Chapter Two – Robbed

The sun was low in the sky when Sonic arrived in the clearing, the following evening and to his surprise, was the last to arrive.

"What kept you?" Amy hollowed as she ran towards him and instantly clinged onto his side. Sonic sighed, he had given up trying to fight her off.

'One day' He thought, 'One day, you will want nothing to do with me.' The evil within him rose. Shadow silently passed them and gave Amy such a cold look and she immediately let go. They were there for a reason and it wasn't to play cling-on.

Shadow looked around, everyone was assembled.

"Ready?" he said, looking around. They all knew their roles, and what to do. Sonic grew excited, this was the part of attacking Eggman he enjoyed the most. Using his super-speed to cause absolute havoc. Shadow knew this, so when he gave the signal, Sonic was off like a shot, out of the clearing, then the woods, straight towards Eggman brand-new base. Sonic's excitement drove him forwards, breaking the sound barrier with ease, if anything, a little too easily. Shadow was having major trouble keeping up with the Blue Blur, something he has always been able to do. He stared at the blue hedgehog, where did this extra strength come from? But there no time to contemplate that as they entered the base, a little sooner them planned. But Shadow figured that wasn't a problem. He would let the blue hedgehog go nuts, and gave the signal to Sonic to do exactly that.

Sonic now shaking with excitement, could no longer contain himself and at speeds well in excess of Mach one, he rolled himself into a ball and attacked every robot in sight. He went crazy, and Shadow had major problems keeping from being hit and well as attacked robots himself. The alarm was sounding, lights were flashing, hordes of robots descended on them, if Eggman didn't know they were here, he did now. He aimed missiles at them, bullets, lasers, bombs, everything he had. It was getting downright dangerous. Shadow was getting concerned but he knew with Eggman throwing everything at them, he wasn't paying any attention to second group who were sneaking around the back.

Sonic was having the time of his life. He was loving every minute. Being in this kind of battle, this dangerous, was what he was built for. Moving at speed, spinning, bouncing from one robot to the next, dodging missiles, bullets, lasers and bombs. Oh yes, he was having a good time. So much so, that he didn't see it coming. Nobody saw it coming.

It hit him square in the chest, during the split second he was jumping in mid-air and not curled into a ball. Something fast and so bright, that it completely blinded him. He felt it go straight through him and out of his back, taking something with it. Physically ripping it from him. It was excruciatingly painful. He screamed in agony. He was held in mid-air by this light and then, as suddenly as it arrived, the light vanished, and he fell to the ground. He knew what had just hit him.

Lightning. In the middle of a battle? How could it have happened on a completely clear night, like tonight. Unless Eggman had learned to control lightning. Two things came to Sonic's mind at that thought, one, they would have already known, he and his friends spy on Eggman all the time, and two, it would make him extremely dangerous indeed. Sonic fell to the ground hard, and quickly realised that he had a serious problem. He had never been hit by lightning before, he was always been too fast for it. But he was certain it wasn't supposed to feel like this. The 'lightning' had ripped something from him and Sonic could feel a large void of where it had been. He put his hand on his chest, there was a large hole there, burnt black and bleeding quiet badly. He felt very weak and started blacking out. Not just blacking out, he was struggling to breathe.

He was dying.

He felt himself fall into the darkness and soon all was quiet. He vaguely remember his name being called, but soon that quickly slipped into the distance. He closed his eyes and slipped away...

All of a sudden, Sonic woke with a start. He was lying where he fell, partially covered in rubble. He sat up and was amazed to find the pain gone. He looked down at his chest and was stunned to find it completely healed, except for a black mark. He looked around, it was still dark, but the sky was beginning to lighten. Dawn. But the base was eerily silent. Where was everybody? Eggman, the robots, Shadow, his friends. There were nowhere to be seen. The place was a mess, rubble everywhere, with random fires burning. Looks like Shadow's plan had been success. Did they really leave him behind when those charges when off? They must have believed he'd got out. They would never have thought to go back in for him, they had never needed to in the past. Sonic just hoped the others got out in time.

He brushed the rubble off of him and tried to get to his feet. Thats when it happened. The void that had been created by the lightning, had be filled and restored, by his curse, which was now so strong, that it was attempting to control him. Sonic didn't have any strength to fight back. He blacked out again.

