I've gotten three new reviews. I haven't had any new ones since Chapter 5.

Knuckles had me in his grip as he moved his mouth closer to my throat. I could see the fangs that he used to bite that man the night before. In a matter of seconds, I was going to be a vampire just like him. Tikal ran over to the strange gray echidna that was trying to bite Tails. She tried to wrench him from the helpless two-tailed fox, but the echidna took one of his hands and swatted her out of the way. After falling on her backside, she used her arms to help her sit up while she watched the two male echidnas lower their mouths to drink our blood. I closed my eyes while the sharp teeth grew closer to my skin. I didn't want to watch that happen.

Just as Knuckles was about to bite my neck, I felt him remove his grip on me as he cried out in surprise. I opened my eyes and saw Shadow holding the red echidna back by one of his dreadlock spines. The jet black hedgehog was late (again), but it was a relief to see him. This time, he was wearing a black and red backpack that I was curious about. What could he have possibly had in there? He lifted Knuckles and threw him a few feet away from him. The echidna cried out before hitting the grass-covered ground on his backside.

Shadow then dashed over to the dark gray echidna holding Tails, about to bite him. The red-streaked hedgehog pulled the echidna away from the double-tailed fox, turned him around, and held him by the chest while he used his right hand to punch his face. Then, he took his left foot and kicked his belly. The dark gray echidna cried out in pain as his attacker released his grip on him and let him slump to the ground.

"Shadow! Where have you been? You were supposed to be back earlier!" I couldn't hide the irritation in my voice.

"Well, I'm sorry I had to save your butts again," he said while brushing himself off.

"You're right. I apologize. If you didn't show up, we would've been goners."

"Uh, Sonic," Tails started. "Knuckles and the other echidna are still here."

Shadow went back over to the red echidna that was still lying on his back. The jet black hedgehog pinned him down to the ground ; anger blazing in his crimson eyes.

"You stupid echidna!" he snarled. "What did you do to Rouge?"

"Rouge?" I said "Shadow, what are you talking about?"

"I found her wandering around in the woods. When I looked at her, I noticed that she had two fangs!"

"Shadow, she's a bat," I told him. "She always had fangs."

"Well, the fangs were longer and sharper than they usually were. And I don't remember her eyes always having that darkness in them either."

"Darkness? You mean the same kind of darkness that Knuckles and Amy have in them?"

"If you don't believe me, see for yourself."

A silhouetted figure appeared in the woods. She walked out of the trees' shadows and into the moonlight where it revealed her as Rouge the Bat. When she was close enough for us to see her face, I noticed quite a few differences about it. Her teeth were longer and sharper like Shadow had just said, and her eyes had the same eerie darkness in them that Amy, Knuckles, and the other echidna had in theirs. She was a vampire too!

"Knuckles!" the white bat screamed. "What have you done to me?"

"I...I...I..." the red echidna stammered while looking at her. He tried to get up, but Shadow still held him down.

"Enough!"

All of us turned our heads to the direction of the dark gray echidna that had almost bitten Tails.

"Knuckles, it's time for me to finish them all off!" he said. The strange echidna's dark blue eyes began to turn the same eerie green color as the ball of energy that was forming into his raised right hand. It was just like the one he was creating back on the beach the other night.

"None of you will stand in our way ever again!" he said.

Before he was about to release the energy on us, something came up from behind him and knocked him out. The dark gray echidna let out a groan as he fell to the ground and lay there. When I looked at what had saved us, I saw a big hammer being held by a familiar pink hedgehog.

"Amy!" I cried out. The girl may not be as fast as me or Shadow, but that Piko Piko Hammer of hers sure comes in handy. She looked at me with anger in her emerald green eyes full of the endless darkness as she walked over to me.

"Sonic!" she yelled at me. "You irresponsible hedgehog! How could you leave me all alone like that? Do you even care about me?"

"Amy, I..."

Before I could finish my sentence, Amy charged at me and pinned me to the ground just like Shadow did to Knuckles earlier. She must have been really mad at me. Well, that's what I thought until she opened her mouth and revealed her fangs before leaning down to bite my throat.

Oh, crap! I thought. Not this again!

