you idiot!" He yelled, watching as the attack flew past the hedgehog, making him yelp. Shadow growled, "And not one noise either!" Shadow threw another at Sonic, then another, and another. He barely managed to miss the first two when he swung from one branch to the next, but the third one hit his leg, sending a pained expression across his face as he cringed.

"Darn, Sonic!" Shadow yelled as he hurled yet another chaos spear at him. "You're never going to get it!"

Sonic tried to reply, but the newest spear had gotten the better of him. It hit the arm that had been holding him up, making him screech. He released the branch shortly after, crying out in defeat once his grip had died. Then, he fell downward toward the ground. The drop had to have been at least a hundred feet, because Sonic had the time to recognize he was falling.

Once it had hit him, Sonic gasped, quickly moving his arms in a series of rapid motions. "Chaos control!" He exclaimed, disappearing in a green flash, only to reappear a few moments later on the ground, panting heavy breathes of exhaustion.

Shadow growled once his eyes set upon him. Without a word, the Ultimate Life Form made his way to where Sonic was sitting. Sonic didn't even get a chance to look up. "What was that?" Shadow demanded, pulling Sonic up with one, strong tug. "You've practiced this course ninety-eight times!" He yelled, his glare making Sonic shrink back once he was on his feet. "There is no room for mistakes anymore."

Sonic nodded once, his face serious and slightly afraid. "Yes master, I understand."

He growled, looking away. "Then get it right this time. It is a simple task anyway. You yourself said so."

"Swinging from branch to branch without being hit by a single chaos spear…" Sonic whispered, "Yes, it seems simple, but I was mistaken. It's a lot harder than what I first thought."

For the first time that day, Shadow let a ghost of a smile grace his lips. "Just goes to show you that a big ego does you no good." The hedgehog nodded once in quiet reply, his gaze far off. Sighing, Shadow shook his head. "Let's go again, than."

Sonic took in a deep breath before running off toward the starter tree. Once there, he took a good look at it before grabbing onto it and making his way up. It was a slow ascent because of his injured leg and arm, but he eventually made it to the first branch. He than looked down at Shadow, putting a hand on the trunk of the tree to support himself.

Shadow pulled a hand up, his brow knitted together. "Don't screw up this time." And with a wave of Shadow's hand, Sonic took off, and the black hedgehog began throwing spears at him.

As he continued his attack, Shadow couldn't help but let his thoughts wander. Sonic had made more progress than Shadow could have imagined and he had to honest; he had expected Sonic to give up after the first challenge. The Ultimate Life Form wasn't exactly the friendliest teacher, and after his first lesson, Shadow had been one hundred percent sure that Sonic was ready to call it quits. Of course, he had failed to take Sonic's persistence into account.

The first month had been horrible (but Shadow had expected that), though the second month had been a bit better. It was at the third month; however, when Sonic started showing signs of true improvement. He started being able to produce satisfactory attacks, his chaos controls ended successfully, and—most shocking of all—he began to show a respectable amount of patience. For the first time, Shadow did not doubt Sonic's capabilities.

But that didn't mean that he respected the hedgehog. He was still full of himself, and he never sat back and listened enough. On more than one occasion, he had tried a chaos technique without listening to the full explanation and literally had had the ordeal blow up in his face. Sonic still had a long way to go before he completely mastered the chaos arts, especially since he—

"Hey Shadow!" Shadow blinked once, realizing that he had let his thoughts get away from him. Though he had thrown chaos spears at the hedgehog during the entire course, he had somehow failed to hit him once. "Did… did I pass?"

Shadow stared at him for a moment before gritting his teeth. After such a crappy performance earlier? Unlikely. "We'll see. Go again."

Sonic nodded as he readied himself, and Shadow went over his own mental preparation before throwing his hand down, signaling the start. At that moment, both hedgehogs went into action mode. The blue swung from tree to tree, his expression filled with concentration; the black throwing spear after spear, his face leaning on anticipation. There was no way that Sonic could have passed earlier. Right?

But somehow, he had. After a few breathless seconds of swinging and throwing, the blue blur had made his way over to the other side without being hit once. He turned immediately afterward, his eyes wide. "I did do it! Sha—I mean, I did it, master!"

Indeed, he had. Humming, Shadow nodded once. "Yes, you did." He folded his arms as if to think, "Let's do it a few more times, just to make sure."

His pupil followed his order without a word. They went over the drill several more times (fourteen to be exact) before Shadow finally admitted it: Sonic indeed had passed. He didn't know how he had, but Sonic had done it.

Once they had finished their final round, Shadow sighed and called out, "Come on down, hedgehog." Sonic complied by jumping down and using a chaos control to appear next to his teacher.