By the time Sonic came to, he was stood on his feet, in the middle of a forest he didn't recognise in the middle of the night, again. To say Sonic was confused was an understatement and he was now extremely frightened. The strength of the curse had weakened and he was now able to think straight. He looked around, and saw a deer dead on the ground at his feet, holes in the neck, bleed dry. A sweet taste in his mouth. Sonic went white. He had done this? He didn't remember. He began to panic. Where were his friends? Where was he? His eyes fell on the deer again. Now he knew, what the curse was, what he was. Finally, it all made sense. He had had his suspicions for years, but because he had never met another like him, he just didn't know. He looked around, it seemed that he hadn't hurt anyone when he had lost control, he was completely alone. He couldn't afford to do that again. The only thing he could do now was to totally embrace the curse and try to control it from the inside out. This was new territory for Sonic, but he didn't have the choice.

Now he was more concerned about his friends, now that his curse had been settled, he had the chance to go and find them.

He took off running as fast as he could, in a random direction. He didn't know where he was, so he'd thought he run until he recognised somewhere, he could get his bearings from that. He quickly left the woods behind, and ran down narrow lanes. It was pitch dark, and yet Sonic has no trouble seeing the road ahead. He was changing fast. He couldn't do that before today. He turned a corner and found himself on the outskirts of a city. A city he instantly recognised. He screeched to a halt. Central City! What else had he been up to when he'd been blacked out?

There were many cities on Mobious, Mobotropolis, Empire City, Westopolis, and Station Square to name a few but Central City was considered the dump of the entire planet. Drugs, violence, prostitution, brothels, all ran rife here. The term illegal didn't exist here. You could literally get absolutely anything you wanted here and unsurprisingly enough, it was one of Shadow's favourite haunts.

But what was Sonic doing here? He usually avoided Central City like the plague. Thankfully, he knew the way to Tails' house from here. That was because of the number of times he had to come to Central City looking for Shadow. The downside, it was the opposite side of the planet to Tails' House. It was a half day's travel at full speed. That wasn't a problem, now that Sonic knew where he was and how to get home. He had a huge amount of energy in him, nothing like he had felt before. That deer really hit the spot, almost to the point, where he was wanting more.

Sonic shook the thought out of his head as he set of towards Tails' House.

'Maybe later.' He thought. He raced over hills and down lanes, leaving the bright city lights behind him. Through the countryside the ran, past villages and towns and as the sun rose, he could just make out Eggman's territory in the distance. Sonic screeched to a halt again when the sun hit his eyes. It blinded him. The sun didn't pain him in any way but it did take some time for his eyes to adjust to the light. They much preferred the darkness now.

He set off again, breaking the sound barrier as he went. It was easier then ever now. Through Eggman's territory and towards Tails' House. Sonic looked around as he went, but the fat human was nowhere to be seen. This was strange. You could always hear some sort of mechanical noise in his territory which gave you some indication as to where Eggman was but today it was eerily silent. Where was he? But Sonic's mind was suddenly taken off that when he reached Tails' House and found it crawling with people. He stopped just short of the door as he could hear shouting from inside.

"Where is he?" One voice said. Sonic recognised it but couldn't remember where from.

"We don't know, we have looking for him solidly for the last three days." said another. That was Tails defending him as usual.

Three days! Was that how long he had been gone? Stunned, he put his hand out for the door, only to have it open on it own. He found himself face to face with Knuckles.

"Where have you been? We have been worried sick!" he exclaimed but before Sonic could answer, he was pulled inside and into the centre of the lounge. The weirdest scene's ever seen greeted him. Everyone was there, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Cream and Cheese, Big The Cat, Amy and Shadow but it was Jet who caught his attention.

Jet, a green Hawk and a member of the Babylon Rogues was one of Sonic's biggest rivals when it was to speed and extreme gear. He was curled up on the floor, screaming in agony, and Wave, a pink Swallow, another Babylon Rogue, was sat over him. It was obvious she had been screaming blue murder at them. Sonic was very confused, what were Jet and Wave doing here? and what had it got to do with him? Also there was another thing. There was a strong smell of sugar in the room, so sickly sweet, that made Sonic's curse bubble and somewhat difficult to shake off. Sonic tried desperately not to let it show.

"What's going on?" He asked, as a open question.

"What did you do to him?" Wave spat back at him.

"What!" Sonic responded in shock. He looked around at his friends. "I swear." He defended. "I never touched him." Silence filled the room until Wave finally spoke, again.

"He said it would work, he said he would be like you!" She cried.

"Who did!" Knuckles said before Sonic.

