Massive thanks to: The High School Hero, i-raid-tombs-for-a-living, LusayLu182, TheLastoftheRealOnes, vantantae, Guest, ToxicWolf1132, Roasted Toast, guest, Hysteria Rogers, Princess Flare the Fox, Guest and Allovertheplacegirl09! Thank you so much for all your lovely comments! :') They mean the world to me. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to update sooner and I hope this chapter is just as funny as the others!

The High School Hero - Hehee, I'm really glad that you enjoyed that last chapter, and I hope you enjoy this one too! I know, isn't it crazy how time passes so fast? Ah, I'm so happy that you've had an amazing year too! Wow, it really has been cool!

i-raid-tombs-for-a-living - N'awwwwwwwwwww! Thank you ever so much, that it so sweet! It makes me really, really happy to hear that! :3

LusayLu182 - Aw, thank you so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying this!

TheLastoftheRealOnes - Oh my gosh the name confusion x'D

vantantae - I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Guest - GO SONIC! :D Thank you!

ToxicWolf1132 - Hahahaahaha xD Aw, thanks!

Roasted Toast - The names, man, they drive me insane xD Oooh, an interesting question! Tails hasn't been too involved in the story, at this point, but I promise that that will change! ;D Haha! Hellooooooo everyone my name is Thunder and WELCOME to Identity Theft (I hope I'm getting your reference here, haha xD)

guest - Aw, thank you so much!

Hysteria Rogers - Thank you very much! Don't worry, it has been completed! :D

Princess Flare the Fox - That's so nice, thank you! ...Are you psychic? o.O" xD

Guest - That is honestly so, so lovely to hear, thank you ever so much! Haha, I'm so glad that this story has been funny! That is its purpose after all, haha! Thank you!

Allovertheplacegirl09 - Thank you!

Chapter Five: Practice Makes Perfect!

(Sonic)

After a couple more hours of shopping — much to my silent dismay — Rouge dropped me back at Amy's house. I invited her in, supposing that Amy would do the same. She agreed, locking her car and following me up the pathway, when a certain blue streak sped past us. Rouge tutted, flattening down her hair, which had been messed up in the wind. When she realised that she'd run past us, Amy stopped and moon-walked backwards until she reached us.

"Sonic! Uh, I mean, hey, Amy! Hey, Rouge!" Amy winked, sassily, attempting to act like me. Jeez, I really hoped that I didn't wink like that, "What's happening?"

"Big Blue?" Rouge giggled, coyly, sending me a suggestive look, "Did you come here to see lil' ol' me?"

She wrapped her arms around Amy's neck, flirtatiously. Amy had the same reaction that I would have had — she shivered in embarrassment and stepped out of Rouge's embrace.

"Sorry, Rouge. I'm Amy's guy," She replied, smirking at me. I growled, really wishing she'd stop doing this.

"Wait," Rouge glanced between us, putting two and two together, " You're not actually together, are you? Amy? Are you kidding me! This is huge! Why didn't you tell me?! And after all that stuff that you said to those girls, when they were mean to you about Sonic!"

"Huh?" Amy looked at me, confused.

I stared back at her, guilty and upset, "Why didn't you tell me that you were dealing with all that hassle? About me?"

"I didn't want to worry you."

"What are you two talking about?" We'd forgotten that Rouge was standing there, too.

Amy shrugged, "Don't worry 'bout it, Rouge. Anyways, sorry to barge in like this, but I need Amy's help with something. You heard about the fight between me and Knuckles?"

"But of course," The bat slung her hands onto her hips, "The whole city's heard about it. You're gonna have to find somewhere pretty secluded to fight in."

"It's in Station Square," I offered.

"You've got to be kidding me," Rouge sighed, exasperated, "There are hundreds of people there, daily. Think of all the shops. Big Blue, you know what you two are like. You'll destroy the area in ten minutes flat!"

Amy chewed the inside of her cheek, thinking of a solution, "Nah, we won't! We'll be super careful! Promise. Besides, I can get GUN to evacuate the area and we won't smash anything! Except each other, of course. It might bring in some revenue!"

