Here is the next chapter. Sorry I took a while to update. I really wanted this to be up before Halloween.

"Sonic! Sonic!"

"What is it Tails?" I asked the double tailed fox following close behind me as I continued running full speed through the bright lighted streets of the city.

"I don't see Amy anywhere. Maybe we lost her."

"With that speed? I wouldn't bet on it."

I couldn't stop thinking about the way Amy was able to dash at that speed. She was a little faster than most of the others, but she was not nearly as fast as I am. I started to wonder if it really was Amy at all. Her eyes were very dark and lifeless. What if it was just some kind of clone? If that was true, who would make a clone of her and why?

As I thought about that, Tails and I heard a scream just like the one that Amy (or was it a clone?) had made. But, the voice was deep and masculine. We both skidded our feet to a halt when we heard the scream.

"What was that?" Tails asked me.

"I don't know, Tails," I replied. "But it sounds like we might be able to find out what's going on."

We headed in the direction the scream had come from and stopped at the entrance of an alley. The sight was very disturbing. In the left hand corner, we saw a man laying limp in the arms of what looked like a dark gray echidna. The echidna was forcing a red echidna to suck on the man's neck. When Tails and I went to get a closer look at the red echidna, we recognized the white crescent mark on his chest and the red and yellow shoes with green socks on his feet. It was Knuckles!

I couldn't believe it! Knuckles would never do that. Who was the other echidna he was with? And why was he making Knuckles do this? I had to get some answers right away.

I ran towards the two echidnas and pulled the man free from Knuckles's mouth. There was smeared blood around the two teeth marks on his neck. I laid him down on the ground and decided to check him to see if he was okay. I couldn't feel a pulse or hear him breathing. He was dead.

"What the..." I muttered under my breath. What did Knuckles just do to that man? As I wondered about that, a felt something firmly grip me from behind and lift me off the ground. I was held in mid-air a few inches from the filthy ground below. The figure turned me around, holding me by the chest so I could see who it was. It was the gray echidna who forced Knuckles to suck on the man's neck. He looked at me with anger in his eerie dark eyes and his mouth had formed into a sneer. I struggled to get free, but it was no use.

"How dare you interrupt us, hedgehog!" he said to me with fury in his tone. "I'm going to have to take care of you once and for all!"

He lifted us both up higher and higher into the sky until the vehicles below us looked more like toy cars. Then, he threw me down to the streets down below.

What an idiot! I thought. I can survive a fall like this.

That's what I thought until I felt some powerful energy blast my body. When that happened, I realized I couldn't move. The wind screamed in my ears as I continued to plummet helplessly to the ground. Right before I was about to hit the pavement, Tails caught my arms with both of his hands and landed me safely on the surface.

"Thanks, Tails," I said to my savior. He nodded his head once as a way of saying "you're welcome."

"Sonic!"

Tails and I turned around to see Knuckles stand up and move toward us. Judging by the look on his face, he was happy to see me. Oh boy. This is a first!

"Sonic, I'm so glad I found you. You have to help me."

As I looked at his face, I noticed his eyes had the same creepy darkness in them that the Amy clone and that other echidna had.

"No," I said while shaking my head in disbelief and slowly stepping away from the red echidna. "No. I don't believe it. I don't believe it!"

Amy had a clone and now Knuckles had one too? How many more of my friends had clones of themselves? I couldn't let anybody else get hurt or killed like that man. My sudden concern for the citizens must have somehow cured my body, because I was able to move again.

"You want to talk to me, you're going to have to catch me!"

I grabbed Tails's hand and sped us both down the streets.

When I looked back, I saw the Knuckles clone chasing after us at the same speed that the clone of Amy had. Every few seconds, he was getting closer to us by an inch.

"Sonic, wait!" he called out to me. He sounded awfully desperate. Awfully desperate to kill me!

"Sonic, look out!" I heard Tails say.

I should have listened to him and watched where I was going because I had just crashed into something. I groaned from the pain as I turned my head to see what obstacle that seemed like it came from out of nowhere had stopped me from running. It was a palm tree. Not too far away, I heard the roaring of waves. I looked in the direction it came from and saw the dark blueness of the ocean. I grabbed a handful of the slightly soft ground and watched sand fall from my palm like it would in an hourglass. Sand. The ocean. That could only mean that we were at the beach.

