Here is Chapter Five. I've taken so long to update this story.

I groaned from the pain as I watched the dark gray echidna move dangerously closer to me while I laid helplessly on the ground. From my left, I could see my little buddy Tails lying unconscious on the sand. Poor kid. I wanted so badly to beat the crap out of his attacker for hurting him! A few feet from behind the echidna, I saw that immobile clone of Knuckles laying against the palm tree, looking like he was sleeping. Was he dead? Did the blast kill him?

While I wondered that, the dark-eyed echidna kept walking closer to me with every step. I tried to stand up, but my effort to get up was futile. The energy blast had weakened my legs too much. They were in a world of pain! The dark gray echidna stood in front of me as he raised his left hand up into the air. An eerie green glow that was the same color as the energy blast he shot us with began forming into a ball in his palm. The energy ball continued to get bigger and bigger, creating a strange wind that caused the echidna's jacket and spines to flap in it. The ball kept on getting larger until it looked like it was big enough to swallow me.

"I've had enough of you! Say goodbye to this world, hedgehog!"

This is it, I thought as I closed my eyes, awaiting my death. It's all over.

Just then, I heard the echidna cry out as if from pain. When I opened my eyes, I saw him holding his wrist like it was hurting. He turned his gaze from it to something behind him. When I looked in the same direction he did, I saw what had hurt him. Standing not too far behind him was Shadow with a laser gun in his left hand. He was wearing a black belt around his waist that almost matched the blackness of his fur. The belt had a holster attached to it on his
left side.

The echidna decided to forget about me and started focusing on the red-striped hedgehog that had just fired at him. He charged at him the same way Knuckles would have using his fists. What is it with echidnas and charging at their targets with their fists? Shadow jumped out of the way before the dark gray echidna could even get close to him. Then, he began to spin, turning into a spiny black and red ball in mid-air. He targeted the echidna like a homing missile and knocked him to the ground. The fallen echidna used his hands to lift himself up. As soon as he did, he took his hand and tried to blast his attacker like he did to us.

When Shadow saw what he was planning to do, he clenched fists and cried out "Chaos Control!"

In a huge flash of light, the jet black hedgehog had vanished from the beach like he was never there. The perplexed echidna just stood there, staring at the spot where his foe was before disappearing. He quickly turned around and back, scanning the beach for Shadow. But he was nowhere to be found.

"Where are you?" he called out to him. "Come back here and fight you coward!"

As if answering his call, Shadow reappeared behind him, a few inches above him in the air and slammed his fists on the echidna's head. The echidna cried out in pain as he fell to the ground and tried to stand up again. Shadow spun around him the same way I did to that Knuckles clone before ; creating a black whirlwind that sucked the dark gray echidna into it and flung him helplessly into mid-air. The jet black hedgehog used Chaos Control again to warp himself behind the airborne figure in order to punch him with full force. I could hear the echidna cry out as he was sent towards the ocean and made a huge splash in it.

"Wow! That was awesome, Shadow!"

When I heard that familiar voice, I turned back to my left to see Tails getting up. I was so glad that he was okay.

"Yeah, you took care of that guy like he was nothing but a dummy," I told the red-streaked hedgehog that now had his feet back on
the surface.

"Well, I would call him a dummy since he called me a coward, " he said while turning towards me and Tails. "Who did he think he was, talking to the ultimate life form like that?"

"I don't think he knew that you're the ultimate life form," I replied. I tried to get up again, but the great pain was still in my legs. Crying out from the affliction, I let myself lay down again.

"Sonic, are you okay?" Tails asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered him. "Whatever that echidna did to me, it really hurt my legs."

"What did he do to you?"

"He blasted me and Tails with some strange green energy just as I was about to hit that Knuckles clone."

"Knuckles clone?" Shadow said with a puzzled look on his face. "Since when did Knuckles get cloned?"

"That's what I would like to know," I replied. I looked at the Knuckles clone and saw that he had still not moved from the tree. Something was bothering me about him. I knew that his eyes were eerily different, but he somehow didn't seem like a clone. If he was, why did he try to stop that other echidna from killing me? I was completely helpless and yet he didn't want me to be killed.

"I don't mean to sound ungrateful Shadow, but what were you doing here anyway?" I asked the black hedgehog.

"I was on my way back from the shooting range when I saw some freaky green blasts coming from the beach and decided to check it out. When I saw you lying there with that echidna about to kill you, I thought it was time for me to join the party."

"Thanks a lot, Shadow," I said to him.

"Well, don't think of it like we're buddies," he said to me. "I only did it because you helped me several times."

"I thought you would say something like that."

"Sonic, what do we do about Knuckles?" Tails asked me. "He's not moving. Is he.." The twin-tailed fox's voice was breaking up as tried to finish
his sentence.

"Dry your eyes kid," Shadow told him. "I think he's just unconscious. I'm going to take him to a secluded area in the city. I have some questions to ask him when he wakes up."