"Eggman!" cried Wave. Everyone looked at her. Sonic tried to remain calm but the sweet smell was really getting to him, making his stomach rumble. It wasn't pleasant.

"Wave, what did you do?" He asked as gentle as he could.

"He said that if he used lightning and a conductor on you, we could..." Wave let the sentence hang, frightened.

"Could what?" Sonic glared at her, he was getting impatient with her. He was going to snap with the sweet smell soon, it was making him hungrier by the second. Wave sniffed.

"We could steal your powers from you and give them to Jet!" Everyone in the room gasped. But for Sonic, it all made sense. They had tried to rob him but looking at the state of Jet, he got a bit more then they had bargained for. He backed up from them, the sweet smell was now to much. He needed food and he needed it now. He could feel the curse swelling upside of him and taking over, Chaos darkness increasing and yet somehow he was still in control.

Waves was in tears, she was pleading with him. "Please help us!"

Sonic smirked, now the darkness really took over and he didn't care anymore. They tired to rob him and now they were asking him for help. How dare they! He knelt down so he was at eye-level with Wave, he hissed at them, his voice ice cold, sounding like Shadow.

"Why should I?" Sonic spat at them, in a tone very unlike him. Everyone was staring at him, he knew he was acting very strange but he just didn't care anymore.

"Were you really that desperate?" Sonic snarled again. Jet rolled over to look at him and looked very scared indeed.

"I would do anything to beat you!" Jet muttered in a severely cracked voice, he was shaking with the pain.

"Like what?" Sonic spat again. "Selling me out to Eggman. The attack on the base was a trap, wasn't it." He was now getting angry. The others around him was shaking even worse now.

"He approached us. He said that if I did this, I could get your powers and he would get rid of you permanently." There was a long pause. "But you came back. You weren't supposed to come back. How did you do it?"

Sonic smirked.

"You underestimated me!" His voice was so cold that it sliced the now extremely quiet room. Then the silence was broken by a scream of pain from Jet. Sonic's lip curled, he leant over towards Jet.

"It hurts doesn't it!" he hissed. He delighted in hearing his most annoying rival scream in pain. He could see Wave's jugular vein throb and he couldn't take his eyes off it. He needed it, he wanted it. He was about to go for it, when he felt a hand around his neck. He was pulled off his knees, onto his feet and up against the wall. A pair of crimson red eyes glaring at him.

Shadow.

He didn't even hear the black hedgehog move.

Next to Knuckles, Shadow was one of the strongest people around and Sonic couldn't initially fight him off. Shadow could also see Chaos, so he must have seen Sonic's darkness growing within him.

Shadow was worried, he wasn't sure if he was liking what he was seeing.

"Back off!" Shadow hissed at Sonic, their noses very close together as he had pinned Sonic up against the wall.

"Why should I?" Sonic hissed in return, he was feeling surprisingly calm despite the situation, he was beginning to understand what it was like to be Shadow, and Sonic was rather enjoying it. He continued. "They started it by trying to rob me!"

Shadow thought for a moment. "Why didn't they? The theory should have worked, lightning and conductor is enough to transfer Chaos powers from one person to another."

Sonic smiled, he knew exactly why it didn't work. He hissed again. "Sounds like they blasted the wrong hedgehog!" He said, mocking Shadow. This angered the black hedgehog. He tightened his grip on Sonic's neck. He was beginning to struggle to breathe.

Shadow glared at him.

"Who are you?" he asked in disbelief.

Sonic grabbed Shadow's hand on his neck.

"I think you mean 'what'!" He said and before Shadow could answer, Sonic's anger and curse got the better of him. His eyes turned blood red and the canines in his top jaw began to hurt. He pushed against Shadow, grappled with him and easily fought him to the ground. No one had ever done this to Shadow and everyone was stunned. Even Shadow, who had never felt such strength before, not even in Knuckles.

"Vampire!"

Immediately everyone backed away, gasping. It was Knuckles who had spoken and he felt such an idiot for not noticing sooner. Sonic's mysterious abandonment as a baby, no family despite years of searching, his ability to escape from most unbelievable battles unscathed, and his speed. There was only one creature who could travel that fast and yes, they had existed but were believed extinct.

Hearing the word 'vampire' seemed to snap Sonic out of his darkness and go back to normal. For that was what he was and he knew it. He had always known, he just didn't want to believe it. Tears began to roll down his face.