When I looked back towards the city, I saw the Knuckles clone not too far behind. He was really determined to get me. How did Knuckles get cloned? Did that other echidna I saw have something to do with it? I put my arm out to shield Tails as the red echidna moved closer to us. Now that there wasn't a single innocent person to worry about him hurting or killing, it was time for me to fight him.

(Knuckles)

Sonic just wouldn't stop running. One look at my face and he started to run full speed like he was trying to outrun a rock slide. What was his problem? All I wanted was for him to help me. I wasn't interested in picking a fight with him. Why would he freak out like that?

I started to chase after him. Despite the pedestrians and vehicles, I seemed to be gaining on him. How was I able to run that fast? I could never do it before. It must have been another one of those things that I inherited after being bit by Typhoon.

Sonic had finally stopped running after unknowingly hitting a palm tree. I would have laughed about it, but all that mattered to me at the time was catching up to him. I wanted this nightmare to end!

When I caught up to him, the blue hedgehog had put his arm out protectively in front of Tails. I stopped running and looked back towards the city. I didn't see Typhoon anywhere. Why was Sonic acting this way? I had no time to ask him that. I started to walk over to him.

"All right you! Who are you and why do you look like Knuckles?"

I was taken aback by that. "Sonic, what are you talking about? It's really me. I need to talk to you."

He stood there glaring at me like I was trying to attack him.

"Like the same way you wanted to talk to that man you killed?" he asked me angrily. ""You're not going to get away with this, clone!"

I couldn't believe what I had just heard! He thought that I was a clone? I continued to move closer until I was right in front of him.

"Sonic, please."

Before I could say anything more, he took his right leg and gave me a kick in my jaw. After I rubbed the area where he hit me, I had lost my patience with the blue hedgehog. Anger welled up inside of me as I put up my clenched fists in a fighting position.

"That does it hedgehog," I snarled. "No more time for games!"

Sonic pushed Tails out of harm's way and stood his ground as he waited for our battle to begin. I dashed towards him trying to land him a blow, but he darted out of the way before I could even get close to him. Then he charged at me.

"Take this!"

While he said that, he spun around me at full speed creating one of his mini whirlwinds. The vortex was twirling me around with all the sand it picked up and sent me into the air. I put out my fists and dove under the sand. Sonic had no idea where I was, but I knew where he was. I tunneled through the sand until I was underneath him. Then, I put one of my fists up as I resurfaced, sending the unaware hedgehog flying. He began to charge at me again, becoming a streak of blue light in mid-air.

Suddenly, some strange green energy had shot Sonic from out of nowhere. He cried out in pain as the blast sent him hurtling towards the sandy ground, landing on his belly.

"Sonic!"

After Tails had called out to his fallen comrade, he rushed to his aid. When he did, another blast of energy struck him, causing him to collapse on the sand
as well.

When Sonic tried to get up, he cried out again and just let himself lay there. The blast must have hurt him so badly that he couldn't move without feeling any pain. I looked in the direction the energy came from and saw the familiar form of Typhoon with the palm of his right hand out. He put his hand down and began to walk over to us ; his angry dark blue eyes fixed on Sonic.

"You've stood in our way for too long, hedgehog!" he said to him glaring. "I'm going to do what I should have done in the first place!" As he got closer, I could see that his face had the look that said, "I'm going to kill you!"

Typhoon was going to kill Sonic! I had to stop him! I ran up to the angry dark gray echidna and put myself between him and the helpless hedgehog. Then, I placed my hands in front of him, trying to keep him from going near his target. Knowing a little about the way the mysterious echidna had acted towards me, I thought that he could be reasoned with.

"Typhoon, no! Don't kill him!"

"Get out of my way, Knuckles!"

"No! I won't let you kill him!"

"Fine!"

He put the palm of his right hand out in front of me and blasted me with the same energy he shot Sonic and Tails with, causing me to be sent slamming into a palm tree. For a second I felt a great pain all over my body. Then, everything went black.

End of Chapter Four.