Rouge rolled her eyes, "You may have a point. Fine. To save you the trouble, I'll let GUN know. Just don't destroy anything. I'm serious."

"Aye aye, ma'am!" Amy teased, saluting.

"I'll leave you two to your... meeting," The jewel thief let out a musical laugh, finding the whole situation bemusing, before sashaying towards her care and taking off.

As soon as Rouge had left, I glared at Amy. Her eyes widened, as she raised her hands in surrender.

"What?" She asked, "What's wrong?"

"Why are you telling everyone that we're dating?" I snapped, embarrassed, "More importantly, how come you didn't tell me that people come up to you and start arguing about me!"

"Firstly, I didn't say we were dating. Rouge assumed it. Secondly, I've already told you: I didn't want to worry you."

"You should have told me."

"Yeah, yeah," Amy rolled her eyes, before holding her wrist out and pointing to a non-existent watch, "We've only got a little bit of time until the fight, Sonic! You need to teach me how to fight like you!"

"You need to teach me how to hold up your hammer."

She froze, as if she'd forgotten, "Well, I'll try. But it takes years to learn!"

"Then give me a crash-course! C'mon, Ames! Help me out here! I'll help you, if you help me!"

"Alright. Let's go," She held out her arms, in front of her, and waited. Frowning, I gestured and asked what she was doing, "I'm the one with the speed now. I guess it's up to me to get you there." She bent her legs a little, still waiting for me to leap into her arms.

I was reluctant to rely on someone else's speed. It didn't feel right, "Do we have to?"

"Sonic, stop being a baby. We need to get to Mystic Ruins and practice! Shadow is meeting me — I mean, you — there in an hour!"

"Fine," With a slight pout, I convinced myself that it was technically still my speed and fell into Amy's arms. She shifted me over, before taking off. I closed my eyes, as I couldn't bear to see her jerky running movements. She still hadn't gotten control of my speed, yet.

"Amy," I muttered, not knowing whether she could hear me, "I'm sorry for what I've put you through."

"It's okay."

(Amy)

Desperately trying to keep my running smooth, in order to impress Sonic, we skidded into a small clearing, in the heart of Mystic Ruins. We wouldn't bump into anyone here, and it was unlikely that Shadow would turn up an hour early.

"Okay," I paused, for Sonic to leap out of my arms, but I was surprised when he didn't. Maybe he wanted to stay lying in my arms...

"Huh? Oh. Thanks," Sonic jumped off, brushing down his dress. As he rubbed his eyes, I disappointedly realised that he'd probably had his eyes closed.

"Right, so, 'cause Shadow's practice session is earlier, why don't you teach me how to carry your hammer first?" Sonic suggested, impatiently folding his arms and tapping his foot. It looked odd, when he was in my body.

"Sure," I nodded, "Shall I make you angry again? You need to summon the hammer."

"Nah, I'll have a go," He seemed pretty sure of himself, as he flicked his wrist again and again. Intently, I watched, knowing that he would get annoyed as soon as he failed to summon it.

I was proven right. Soon, Sonic was practically stomping his foot as he flicked his wrist, "Why don't it work?! It's such a stupid weapon! Why can't you just carry it around?! Didn't you wonder if someone else might wanna use it too?!"

Groaning, I didn't bother to tell him that I hadn't planning on switching bodies with him, "Shut up and keep trying!"

"It's not easy! I can't do it, Amy! Gah! Why won't it work?! I'm doing everything from this morning! This is so stupid!"

Sonic shut up pretty quickly when the hammer appeared in his hand and pulled him to the ground, making him moan in pain. I swiped the hammer up, twirling it between my hands. He clambered to his feet, grumbling and muttering words under his breath.

"Okay. First things first, you need to feel the hammer respond to you. Don't just focus on picking it up. It reacts to emotion. You need to think about why you need to use the hammer, and it will respond by losing weight."

"No way," He raised an eyebrow at my glare, "It's a hammer. C'mon, Amy, you're tryna tell me that it's psychic?"