As much as I didn't want to hurt Amy, I also didn't want to become a vampire like her. Just as she was about to puncture my neck, I lifted my feet, placed them underneath her belly, and kicked her off of me with full force. She cried out the same way Knuckles did when Shadow threw him. I stood up on my own two legs again just in time to see Amy trying to get up in order to make another attempt to attack me.

Shadow took off his backpack, unzipped it, and pulled two things out of it. He placed one of them in Knuckles's mouth and made him bite down on it. Then, he took the other one and stood up, allowing the red echidna to be able to sit up as he sucked on the object that was just put in his mouth.

"Sonic, catch!" the jet black hedgehog called out to me before throwing me the object he was holding like a baseball player throwing the ball. I caught the object in my right hand right before Amy had stood up again. The look in her eyes told me she was now full of rage as she sneered at me. When I looked at what Shadow had thrown me, I was shocked! It looked like a packet of blood!

As I continued to stare at the object he had thrown to me, I felt something push me down. Amy had me pinned to the ground again and made another attempt to bite my neck. I put the packet into her open mouth when she was just a few inches away from my throat. Her teeth punctured holes in the bag, allowing the red fluid to ooze out of it. The angry pink hedgehog released her grip on me and clutched the packet in her mouth as she began to suck on it almost like a baby sucking on a bottle.

"Shadow," I said to the red-streaked hedgehog. "I thought the hospital you took Knuckles to last night was destroyed."

"It was," he told me. "I had to use Chaos Control in order to take those from a working hospital."

My eyes were wide open and my mouth stood agape after hearing what he just said.

"Shadow! You stole those from a hospital? Many people may die because of what you did."

"Would you prefer for those vampires to be feeding off of your neck?" he countered back.

"Fine." I told him while crossing my arms. "I'll let it slide this time."

I wasn't in any mood to argue with him over stealing the packets of blood. If he didn't, Tails and I probably wouldn't lived that night. I looked over at Knuckles. He had sucked all the blood out of his packet and looked at me as he stood up on his legs. Then, he began to walk over to me. I was kind of a little afraid, at first. But, he didn't seem to want to attack and bite me. He was probably making another attempt to talk to me.

(Knuckles)

I had just finished the packet of blood Shadow had given me and was now walking towards him and Sonic.

"You don't feel like biting me anymore, Knuckles?" the blue hedgehog said to me.

"So, you finally figured out I'm not a clone?" I asked him.

"Yeah. Knuckles what is going on here? Why did you bite Amy and Rouge? And who is that echidna?" He pointed to the unconscious charcoal gray echidna lying on the ground. "I thought that you and Tikal were the only echidnas left."

"That's what I thought. I don't know what's going on here, Sonic, but, I do know that the echidna's name is Typhoon."

"Where did he come from?"

"I found him frozen in a stasis tube in a secret room on Angel Island. After I woke him, he bit me and I've been this way since then."

"But, how did he get that way?" Amy asked me.

"I don't know," I answered her. "He never told me."

"Well, I think it's time that he did," Shadow said in a voice that was low but angry. "No echidna is going to bite Rouge unless he has a freaking good reason for it."

The jet black hedgehog sped off towards the unconscious dark gray echidna. The rest of us followed after him. Shadow grabbed Typhoon's arms and then lifted him up into a sitting position.

"Wake up, echidna!" he shouted in his face.

Typhoon moaned and then opened his eyes to see Shadow right in front of him and the rest of us staring at him from behind the red-streaked hedgehog.

"All right, Typhoon," I said as I walked closer to him. "Time for some explanations. How did you get this way? And why did you bite me?"

He refused to say a word. Shadow released Typhoon's right arm, took out his gun, and aimed it at his forehead.

"I'd start talking if I were you, echidna!" he threatened. "It might be the last thing that you will ever do!"

Typhoon let out a deep sigh and then he finally spoke.

"Okay, I'll tell you, but I can't do it out here."

"Why not?" Sonic asked.

"Afraid there will be witnesses to what you're planning to do to us?" Shadow said.

"No, it's nothing like that. Look, I promise if we go somewhere private, I will tell you what happened to me."

"Well, I guess we can go back to mine and Tails's place," Sonic suggested. "I think that's private enough for you."

"Okay, Typhoon," I said to him with my arms crossed. "Once we get to Sonic and Tails's house, you're going to tell us everything."

End of Chapter Ten.