He lifted the immobile red echidna and placed him on his shoulder before dashing off back towards the city, looking like he was skating on the surface. We watched him skate down the streets until he disappeared from sight. As soon as he was gone, I heard Tails cry out in alarm. He was shaking like his whole body had been turned to gelatin.

"Tails, what is it?" I asked my nervous little buddy.

"Sonic, look!" He pointed to the ocean. When I looked in the direction he was pointing in, I saw the silhouetted figure of that dark gray echidna rising out of the water. I couldn't believe that he was still alive! He landed in a part of the ocean close to where it looks like the water touches the sky. That was really deep!

"Holy crap!" I said. "It looks like Shadow didn't completely take out that echidna like we thought he did. We better leave before he decides he wants a round two."

"Good idea."

"Tails, do you think you could fly us back? My legs are still hurting."

The young fox grabbed both of my hands and twirled his twin tails, lifting the both of us off of the ground and into the air. As he flew me to our hang-out, I looked back towards the ocean and saw that echidna walking out of it and onto the moist section of the beach were the waves made the sand seem more like mud. I didn't know who he was or where he came from. All I did know was that we had better be ready for him next time.

(Knuckles)

It was in a city. The bright lights threatened the darkness of the night streets that I walked down. My posture and movement would have probably made me look like someone who wandered in from the unknown and was going to disappear into it again. As I continued to walk down the illuminated sidewalk, I heard some commotion nearby. I headed towards the direction of the sound and saw a bunch of thugs that had a young girl cornered in an alley. She shook in fear as they made kissing noises and tried to flatter her by saying how pretty she looked.

"I'm letting you have the privilege of marrying me, you pretty little flower," the one in front of her that I assumed was the leader said to her. The girl tried to run away, but the other thugs grabbed her and pinned her to the cold wall. Both of her wrists were held against the wall as the leader walked right up to her and forced a kiss from her. What a creep!

"Leave me alone!" she cried out with tears in her eyes as soon as he removed his lips from hers.

"Hey, you creep!" I called out to the leader. "The lady just said to leave her alone."

It wasn't my voice. It was Typhoon's again. The leader looked in my direction, and walked over to me, with a great fury in his eyes.

"Who do you think you are, dude?" he asked me sternly. Dude? "We run things in this part of the neighborhood."

Just as he was about to punch me, I grabbed him and bit into his neck. He gasped as I drank the red fluid that flowed through his body until he fell limp. I let his now lifeless body fall to the ground and licked the blood off of the sharp edges of my teeth. Sharp edges? Like fangs? Is that why the teeth were able to puncture skin?

As I looked at the other thugs, they began to tremble like the girl did earlier. They released their grip on her and ran off. After they had vanished, I turned my attention to their victim. She got up and looked at me. I could see the fear in her eyes and on her face as she slowly backed away from me and ran out of the alley and down the streets. I followed her even though I had no idea why.

I awoke to find myself somewhere other than the city I was just in during that dream. A bright light shone overhead, nearly blinding me with its brilliant radiance. I looked around and surveyed my surroundings. The place looked like an operating room in a hospital. I was lying down on a surgical table like I was a patient there. When I tried to get up, I couldn't move my arms. I looked to my right and saw that my wrist had been secured to the table by an attached shackle. When I looked to my left, my other wrist was likewise.

Is this table for operating or for torture? I thought.

The door opened and the familiar form of Shadow walked into the room. Why did he have me restrained like this? I guess I was going to get my answer soon. The red-streaked hedgehog reached into the holster attached to his belt and pulled out a laser gun from it. Then, he walked over to me with a stern look on his face.

"All right, echidna," he said to me. "Time for some explanations."

So, that was it. He was grilling me. But why? I don't remember doing anything to him? He pointed the gun towards me, threatening to shoot me.

"Try anything and it'll be the last thing you ever do."

Man! And I thought being at Typhoon's mercy was the worst thing to ever happen to me. Shadow would fire at anybody who bothered him or got in his way. Even Sonic. Sonic! I had completely forgotten all about him! I remembered seeing Typhoon attempting to kill him before I blacked out at the beach. Was that why Shadow was grilling me? Because he thinks that I killed Sonic? Even though he and Sonic weren't really friends, Shadow thought of him as an ally and would hunt down anybody that tried to kill him. He knew that Sonic and I were always fighting each other and that could make him believe that I would actually try to murder him.

Me kill Sonic? That's ridiculous! It's true that Sonic was my rival, but he was also my best friend. Sure, I tried many times to beat the crap out of him, but I would never kill him. I couldn't believe that he had actually gotten killed and it was all my fault! If I had never released Typhoon, none of this would have happened. Tears began to fill my eyes again just like they did after I killed Amy. I didn't care if Shadow was there pointing his gun at me. I felt like I was falling apart. I couldn't ignore the guilt that I was feeling.

Sonic, I'm sorry!

Sonic's narration in this chapter was longer than I thought it would be. Oh well. That's it for Chapter Five.