"In a sense, yeah. Try picking it up, Mr I'm-Always-Right," I offered the weapon to him, smirking as it dropped to the floor and he struggled to lift it, "See? You're just thinking about how you want to pick it up and not look stupid. It won't like that. But I want to pick up the hammer and hit you over the head, because you're being a jerk."

"What?" He was silence when I grabbed the hammer and tapped him on the side of the head, shoving him over. I'd have a horrible bruise on my head, when we swapped back, but it was worth it, "What was that for?!"

"To teach you how it works," I answered, laying it on the ground and standing back. Sonic glared at me, but he also took a step back, "Now, you're going to try and pick up the hammer like I told you. Okay?"

"Stupid...— no one...— hurts..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing. I mean, yeah. We'll try it your way."

"Good," Without warning, I darted off in the other direction. I heard Sonic call my name, but no one chased after me. Suddenly I realised that I was running at Sonic's speed, so no one could chase after me.

Now all I had to do was find one of Eggman's robots, for Sonic to practice on.

(Sonic)

After standing around for a while, I started to get a little bit worried. Amy had either just completely abandoned me, or she'd gotten into some trouble. I glared at the pink hammer, wondering if I should have another go at lifting it. But my pride and sense told me that it was a bad idea, and I'd just get annoyed for no reason.

Bored, I started to do some stretches, as I waited for her return. But my calf stretch was interrupted by a mechanical clunk and a small yelp. I looked up. My mouth fell open.

Amy was running at super-speed, with a giant Eggpawn on her tail.

What the heck was she thinking?!

She had no idea how to control my speed for battles. She had to idea how to attack in my body. She'd only managed to survive the fight with Eggman because of Knuckles, and I couldn't help her defeat an Eggpawn, like this. We were in trouble.

Amy slid to a halt in front of me. The Eggpawn was still a fair distance away but, thanks to additional rockets, we didn't have long before it would catch up with us.

"Sonic," Amy was looking at me, expectantly, and I panicked. Why wasn't she picking up her hammer and attacking?

"What are you doing?!" I yelled, leaping out of the way, as the Eggpawn started firing at us, "Use your hammer!"

She ignored me and instead raced towards the Eggpawn. I called out to her, but Amy just tried to roll into a spin-dash. She failed, ending up with just a weak twirl in the air, before she crashed into the robot. It batted her away, sending her crashing into the ground.

"Amy!" I watched, unable to do anything to help her. The Eggpawn stomped over to her, powering up its hand-cannon, ready to fire lasers at her. Amy scrambled to her feet, but she stood her ground and yelled to me:

"Use the hammer!"

I wanted to scream. She knew that I couldn't lift it. She was going to get seriously hurt, if she didn't move, "No! Just run!"

"You can do it, Sonic! Use the hammer!"

Gritting my teeth, I focused on Amy and clenched my fingers around the handle. It lifted from the ground with ease, weighing nothing at all, and in my shock I chucked it at the Eggpawn. The hammer spun through the air — almost gracefully — before smashing into the robot and causing it to short-circuit. After a small explosion, all was left were a few metal panels and some snapped cables. Lying in the middle of it all was Amy's hammer, unharmed.

"You did it!" Amy cried, excitedly, before pulling me into a hug. But I moved back and gave her my fiercest look.

"What were you doing?! Why didn't you run away?! You had plenty of time to get away!"

She looked down at the grass, sheepishly, "I brought the Eggpawn here so that you could practice. All the hammer needs is confidence and emotion. You lifted it because you wanted to help me. You just needed a little help to find the right emotion, that's all!"

"You're impossible," I muttered, but I brought her in for an equally fierce hug, "Don't do that ever again."

"Only if you promise not to speak badly about my hammer! It saved us!"

"Fine. Deal."

(Amy)

"Okay! Your opponent for this battle is... Knuckles the Echidna. This enemy is a strong one, but he is gullible and easily confused!"

"Sonic, is this really necessary?"

"Yeah! Now, the echidna has three main advantages: experience, strength and tactics. We can fight his experience with my experience. We can use his strength against him. And, we've already dealt with the tactics."