Shadow was back on his feet beside him, unharmed except for his pride. He shook his head in disbelief.

"I saw you get hit by that lightning during the fight but by the time I got to you, you were already dead!" He puzzled.

"What!" cried Tails. "You told us that he had left the fight early and not to worry!" Shadow growled and spat back.

"Yes, because I intended to go back for the body after it was all over, but by the time I got back..." Sonic cut across him.

"I was already gone." He said, looking at the large black mark on his chest. Shadow noticed. He smirked.

"Seems that I'm not the only one around here who can regenerate!" He paused. There were further gasps. He ignored them. "But I was only gone a few hours, you completely regenerated in that time!"

Sonic nodded, that sounded about right, the lightning strike was not the first time he had regenerated. Shadow looked suspiciously at him.

"How often have you regenerated?" He asked.

Sonic sniggered to himself. Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"Pretty much after every fight with Eggman!" Everyone stared at him. "What!" he exclaimed. "It's not a decent fight if you don't end up dead at end of it." It was an attempt to try and lighten the mood, but it failed, epically. They were all still staring at him.

"Why did you tell us?" Tails pleaded.

"Would you have believed me!" Sonic snapped back, "and..." he added, "I wasn't a hundred percent sure myself. All I knew was that I was cursed and that one day it would take me." Sonic's anger was coming back. "It seems today is that day!" he leered at them.

Wave squealed, Sonic had completely forgotten about her.

"What about Jet?"

Sonic smirked again but Knuckles cut across him before he could answer.

"It seems he got a major dose of vampire venom instead of Sonic's powers..."

"He's turning, like me." Sonic snapped back. "And like me, he will turn into a monster."

Wave screamed, tears down her face. Sonic put his hands over his ears.

"Look, there's no cure, believe me, I've looked." He glared at her. "I have been looking all my life." Then he sighed. "I was born this way."

There more gasps across the room again.

"That would make you a Pureblood, properly the last of your kind." Rouge thought aloud.

"It would explain his ability to regenerate." said Shadow. "But Vampires are known for their longevity, not their immortality. If you really are the last of your kind, you would have the powers of an entire species within you." Sonic stared at Shadow, he had a point. But then it dawned in him. He hissed quietly back at him.

"What about your ability to regenerate?" Shadow snarled and backed off, fuming. He has struck a cord with the black hedgehog. There was silence between them until someone spoke.

"I don't think you will turn into a monster." Said a small voice in the background. It was Tails. But Knuckles cut across him.

"He won't if he hasn't tasted blood."

Sonic's eyes went wide. The word 'blood' triggered the vampire instincts within him to surge to the surface again. The hunger was back with a vengeance. His eyes went blood red and his fangs began to grow. He immediately found himself being restrained from behind again. Shadow. Knuckles swore very loudly.

"He has tasted blood. When did that happen?"

Shadow replied. "Must have been during the three days he was missing."

Sonic struggled against him, but he held on, just.

Rouge came to Knuckles' side.

"Can we trust him? He didn't tell you he was a vampire." Knuckles sighed.

"Your right, but we don't have time for that now. We need to find a cure." Rouge stared.

"A cure?" They all looked at each other. Knuckles looked concerned.

"Yes, for Jet. There is nothing we can do for Sonic. He was born this way, he's on his own now." Wave looked up at Knuckles, hoping.

"Do you think it will work?" She asked. Knuckles looked at her.

"Possibly, because he was blasted with vampire venom, not bitten, we may able to reverse it."

All of a sudden Sonic roared. He sounded like a tiger. Shadow just managed to keep hold. He was getting stronger by the second. Amy, and Cream and Cheese squealed. They had been cowering in the back, hugging each other throughout the entire incident, too frightened to do or say anything. Amy could see the darkness in Sonic. She wanted nothing to with him anymore.

Now Sonic was really struggling, he was loosing control of the vampire within him. He was so hungry. Knuckles saw this and opened the door.

"Shadow, let him go." The black hedgehog stared at him, about to argue. But Knuckles continued. "He needs to feed..." He paused for a moment. "Go with him, make sure he doesn't hurt anyone." Shadow nodded, and pointed Sonic towards the door and let him go. Sonic raced out into the daylight, breaking the sound barrier. He was hungry for blood, on the hunt.

Knuckles grabbed Shadow just before he left. "Find the cure, if you can. I'll watch Jet and be careful."

Shadow nodded and ran after Sonic, into the countryside.