"Yes?"

The Ultimate Life Form stared at him for a long time before sighing, "You have passed, Sonic. We will move on to the next exercise tomorrow." Sonic's face lit up at that, and a large grin took over. "Until then, I expect you to stay caught up on your physical and mental exercises. That includes—"

"Sixty push-ups and crunches, a thirty mile run, and reading chapters one through ten of Brave New World. Correct?" Shadow was silent for a moment before nodding. Sonic's smile widened, "Sweet! Uh, I mean—" Sonic bowed, "Thank you, master. I'm going to go, now."

Shadow sighed, "Be here at six."

Sonic nodded once again before he turned around, ready to dash off. It was beyond obvious that he was excited, and it nearly made Shadow want to smack him. Of course, before he had the chance to do so, something caught his eye, making him raise an eyebrow.

"Come back here, Sonic." The hedgehog froze in place, his entire body tensing up. Was he going to have to do the course one more time? He turned, almost afraid to look at Shadow, whose hand was outreached for some reason. "Give me your gloves."

What an odd request. Sonic blinked once before looking down at his gloves; or at least what was left of them. Somehow during all his training, Sonic had failed to realize how trashed they were. There were holes all over the gloves, and in some places, there was more skin showing than material. Humming, the hedgehog took off his gloves and handed them to Shadow.

"You may go."

The hedgehog nodded, bowed, then ran off. Shadow stood there in place, humming as he looked down at the gloves. "Sheesh." He whispered as he rubbed the soft cloth of the gloves between his fingers, "He's been working hard." Without a second thought, Shadow tossed the gloves into the air, whispered a chaos incantation, and watched the gloves disappear. "I guess he deserves something nice." And with that, Shadow walked off.

As he had been every morning, Sonic was there at six on the dot. He started his morning routine with a respectful bow, then explained how his physical exercises had gone the day before. After that, he went on to tell him what he had thought of the chapters he had read from the book, it's message, and why it was important. Then, he went on to do his "in class" physical activities.

While he exercised, Shadow couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. The hedgehog's confidence had increased tenfold from the day previous—obviously from the success of the exercise—and his performance had seemed to increase in proficiency as well. Did one success amid so much difficulty really cause him that much happiness? Shadow huffed, shaking his head once. How simple minded, Sonic was.

But of course, that was how he worked, and nothing was going to change that. At least, nothing was going to change that right away. Smirking, Shadow shook his head. Though it was a pleasing idea, to test Sonic, he knew that it wasn't exactly the right time. Besides, Shadow still needed to teach the hero more concepts… and he still needed to give him his new gloves.

"Sonic," Shadow called out, looking up at the hedgehog for the first time since before his exercises, "come here."

The blue hedgehog had been attempting a new workout—standing pushups—so he gladly came over as quickly as possible, happy to give his arm muscles a good rest. "Yes, master?" He asked once he was next to Shadow.

Instead of saying anything, Shadow summoned the new gloves via chaos powers. Once they were in his grasp, he held them out for Sonic. His eyes lit up with curiosity as soon as he saw them. "These are your new gloves. They won't wear out, unlike your last pair."

Sonic's eyes widened as he grabbed the pair. They were a medium brown color and made of leather. Carefully, Sonic put them on. Besides the thumb, they were fingerless.

"Were they enhanced by chaos energy?" Sonic questioned as he wiggled his fingers, adjusting himself to the new feel of the material. Shadow nodded, making Sonic smile. "Sweet. Thank you, master." The hedgehog bowed once again in respect, leaving a smile on Shadow's face. The gloves were going to work well for him.

Once the hedgehog got up from his bowing position, his eyes widened. When Shadow realized that he was smiling of all things, he quickly put on an angry expression and pointed to where Sonic had been earlier. "Get back to work!" He ordered, his voice verging on a sort of rage.

Sonic tensed up, nodded, and quickly spoke. "Yes master!" Then he ran off to continue his poor attempts at standing pushups.

Shadow stared at the hedgehog for a moment, doing his best to keep the glare on his countenance strong. Had he been smiling at Sonic? It wasn't possible. Was it? Growling, Shadow shook his head. The idea of becoming Sonic's friend was ludicrous, and it was as simple as that.

Hey, look how little time it took me to update! Sweet, huh? This is a request by AgentofRedandBlue. ^^ I had fun with this one.

This is pretty much a sequel to an earlier one. I kinda like how I've been able to do a few about Sonic's training! :D I hope you guys liked it! Next time will be one of my own ideas and after that, it can either be a request or my own idea, cause right now I don't have any other requests.

Until next time!