"We did? When?"

"I'm not just a pretty face, Ames. There's a reason why I asked Rouge to put the fight in Station Square. Knuckles' greatest tactic is to burrow underground and hide out of sight. Having the fight on concrete, his burrowing trick is pretty much useless. He'll struggle to dig through concrete, and he'll be slower."

"Right. What about strength?"

"If you can get behind him, his strength will be useless. It's all in his arms and fists. His back is his weak-point."

"How do I get to behind him?"

"Speed and spin-dashes. Which is why I'm going to be teaching you how to control my speed, and how to do a spin-dash."

I nodded, determined, as Sonic straightened up and stepped towards me. He held out his left hand and I took it, waiting for his next move. Sonic bent down, still holding onto my hand and gripped my right leg.

"I'm gonna flip you in the air, okay? You'll get used to spinning in the air, this way. Ready?"

"I guess..." I closed my eyes and waited for him to throw me into the air. Sonic was surprisingly strong in my body, as he flung me upwards and spun me around. Yelping, I hugged my arms around my body and subconsciously curled into a ball. I landed in his arms and clambered off, feeling shaky.

"That was awesome! Now, I'm gonna do it again, but you need to completely curl into a ball. Okay?"

"Okay."

This continued for a while, as Sonic tried to help me perfect my technique. He claimed that I was a natural — though I was more natural at being scared — and said that I'd learn it in no time.

Soon, I'd mastered curling into the correct position, and I'd even managed to spin a little bit.

"Sweet! Okay, now, you need to learn how to use your speed to get into the air. I'm not gonna be there to throw you upwards. Okay, you ready? Good. Now, stand over by that tree and when I yell 'go', run towards me. When you reach me, jump! Got it?"

Nodding, I did as instructed and jogged about a hundred metres backwards. Bending down, I figure that I might get a better run-up if I could push off from the ground.

"Ready?" Sonic yelled, crouching when I stuck my thumb up, "Go!"

The speed seemed to have more control over me than I had control over it — I found myself hurtling towards Sonic. Reaching him in less time than I would have liked, I nearly missed my cue to leap. As soon as I jumped, Sonic stepped back and told me to spin.

Remembering my training, I pulled my limbs into my body and spun around. I smashed against the ground, denting the earth, before being thrown backwards. I even managed to land on my feet, with only a small stumble.

Sonic started to clap, when I landed. Sweat dripped down my forehead and I was starting to feel the strain on my muscles. Oddly, my head didn't hurt at all.

"That was great!" He exclaimed, wearing a proud grin, "'Couldn't have done better myself! Now, the final stage is aim, and that's instinct, more than anything else."

"Okay," I breathed, relieved that I only had one more thing to do, before I could go back to the Workshop and have a shower, "I'm ready."

Sonic grabbed a discarded piece of metal, which had come from the Eggpawn, "Cool, do it again, only this time, you're gonna hit me and the metal, instead of the ground."

"Right," I mumbled, racing back to my starting point. When Sonic yelled for me to go, I sped towards him, watching the trees blur and focusing on the pink figure. I didn't even need Sonic to tell me to spin - it happened, automatically. Pulling my limbs into my body, I opened my eyes. The world was spinning, and it made me feel dizzy, but I glimpsed the metal through my whirling vision. I jerked my body to the left and slammed into the metal, before getting knocked back into the air. I saw Sonic toss the dented panel away, before he collapsed onto the ground, from the force of the hit.

"Sonic!" I screamed, trying to warn him that I was going to land on him, if he didn't move. His eyes widened, but he didn't have time to scramble out of the way. I accidentally crashed into him and landed right on top of his body. He groaned, laughing between moans of pain.

"Thanks," He muttered, opening his eyes and grinning at me, "That was perfect! Knuckles'll have no chance against you! Do that again and the fight will be over in a matter of minutes!"

"Sonic? Amy?"

We both looked up, like deer caught in the headlights. It suddenly occurred to me how compromised and wrong this position looked, in the middle of a deserted forest.

"Heh, heh. Hey, Shadow."